Comments on: Google Launches Virtual World in Competition with Second Life

By: Dusan

Dusan — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:53:42 +0000

LOL @ Eris – yay! A new UI! I know just the person.

By: Eris

Eris — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:17:21 +0000

Yup, absolutely Second Life needs to market itself – BUT it needs to have a product worth marketing and right now that’s debatable.

First stage, get a decent and approachable user-interface…hmm, someone should do something about that…u know, like show some initiative?

By: Dusan

Dusan — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:49:03 +0000

@ RaR – I don’t think it’s 2.5D. You can fully rotate around (right muse button). However, you’re right, it is more ‘kid-friendly’ than a serious application.

@ Eris – As I posted today, they’re going after advertising. Monetize social spaces. So I don’t see them as making a true virtual world play, rather a social networking one. In some ways, I DO hope they get a bit of traction – think of it as a virtual world orientation experience. Now, if SL would actually MARKET itself, it might be able to hook some of these 3D chatters and attract them to a REAL world. Er, real virtual world?

By: RightAsRain

RightAsRain — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:51:51 +0000

hmmm…2.5D stuff is not same at all..is more like Gaia. But actually may make it harder for SL as virtual worlds still in the domain of kids games.

By: Eris

Eris — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:27:52 +0000

They’re using DirectX? I won’t hold my breath for a Mac version then.

Sometimes I envy all these choices Windozers seem have and so I fire up XP in BootCamp and suffer the abomination that is Windoze….and then, wonder why i bothered…

The Google name and bank-balance will carry this much further than it might deserve to go, but whether it’ll actually ever get anywhere worthwhile is debatable. But I wish them luck – honest i do!

By: Stone Semyorka

Stone Semyorka — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:59:20 +0000

No Mac client and implementation via DirectX show Google is desperate to get into the virtual world game just as quickly as they can. That, in turn, reveals that the future of virtual worlds is anything but dead.

It’s truly unfortunate they have left the creative thinkers out of the box.

By: Melissa Yeuxdoux

Melissa Yeuxdoux — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:07:34 +0000

Windows only… no Linux support, and comments in the group claim that Google chose to implement Lively with DirectX, which ties them pretty tightly to Windows. IMHO, a terminally stupid choice if it’s true. Lively is of zero interest to me until I can use it.

By: Dirk Singer

Dirk Singer — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:01:00 +0000

Hmmm….another virtual world that offers no mac support. No thanks!

By: How Lively? Google’s Me-Too Virtual World - GigaOM

How Lively? Google’s Me-Too Virtual World - GigaOM — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:39:45 +0000

[...] image credit: Metaverse analyst Dusan Writer, who has some interesting [...]

By: Brandon Catteneo

Brandon Catteneo — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:52:07 +0000

No user generated content? No 3D building tools? No scripts? No competition.