Re: [-empyre-] Lambda Moo

["Fabio Zambetta" <fabio.zambetta@rmit.edu.au>]

I suppose I'll have to second Adam on this...he knows I totally agree
with him, anyway :-)
SL has been extremely successful in the area where all other initiatives
of "Web3D" (VRML, X3D, etc.) have failed.
The crucial point here is that no matter how good it is your piece of
tech....you need to have lots of users (that's the point of a 3D
*world*, isn't it?) and in order to do so you need to provide a solid
way to let your users authenticate, log in, manage their identities,
etc.
VRML/X3D/etc. have never really catered for that hence credit needs to
be given to SL (its clear multiple limitations notwithstanding).
I found also very interesting all the comments you guys made on the
*avatar* concept, and I agree that it is a very restrictive and
sometimes misleading metaphor.
I suppose the reason why we have that is because MUVEs have naturally
evolved from experiments in Virtual Reality, where we originally thought
that immersing a human in a 3D world is the point. We did so by
recreating a close man metaphor in the VR scenario, which video games
proved wrong in the first place, ironically ;-)))
The ideas of immersion achieved via cumbersome haptic devices was
totally wiped out by another form of actual immersion, provided by those
games that build good user interfaces, provide real feedback to users,
etc.
As such, I do not see WoW and SL in coflict, even though I admit they
have different demographics and pursue different goals.
Ciao

============================
Fabio Zambetta,  Lecturer, 
BP 215 (Games Graphics Programming) Program Coordinator
Room 14.11.02, School of Comp Sci & IT, RMIT University
GPO Box 2476v Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia
Mail: fabio@cs.rmit.edu.au 
Web: http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/~fabio/
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