The Metaverse Market Index MMI was shortly launched as a tool to observe the metaverse’ development. Until now, there was little comparison between virtual worlds due to missing indicators and standards. Now, with the new metrics, there is hope we can gain reliable data cross different virtual worlds.
Link: MMI
| No Comments » | Sphere itA nice set of computer games is offered by startup Flowplay. It is in private beta now, but a short video is available to see, what Flowplay is up to. Additionaly to games, Flowplay is a social community for kids. It includes own profiles, messaging and tagging.
As users play games, they earn tokens which can be used to purchase clothes for your avatar or other stuff. Avatars have their inventory and act pretty well.
Here is the link to Flowplay
A while ago I read an interesting article at Techcrunch about the future of eCommerce - and this is, you guess it, the sphere of 3D worlds. The main message is that future application will have a strong tendency toward virtual services of all sort.
If this is the case, I may think about the role of our representations in these worlds. Are avatars prepared to do such a new job? In Second Life (which is not the model it will be used in future applications), avatars are capable of many things, but are limited. With SL opening and invitation to third parties to add more functionalities into SL, this may change. To meet these demands, avatars must deal with
This is a very spectacular phase of the human history, I would say.
| No Comments » | Sphere itIn earlier posts, I wrote about Metacrusher, a challenging project to web all these different virtual worlds together. Another huge step into the direction of virtual world open-crossings is the announcement of Second Life to open up its platform for third parties.
Second Life intentions to make its code open-source are driven by a survival strategy as more and more other big players of the “conventional” web look for a way into the 3D web scene. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and more are on the brink to release or enhance their 3D services to the mass market. That’s why Second Life may look for a chance to follow a similar model like Firefox, open up and enhance through third parties, become popular and stay at the top.
But this isn’t only a Second Life affair. IBM among others try to establish a 3D standard for interoperability, and it could be used to build / re-build 3D web sites working together and with the real world too.
Interestingly, the effects on avatars are neglected. How do you transfer your social network into an other environment? Or your special skills? Can you exchange your knowledge from here over there and what is with your funds? There is a huge potential for third service companies to jump right into this opportunity to offer complete new services.
Besides the economic effect of such 3D standards and interoperation, what does this mean to the value of avatars? Now, depending on your games, you as a player act through many different avatars. Which one will be used to wander through the worlds? Or can you take all of them as a group and control them as a group? Like above, there are incredibly many options and open questions about the avatars on the move.
| No Comments » | Sphere itI learned about MetaCard from TechCrunch, and it’s quite interesting how fast real and virtual worlds merges: pay your bills in SecondLife with MetaCard. The system is the same as in a local shop or in the web. You need a real life account with MetaCard, and that’s the really interesting part of the story - what laws are to be applied? There is no virtual credit law, and MetaCard fees and credits are transfered in Linden$, a virtual currency. To be watched…
| No Comments » | Sphere itRomantic Chateau Online is a virtual world by Leeuu, a Chinese company. From China Web 2.0 I learned, that it includes virtual houses, virtual goods, chat, as well as it “requires users to plant virtual crops, raise virtual animals and mine virtual metal, to produce virtual raw materials that can then be sold for virtual money”.
A nice video-news channel is provided for everybody interested in Games and Tech. Webb-Altert has daily shows. It is produced by Morgan Webb, who does everything: talk, produce, distribute. Have a look!
Link: Webb-Alert
| No Comments » | Sphere itHere is a small collection of virtual worlds. All of them apply to different audience / player types:
Some others are short before release - like Sony Home or Lego Virtual World. Looking at this, a project like Metacrusher makes sense and is necessary more than ever - the more the virtual sphere gets splitted in small individual fractions, the more valueable are bridges between them. The question is, if the owner of the single virtual worlds does like such a ‘global’ idea of transfer.
[Technorati Tags: Virtual Worlds ]
This is a project of high interest and I read a very interesting interview at Virtual World News with one of the Metacrusher initiators.
“At the beginning, it’s the ability to port your information back and forth. How long does it take me to create an avatar in Second Life, but then I have to go through it in There.com? And then down the line, the idea is for your avatar to stroll through different worlds on the Metacrasher network, but it’s up to others if they want to be involved.
We’re reproducing sims from Second Life. So if you want, people can see it right from your website, and they can either buy what you’re selling right there, or hit the SLURL, or investigate other worlds.
Let’s say you have a mirror of your SL acre. Right next to it, you may be linked to someone’s WoW acre. And you have the chance to go between them and do commerce, either through Paypal or if it gets to the point of corresponding with everyone else’s, we might do that. Right now, we’re going to try and do it with real-life money, something that’s based on dollars. We’re working on that right now with the networking people. ”
This will be very very interesting! How does knowledge will be transfered from one world to another?
[Technorati Tags: virtual world - metacrasher ]
| 3 Comments » | Sphere itA new virtual world will be online in the next weeks for the public: Awomo (A world of my own).
From a press release:
“GDI Ltd recently announced that it has opened the registration for the free Beta test of AWOMO (’A World Of My Own’), a revolutionary game digital delivery service embedded within a 3D “virtual world” island paradise for gamers, in which launching a game is as simple as walking into a building.
Unlike other online delivery services, which require the entire game to be downloaded before the gamer starts playing, AWOMO delivers the same game playable in a matter of minutes on a standard broadband connection using GDI’s new proprietary technology.
Over 50 PC games will be in the trial, with no charge to gamers who sign up. The first gamers to set foot within AWOMO will also have access to a number of custom virtual items that will forever identify them as founder members of the community.
“The games are set within a 3D virtual world, which will become home to the world’s games community by offering hundreds of streamed games and many special features, including live voice chat and high profile competitions to win big prizes.”
[Technorati Tags: virtual worlds - awomo ]
| 1 Comment » | Sphere it
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