is a veteran writer who has authored more than 20 strategy guides. His Age of Empires III: Sybex Offi cial Strategies and Secrets
was named a Best Computer & Internet Book of 2005 by Amazon.com. Michael
s other published work includes reviews, strategy articles, short fi ction, coffee table books, and video/TV movie scripts. He is also a video game writer and designer for City Interactive. Michael authored Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10.
Wagner James Au
writes New World Notes (http://nwn.blogs.com) and covers the culture and business of high technology and gaming for GigaOM.com, Kotaku.com, Salon.com, and Wired. He
s also written for the
Los Angeles Times ,
Lingua Franca ,
Smart Business , and
Game Developer , among other publications and websites, primarily on game culture and the game industry, along with politics, fi lm, and pop culture. He
s also a screenwriter (his script
Future Tense
was optioned by Canal Plus in 2001), and as a game developer, wrote for Electronics Arts
groundbreaking conspiracy thriller
Majestic , and was a designer on
America
s Army: Soldiers . His work as the embedded journalist for
Second Life
has been featured in the BBC, the
Washington Post , NPR
s
All Things Considered , CNN International, MSNBC,
Wired
magazine, News.com,
New Scientist ,
Popular Science , and the
San Jose Mercury News , among many other publications. He
s also a consultant for businesses and nonprofi ts developing a presence in
Second Life
and is a part–time coordinator/promoter for Creative Commons
efforts in
Second Life . He
s developing his work in
Second Life
into an upcoming book of his own. You can contact him at [email protected]. James wrote Chapters 11 and 12.
Mark Wallace
is the editor of 3pointD.com, a widely read blog covering virtual worlds and other 3D online technologies. His writing on virtual worlds, video games, and other topics has appeared in
The New York Times ,
Financial Times ,
Wired ,
GQ , and many other publications. He has written regularly on online games for
The Escapist
(www.escapistmagazine.com), and since January 2005 has run the
Second Life Herald
(www.secondlifeherald.com), a popular online newspaper covering virtual worlds. With
Herald
founder Peter Ludlow, he is coauthor of the forthcoming
Only a Game: A Cyberspace Murder on the Bleeding Edge between Real and Online Worlds . He played his fi rst video game, the text–based game
Adventure , in 1978 on aPDP–11. He lives in Brooklyn. Mark wrote Chapters 3 and 13.
Catherine Winters
is one of the longest–tenured residents still active within the
Second Life
community. In 2003, she cofounded the LSL Wiki, the collaborative
Second Life
programming site that has grown to become the defi nitive reference manual for LSL scripting. A prolifi c scripter and content creator within
Second Life , Catherine is one of the few
SL
residents to have made
Second Life
her primary source of real–world income. In her fi rst life, Catherine lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. She enjoys cycling and downhill skiing, as well as curling up with a good book. Her personal web log can be found at www.CatherineOmega.com. Catherine authored Chapter 7.
Cory Ondrejka:
Cory Ondrejka is chief technical offi cer at Linden Lab. He leads the
Second Life
development team in creating and leveraging such technologies as distributed physical simulation, 3D streaming, and real–time, in–world editors. He also spearheaded the decision to allow users to retain IP rights to their creations, helped craft Linden
s virtual real–estate policy, and created the Linden Scripting Language. Cory coauthored Chapter 8.
Ben Batstone–Cunningham
is a Linden Lab programmer and scripting expert. On a brisk morning in February 2002, while cutting a Quantum Physics class, Ben read in the paper about a virtual world where anything was possible. He signed up for the alpha test of what was then called
LindenWorld
and quickly became addicted. Several months later, having become profi cient with the tools, he was invited to work for Linden L