CNet on my brief remarks at Metaverse Roadmap
That was fast!
Areae’s Raph Koster: Virtual world cash to go to entertainment
My comments were pretty brief — nothing like a full session, more like a bunch of us here getting up and giving ten minute takes on where things are and where they are going.
The point, Koster continued, is that people who are expecting any immediate implementations of augmented reality technology or any of the other futuristic elements that came out of the Metaverse Roadmap project aren’t likely to see the light of day anytime soon.
“The interesting question is, how much are commercial pressures versus idealistic pressures going to effect virtual worlds in the next couple years?” Koster asked rhetorically.
Other stuff — we saw a brief walthrough of a Multiverse-based virtual Times Square covered in ads. And Mitch Kapor thinks that we need 3d cameras and gestural interfaces to break open the virtual worlds market.
I’ll try to post other brief notes as the weekend progresses…
8 Responses to “CNet on my brief remarks at Metaverse Roadmap”
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CNet on my brief remarks at Metaverse RoadmapPosted on February 15, 2008 by Raph
Raph’s Website :CNet on my brief remarks at Metaverse Roadmap
Preved dyatlam!
Quite honestly Raph, although I think your contribution was (from what I can see on the web) the most accurate, the vast majority of our compatriots have stalled out. They’re talking about the same stuff they were 4-5 years ago, and without much added from the experiences of that time period. At least I had the sense to stop talking once I found I was doing nothing but repeating myself.
If the “Metaverse” is truly virtual, in that it tries to establish itself as a strictly imaginary space, then it’s not going to happen. Gibson and Stephenson were not prophets (although Vinge and Stross may well be). People do not want flights of fancy as some kind of improved GUI. They want “value-added” for their lives.
–Dave
Oh come on, Raph. Our Times Square may be covered in ads, but they’re not *real* ads (except maybe for the couple of trailers for our third-party developers’ games). It’s a demonstration of a mirror world of an iconic world landmark, a real-world spectacle, not a cheap marketing scheme.
I wasn’t editorializing on it — it WAS covered in ads! It was just a literal description. Visually it looked great — really nice graphics.
I could be wrong, but I’ve seen augmented reality already. Working. I mean, it was a university lab with Tom Furness[/namedrop] but…
Usable on a large scale? Okay, maybe not so much. But existant? Yeah, it’s here and functional.
I said as much in my remarks, actually. The question is what the killer commercial app is that can drive adoption and force miniaturization and product efficiencies…
Here you go.
The “killer app” that will let us add geo-tagging layers to contemporary reality will be compact display systems that can present them seamlessly without obtrusive head-gear. People, by and large, don’t want to see things that aren’t there. They want to know more about what they are seeing.
–Dave
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