Adding Gameplay to Google.com
[Editor's Note: Contributing writer Derek Kean works in the community team at 3D Fashion Games World, Frenzoo. He can be contacted at: derek at frenzoo dot com.]
The idea is simple but radical: turn everyday web browsing into a game - a group experience together with other surfers.
While searching Google or browsing your friends photos on Facebook you could be playing games, undertaking quests or chatting with other avatars also at the same sites.
The concept of collaborative browsing isn't new, witness social browser Flock or social recommendation services such as StumbleUpon. In the past months the gameplay element of collaborative browsing has sped forward with venture backed players launching services and a handful starting to gain good traction. The fledgling genre, sometimes called Passively Multiplayer Online Games (PMOG) or parallel browsing worlds are an innovative take on free to play virtual worlds.
Instead of web communities such as Gaia or Stardoll where you log in and remain on the destination sites, PMOGs are plugged into everyday web behaviour. Giving new life to existing pages, rather than trying to construct a full virtual world of its own, these "meta" services ride on top of web surfing and layer gameplay, content and community around them.
Together with user generated content and communities, the experience can feel more personalized than in traditional online games and adds a new dimension to the pages you see every day. Privacy and other deployment issues aside (all need plugin/client downloads for the full experience), they are an interesting development and have the potential to redefine the web browsing experience for a new generation of consumers.
The Players
It's early days for PMOGs and there are different approaches being taken, from pure avatar chat through to scripted gameplay and questing whilst surfing the web. Let's take a look at 5 of the players in the space:
| Name | URL | Platform | Users | Revenue Model |
| Rocketon | www.rocketon.com | Mac and Windows - IE and Firefox plugin. Also a Lite web version for all browsers. | 100,000+ | F2P, Virtual Currency ("Rocket Dollars") |
| ExitReality | www.exitreality.com | Windows only plugin - IE, Firefox and Chrome | Not disclosed | F2P, Contextual & 3D Advertising |
| PMOG/The Nethernet | www.pmog.com thenethernet.com |
Mac and Windows - Firefox & Flock (Mozilla) only. | 10,000+ | Contextual Advertising and Sponsor 'badges' (not currently live) |
| Yoowalk | www.yoowalk.com | Flash on page | 40,000+ | Undefined- Possible Advertising & Space rental |
| Weblin | www.weblin.com | Client Download | 2million+ | Virtual currency for in-game iteams, and Banner Ads |
Rocketon
Rocketon avatars on any website
A parallel virtual world for 2D chat & flash games, Rocketon works as a 'top layer' to any website you are browsing. This enables each page in turn to become a virtual chat area. The avatar is customizable into any dimension and either human or animal/monster form. Since this works on top of the page, it is not heavily reliant on outside codes, and does not need to utilize a large amount of processing. The ability to switch between avatar walking or chatting and browsing the web is done by a button on the bottom left, which also serves as the chat bar and game starter.
The interactions that are enabled with Rocketon include surf following chat, where you can move from page to page while chatting and passing links, where-upon your avatars can meet up again. The ability to share your web experience with avatar chat and games definitely spices up many popular destinations. The only downside is you must visit Rocketon.com first, before going to any other websites.
ExitReality
Exit reality 3D Web world
Turn every web page into a 3D space. The workings of ExitReality are based on the VRML markup language, which as been around for a while, but neglected in recent years. Exit Reality is based on this language and is able to model any website into a standard room with both 3D and 2D content. Once web sites are optimized for ExitReality, a virtual room is made available.
There are many large web sites currently involved in this 3d World, including MySpace and Facebook, who allow each user page to have their own “virtual hangout room”. The ability to interact with others as well as with the environment makes this web browser feel more of a MMORPG, than a POMG. Each site that is optimized using ExitReality can choose from a variety of landscapes, from a treehouse to a beach house. And for savvy users you can edit your own space.
PMOG/The Nethernet
The Nethernet
The Nethernet (or PMOG.com) is a passively multiplayer online game with a structure similar to the likes of StumbleUpon mixed with World of Warcraft. In this arena, players are free to roam any website, utilizing a toolbar in-browser to interact with other players. The web discovery aspect gives users the options to share any website they are on via setting 'portals'. Players are able to create missions to give badges and rewards to other players, thus sharing their selected sites.
Since any game has two sides to choose from, you are allowed to align with the seemingly good or bad. The good aim to share the web and it's randomness with the community and the bad are there to 'mine' the sites and cause chaos (also the name of the bad side). You are allowed to choose an avatar to represent yourself, but the gameplay does not include on-site avatars, and once the tool-bar is installed, there is no need to use any website portals to log in, or to browse through.
Yoowalk
Yoowalk - Time Magazine Room
Taking the interactive city form is Yoowalk, an online portal for web browsing. With the interface at Yoowalk, the design is centered around a city where you are able to walk around each block and jump into websites that have been added to the directory. Each site that is indexed is given a virtual room where their content is delivered on the walls, and then after a click you are taken to the information requested.
