RE: UKNM: Virtual Communities, Avatars etc. . .

[Briony Pope]

About 2 years ago I did some work with Worldsaway - which is a subsidiary of

Fujitsu.


Worldsaway have a number of worlds - Dreamscape was their most

popular/populated

But they also had 2 others worlds aimed at particular audiences - a

Gay/Lesbian/bisexual one - I think it was called Pride and one for silicon

valley.


The software was quite sophisticated, you could customise your avatar - buy

new heads, give people presents like magic wands, garlands, (someone gave me

a head!). You could have your own private 'lawn' (like a private chat room

but you would set the decor).


I spent some time in Dreamscape meeting people etc...

It was absolutely incredible how long people would spend on it. I overheard

a conversation between a couple of old timers who said that back in

September (that would have been sept 97) they were spending 40 hours a week

'in world'. I spoke to a lawyer who would go online for an hour or so before

going to work (it was UK afternoon - so it must have been 5 in the morning

there!).


It wasn't just US people - I also met some Europeans, an Italian and a Dutch

girl.


(people would pay Worldsaway for the number of hours they were in the world

- either through their CompuServe account or directly by credit card. It

wasn't cheap but the hourly rate did go down the more you used it.)


Worldsaway were very interested in working with other companies to create

new worlds for particular audiences. I don't know how far they got with this

because I stopped working with them in about Feb 98.


The only thing is, I've tried to look them up and either its all been

pulled, or their server is down at the moment. From the dates on the URLs I

found on av it looks like it all might of been pulled in August last year...


However this gives a good idea of what sort of stuff it looked like:

http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Tower/1143/worldsaway.html


The urls should be:


3. WorldsAway Site Index

Introductions to each Avaterra.com virtual zone. Dreamscape New Radio World

ClubConnect. General FAQ. Register as a member of a virtual world. Join...

URL: www.worldsaway.com/siteindex.html

Last modified on: 14-Aug-1999 - 9K bytes - in English


5. WorldsAway Club Connect

Come meet other like-minded individuals at fun and informative events.

You'll be glad you came! Club Connect is part of a larger virtual world:

New...

URL: www.clubconnect.net/

Last modified on: 12-Aug-1999 - 13K bytes - in English



If you need any more info ian - come talk to me.

Briony




-----Original Message-----

From: Ian Tester [

ian [dot] testeruk [dot] boo [dot] com (mailto:ian [dot] testeruk [dot] boo [dot] com)

]

Sent: 15 March 2000 12:27

To:

uk-netmarketingmail [dot] chinwag [dot] com

Subject: UKNM: Virtual Communities, Avatars etc. . .



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Does anyone have any thoughts on virtual communities, where users can enter

the site, select an avatar and interact with others in a virtual world?

There was a big feature on them in Revolution last year, but the concept

doesn't really seem to have taken off/been incorporated in other sites,

despite the much-vaunted "stickiness" of the concept. . .


All the ones I've seen lately seem to crash my browser

(www.virtualzones.co.uk, www.elcitio.com). . . perhaps due to the

complication of the technology ? (don't even think about it. . .  ;-0)


Anyway - are there any good ones? (I quite like the dobedo version, and

quake). My feeling is that they're not as effective as they could be because

-


1. you can't really customise the avatars

2. you can't really customise the environments

3. most people this side of the pond can't afford to be online long enough

to have fun (tho that's changing!)

4. there isn't a great enough choice of environments available


Thoughts?


i


Ian Tester, Business Development, boo.com

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