I just read an article in The Economist online about Google's new virtual world, Lively.
So, I decided to log in and check it out for myself.
The system is basically an IMVU-clone, small chat rooms for a couple dozen users, tops. Some obvious nice things that I noticed right away:
- Quick download of plug-in, runs right in your web browser
- Quick login, uses your Google ID.
- Easy to choose and customize an avatar, even if there aren't many options yet
- Streaming video
- Easy character animations
- Pretty easy interface, and the thing I like the most, which I've badgered Linden Lab to adopt for years: To move, you double-click the ground where you want to go, just like how navigation works in the Internet and on your PC. Duh.
It's new, and clunky, and sure, I assume it'll get better, etc, blah blah blah, but let me get to the point:
IT'S GOOGLE! I expected way, way more than this.
And considering that there are already Google Earth / Avatar mashups out there, the obvious question is: Why isn't this in Google Earth?
Well, part of the reason is that Google *cares* about ease-of-use in the user interface, something that, so far, in virtual worlds, every other developer seems to not care about. Perhaps Google plans to integrate Lively with the bigger Google Earth picture, but ... meh, it does not seem so from anything I've read or seen. From all appearances, Google went out to build a completely new engine.
So, the lesson I take from this - for all the money Google has to pour into a virtual world, and for the years it's had to develop a virtual world, it created a clunky IMVU clone. That's it? There are so many critics of other virtual worlds (Second Life getting the majority of the heat, since it's the most popular.) and complaining that it's feature-thin or hard-to-use. Well, folks, here's your answer: It's really *not* that Linden Lab and others are doing things wrong.
Posts
Virtual Worlds as Green Workplaces by Draxtor Despres
16 minutes ago
2 comments:
If you want "ease of use" there is nothing better than WoW. Yes, it's a game but no one is better than Blizzard in this area. Anyone entering the virtual world market needs to look over Blizzards shoulder.
Absolutely. There's a lot virtual worlds can learn from WoW's interface design. WoW has far less features to deal with, naturally (like, no 3-D building / editing tool, for starters) but it's hard to deny that Blizzard didn't focus on making a good interface with an API that people can make even better interfaces.
Post a Comment