Yoowalk is a flash player that gives virtual streets filled with different sites organized by country and topic, if you want USA news, you can navigate to a number of popular news sites. The user interactions let you chat with users via the flash portal and you can use your avatar for mobility, or you can speed the walking by clicking 'fly'. The gaming aspect is limited, but the user-interface is designed for web browsing rather than games. Different rooms can be made by each site; Google has a video room, main search, News, Maps and Mail.
Weblin
Weblin is a passive multiplayer chat in the realest sense. Your avatars are static on the bottom of the page, which helps when trying to actively surf your websites. Where others promote games and virtual rooms, Weblin is best for chatting with people who are currently where you are. You can add friends that will allow you to chat wherever you may be, but the main interactions are between yourself and others on similar top level pages.
Weblin on Facebook.com
Actions that users can do to websites include re-painting the site, flooding the page, making the site clouded, as well as raining roses or exploding the page. Weblin is the most popular with over 2 million users, and it shows. The interface is the least intrusive, with the avatars staying at the page bottom, and effects showing up rarely. Despite the client download and plug-ins users can enjoy a easy to use chat system that doesn't require surfing through a gateway site first, or running intensive graphics.
Summary
It is clear to see that the big players in the early stages of PMOG growth have taken very different approaches to how web browsing can be made interactive. From the casual web quests, to the on-page chat and antics with your avatars – and even changing the web itself to a 3D world, the ingenuity and innovation in these players is significant.
By their very nature, to be successful the services must build a critical mass of users to avoid the "ghost town" syndrome - and some are making great progress already. Looking at the numbers, and simple traffic statistics show that PMOG communities are growing, with over 2.3 million users within these five networks alone.
The strong indicator of how these sites are to be in the future rests in the hands of continuing to make each site add value to the web experience, and give the burned out web surfer a new wave to ride.
Because sharing communities have seen explosive growth for helping 'spread the word' (digg, reddit, delicious), and helping to explore the depths of the internet (StumbleUpon), the PMOG takes the human need for information and adds fun and interaction with others in real-time.
A Lively Failure: 5 Other Reasons Lively Flopped
[Editor's Note: Contributing writer Simon Newstead is CEO and Co-Founder of Frenzoo, a 3D Fashion startup and the writer of the VR Fashion blog. He can be contacted at: simon at frenzoo dot com.]
Much has been written on why Google pulled the plug on Lively, its 5 month old virtual world.
The consensus, as Google themselves explained, was a need to "focus more on our core search, ads and apps business".
Most observers viewed the cancellation as a tough but correct decision during a major slowdown in its core online advertising market. Many questioned the launch of the service in the first place. A search company moving into 3D cartoon chat and online gaming without a clear business model seemed a bit of a stretch.
Even Lively engineering manager Niniane Wang admitted at Virtual Worlds London last month there was still no internal decision on Lively's virtual economy model - not a great sign for a public service several months after launch.
However there were other factors that also helped contribute to the demise of the Lively service. These may not have grabbed as many headlines, but they had an impact, and not in a good way:
1. Rarity (or lack thereof)
Why do World of Warcraft players grind for hours and hours on end to level up or gain a new weapon or skill? Why do millions of Stardoll fans log in every day just to get their daily StarDollar allowance? Why do Gaia Online users save for months (or plead total strangers) to buy that one special item at the top of their wishlist?
Rarity.
The cardinal rule: make items rare. I.e. require effort and/or money to acquire items, and those items become highly sought after. Desire breeds addiction, addiction plus good, fun gameplay = many repeat visitors.
Yet the day Lively opened its doors, all items in their catalog were free. With that precedent set, nothing "felt" valuable. With that, there was no "desire" factor or goal to strive for - and far less motivation to keep coming back.
This design decision made Lively feel like a "throw away" environment, and users responded in turn.
2. Too powerful and complex an interface
As Ars Technica observed in its launch review, the user interface was difficult.
Unlike Second Life, Lively was designed to be a casual "pick up and go" experience for the mainstream - yet the UI wasn't designed that way.
For example, many users (myself included) didn't know how to make our avatars walk around a room.
Frustrated right clicking, left clicking, and hitting arrow keys yielded nothing. It turned out that the way to walk was to hover the mouse over your avatar, then drag and move the mouse to cause your avatar to walk around. Not intuitive.
You might think that the way to solve that was to use a more standard control, for example left click on a place and avatar walks towards it. However this brings up a higher order question: Why was walking even allowed in the first place?
Walking didn't add anything to the social chat experience except complexity and confusion.
Lively's competitor and 3D chat leader IMVU recognized this fact and even years after their launch, IMVU doesn't support avatar walking.
Why?
It doesn't need to.
3. Too rough, too early
Unlike an unknown startup, anything Google launches to the public is going to attract a day one audience of millions.
That's what happens when you are the most visited web company in the world. You had better make sure that it's ready. In Lively's case, it wasn't just the lack of Mac support that caused fits among its early user base (although that didn't help).
It was other issues such as lack of an open content program, leading to a dearth of selections in the store on the first day. A few months would have made all the difference as Google had truly promising and unique content ecosystem in development which could have been a game changer.
It was also many little things:
Anger and confusion greeted a friend who had spent an hour decorating her room, yet returned a few hours later to find strangers had put sofas on the ceiling, tipped over chairs and rearranged plants into a jumbled mess.
