Creation of a new Metaverse Begins

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Dan MacDonald   (Oct 29, 2006 at 02:39 GMT)

If you haven't already, snowcrash is well worth the read.

Graham Evans   (Oct 29, 2006 at 04:45 GMT)

Greetings:)

Neal Stephenson wrote a great novel in Snowcrash.. for many years it was my bible as I worked closely on the development and implementation of the ActiveWorlds universe.

Just for completeness, the Activeworlds universe was preceeded by a number of pieces of software, the most well known being Worlds Away (origionally run through Compuserve) and possibly the first of these metaverses.. Habitat (on the Commodore 64) built by Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer. (Worth reading up)

Interestingly, a lot of these were more 3d enabled social experiments rather than Virtual Reality Community Spaces, but even so, they had a fascination all their own.

I'll shut up now, since the whole Community Space Metaverse thing is a bit of a passion of mine and I could easily just keep going :)

Regards and good luck.

Graham Evans
(Moria)
Edited on Oct 29, 2006 04:46 GMT

Unsung Zero   (Oct 29, 2006 at 04:53 GMT)

Snowcrash is sooo worth the read.

This was an interesting .plan. I knew of some of them, but never heard of the last 5 on the list.

One thing on creating a new metaverse (aside from the fact that it is a difficult undertaking in itself) is that everyone has their own idea of what it should be. This could lead a developer to create a metaverse that isn't exactly what they had invisioned. Anyway, good luck :]

Phil Carlisle   (Oct 29, 2006 at 10:52 GMT)

So what is the difference between "metaverse" and "online game". I.e. what makes World of Warcraft not a metaverse?

Or the sims online?

Or etc etc...

Online games are my passion too, but I dont particularly expect to create a persistant world game anytime soon.

Graham Evans   (Oct 29, 2006 at 13:10 GMT)

@Phil :)

Greetings Phil.. some do actually consider the MMORPG's to be a form of the Metaverse, for me the jury is out on that one, but there's a lot of research going on in Universities around the world. For me (and some others) the metaverse is more about the online shared community space with the development being based upon community desires and an open ended approach. Whilst the MMORPG's do have aspects of the community interaction, they are fixed in what the purpose of the community is.. in this case to play a specific game, whereas activeworlds (for example) gave you a blank world with the ability for the community to define how it developed.. whether into a chat world, music world, game world etc etc.. with each world gaining popularity by the desire of other people to take part.

Solipsis and the Open Source Metaverse Project are both attempting to define exactly this in various ways.. Solipsis is being funded by France Telecom (I believe) so theres a lot of money currently trying to answer exactly your question :)

Ultimately I guess as with everything else.. it's symantics, but it's a fun concept and environment to play in and with :)

Regards

Graham
Edited on Oct 29, 2006 13:11 GMT

David Dougher   (Oct 29, 2006 at 13:39 GMT)

If you are looking back at the history of such things you will also want to take note of Sony's Community Place and the father of most of them all perlMUD. You might also want to look at some of the orginal VRML attempts to create online communities, especially in the college research projects of the 80's.

As for making a distinction between a metaverse and an online game.

There is a temptation to say that if the avatars in the game are dressed in current clothing that it is a metaverse, but I believe that this is not the real distinguishing factor.

I think the answer lies in the primary intent of the creator. A metaverse is intended as a place of community with its primary focus being on social interaction. World of Warcraft is a massive multiplayer game. It's primary intent is entertainment. It is a very thin line. Metaverses do provide a kind of entertainment and MMO's do provide social interaction.

I think that Uru would actually be considered a game not a metaverse, because it's puzzle system and storyline are intended to provide the primary impetus for entering the world - not to socialize with other people. The Sims is a much tougher case. But the original intent of the Sims was entertainment. Socialization was a major impetus to providing that goal.

I know that the primary game I am working on now - Adellion. (www.adellion.com) could be considered a metaverse since it is intended to provide a community based environment. However, the focus is on role play in a medieval society - not on community activities.

Craig Courtney   (Oct 29, 2006 at 15:55 GMT)

While Neal Stephenson has the most mainstream novel which features a virtual reality based "internet" he is definitely not the first. This genre of novels is usually called cyberpunk and the grandfather of the genre is Neuromancer by WIlliam Gibson. Basically all of Gibson's books are a must read if you enjoyed SnowCrash. Gibson coined the term cyberspace for the concept which Stephenson's named metaverse. Stephenson's representation of "metaverse" is probably the least abstract, and most central to his novel but the concept was not new when he wrote SnowCrash. Interestingly enough a 1988 video game adaptation of Neuromancer interpretations of cyberspace included what is essentially DNS and the world wide web. I'd highly recommend anyone with access to a C64, Amiga or an emulator of either to find a copy and check it out. It is very primitive compared to today's standards, but still one of my all time favorite video games. Once you've played the game a bit and used the PAX terminals and decks (laptops) to surf cyberspace in game think about what was the state of technology in 1988.

In addition Tad Williams Otherland series of novels are centered around people being trapped in a "metaverse" which resembles a highly sophisticated virtual reality implementation of modern fantasy MMORPGS (EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, etc..).

Some other notable authors you may want to check out - Bruce Sterling, Walter Jon Williams, George Alec Effinger, Wilhelmina Baird.

