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Google Lively To Be an Online Gaming Platform

Posted by Soulskill on from the world-of-googlecraft dept.

GamesIndustry.biz recently interviewed Kevin Hanna, creative director for Google Lively, about the virtual environment's beginnings and the plans for its future. Earlier this month, he announced that Lively would open to developers, and now he says the long-term goal is for Lively to be "used as an online games platform." Hanna goes on to say: "I'd like for it to be invisible, where, when it makes sense to have 3D aspects of the web, that everyone will have already downloaded the plug-in, it's one of the first things you do when you install your machine, and you're able to just jump around and play in a creative space. I feel like a big chunk of the games industry out there has a corporate mentality where you're first to be second, and I've been there, where they say, 'Make sure you include this aspect, and this aspect, and this aspect, to ensure that we have an 80 per cent market share.' And it's sucking the life out of what should be the most creative and innovative medium out there."

4 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Acquisitions Leading Towards 3d by mfh · · Score: 5, Informative

    Valve denied it was being purchased by Google, but it leads me to believe that the opposite may be true. Time will tell.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
  2. Re:Snow Crash? by lilomar · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dude, what you are describing...
    SecondLife

    --
    The creator of this post (Jacob Smith) hereby releases it, and all of his other posts, into the public domain.
  3. Re:Snow Crash? by Goaway · · Score: 5, Informative

    You know, that's what Second Life is. Been around for years now.

    And it's horrible.

  4. Anyone here actually tried it? by Light303 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I read about lively quite a time ago ... but tried it just now to see how it feels.

    And i must say ... it sucks ... big time!

    If they do really want to make anything fun of it ... it looks like starting from scratch would be a good idea.

    Why ?

    - Its slow (on a dual core system that runs cyrsis just fine)
    - Loading takes ages
    - Controll via point and click not well done
    - Camera controll annoying
    - Overall usability far away from google standards