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!
Google’s Epic Fail
No year in review in 2008 with be complete without mentioned Google’s (cough) “Lively.” A boring world with an interface that didn’t work, it never really had a prayer, in my opinion. While I don’t believe it, it has been fun hearing conspiracy theories that Google intentionally made it horrid to cause people to have a lower opinion of virtual worlds.
The Bay City Concept Man.
Second Life’s Bay City and a Return to the Main Land
Throughout the course of 2008, it appears that Linden Lab has reversed course a bit on thinking about the main land. Several bit changes happened this year: ad farms are quickly becoming a thing of the past, which is long overdue.
More importantly, themed communities which are fetching a premium, such as Bay City, have been developed. Second Life’s greatest strength is the “one world” concept, and when you abandon the feeling of being part of a large world for individual cookie cutter islands, it quickly stops feeling like a playground and starts feeling like suburbia.
Second Life’s greatest strength is the Residents, and how they work together. Keeping them apart on individual islands that look like jail cells on the map is a detriment. Jack Linden has long understood this, and it looks like he is finally being listened to!
Metaplace, WebFlock, and the Flash Based Revolution
Metaplace and WebFlock are Flash worlds done right. They allow a simple to use interface, while still allowing more customization options and interaction than Google Lively did. While WebFlock is clearly being aimed at the tween and teen age groups by the Sheep, Metaplace is looking towards a broader audience. It is intentionally designed to look basic (it does remind me of Ultima Online, and not just because Raph Koster is on the team!), but don’t be fooled: there is a lot of power under the hood. Metaplace has a programming language based on lua!
Metaplace has gone into alpha, and WebFlock already has a few private worlds online. Both are definitely worth keeping your eye on in 2009.
Open Source: OpenSimulator and realXtend
Perhaps the most exciting developments are the continued improved on OpenSim and realXtend. This year saw IBM dedicate four full time programmers to help work with OpenSim, and also saw the first successful avatar teleportation from Second Life to an OpenSim grid – sort of. For those not familiar with realXtend, it is based on OpenSim but contains a ton of shiny new features, too numerous to list here. They recently launched version 0.4, which is quite impressive, and seems to be a lot more stable that their previous releases.
While OpenSim and realXtend still have a long way to go to be considered stable, they excite me the most because of their potential. Watching various grids pop up this past year based on their technology shows that I’m not alone!
In Conclusion
What is covered here is just the tip of the iceberg, but I stand by what I said in the first part of this entry: there has never been a more exciting time to be a virtual worlds enthusiast. Here is hoping that 2009 has a much to hold our interest as 2008 did – and let’s continue to leave the hype at the door!