MMORPG's and Augmented Reality

This will probably just be a short post this week, as I have just installed the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and for some reason my laptop is now stuffing up... the mouse cursor keeps clicking randomly when you are typing, so you will be typing in a text box and then next minute the cursor has clicked you somewhere else on the screen!! grr... Has this happened to anybody else by any chance?

MMORPG's remind me of my brothers back home up north.. When I went back in the holidays all they seemed to do all day was sit on the internet playing these kinds of games. It started off just liking the Diablo game, but after completing the game at a solo player level they now only play Diablo, and others, online against people from all over the world. The most interesting part is that when my brother has friends over they all sit there interacting in the virtual world rather than in the real world. Apart from Bebo, my brothers do not seem to participate in any other kinds of virtual worlds/online communities - only ones with a "game element".

I couldn't make it to the lectures this week so am a bit confused about the idea of "augmented reality" - this is different to virtual world's isn't it? Can it be kind of like an online community that instead of being confined to the internet it also involves 'work' in the real world - kind of like the geocaching example the Byron talks about in his blog. I thought that was a good example.

I just found something really interesting on the Harcourts website... They have a section selling property in the virtual world on the Second Life platform, advertising prices ranging "from $45,000-$55,000 linden dollars". They even have a real estate office in the Second Life world with "Second Life Property Consultant, Jason Takakura". Fascinating stuff.