One of the very challenging things about the projects you have listed is allowing people to contribute to creation of the "metaverse" itself. There are good reasons why many of them do not have TGE level graphics. To create the level of visuals you are looking for take tools and talent far beyond most casual users. Once that hurdle is overcome you have to worry about streaming the user developed content to all other users without breaking the experience for the user. The demo level that comes with is approximately 60 megabytes, for a very small area of metaverse real-estate. Think of trying to keep that amount of data current streamed and ready to go for someone walking down the equivalent of the Las Vegas strip. These are huge technical and user interface challenges. Be prepared for what you are trying to do.

Wow, that was longer than I originally intended. It's not often you get to geek out in an already exclusively geek place. I wish you luck on your endeavor!

Clint S. Brewer   (Oct 29, 2006 at 19:08 GMT)

The Music Lounge
We are working on a virtual world using the Torque Engine. This world is centered around music/dance/socialization. Also in beta, with only one main area public. but take a look at it. Right now it's in Halloween mode off and on.

I still remember the first time I got onto ActiveWorlds, I was blown away that someone had pulled it off at that level.

Also heartily recommend Gibson's books. Three Cheers for the return of cyberpunk!

Whether games count for you or not, I consider Everquest being one of my strongest feelings of existing in another world. And perhaps the closest to a cyberspace experience I've had. Even though it's purpose is entertainment, the majority of time was spent socializing while you wait and wait and wait. I would definitely include the mmo's

"Solipsis is being funded by France Telecom" hmm thats interesting indeed.

Unsung Zero   (Oct 30, 2006 at 14:14 GMT)

If anyone is interested, I'm developing a cyberpunk browser based (mostly text) rpg. Similar to "Torn City" in some aspects. It's still got some work left to be done before private beta.

If you think you'd like to take a look at it or offer some suggestions (and suggestions are always welcome) contact me at the email addy displayed in my profile.

mb   (Oct 30, 2006 at 15:31 GMT)

metaverse - hip new name for mmorpg. mmorpg with new features is still a mmorpg.

Graham Evans   (Oct 30, 2006 at 16:00 GMT)

@mb

Nice theory, except, the first metaverses preceeded the first MMORPG's byapproximately 10 years.

The first truly defineable metaverse was Habitat on the C64 in 1986 using 300 baud modems. The first MMORPG was Meridian59 in 1996.

Yes, shame on me, I know I am ignoring all the MUD,s etc in the MMORPG statement, but then again, that discussion is a whole new one :)

Regards

Graham Evans
Edited on Oct 30, 2006 16:08 GMT

J Sears   (Oct 30, 2006 at 18:13 GMT)

one little thing I thought you might want to consider, someone touched on this in a different aspect, is the types of users who use metaverses usually. With mmorpgs a lot of times you will have people with state of the art systems which is why they can come out with amazing graphics knowing people can run them or will upgrade to run them.
With communities like secondlife the average user isn't going to be a big computer nut believe it or not and is most likely going to have a pretty outdated system and not be willing to pu tmore money in their computer until it can't run anything and then they will upgrade it just enough to get by. So you can't ever create graphic intense programs for them. I think that will be the biggest graphic limitation you will encounter.

Unsung Zero   (Oct 30, 2006 at 19:17 GMT)

In Neal Stephenson's metaverse, I always saw it as being held together and driven by a few people who knew what they were doing while there were many more people that linked in who weren't nearly as technically able. I see a metaverse as being built by the users, like secondlife. While a game is built by the developers and presented in the image they see fit. A metaverse operates much like the real world, basically, it is a virtual environment with no predefined goals or rewards.

I do agree with J Sears, that there is a difference between gamers and able enthusiasts (think guru or the original definition of hacker), both in terms of hardware and mindset. Gamers won't be looking at a metaverse the same way that an enthusiast would or a socialite would. I think this can be seen in the differences between muds, the sims, and WoW and the crowds they bring in.

Craig Courtney   (Oct 30, 2006 at 21:02 GMT)

@Graham

Habitat... back then the funnest thing you did in the metaverse was have races across the screen.

Neverwinter Nights was released in 1991 on Quantum / AOL and was a MMORPG based upon the engine for the original gold box D&D games of the period. Also legends of kesmai was released about the same time as Meridian 59.

Yes, I have been a MMORPG/Metaverse junky since you paid to be online by the hour and their was no public internet.

Graham Evans   (Oct 31, 2006 at 02:10 GMT)

@Craig

LOL me too, by the minute for the game/app and by the minute for the phone call (I was in the UK then :))))

Thanks for the correction about NWN I don't think I ever got into that, but I can remember the name legends of kesmai although I don't think I ever got a stable connection to really try it properly.. 1200 baud modems were not that stable from the UK :)

However.. meridian 59 I still play from time to time. To my mind, that had one of the all time best intro pieces of music I have ever heard and a wonderful skill and experience system that makes most modern MMORPG's pale by comparison :)

Hey meybe just possibly we raced each other across the screen in Habitat? :)) That was a game that transferred nicely to Worlds Away as well, just out of interest.. you could always tell an old Habitat user 'cause you got a challenge to race to the next screen :)

Regards

Graham

Brian Peal   (Nov 21, 2006 at 01:45 GMT)

WOW... I was not expecting such a well versed group of terrific comments from each of you. Thanks to each of you.

From our point of view, our focus on a metaverse is based upon the e-commerce aspects of a metaverse. A typical MMORPG does have auctions and a type of e-commerce system, however, the products are typically for in-game use only. As this is a business venture with several investors, the importance of focus on external e-commerce makes all the difference. Our goal is to create this e-commerce enabler for the consumers and business.

My next blog coming out this week will outline my next step. The business plan. You thought creating a game is hard, wait to you see this.

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