Disney decides to close VMK

 Posted by (Visited 21237 times)  Game talk, Writing  Tagged with: , , , ,
Apr 092008
 

Disney is shuttering Virtual Magic Kingdom. Nobody knows how many active users it has these days, and Disney is of course moving aggressively into more virtual worlds, encouraging users to switch to Toontown, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, and Club Penguin. But as longtime virtual worlders know, that’s not acceptable to the current community, who not only have a lengthy thread on the discussion boards, but have also started threads even on the new coverage elsewhere begging for their world to remain open.

Generally, a virtual world with any momentum at all will not die unless it is actively killed. And the result is always heartrending posts like this one: Continue reading »

Virtual Worlds 2008 Wrap Up

 Posted by (Visited 5719 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: ,
Apr 092008
 

Virtual Worlds News has a great wrap-up article covering all of the major blog posts and reactions to the show. Sounds basically like lots of dealmaking and announcements, but also some tentativeness from many commentators. Be sure to read the takes from Prokofy, Christian Renaud, Cory O., and others. Some echoes of my “high windows” keynote at the GDC Worlds in Motion Summit.

However, what really struck me walking around the show was how constrained the virtual world dream has become. There are a bunch of projects that look like less populated and less functional versions of Second Life, usually with some marketing material promising a “safer” or more “corporate” environment. A few other companies are promising rapid and cheap creation of advertising worlds, leveraging outsourced production.

Is this really the Metaverse? Is this even the 3D internet?

 -Cory Ondrejka

Is there such as thing as a casual online world?

 Posted by (Visited 11528 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,
Apr 092008
 

I’m not sure there is, at least as we understand it. Not at the moment, anyway.

When we speak of “casual” we mean a cluster of things. Sometimes we mean targeting a different demographic, one not excited by the hardcore fantasy-and-sci-fi fictions we concoct. Sometimes we mean shorter play sessions. Sometimes we mean things like not requiring grouping in the worlds, which makes it easier for a less dedicated player to have fun.

More “casual” experiences often have a connotation of being shallow. One thing that is clear, though, is that it doesn’t matter how casual you make an experience, some people will use it in a hardcore manner.  And that means that it must have hidden depths of some sort. A shallow experience simply doesn’t tend to keep people.

Continue reading »