Excerpt:
The question I was trying to answer was, “Is the next generation of the consumer web 3D?” I think the answer is not necessarily.
1. The reason why we’re asking this question is because there’s a bubble forming in the virtual world space right now.
That’s a pretty incendiary statement. What do I mean by it? What I see on the horizon are dozens and dozens of new virtual world platforms and titles hitting the market - far more than the public will want to consume. By ‘title,’ I mean a self contained, branded version of a virtual world much like “Virtual Laguna Beach.” All the big media and consumer goods companies are looking at what’s happening with online community sites like MySpace and Facebook and want in on this action desperately.
However, I think that all of the media hype around Second Life is misleading the public about what the next generation consumer Internet might look like. That isn’t to say that Second Life doesn’t have tremendous merit in moving the dialogue forward about what collaborative work and play spaces feel like. What I mean is that there are now quite a few companies who equate “future of online communities” with “3D graphical world.” The mad rush by these big brands to create empty showrooms in SecondLife is proof of this. Just like in the dot-Bust days, there will be lots of shoddy substandard products brought to market in the mad frenzy to create a ‘presence.’
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