Google Lively To Be an Online Gaming Platform

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."

Comments

Re:Wow.

[religious freak]

You underpromise and overdeliver if you're a developer... you do the opposite if you're in marketing.

Re:Anyone else think of VRML

[PeanutButterBreath]

I think the key here is "when it makes sense", which is not very often IMO. Trying to turn the entire web into a 3D interactive environment is a lousy idea. On the other hand, being able to see 3D representations of certain objects (say products in an on-line store) does make sense. I *hope* that this is the kind of "sense" that is being considered here.

First REAL attempt at a Metaverse?

[Cornflake917]

Second-life's attempt to be the world's Metaverse turned out to be just a huge advertising/hacking cluster fuck. Not saying that that Lively won't be a advertising/hacking cluster fuck but at least it sounds it would be more open to programmers, which will allow for more diverse possibilities, so there could be just as much good stuff as bad.

Re:Wow.

[LandDolphin]

(For the record, the site is nothing that would predispose it to FireFox users over IE users. Unless you count video game players as "pre-disposed".)

depends on the types of video games. IF the games require one to upgrade their hardware, then yeah. They are going to be more tech savy and perhaps more likely to change from IE to FirFox.

Re:Snow Crash?

[Xelios]

Second Life is like the Pong of virtual worlds. It's the first step toward what was described in Snow Crash, driven by profit instead of an open source, open world approach.