Twinity mapped at Metaversed
(Visited 7194 times) Game talk
Oct 302007
Metaversed has a good article on Twinity, which appears to be a social virtual world with very firm ties to real world geography. It uses an “urban” metaphor, so you don’t freely build structures, and instead you rent apartments and the like. There’s clear potential here for the sort of geotagging/mirror world stuff I alluded to recently.
6 Responses to “Twinity mapped at Metaversed”
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One source got to look at it now, and finds some interesting twists on the Second Life model. One is an emphasis on reproducing real world geography, or a “mirror world,” rather than creating new lands from scratch. [IMG ] (viaRaph Koster)
I agree that things will trend this way, at least to some extent. At what point, however, will it stop being “escapist” entertainment?
Of course, if you really want to live in your same town, but without your ex-wife around asking for checks, I guess it would be the greatest escapist entertainment of all. 🙂
More and more I’m coming to the conclusion that you really need to have real estate — ground, land — and not just lofts or apartments or “value add content”. That this bolsters the space for freedom.
“land” in a virtual world is meaningless without an engagement model that works on two levels:
o individual, its useful to explore from an aesthetic, informational and functional perspective
o group, it supports and fosters the activities of a community from simple gathering places to gamespaces and group-specific communication
I am wondering when we will stop transposing our real world and find satisfaction in these two areas in an entirely metaversal environment not bound by real world stuff. I think on my father dealing with his mac laptop and how hard wayfinding is for him and you soon realize that the next generational gap will be wayfinding in a metaverse that is NOT dependant on transposition. Our grand children (or even children)will nod condescendingly at us as we try and find our way in an entirely indigenous visual/communal/interactive environment.
No, Nexus, land isn’t meaningless, because people invest meaning in it themselves — and that means value. Their engagement isn’t your engagement and they are not at the same aesthetic or technical level as you. They might be merely amateurs — and there are a lot of them, as the kind of people who are like you make up 2-10 percent.
The individual wants to build a house, practice building, start a business, do whatever. They don’t just “explore” *they live there*. And guess what? That’s *OK*.
Groups are important, but they don’t define everything; the individual has to be respected, too.
Raph, I hope you are paying attention to all this. The way these newer spacers are going, and these cheerleaders — hateful attitude toward private property, scorn of the individual and of the amateur.
Without the individua, the amateur, private property there is no world. Private property is really important.
Sorry, but we won’t be following somebody’s corporativist or authoritarian or even totalitarian utopian mandate to “stop transposing our real world”.
Why? Why this *hate* of organic human life in the world, and the transposition of it? Why? It’s simply not justified. Nobody *forces* transposition on *you*. Why must you attempt to eradicate it in others?!
Why must we have to find satisfaction your geeky way? Why can’t people do what the hell they want, without you controlling them and telling them what their aesthetics should be?!
There’s absolutely nothing to indicate that just because your dad has trouble navigating a computer that the next generation of kids will not wish to have privacy, land, space, property, possessions. Hell, no. They are still human beings, not some creatures from outer space.
I’ll tell you what our children and grandchildren will nod condescendingly at — the geeks and would-be gurus of Web 1.0 and 2.0 who simply couldn’t let go, who simply couldn’t let people be and do what they want, which sometimes involves transposition and versimilitude, and sometimes something else. People’s eyes will remain in their sockets, on the front of their heads.
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