Virtual Environments
This web guide features useful information and resources for virtual environments (also known as virtual worlds, CVEs, MUVEs, or MMOGs). This rapidly growing area has been of recent interest to educators, researchers, corporate trainers, businessmen, and many others. Don't forget to bookmark this page and enjoy!
Quick links:
- A Useful Virtual Environments Comparison Chart
- An Overview of Virtual Environments
- Virtual Environments by Category
- Education and Research Using Virtual Environments
Metaplace: Virtual Spaces for the Masses?
Could a new virtual environment platform, Metaplace, bring virtual spaces to the masses? Raph Koster, one of the former developers of massively multiplayer online game Ultima Online who quit his job to form a brand new MMO company, thinks so. He recently announced Metaplace, a brand new virtual world venture that promises an open-platform, open-ended approach to virtual worlds. Users of Metaplace (http://www.metaplace.com) will be able to build 3D virtual worlds quickly using simple, sharable building blocks and templates.
The resulting online spaces, which could be used for gaming, e-commerce, or socializing, can be embedded in a webpage, MySpace or Facebook profile or weblog.
“We are out to democratise virtual worlds and bring them to absolutely anybody,” said Mr Koster, founder of Areae, the company that is producing Metaplace. “You can come to the site, press a button and have a functioning virtual world that supports multiple users in about 30 seconds.”
While details are sparse at the moment, all we know is that Metaplace is a very ambitious attempt to go beyond merely building a virtual world. It’s an attempt to build an open virtual world standard. Metaplace claims that the platform will be able to integrate smoothly into current web standards. This means that people should be able to integrate whatever is built in Metaspace into websites, RSS feeders, and more.
Recently featured as one of the top 40 hottest startups at the TechCrunch40 conference, Metaplace is definitely a virtual environment to keep an eye on.
Forterra Systems
Forterra Systems at a Glance
- In short: The sister of There, a private virtual world technology for domains such as e-learning, military and homeland security training, healthcare, etc.
- URL: http://www.forterrainc.com
- Maintained by: Forterra Systems since 2005.
- Price: Depends on service
- Forterra System Requirements
- Platforms supported: PC
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