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Most Business-Launched Virtual Worlds Fail
bughunter writes "Internet consultant firm Gartner claims that only 1 in 10 commercial virtual worlds succeeds, and most fail within 18 months: 'Businesses have learned some hard lessons," Gartner analyst Steve Prentice said in a statement released Thursday. "They need to realize that virtual worlds mark the transition from Web pages to Web places and a successful virtual presence starts with people, not physics. Realistic graphics and physical behavior count for little unless the presence is valued by and engaging to a large audience."'" Hard to believe it's even as high as one in ten -- most "virtual worlds" with obvious commercial trappings certainly don't inspire much besides mockery.
The average success rates for most businesses is also about 1 in 10.
Not a typewriter
90% of everything is crap
Manager: Does your avatar make actual money?
Employee: He doesn't know how to do that.
Manager: The whole point of innovation is to make money.
Why would I want to use a low value virtual world?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Does making a stupid 3D game your employees can wander about in really count as a virtual world? What if I run a Halflife server but we just wander about a map shaped like an office and chat? Can I tell all my rivals that our company has it's own virtual world?
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
Transition from web pages to places? No thanks! I want a clean, simple web page that delivers the information I need in an organized and intuitive manner, not a fucking video game time sink. It shouldn't take up lots of memory and it shouldn't require much navigation, which is what web pages do and it is not what "virtual worlds" do.
First, Gartner is pathetic.
Second, there are some virtual worlds launched by businesses that have been astoundingly successful. They're called MMORPGs.
Advice: on VPS providers
This is hardly surprising. Look at the multitude of MMOs that have started development, and been left by the roadside due to lack of funding for the craptastic product. Then look at all the MMOs that have died within 2yrs of launch due to lack of players.
Heck, even some of the ones that are still going today would have died if they hadn't gotten lucky. Vanguard is only around because SOE bailed out Sigil, and the product is still not very good a full year after release. It should have never gone gold when it did, as it's now a "paid beta".
The only thing that keeps the full numbers from looking so bad is the various "free to play but with an item mall" MMOs that come out of the Asian Pacific market. They can all call themselves successful, but they have no recurring income due to subscriptions, so they have little to no future development, and are basically "how many potions can you carry and use" games with no strategy outside of that.
Don't think so many have gone belly up? Check this site out, and look at the number of games that were cancelled either pre-beta or during beta, or after launch. It's a lot. BetaWatcher
the most practical way to make a virtual world actually "useful" is to make a virtual office.
:)
no, not a virtual desktop, because that would imply that placing every single item - like a 3D filing cabinet - onto the 3D rendition of the "desk top" - is something that people would find "useful".
the "desk top" metaphor has been overused and overburdened, and, after several decades of pain, i think it's clear that it's no longer "useful".
a 600mhz ULV pentium M, in combination with the older 815 extreme graphics chipset, is perfectly capable of fast 3D work - certainly such 600mhz ULV pentiums cannot be made to go more than 450mhz when running the "default" features of compiz / beryl desktop.
so it's not like the technology isn't up-to-standard or anything.
so - imagine a 3D virtual environment where you have a desk (with four legs). on the top surface is two, three or four monitors - as many as you want - representing your "application spaces". there's a telephone (bakerlite, of course). when you get a skype call or an IM, it grabs your attention by vibrating. there's a clock on the wall (not on the top of the desk). it tells the time. there's a calendar on the wall (not on the top of the desk). you click on it and it takes you to google apps or to evolution or to outlook. from a distance, panning back, you can clearly see some scheduled events on it.
the list goes on - of things that aren't on "the desktop".
my favourite is a "filing cabinet" which is really a filing cabinet, with drawers that open and bring up real "folders" with A-E F-K etc. on them.
why am i mentioning this? well, against this background, taking it a step further, you might want to "meet" someone - in 3D. you might want to collaborate on a document, or show them a presentation, which will be on a virtual "easel" or in a 3D "room" with a virtual rendition of a projector. if you want to pause the presentation and go to discussing or editing a document, collaboratively, you can, with very little to distrupt the conceptual continuity.
this is a _useful_ 3D "virtual world".
one which you could conceivably work in on a day-to-day basis. which i think is a _great_ excuse to get stonking games machines.
now all we need is a 3D version of mine-sweeper ha ha