Checking Out MetaPlace

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.

I’m sure this will be successful for the intended audience of casual users, but for hardcore geeks like me, I got bored fairly quickly. One thing I have questioned about Second Life in the past is the in-world building tools, with their inaccuracy, limitations, and whether or not things would be better created off-line. I believe I’m flip-flopping on this opinion; I have come to realize most Second Life content creators are social, collaborative creators. You create together in real-time. I started building at a Second Life resident run course in 2003, being taught by Siobhan Taylor. I honed my scripting skills by hanging out with other residents who had been in world longer than me, like Eggy Lippmann and Catherine Omega, who were more than generous with their time and advice on the ins, the outs, and the quirks of LSL. The instant gratification Second Life offers of being able to make something… then announce to your friends, “HEY, look what I MADE!” is parallel to the joy every developer gets.

When I write a great bit of code, or make something wonderful, or innovate in any way, I immediately want to share it with my friends. I also want to see what they come up with; in fact, that’s how I became friends with most of my “virtual world” acquaintances. I don’t see Metaplace offering this. However, I am in the minority; the success of places like Habbo Hotel, Makena’s (There’s) MTV locations, and Club Penguin prove most people would rather have an entertainment experience rather than a creation platform. This is nothing new, simply consider the number of people who learn to play an instrument or act,  and perform live, versus the number of people who go to see a rock concert, opera, or play.

I definitely see the goal here, and I think Raph and the team are close to achieving that goal: to create a simple to use, easily (off-line) customization suite of tools that allow people to collaborate in a (sort-of) 3-D environment. I applaud them for that. I also realize that Second Life is too complex and the interface is too hard for a casual user, but has a hard-core base of people who look at it as their blank canvas, or utopian community. I’m a member of that hard core community, so I definitely wear my rose-colored glasses.

So what is the Holy Grail here? Combine the ease of use of Metaplace with the freedom of Second Life. Linden Lab has far too long been worried about the “community”, which has long since disappeared. My advice to both of them? Create the best real-time collaboration toolbox you can, with different interfaces for different skill levels. The last time the Second Life interface went through a major overhaul from the client’s experience was when version 1.2 was released… when 99% of Residents were content creators.

Guess what, now less than 1% are content creators. Linden Lab, you may want to consider that one of these days. At SLCC 2006, Cory stated than over “70% of residents had rez’d an artifact” – I’d posit that 95% of them were dropping a box on their head, or hit a key by accident!