Only on Offworld: Be one of the first to join virtual world Metaplace

From Offworld to the virtual world: Offworld and developer Metaplace have partnered to bring the first 250 readers a chance to get an early jump into the company's web-embeddable and fully user-created new software.

Headed by MMO veterans Raph Koster and John Donham, Metaplace counts itself as the world's first open platform that harnesses the power of the Web to allow anyone to create, build and live in their own unique virtual world, and build a network of those worlds, creating, they say, "an ecosystem where they collaborate, socialize and conduct commerce forming new societies and economies as we do in the real world today."

And, as Koster explained in September, Metaplace is also jumping ahead of the pack in modeling the software's Terms of Service around his 2000 manifesto “Declaring the Rights of Players", which gives creators "freedom of expression, ownership, including earning money & running their own world, privacy," and the ability to develop their own individual terms of service. Users, too, get "freedom of speech & assembly, privacy, rule of 'law' and due process," and full ownership of their own IP.

To start building your own brave new world, visit Metaplace and use the invite key "OFFWORLD".

UPDATE: Though all of the keys have now been used up (quite quickly, actually!), you can still sign up at Metaplace's waiting list to get in line - new applicants are accepted weekly.

RaphKoster

9:33 AM December 3, 2008 – #1

I'm looking forward to seeing you all in Metaplace. :) Send me a friend request, and feel free to ask any questions you have!

If you don't manage to get one of the keys, just put your name on the mailing list -- we pull folks from it every week, so you probably won't have long to wait.

Anonymous

10:40 AM December 3, 2008 – #2

So, this is just like second life, but without the 3D?

11:01 AM December 3, 2008 – #3

I am there already. Look me up as Inj

Bart

11:01 AM December 3, 2008 – #4

What make Metaplace different from Second Life?

cory

11:06 AM December 3, 2008 – #5

"all of those keys have been used."

This sauce - it is a very weak sauce.

SC_Wolf

11:11 AM December 3, 2008 – #6

Reminds me of Furcadia.

11:22 AM December 3, 2008 – #7

All gone... bummer.

12:21 PM December 3, 2008 – #8

Bart --

Among the differences:

- Metaplace is built on open standards in every way we can. Where we have had to invent stuff, we're making our stuff open.

- It's embeddable, web-based, and even client-agnostic. That does mean that we're 2d right now -- there aren't any good web-emebeddable 3d solutions that do not require a plugin.

- It's aimed at everyone -- you can push on the door and find more and more advanced tools and capabilities, but ease of use is central to what we're doing. This is another reason we are 2d right now, 3d is a huge barrier for many folks.

- We do see games and entertainment as central, and I think SL, while certainly permitting stuff like that, doesn't see it as central to the experience.

- We believe in VWs that work the way the web does. That means people each get their own world ("site") rather than being crammed into one, but they are linked and webbed together. You have complete control over your own world.

There are obviously plenty of philosophical similarities as well. SL has blazed a lot of trails for the industry.

Chuck Baggett

4:23 PM December 3, 2008 – #9

Regarding "there aren't any good web-embeddable 3d solutions that do not require a plugin", what do you consider to be the bad 3d solutions that don't require a plugin, and what are the good 3d solutions that do require a plugin? Is there any hope of this situation changing?

8:12 PM December 3, 2008 – #10

Regarding "there aren't any good web-embeddable 3d solutions that do not require a plugin", what do you consider to be the bad 3d solutions that don't require a plugin,

Well, you can do 3d stuff in Flash (a plugin, but one that everyone already has). ut it's not yet sufficiently robust. But it will be. There's potentially the 3d canvas, which is at bare tech demo stage.

and what are the good 3d solutions that do require a plugin?

Unity, various X3D implementations. Or just putting a traditional 3d engine in an ActiveX wrapper, like Lively and many others have done.

Is there any hope of this situation changing?

Sure. Silverlight, Flash, or the 3d canvas will supply ubiquitous 3d content on the web, or some other plugin (one of the X3d offerings? Unity?) will get massive adoption and stop seeming like a plugin. It will happen. It's a question of when.

jennfrank

5:45 AM December 4, 2008 – #11

I am totally visiting "Raph's Floating World"; it totally reminds me of ToeJam & Earl. Totally.