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• IndieCade’s take on my Sandbox/Web3d talk

  “In the Sandbox with Raph Koster” is IndieCade’s take on the talk. It’s interesting to see it getting a different slant from Ben Medler’s — part of what happens when you deliberately give a diffuse talk, I suppose! Read More... Posted Tuesday, August 12, 2008 2:04 PM from Raph's Website | 0 Comments

• Google’s Lively

  So at this point, I imagine everyone has seen the news about Google finally decloaking off the virtual bow with Lively. The coverage showed up in both the gaming press, where Google shared a bunch of tidbits that seemed to indicate a PR outreach to the gaming community, and also of course in the tech press, [...] Read More... Posted Tuesday, July 08, 2008 10:11 PM from Raph's Website | 0 Comments Filed under: Game talk, Second Life, Habbo Hotel, 3d web, imvu, lively, vivaty, google

• Interesting IMVU stats

  These all come from this interview. They sort of put paid to the notion that a mass market UGC business cannot thrive, I think! They seeded the market with 2000 items Have now registered 100,000 developers, with “tens of thousands” active And 20,000,000 users registered (no word on active uniques) There are 1,700,000 assets on their marketplace right now 1,200,000 [...] Read More... Posted Tuesday, June 24, 2008 5:52 PM from Raph's Website | 0 Comments

• Avatar sites making worlds

  It keeps happening! The latest to jump into the fray is Meez, which is launching something called Meeznation. This is on top of Gaia and Weeworld and Zwinky, of course… Read More... Posted Friday, June 20, 2008 12:28 PM from Raph's Website | 0 Comments Filed under: Game talk, 3d web, zwinky, gaia, meez, weeworld

• ExitReality: another VRML world

  ExitReality Launches With Carl’s Jr Deal, and it looks like another attempt to commercialize VRML, much like several of the other projects we have seen over the last couple of years. The comment thread is interesting precisely because of its mix of reactions: This is really nice! Really love to check it out. It can turn any [...] Read More... Posted Wednesday, May 28, 2008 9:54 PM from Raph's Website | 0 Comments

• Open source Silverlight

  Lest people think that Flash is the only game in town, there’s also a new release around Microsoft’s Silverlight, using Mono. Mono offers open-source spin on Silverlight - CNET News.com There is definitely a quiet little war on. Read More... Posted Friday, May 16, 2008 11:03 AM from Raph's Website | 0 Comments Filed under: Game talk, 3d web, silverlight, flash

• Flash makes its move

  This happened days ago, and I don’t know how I missed it. It’s the Open Screen Project, which boils down to Adobe making a big move with Flash. What did they do, and what does it mean? The file formats will be open. Anyone can write their own player on any device, for free. Their player is [...] Read More... Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 10:34 PM from Raph's Website | 0 Comments

• From the Fire Pit to the Forbidden City

  Dispatches from the Imagination Age: From the Fire Pit to the Forbidden City: An Outsider’s Inside Look at the Evolution of IBM’s Virtual Universe Community is a 12-page paper that gives interesting insight into IBM’s moves in the virtual worlds space. It’s a mix of forward-thinking (they have people who do nothing but machinima?) and catch-up [...] Read More... Posted Tuesday, May 06, 2008 12:51 PM from Raph's Website | 0 Comments Filed under: Game talk, 3d web, enterprise worlds, ibm

• How many hot startups are VW-based?

  The SAI 25 Live is this new index that is trying to track the hottest startups based on an estimated valuation figure. As you look at the chart, realize these figures are in thousands, so the top of the chart is valued in the billions. Several of the top 25 are familiar names to readers of [...] Read More... Posted Tuesday, April 29, 2008 12:54 PM from Raph's Website | 0 Comments

• Is there such as thing as a casual online world?

  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 [...] Read More... Posted Wednesday, April 09, 2008 12:14 PM from Raph's Website | 0 Comments Filed under: Game talk, WoW, Neopets, facebook, metaplace, 3d web, julian dibbell, meebo, whirled, ultima online, metachat