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Now that I’ve given explained my feelings on the year as a whole, here is a short look at some of the things that either excited me or fell flat on their face during this year.
Proof That Philadelphia is Really the Center of the Metaverse
Philadelphia has a thriving virtual worlds community, and many enthusiasts live in the area, yet it typically isn’t thought of as a place where things are happening. Hopefully, that will change now: Peregrine Salon is proudly located in Philadelphia, as are some up and coming VW start ups, and some of them are doing some very cool things.
 A shot down of down town Philadelphia. Enter GeoSim, a company based in both Israel and Philadelphia, who has recently launched GeoSimPhilly. Philadelphia is the first American city to be fully virtualized, and the amount of detail is absolutely amazing. The textures are incredibly well done, the buses match the ones in town, and public art is even re-created. It is a free download – check it out! The folks at GeoSim have told me that a multi-user community version is going to be released soon; it will be interesting to see how regional virtual worlds with ties to first life fare!
Take into account that CyberExtruder is just across the bridge in New Jersey, and Philadelphia is quickly becoming a very interesting place to live for a virtual worlds enthusiast!
 Close up of some shops; notice the texture detail! Continue reading Virtual World Highlights (and Lowlights) of 2008: Part 2, the Players
 Jennyfur & Philip at SLCC (Photo: Jeska D.) Hype is short for hyperbole, and it can be positive or negative. Virtual worlds have gone through a hype cycle not seen in technology for quite some time. Through 2006 and most of 2007, virtual worlds were the darlings of the press, every company seemed to want in, and small hip companies could charge huge amounts just for doing something “cool.” It resembled the beginning of the dot-com era, and reminded me of my own experiences as a young professional in that era.
That all came crashing down towards the end of 2007, and throughout 2008. The thing about hype is that it is never reality: throughout 2006 and early 2007, virtual worlds, and Second Life in particular, were praised far too much. From some of the press, you’d think Philip Rosedale and Cory Ondrejka had discovered the cure to cancer! Now, give Philip and Cory credit where it is due: they led the team that put virtual worlds on the map, and created an environment so conducive to creativity and group interaction that it has survived and thrived. Compare that to other virtual worlds over the years: Active Worlds is a ghost land, early start ups like Virtual Places and The Palace are long past their popular days, There is still, well, there, and Kaneva never took off. Don’t even get me started on Worlds, which until just recently featured Blair Witch World and Hanson World as their “new things.”
Continue reading Virtual World Highlights (and Lowlights) of 2008: Part 1, Background
Check out realXtend
The folks over at realXtend are doing some amazing things. To check out the new version:
(1) Visit http://www.realxtend.org/page.php?pg=downloads and download the realXtend 0.4 viewer.
(2) If you haven’t yet, visit http://users.realxtend.net/rexauth/Register.aspx and create an account (and avatar name!) while it is downloading.
(3) Install the viewer, and fire it up once the install completes.
(4) [...]
Metaplace has gone into a limited beta, which I’ve been checking out for a few days. I was impressed, after the alpha screenshots I had seen. The concepts here are all good: fast, simple interface, and you won’t need the latest/greatest hardware to run it. The professionally created artwork looks nice, but for those of you I can already hear asking, “Is a Second Life competitor?”, it is not.
 A view from inside Metaplace with my FlipperPA avatar. Metaplace’s creator, Raph Koster, was the lead designer of Ultima Online. To be honest, I think Metaplace does a great job at what it is trying to do: create an immersive environment that is simple to use, that is streamed, with a similar feel to Ultima Online. Metaplace feels very 2.5D; the graphics are clearly scaled back, however, it makes for a much more simple interface for the new user. Much like with a browser, I didn’t have any learning curve to speak of, everything was completely intuitive.
Continue reading Checking Out MetaPlace
Register for Second Blogger!
SecondBlogger is a free site I created that allows anyone with a Second Life avatar to register and blog to a common location. It runs on the WordPress back end, but also includes an option for people to blog from in-world, by sending an email post-card. This script will allow you to [...]
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