Areae's Metaplace Announced
Yesterday Raph Koster's group Areae finally took the wraps off of Metaplace, the project they've been working on for some time (this has now been covered by Boing Boing, the BBC, and Slashdot, as Raph notes on his site). The announcement was greeted with much applause, along with a bit of head-scratching by some (and I'm sure more than a little relief for the Areae team).
Metaplace is not just another virtual world: they're doing their best to break down the walls around the currently walled gardens. This is a huge development that could change how we think of virtual worlds... if they can make this cool flying machine actually take to the air.
How is Metaplace different from all the other "do it yourself" platforms and such that are in development? Lots of ways, not least of which is the very low threshold to entry that people have to cross to create their own microworld. As the site says:
Our goals are sort of idealistic. We think there are all kinds of things on the Internet that would be improved if anyone could have a virtual place of their own. Right now, there aren't enough good games, for example, and they all seem to be about elves in tights or soldiers in battle armor. Metaplace allows more diversity. Right now, there are lots of people who want to use virtual worlds for research, or education, or business, but it's just too darn hard to get one going. Now you can create a world in just a few minutes and start tailoring it to your needs. Basically, we wanted to democratize the process of making online spaces of all sorts. ...
We knew it was all coming together when one of our team made a game in a day and a half. And then stuck that game on a private MySpace profile. You can inherit someone else's world (if they let you) and use it as a starting point. You can slurp whole directories of art and use them as building blocks. Cut and paste a movement system or a health bar from one world to another. Use an RSS feed for your NPCs. We made puzzle games, RPGs, action games... and set up doorways from one to the other. Basically, coming to work in the morning is a lot of fun.
There's more info on their site. And there are a ton of questions of course -- how do you build the worlds, how does the company effectively monetize what they've built can people be sufficiently creative to make worlds others will find worthwhile, etc. Much will be learned and revealed in the coming weeks and months.
And I don't think this signals the end of large walled-garden virtual worlds, any more than the success of YouTube has doomed movies or professional TV shows. But just as the ability to create and distribute videos on sites like YouTube has forever altered how we watch TV and movies, I believe Metaplace will change the virtual worlds landscape.
Many congratulations to Raph and the team at Areae. Virtual worlds are certainly not getting less interesting.
Virtual worlds are certainly not getting less interesting.
That's the truth. It is a very exciting time. VastPark, Multiverse and now Metaplace. I will be quite interested to see how/if all of these worlds will be interchangable/connectable.
Too many platforms to play with too little time.
Posted by: Nate Randall | Sep 19, 2007 at 15:48
Nice. Go Ralph.
Might have to go learn me Lua.
Attn Ralph: Make this work with python, because python is programing in easy mode kthx :)
Posted by: dmx | Sep 19, 2007 at 19:29
Hmm. Re-reading this, it sort of sounds like the old VRML idea, but actually interactive / multi user.
Which is fantastic.
But its a bit hard to work out whats going on thru the marketing speak. But this does indeed sound intriguing.
Hope it doesnt turn into some sort of RMT obsessed distopia like SL feels like to me.
Posted by: dmx | Sep 19, 2007 at 19:32
Grats, Raph. I'm happy to see you go for it, and finally put your ideals into practice the only way you can, as the master of your own domain (multi-puns intended).
I'll be rooting for you folks, and keeping an eye out to make sure you don't sell out too early.
As the Escapist said last year, "Unlike some high-profile thinkers, Raph Koster actually ships product." Ouch for me, and attaboy for you.
Posted by: galiel | Sep 19, 2007 at 19:53
Very nice mission and gfx so far, Raph. I can see such an application exploding through Facebook and MySpace. Good luck as you continue development and spread. Congratulations! And may others follow in the footsteps of your mashing!!
Posted by: Alvis Brigis | Sep 20, 2007 at 00:55
This sounds great. More power to users!
Posted by: strangeknight | Sep 20, 2007 at 04:45
The media kit is here!
The media kit is here!
Posted by: dmyers | Sep 20, 2007 at 16:19
Is the media kit here? Right now it just has some logos. I mean, this is great to hear about and all, but I'm having a bit of a problem finding a screenshot on the site, which is usually what I expect to see when something is "unwrapped." Luckily, there's Google Images.
Posted by: greglas | Sep 20, 2007 at 16:40
I found a youtube demo. Don't remember where.
Posted by: Ola Fosheim Grøstad | Sep 20, 2007 at 18:09
Ola -- that must have been on YouTube -- thanks for the tip. :-)
Posted by: greglas | Sep 20, 2007 at 18:59
I have to point out that screenshots mean fairly little, since you can bring in your own art, and your world could be anything from text through 2.5d with 3d heightfield right now... :)
Posted by: Raph | Sep 20, 2007 at 20:23
It's very cool, Raph. I'm not sure I understand it yet, but from that YouTube clip, it seems like you're shooting for the grassroots decentralized Web 3.0 "metaplace" -- the name fits. Should make for an interesting rollout. :-)
Posted by: greglas | Sep 20, 2007 at 20:42
This is just uber. I wish you the very best of luck.
Posted by: Dmitri Williams | Sep 21, 2007 at 10:33