The Meta-Space Craze

Some are doing it, but Raph Koster wants to do it better with MetaPlace. The obligatory what in the heck is that snippet:

Metaplace is a platform that allows you to build any sort of world or game that you wish. Our tools will enable users of all skill levels to create games that can be played anywhere on the web that reads our open client standard – which includes cell phones, blogs, Facebook widgets, Myspace, etc. We host the servers for you and provide forums so you can interact with your players. You can start your own game from scratch, or you can import a stylesheet (shooter, RPG) to give yourself a base to work off of. It’s all pretty simple – even *I* have made something — and I don’t know anything about programming!

If (the biggie) the tools allow it, users can truly create unique spaces, games, chat rooms, interactive stories, greetings cards, productivity apps, presentations and much more. We can create unique experiences and share them with whomever, anywhere on the web. Metaplace should evolve the web – for the better? That remains to be seen. I want to believe that it will, but the little jaded pink unicorn that lives inside me stabs away at my optimism. There will be lots and lots of ghetto, there always is, but there has to be the bad to get the good. With the right maps and filters, sifting through those garbage heaps shouldn’t be a big hassle.

How much has the web changed in the last ten years? It’s easier to find and download content, anyone can create a journal or web site with relative ease, we communicate easier and we can get information we much faster. It’s not all shiny happy rainbows though - the internet has also become polluted and corrupted. There’s the perversian empire where the only function computer serve are wank machines with 24/7 access to any deplorable pornographic fantasy thinkable. But the single biggest change in the last ten years is people catching on to the intertubes - and that isn’t a bad thing, but why is the innovation this fucking slow?

When I first plugged into the internet there was geocities, aol walled gardens, visual chat programs like The Palace, even web cams were huge back then. Now the big thing is myspace, facebook, blogs, voice chat over the internet, social web two dot oh hysteria and a shit load of crappy im clients. Most of what these new web startups aren’t innovative - there are few interesting sites doing some data mining and allowing us to poke through it or democratize information, but where the web has really evolved is lots and lots of video, piracy galore, infinite communities in every hobby/subject imaginable, virtual store fronts and adverts plastered everywhere. Even, I’m guilty with the amazon ads.

This amazing technology that was supposed to make us smarter and for a very small percentage it does, but for the majority, it’s making them stupid. The internet is about communication - fuck the King’s perfect English, but what the hell is this garbled proto-language lexicon that has become inherent in everyday communication. We no longer talk, we text – we no longer write, we blog. While I love the internet, I really do - destroying the English language isn’t what I had in mind, I’m not talking about perfect grammar here - I’m talking about butchering it as if we were all back in the stone age running around grunting and hitting each other with sticks.

So, about Metaplace, I like the potential. I like the fact a creator can build several spaces within a space or outside it and connect them, connect them to others like a mutated genome or a maniac mansion with themed rooms – sort of like the old mud days of yore. It doesn’t even have to be a game or a room or house where clicking on your creation, a one eyed trollop with brain gushing from its eye sockets, making it bake a peach le gnome cream marshmallow pie for some meta space bake contest. Although, if you can do all that without investing a hundred dollars and a few weeks coding time, that would be tres cool. The potential to help evolve and innovate the web in another direction - that is Metaplace.

The good:

You don’t need approval from a board, or an agent to develop and execute your ideas. Supposedly, building and working with the Metaplace toolset will be accessible and simplified – easy to learn, difficult to master - not the case with other make whatever your imagination desires online sauce kits. You won’t need massive amounts of start up funding, nor will you need to have a heavy background in programming or need to be the best texture artist ever.

The Bad:

Nightmare predictions… Top 3 Meta Place Communities by recent activity:

Furry Yiffers Flying MetaFur

Lots of rug burn and carpet munching happens here.

Kobold Jesus’s Meat Palace

Because Kobold Jesus likes the man meat and the man meat loves Kobold Jesus.

*Kobold Jesus kicked Raptor Jesus’s Ass.

MyMetaSpace

Myspace’s Metaspaces! Embed your own mymetspace apartment onto your myspace where you can buy popular brand name items for your space, avatar and your friends!

Lots and Lots, more I can go on forever with the bad. Don’t even get me started on the RMT transactions. I hope this won’t be a repeat of Second Life on the web. My other big concern is Metaplace being nothing more than hype, what will happen is the internet will explode with crappy cloned pornographic shockwave games and lots of doll houses or shitty puzzle games and nothing really good comes from it - the web doesn’t evolve for the better. Will Metaplace be as lackluster as the indy game scene? There are some great independent games out there – but they fall by the wayside, don’t get the exposure they deserve - and I’m sure many Metaplace games will suffer a similar fate, but I hope some won’t and we will see some worthwhile innovation in many areas, not just games.

Links worth of a gander if your interest is piqued:

Koster answers some F13 questions.
Thoughts from Bloggers
Cuppy, Metaplace Community Mistress - Demo Video with Raph and Other Thoughts.
The bearded horse’s mouth - Koster’s blog with comments/questions.