Hi, This Is Google, I’m Taking Over Your Market, Thx
July 8th, 2008
Google Lively: The Last Virtual World You’ll Ever Desire. Complete with microtransactions!
More coverage: C-Net, Gamasutra.
I expected someone to launch a Second Life competitor this year. I didn’t expect it to be the largest Internet company on the planet.
Google is uniquely poised to validate this space for the mass market… this is not for geeks – this is for everyone
I wonder if Brazilians will take it over.
“I wonder if Brazilians will take it over.”
jajajajaja.
Google is the new Microsoft.
Is this an SL competitor, or a Habbo Hotel competitor?
Hint: it’s probably best to target the one with millions of users.
I wonder, to what degree, Raph read this and thought “I’ve been set up the bomb!”
I suspect that, to put it mildly, Metaplace has better scripting.
I remember 2 people from Google at the ADC 2006 who pushed their way in to talk to Sir Bruce after his talk (his was one of the first day 1). They were low key but plainly about with cards. Of course, by that time it was well in the air with SketchUp like you mention that Google was planning something. I imagine they will index all chat, all content, everything people will be making. 3-d Gmail with voice chat also I expect. More to come.
Now this threw me for a loop. I’m going to be incredibly interested on how this plays out for Google and Linden. And I am also excited that I’ll be able to research this as it progresses. Maybe it could even wind up being dissertation material.
Not a Second Life Killer:
“Nudity and Sexually Explicit Material
We don’t allow nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material. This includes making sexual advances toward other users. We also don’t allow content that drives traffic to commercial pornography sites or that promotes pedophilia, incest, or bestiality. Google has a zero-tolerance policy against child pornography. If we become aware of child pornography, the content will be removed and we will report it and its owners to the appropriate authorities.
”
Certainly going to suck away non-sex and gambling related 2nd life users.
I would expect Microsoft to sue them simply because they want to sue them and use the excuse that lively.com infringes on live.com. But that’s just me.
Ironically this stands to succeed where SL has largely languished. No matter how mainstream Linden claims to be, the reality is that they allow anything under the sun and that’s exactly what goes on. Doesn’t matter how nice or successful the rest of SL is, it will be forever tied with furries, virtual prostitution and flying phalluses. It’s the MMO equivalent of a red light district.
Why will this work and probably work exceptionally well? Before EQ I chatted a lot on IRC. IRC got boring most nights because there was little or nothing to do. EQ came along and there were less barriers and we all quickly realized that EQ (and by proxy MMOs) are really just IRC with something to DO. That’s what makes MMOs tick: the social aspects.
Nowadays we have Myspace, Facebook and other social networking that are the “it” thing. But there’s not a lot to DO on those sites. Yes, you can network but that falls apart fast for some people. Now you can network while DOING something. It’s custom, it’s online, it seems intuitive and it’s free. This is right up the tween alley but not so tween-y that it will scare off the older users thinking “This is not for me”. If I were Facebook or Myspace right now, I’d be beating a path to Raph Koster’s door begging for virtual worlds just to keep up with Google.
It isn’t much like Metaplace at all, at least not in its current incarnation.
I wonder how ready Google is to deal with all the MMO user style issues this is going to have.
Any bets on how long it takes for avatar “SupaPKiLLa” to figure out how to trap other peoples’ avatars in their “Ruum oF Deth”?
Yeah, this doesn’t look at all like Metaplace, so I’m pretty sure Raph can certainly feel safe.
Honestly though, I would be surprised… But, I would be more surprised if Google didn’t do something like this. Really, I’ve been wondering when they would. They pretty much release a product to compete with everything else that winds up major application on the web, why not a virtual space?
It seems currently that most people who like social spaces see them all as various ways to interact, and not favoring one or the other. It’s not like people will delete their profiles in Habbo once this goes live. They’ll do both, and more, and probably all at the same time.
Mmm, dunno. Everyone keeps calling it some sort of Second Life competitor, I’m not seeing it. It’s really more pressing at the IMVU/Habbo sort of market. Graphical IRC vs. SL’s graphical TinyMUSH.