Slashdot Mirror
Metaverse Launched?
jlouderb writes "Following in the heels of Worlds Inc. Blaxxun Interactive and Linden Labs, super-stealth project There Inc. launches Wednesday at CES. ExtremeTech has a preview of the world up,
which is characterized by expressive avatars that look like idealized humans. Backed by a long list of notables, including Halsey Minor, Trip Hawkins, Jane Metcalfe and Louis Rosetto, it's
an ambitious effort. But will the target market of Wal-Mart moms show up? Who knows, we all
laughed at AOL too. You can sign up for the public beta and find out for
yourself."
Sounds exactly like Sims Online to me, and they already have an established brand.
I'm really not impressed with the idea. The tech, yes, the detail, yes, but honestly what is the point of this except a few gewgaws tossed onto a virtual chatroom?
Yeah, text chatting may not have motorbikes, but it's a lot simpler, and when the day is done, simplicity is important when you have things to get done (like chatting about whatever).
And the extras like the stores, etc. seem pointless to the core experience as well as making it more complex.
I'm sure that someday VR-type chats may well exist and even be useful. But I don't think this is going to be it.
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
It seems you haven't noticed, but they have indeed all but taken over the world. From a crappy little provider, by catering to non-tech customers, they have grown into an enormous company.
Yes their service may still stink. But apparently hundreds of thousands of users all over the world are happy with them. Call them lusers if you want, but if you're still laughing at AOL I think the joke's on you.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
"Because There focuses on non-tech geeks, and because communication and chatting forms the core of the world, the company limits you to normal, human looking avatars. "
The strength of the Metaverse in Snowcrash was the ability to program everything and everything.... it was basically a GIANT graphical MUSE (not a mud), where EVERYONE is a developer.
-Berj
Sure, it may look a tad corny now, but with it being open ended and allowing people to develop their own worlds I think I may be an early adopter of this stuff.
:p
I'd really dig a whole snow-crash-ish house, and who ever builds the first "Black Sun" will be instantly cool with the other geeks using this setup.
I don't see if they charge for the service or not, but if they don't I imagine a lot of people will check this out.
I can't wait for someone to build a slashdot world and I can slap the shit out of CmdrTaco myself
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It's been tried so many times before, and has never been met with more than a cursory glance from the public at large. These companies need to realize that you need something compelling in your virtual world; furthermore, it needs to be compelling enough to get around the 3D nature of the place.
Anyone remember the Magic Desk system for early handhelds? It was organized like a room in a house. You walked out the door, went to the library to get a book, etc. It sucked because you had to virtually 'walk' to each location, which was totally unnecessary. How about those 3D window managers? Giant pain in the ass, total form without function (and this from a Mac geek).
3D is great for spatial orientation and tasty graphics, but as we all know here it actually hinders you as an interface (compared to our perfectly-suited 2D metaphor for our 2D screens and input devices).
The Sims Online offers a fairly rich 2.5D world that gives you a reason to go - it's a game, and you can chat, wander around, shop, etc. Add the customization bit and it's the only real Metaverse going, IMHO.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
"Of course my social life is online, no one would believe me a woman to see me" - unknown
It take more faith to believe in evolution than it takes to believe in God
Get ten to twenty "avatars" and sit them around a virtual conference room table. Now have them start "talking" and all of these baloons start popping up. First off, can you see all of them? If you're on one side of the table how do you see the balloons of the people on your side while watching for balloons of people on the other side?
Great, now who's the poor soul who has to type the transcript of this whole meeting. How are they making sure they get things in the right chronological order. (Certain comments won't make any sense unless they follow the comment they were built upon.)
This sounds like a usable interface for 2 or 3 people working together, but it'll break down real quick as the numbers increase.
(Also, one of the joys of IRC was that you could go AFK to take care of something quickly and then go back and read the 'conversation' that happened while you were out.)
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Halsey Minor, Trip Hawkins, Jane Metcalfe and Louis Rosetto... are "notable"? With that list of posers, burnouts, con men, and also-rans, you know you can safely ignore this for what it is - pure media hype.
Someone stop them before we get another torrent of empty-headed buzzword-filled "articles" describing how this nth attempt at a failed idea (god, how is Blaxxun even still around?) is now suddenly going to "change the world"...
Want to Know How to Cheat the GPL? Read On!
I am laughing at AOL, because their user base is eroding faster than Lake Erie's north shore, and they have all but lost relevance these days.
AOL got popular because they had (past tense) good marketing, and because they carpet-bombed North America with CDs. People had heard about this 'online' thing in 97 and wanted to try it, but with a nice pair of TCP/IP training wheels.
