Island Life... welcome back to Metaplace V2...

[Miki]

wondering that nobody posted here before... the MP team is faster as we thougth... check out the Island Life application on Facebook from Raph and team... its really fun and MP-tech-based! And dont forget to add me there as a friend... Miki Roesner... lets make a party there!!!...

some additional infos: http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/secon ... lands.html

[yezoma]

Sorry I don't want to get that involved with fb even if I am a member there

It looks like I will have to put up with SL from now on then

[jme]

Wow, they went to a FB game focus. OK. Maybe some monetization to be had there.

But I'm also not much of a FB user, even though I've had an account for I don't know how long, and do follow (somewhat) the FB app ecosystem. So too bad for me, too.

BTW: The current erm...crop of "grow some AI lifeforms for fun & profit" social games represents a really interesting trend. I think my favorite were those Scion chickens in SL. Too bad their proliferation sapped so much script-processing capacity...

[yezoma]

That is another reason why I am not interested jme, I just do not like those games as the bore me to tears.

[faiz]

I have a Island Life it is fun and ok, but mp was way better before! but island life is great too!

[Fredriksson]

I won't believe for even a second that this is Metaplace v2. Rather, I think Island Life is something to get a little income while they work on getting a new project up and running. Or at least I really hope so - I'm no fan of farmville, and I won't be playing this very much either. I must admit though, there's a pinch of bittersweet nostalgia in the look of it though, so I might pop in now and then. And of course I hope it's a hit and people play it, for the good of MP-things to come =)

[yezoma]

I won't believe for even a second that this is Metaplace v2. Rather, I think Island Life is something to get a little income while they work on getting a new project up and running. Or at least I really hope so - I'm no fan of farmville, and I won't be playing this very much either. I must admit though, there's a pinch of bittersweet nostalgia in the look of it though, so I might pop in now and then. And of course I hope it's a hit and people play it, for the good of MP-things to come =)

I do hope that you are right fred, because some how I can not see this as being the Redonkulous things that they speak about

[knuflook]

wondering that nobody posted here before... the MP team is faster as we thougth... check out the Island Life application on Facebook from Raph and team... its really fun and MP-tech-based! And dont forget to add me there as a friend... Miki Roesner... lets make a party there!!!...

some additional infos: http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/secon ... lands.html

hey ... that is zim's island .... he was working hard on it, even during the last hours of metaplace.
made me wonder why
now i know

zimzam ! where have you gone ?

[Miki]

I won't believe for even a second that this is Metaplace v2.

I still believe it is Metaplace V2. Or perhaps Metaplace V0.5 leading to some of the features of the old V1.

Imho they made the exactly right step. Two main problems of old MP have been the absence of a clear mission, and also the idea that user created content will attract others. We have seen the result.

They offered an elaborated stand-alone application, with creation features only above-average users can handle. To get quality and attractive results you had to be first a visionary, then a pro-artist or coder. And these people are very rare, virual world market doesn't offer an interesting income-perspective, more promising for them to create android apps or whatever.

Its a marketing question: From which side will you penetrate the market? With an isolated cost-intensive high-tech tool with all the risks as stated above? Or with a low-tech application embedded in a mass-media environment, much easier to maintain and on a safe ground others have already tested? Test-tube or organic growth? The competition side for both is nearly similar, but in the facebook application environment they have some clear USP's: a massive tech advance before the others with a solution they still have in their drawer. An application on the same flash-platform. A team of skilled programmers and graphicians experienced in the application area, other facebook app developers had to start from the scratch some months ago. And last but not least Raph as guru and visionary. They just need better marketing this time to elaborate and promote their USP's, they should use germans for that… then you will get quality results (joking, joking)

After they will have solved the minor startup problems they can take their features part-by-part out of the drawer when they need it and the market asks for them… while their user-base grows. There will be hundreds or perhaps thousand of smiling faces: "WOWWW… look, i can rotate my cow now!!!!". Step by step we will come closer to the old features of the Metaplace as we know it. Perhaps with clothes -> exchanging 8 carrots and 2 bananas for a robot outfit, then central gathering places, additional place purchasing, scripting… All this more user- and experience-orientated as the old version. As next step they could jump out of the facebook-frame and offer the already known features like remote embedding… the tech is still there. And in my opinion the willingness to pay some dollars for easy to understandable items in IL is higher as to invest in empty worlds you have to invest much time in. Also easier to communicate this to the corporate investors.

Was closing Metaplace necessary? Yes, they couldnt offer different evolution levels on one platform... high-tech worlds of MP on one side and low-tech islands of IL wouldnt correspondent so well from tech and marketing side... And maintain both would be too confusing, also much too expensive for a handful of sentimental olbies like us. To use it as beta-test environment for IL applications makes also no sense, who knows which features will be requested? A nice side effect with closing the old platform and opening this hobo communication board is also that they could be sure that some of us stay in contact, spread the message about IL... and jump on the new facebook application as soon as it starts. If they wouldnt have closed old MP we still would login directly to our worlds, ignoring the FB embed. But now we login via FB and spread the message there to our friends, perfect nerd fanclub multiplicators.

Alltogether a good decision in my eyes… i look forward to the IL future and hope a lot that it will have big success. UHUHUH, i have to hurry, time to harvest my strawberries…

[Kitty]

Personally I prefer a VW with more creator input, but this is not for the average user. I agree with Miki, this is exactly the right direction for Metaplace as a company and I look forward to seeing what the MP team does with it. Besides Island Life is dang addicting! Now if only my stupid sheep would quit running off.....

Kitsune Kyomoon in Island Life, friend me and send me stuff!