Avatars Shattering the Boundaries between Virtual Worlds

Groovy Second Life/World of Warcraft Character Design

Massively Distributed Virtual Worlds

The Internet is a Big place. So why is that every self claimed Massive Multiplayer Online Game feels small after a while. Game worlds aren’t small when measured by square mile of simulated landscape. Games like World of Warcraft have vast space. When measured by new information, connectivity and extensibility these simulated places feel tiny. Only a handful of designers and graphic artists can build more of the world, or script more collaborative dance dance revolution scenarios (raids).

A Protocol for Walking Between Worlds

Second life has done a stand up job of updating their technology, but extensibility is limited. I can’t build my own node, with potentially dramatically different visualizations without using their software and following their economic rules. Single company solutions are echoes of the past and bounded in their ability to grow: see MSN, AOL, and Facebook ok not yet they’re still on the up-shwing.

Ideally each world will be rendered within the browser, bypassing the requirement for additional software installation (and licenses). The defining feature of distributed worlds, each node can be connected dynamically by their hosts, with no one company dictating the standard. There can be notions of neighborhoods, and real estate but that’s up to independent organizations to determine. The Internet and Web have functioned superbly as information conduits because no one company controls the network. I see no reason why compatible 3D standards won’t be equally as effective (WebGL*).

It wouldn’t be too hard to come up with a model for all the elements necessary to support 3D virtual environments. Models could handle player identity, authorization, avatars, virtual gear/swag, and world building tools. Creation of virtual worlds could be easy for amateurs with rapid default layouts and choices (think blog themes), yet have deep customization features for master designers and world builders.

Notes:
*= Thanks to Denny Gentry for pointing WebGL out to me. Hope he’s not too sore about my bashing Google’s bizarre hiring system on Buzz. Hey, they make a lot of bucks, and build big complicated stuff, what do I know?

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  • http://blog.woodylabs.com Woody

    Look forward to these idea’s being brought to a global level. Throw in browser games and facebook friend networks and your singing

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Right on Woody, same here on the global adoption thing. As always there has to be a compelling financial push to make it happen faster.

  • http://codingrelic.geekhold.com DGentry

    Not sore, just busy. Will reply on Buzz later.

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Roger that.

    It’s easy for someone that’s not intimately familiar with the process to throw stones. I recognize I don’t have a full understanding of the entire process.

  • http://veesome3d.com TW

    You have some great ideas and as the social media manager for a world hosted on a modified Open Simulator software I see the possibilities really going in this direction. Thank you for the article.

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Wow, that sounds like an interesting project.
    You’re very welcome. I have a deep appreciation for virtual worlds as a means of interacting with people all around the globe and of course social gaming.

  • http://twitter.com/MariaKorolov Maria Korolov

    Mark –Check out the hypergrid. Every grid on it is run by a different company, located on different servers, in different places — much like Websites.The thing that connects them together is the LibOpenMetaverse and the Hypergrid protocols — the 3D equivalent of HTML. You can teleport an avatar from one of these worlds to another world, visit friends, attend events, even shop — and bring stuff back to your own world. All without having to log in again.The Hyperica directory is currently tracking over 300 hypergrid destinations (http://www.hyperica.com) and with the release of the more secure Hypergrid 1.5, this number is growing fast.The worlds don’t have to run on OpenSim, as long as the outward-facing protocols are the same. For example, in theory, Second Life can be on the hypergrid (after they work out the object permissions and content protection issues).On the Web, for example, we have the popular, free, open source Apache server, and the proprietary Windows Server. Eventually, I believe we’ll see a Web-based browser come along (Second Life is currently working on one, and there are a couple of other companies also with their own efforts). These browsers can be based on WebGL and HTML 5, or another platform — Unity seems popular these days. At that point, I think the hypergrid will explode and we’ll see another dot-com-style boom.– Maria KorolovEditor, Hypergrid Businesshttp://www.hypergridbusiness.com

  • http://blog.woodylabs.com Woody

    It will happen, I think its inevitable. Wouldn’t mind being a part of that one ;)

  • http://blog.woodylabs.com Woody

    I love this idea!

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Thanks for the heads up Maria, I’ll keep an eye on Hypergrid’s adoption. I agree that we don’t quite have an accepted open standard for 3D worlds or browsers that are ready to take full advantage of localized hardware but we’re rapidly closing on the latter (flash, html5, webgl?).

    Wish you and your team the best of luck pushing the boundaries of distributed virtual worlds.

  • http://twitter.com/musingvirtual Katherine Mancuso

    Hi Mark,

    This is a great idea. In addition to the Hypergrid, which is an excellent initiative, the IETF is working on a common protocol for interoperable virtual worlds, the Virtual World Region Agent Protocol https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/vwrap/charter/. We welcome contributions to the working documents, and the best way to participate is joining the vwrap listserv, which should be listed on that page.

    Please feel free to contact me if you need any help jumping in or more of an introduction!

    -Katherine

  • ExSlyder

    Well, unless Steve get’s on the boat and allows Flash on his portable devices (iPhone, iPad, iTouch), I don’t see it being flash based. How many times have you been browsing with your iphone, only to be “shot down” by the crossed-out play arrow? HTML5 is definitely the way to go.