I am goin g to assume that you have read the book Snowcrash by Neal Stevenson. I am also going to assume that you have a basic knowledge of the game second life. if you dont, you probobly wont get much out of this thread. I've been Mulling over an interesting idea of late, and i decided to post it here to get some feedback on it. Remember the "metaverse" that was outlined in the book Snowcrash? it was a sort of visual adption of the internet, where people could meet and walk around and pretty much live a second life. It was completely immersive throught the use of a virtual-relaity visor; like the one shown here: http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/5711.html In this "metaverse" people could meet from all over the world, buy property, script vehicles,programs,avatars,etc. Which brings me to my second topic: the game Second Life form linden labs: www.secondlife.com . Second life is the first "Game" that simulates the real world, And the closest thing we currently have to Snowcrash' "Metaverse" Now here's the idea i had. Take the idea behind Second Life's technology and engine, and kick it up a notch from being a game and a fairly lucrative buisness, to a literal iteration of the "metaverse" idea. Instead of distributing the program with many things pre-built (as linden labs did), distribute it as a blank slate; as a completely empty and limitless world that the users can customize to their every whim. Make it compatible with the kind of "VR" tchnology as shown above, to make it even more realistic. Dont put any "realism" Constaints in the software, other than those needed to keep it running without crashing. Institute an economy model like second life's, so that users of the metaverse could theoreticly make thier livings in there, or even LIVE their very lives in it. In time, this "Metaverse" could grow advanced and powerfull enough to take over from the current internet, with users walking into a building in the metaverse to purchase something rather than going to a website, and users hanging out in virtual lounges instead of banely typing on forums. Could this be done with todays technology? even just the basic idea, though more advanced than Second life's? Is it even worth the effort? Discuss....

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Original post by rian carnarvon with users walking into a building in the metaverse to purchase something rather than going to a website

Why would they?

Why wouldnt they? which would you rather do: Go into a website and spend ages looking for a particular peice of hardware or software, or go into a virtual store where you could examine the specs and such first-hand?

And then there's those people who would do it just because it would be cool to do so.

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Original post by rian carnarvon Why wouldnt they? which would you rather do: Go into a website and spend ages looking for a particular peice of hardware or software, or go into a virtual store where you could examine the specs and such first-hand?

you mean seeing a model of the product on a screen as part of a 3d environment, versus seeing a model of the product on a screen as part of a page with information about the product? I don't see the big difference there.

Or you mean "Go into a website and click on the product to go to a page with its specs, or go into a virtual store where you would have to find the product before you could *look* at it, and then find a clerk or something to ask about the specs?"

I think the website thing sounds *much* easier.

Let me ask you one question. What would you rather do? click a bookmark (or use your browser's search bar) to do a search on Google, or walk to some kind of virtual subway station, to take a virtual train to a virtual place called Google, where you can give your query to a virtual receptionist, who then gives you a virtual map you can use to navigate back through the virtual subway, to the place you wanted to find?

So, like Sneftel said, why? What'd be the point? why would it be better?

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Original post by rian carnarvon Why wouldnt they? which would you rather do: Go into a website and spend ages looking for a particular peice of hardware or software, or go into a virtual store where you could examine the specs and such first-hand?

Curious interpretation of "first-hand" - you can't touch or feel or taste the object. All you can do is examine a render of it, which is on part with viewing a QuickTime VR 360-degree render on a website.

Then there's the time involved with "going to a store" versus visiting a website. Remember, in Snow Crash there was actual locomotion within the Metaverse, and a time cost in travel from one virtual location to another.

The abstraction leaks. The Metaverse is very implausible.

Hmm. I agree locomotion and time-delay would be a problem. Perhaps the metaverse theory needs a re-plan...

Another GDNetters dreams come to a crashing halt. on the other hand, I think that this would be an amazing contribution to the porn industry.

Not to a halt, Merely to a temporary standstill. I really do think that this idea could be made to work without too much hassle once its finished, the idea must just be thought out very carefully.

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Original post by tstrimp Another GDNetters dreams come to a crashing halt. on the other hand, I think that this would be an amazing contribution to the porn industry.

There'd have to be some pretty specialist peripherals developed though, I guess.

Anyway, the idea sounds 'nice', but really is terrible. Look at how badly VRML flopped - people really don't want to emulate real-world shopping etc., as the WWW is much more efficient in many ways.

Walking around shops to buy things in Second Life was a huge pain. You had to wait for everything to load, your character walked too slowly, it was hard to find things, there often weren't any good search functions, you had to teleport to the store and wait for the building to load in the first place.

So someone came up with slexchange.com. A website that fixed all of the problems with shopping in a 3d environment by being simple, searchable, fast, well organised and 2d.