| |
  |
| Building Communities In A Virtual World |
|
 |
|
posted by Editor on Thursday October 18, @11:51AM
|
|
|
|
|
Andras writes "Active Worlds is a chatting, building, three-dimensional, interactive, multi-user, real-time virtual reality (VR) environment. I know these are a lot of buzzwords but, hey, they really have all of that! Its most unique feature is the online building which makes it a constantly evolving universe. Active Worlds Universe is a growing number of worlds where each has a different theme based on the citizens' constant building activities. People form smaller communities, like towns that they build together, or gather together into a smaller personal world that they create with their own theme." Probably the most impressive evidence of AlphaWorld's success are the satellite maps that show its growth from December 1996 to August 2001.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Andras continues "AlphaWorld users organize birthday parties, trivia games or even survivor games to entertain themselves. There are worlds especially designated for games like playing spades against each other (or with robots) or playing chess in realtime. Since Active Worlds is more than 6 years old now - there is even a Historic Society formed to preserve valuable artworks/builds created during the past.
Active Worlds Universe's users are a conglomerate of people from all over the world. To overcome language barriers there are even nation/language specific worlds where they can ease their communication on their native language (as you probably figured out at this time that english is not my mother tounge :).
Citizens can pick from hundreds of "avatars" within each world to represent themselfs. Those avatars have unique gestures for substituting the body language during their chat.
One can visit Active Worlds free by using a "tourist" name or can register as a citizen for a small $19.95 yearly membership fee.
Want to know more? Join the community by downloading the browser from http://www.activeworlds.com and enjoy the friendly atmosphere!"
|
|
|
|
< Predicting Mouse Motion With Genetic Algorithms | Visualizing System Load As Lava Blobs > | |
|
|
|
Don't have an account yet? Go Create One. A user account will let you customize the site's content according to your preferences. It will also allow you to moderate the comments of other users.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
...people don't buy into the additional layer of abstraction this adds to
activities like shopping (I noticed a screenshot of a virtual store clerk
displaying a camera); If I'm shopping for a camera, I like to be able to go to a
place like Amazon.com and get the basic information at a glance; a photo of the
product, its make, model and price (usually in slightly larger, bold text), and
other key features. Also right on the Amazon page is an average customer rating
and links to customer reviews.
In a 3D 'Virtual Cyber-Mall', how do I get this information? Do I have to click
on the camera box to pick it up, then twiddle the mouse around to view the
Make/model, and try to find a price tag on it? Do I have to drag it with the
mouse into my graphically represented shopping cart? If I want more information,
do I have to engage in dialog with the virtual shopkeep, or jump through some
more hoops to page through a virtual catalog?
What's the point? When you have to concentrate more on navigating through the
3D environment more than on the task you're really trying to accomplish, it's
just annoying and counter-productive.
3D worlds work in video games because navigating the environment is part
of the game, whether it's a first person shooter like Quake 3 or something a
little more passive like a Myst-style game.
In the real world, all I'm interested in is how
easy it is to read my e-mail, buy a CD, reserve a plane ticket, etc. I don't
want to have to float down a Virtual Main Street and make separate visits to the
Virtual Post Office and the Virtual Record Store and the Virtual Travel Agent
when I can have direct links to all of those things on a 'My Yahoo!' style home
page in a plain old text and graphics browser.
This is my home page.
|
|
|
|
|
|
