Feldspar Epstein at the Metaverse Journal spent some time flitting about in a Beta of Twinity, a VW that bills itself as “a mashup of the real world with the virtual world,” and wrote up a review.

The post is titled “Twinity – What Is It Good For?” so that should give you an idea of the direction of her opinion.

Photo: Metaverse Journal

Epstein attempts to give Twinity the benefit of the doubt, finding some pluses in its “lightweight interface” and “convenience.” She unfavorably compares it to other VWs due to its user restrictions, lack of content creation tools (!), lack of geography outside of rooms, and the fact that Mac and Linux users are shut out. She concludes that the above two attractions will draw in a very casual user, but not much more that that, as she writes in the last paragraph:

The lightweight simplicity of the interface may be sufficient to attract a large contingent of Users to the platform, however that very simplicity is likely to turn off people who have used other, more sophisticated worlds previously. In short, the platform is appropriate for people looking specifically for a lightweight chatting and entertainment solution – but don’t expect more than that.

Although Twinity is still in Beta, the early returns seem disappointing, especially since we’ve written here before about the potential for the platform to develop cities and use real world geography. We assume that this is a very early-stage working version of what will eventually launch.

Mind you, we also assume the same of Second Life, and look forward to it coming out of Beta and tossing off those pesky early adopters.