Chipmaker AMD is planning to broaden its developer outreach program and foster a stronger presence in the gaming world by creating an AMD pavilion in the popular game Second Life.
AMD will maintain a display hall and auditorium within the game's virtual world in an effort to draw more developers into chats about working with AMD on new technology. The hall will have areas for meetings, training courses, and informal networking. AMD also will use the virtual space to present lectures.
The AMD Developer Central Second Life Pavilion is expected to draw both experienced programmers and amateurs alike, and the company will be offering lessons in areas like developing native code for multithreaded applications. The first event at the Pavilion takes place on February 25.
Virtual Action
In addition to meeting in a virtual conference hall, developers and players can participate in a three-month treasure hunt. Second Life residents will be given a series of challenges built using the interactive Linden scripting language. Those who enter will be automatically placed into a drawing for a grand prize of a Dell Dimension E521 computer.
In news media interviews about the initiative, AMD project manager Paul Nolte has noted that the Second Life "metaverse" is a gathering place for new and established developers, and that by providing a place for them to meet, AMD hopes to spur education and further professional growth.
The first event will include members of the Second Life Open Source Movement, who are expected to chat about challenges and benefits to bringing an open-source component to the game.
Virtual Meets Actual
"The great thing about games today is that they're really wide open in terms of how things develop," said Julian Dibbell, author of "My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World," and a founder of Terra Nova, a blog focused on the social and economic aspects of online role-playing games.
Although there is theft and fraud in the online world, just as there is in the physical world, there is also opportunity for companies like AMD and other organizations to catch the attention of players and developers in a new way.
Other I.T. companies have already set up a presence in Second Life, including Dell, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, and IBM  .
"Products and services that crop up in games will continue to change, and more companies understand the value of reaching these audiences," said Dibbell. "As games thrive and draw more players, naturally there will be more interest in selling to those people, and having a presence in those virtual worlds. Finding developers in these worlds makes a lot of sense."
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