Everyone looses the training wheels when they learn ho to ride. Hell, some move up to 18-speed recumbant bikes. AOL was smart - they basically rooked Time Warner for imaginary money.
So, no. They had all but taken over the world, but now they are on their way to something else.. .if they're smart.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
The biggest problem There will have is the system requirements. "System requirements are pretty steep ? you'll need an 800mhz processor, and an OpenGL capable ATI Radeon or nVidia GeForce or NForce graphics card. As you can imagine, the pre-beta was not very stable, but the beta world should be much more reliable." I think most of the people that "chat" online as a primary activity are those that don't buy a new cutting edge system every two years. Most of the people I know who aren't "geeks" and even a lot of the geeks are still running 500 MHz systems with built in video or generic video cards. There is no way that people will really use this if they have to buy a new system just to run it.
bkr
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
And run it on what? Happy feelings and rainbows pouring out of their asses? Or do you have a massive cluster with an incredibly fat connection that you've been looking for someone to use for free? I love free shit as much as anyone, but they have to pay some serious bucks to keep this thing running, not to mention try and recoup that huge initial investment.
;)
Their current ideas on financing the project seem to be pretty good, as you only pay for what you use, except for the bandwidth to go in and hang out. But that is their hook to get people in the first place, so it is probably best that they don't charge any sort of monthly fee. I imagine that it is going to take quite some time to fine-tune the system, but as long as most of the content is user created and auctioned to other users, they shouldn't have too many issues in that area, since it will be the users who dictate value for products and services. There Inc. collects the setup fee to implement new products and a small percentage of each transaction of those products, keeping the system running.
The only problems that I see are if they allow the world to stagnate rather than constantly updating the engine and providing new features in the APIs, and if they run out of funding before a sufficient user economy becomes established to support the project, since there won't be much going on for the first few months as they attract new users and the users get comfortable with creating new content and the idea of making micropayments for those products.
Given enough time, though, I see no reason why they cannot be successful, especially with scarcity well implemented into the system. After all, the MMOG maniacs buy and sell virtual items and cash by the digital truckload every day, and most of that stuff they could get for free with a bit of work in the game itself, as there is no scarcity except in the rare circumstance of an item spawn being discontinued. If hardware were free, then it wouldn't matter, but if they just allowed users to create and use giant multiple megabyte vehicles with a buttload of CPU-chowing options without cost, they'd be bankrupt in a matter of days.
To be honest, I don't expect much success from this project, being the pessimistic bastard that I am, but I do hope that I am wrong because I would love to see a Metaverse-style cyberspace actually be implemented. Then we'll just need the badass visual and audio devices for total immersion. Well, OK, and the groin devices as well, since pornography seems to be the spearhead of technological advancement.
Shawn
Because you gotta bitch
Letting other people create their own 3d models and art can be a very cheap way to make your world look better. Theres quite a few extraoridinarilly skilled and talented artists out there who make and skin 3D models that easily surpass the quality seen in your average computer game.
The problem is sometimes I'm not sure how much of the "mainstream" knows that they can download new player and gun models for their firstperson shooters, or hundreds of different models (a good portion of these are only mediocre) for the Sims. Worse yet, you can't add on at all for console games.
The most ironic thing of it all, is the majority of these people are doing it all for free. I suspect most of them want jobs in the hard-to-enter game industry, but some just do it as a hobby. There is one exception I know of, though not game-related. A program called Poser (3D app) which allows you to "pose", animate, and render highly realistic human and animal models. There is almost a subculture made up of people who make new textures and models for this program, and sell them from $5-$70.
In an age of warez and mp3s I wonder if it will ever be possible for freelance 3D artists to make a living producing aftermarket 3D models to use in free virtual worlds(a restricted environment would make this much more possible.) The question of would people pay has already been answered in a virtual world I used to frequent. Now artistic members of the community can place avatar custamization items they have made up for sale on a website, which tend to go for about $15-$30
I don't think anyone in their right mind is confusing this with reality.
What about people who can't go outside? What about people with disabilities that prevent them from walking, running, playing, driving a dune buggy, flying etc. etc... What about people who want to explore their inner sexuality - that may be at odds with their external sex? What about people who just want to be freaks - granted this game doesn't allow you to be a strange creature - but, I think you get the drift by now.
Another thing: why would I want to be around people in my real life environment, particularly if there is no one compatible with me within 500 miles? Much better from this perspective to spend more time meeting people in the VR environment. Why settle for talk of beer and cars - when I can login online and talk with folks about things I really care about?
I agree its not for everyone. However, I wouldn't chide anyone from spending time inside of a VR world if it makes them happy.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain