mysecondspace.com

I reviewed a usability session several days ago where the subject was presented with a 2D image of a 3D space and was asked if they thought that was the “virtual world”. The user responded in the affirmative as if the image was the virtual 3D application that was being tested. The point? Well those of us in the virtual world building industry need to remember that we are the minority. Many users even remotely aware of 3D on the Internet are very happy with a Meez character, in fact I like mine. But a psuedo-3D Flash character is a far cry from an immersive virtual world, an MMO or a next generation console game. Wake up virtual world builders! Remember educating people is part of the job, it may actually increase the number of people who have virtual world experiences.

An old one and a new one today! Aerosmith’s world was created in 2001. Two observations about that, first, Worlds.com was ahead of their time, second the world seems very old. Six years is a long time in the Internet time warp. Tyra Bank’s world is built on The Music Lounge technology which is a 3D/celshaded chat app. They originally developed the Pussycat Girls Lounge last year for teens (closed now). Which one is real…you decide.