All because at launch it was too easy to unknowingly allow others to edit your public room. This and many other small, yet very frustrating user experience issues surely would have been cleaned up with more time in a closed beta.
First impressions count even more in a spotlight.
4. Audience and art
Lively tried to be everything to everyone right from day 1.
Unlike other games based around a theme - be it anime lifestyle in Gaia Online, music in vSide or 3D Avatar Fashion in Frenzoo (disclosure: this is my product) - Google went for an audience of everyone. Or, as Google put it themselves, "Be who you want to be on the web pages you visit."
This was always going to be an ambitious goal, but it was very difficult to create a cohesive experience with a mix of radically different art styles for the avatars.
In successful services such with Nintendo Mii or Habbo Hotel, there can be plenty of diversity in look but yet a single unmistakable avatar style glues the whole experience together.
However in Lively, you had tiny bears hugging tall skinny cartoon girls, while pigs walked around in circles.
The goal - total freedom of art style - may have been worthy, but put them all together in a chaotic 3D chat environment and the net effect was chaotic and off-putting for users.
5. No profile to call home
It's an irony that a service that pushed the outer limits of web technology, the most basic social web features such as a profile page, were conspicuously absent.
Nearly every successful online game or web community has a profile page or home screen, as the center of the social experience and to build your own virtual identity - be it for role playing or just making friends.
IMVU's profile pages are buzzing with user expression and customization, MySpace and Facebook have built their social businesses entirely around profile pages. Yet surprisingly, Lively, which billed itself as the next step in the "social web," didn't support web profile pages at launch.
Conclusion
Does the demise of Lively spell the deathknell for virtual worlds?
I don't believe so. Whilst there has been some excess in hype in parts of the industry, for many players abundant opportunity is still there. The rapid growth of other virtual worlds from IMVU through to Buddypoke and Stardoll and growing revenues seem to bear that out. Not to mention the massive growth in MMO revenues in the past three years.
However in Lively's case, Google made several big and small mistakes. Combined with a confused business model and no long-term commitment from the Google mothership, this ultimately doomed the otherwise promising service to brief and inglorious lifespan.
The problems could have been fixed and focus found for Lively. IMVU's first year was plagued with bugs and issues; but as Silicon Alley Insider put it succinctly, in Google's case they didn't even try.
The War on Geekiness and 4 Other Trends from Virtual Worlds Expo 2008
[Editor's Note: Contributing writer Simon Newstead is CEO and Co-Founder of Frenzoo, a startup in the 3D fashion and lifestyle space and the writer of the VR Fashion blog. He can be contacted at: simon at frenzoo dot com.]
Entranced by the success of IMVU, Club Penguin and Habbo, investors have poured millions into virtual worlds with new services blossoming out of stealth mode every week. But where is the space headed?
At last week’s Virtual Worlds Expo, several hundred insiders huddled to offer their own opinions on the future. Operators new and old alike, technology providers, and a smattering of advertisers and Hollywood players came together, and five interesting trends emerged:
1) The War on Geekiness
Electric Sheep Company’s Sibley Verbeck summed it up well, coining the phrase “Multi-Global War on Geekiness”.
There was recognition that to hit mainstream, the industry has to leave its geeky roots behind and focus on a simple and fun user experience. Barriers to entry plaguing early entrants - difficult navigation, large downloads and complex user interfaces - have to disappear. The presented alternative to shedding our geekiness was fairly stark: waiting years until Generation Z “Club Penguin” kids grow older. Not a new idea, but one that is really being taken seriously.
New players are paying attention – one example debuting in the US market at the show was Freggers – a game that made avatar signup and orientation a breeze. And it’s working - already Freggers has picked up a user base of over 500,000 in their home market of Germany, which interestingly includes many users in their 20s and 30s - despite a young, pixel-art style.
2) Say No To Large Client Downloads
“If uses have to download a client, you’re dead. You’re a science project only.”- Sean Ryan, Meez CEO.
One of the most lively panels was with the founders from Meez, Vivaty, Three Rings and Small Worlds and all shared the same opinion: standalone, heavy-client virtual worlds were going to fall away.
Daniel James from Three Rings, makers of popular Puzzle Pirates, believes 90-95% of visitors will not install a separate client. His new MMO, Whirled, is 2D Flash and his previous projects have both been Java.
However the panel disagreed about whether Flash was the only option for the masses, weighing up its lack of support for hardware based 3D.
Vivaty CEO Keith McCurdy argued for a light, single-click install, plugin being viable for masses. Installed in under a minute, he approximated a successful install rate of interested visitors in the 40-50% range (note- with Frenzoo we also see similar rates in our early field testing).
Google has taken the browser 3D plugin approach with its Lively service. And Avatar chat plugin Weblin recently hit 1 million unique users.
In Korea, a bellwether market for many a trend online, 3D browser plugins have been successfully used for some time, including just recently in MiniLife from Social Network pioneer Cyworld.
3) Virtual Brands Go Terrestrial
With so many entertainment and consumer brands moving into virtual worlds, it’s easy to overlook the opposite trend starting to emerge.
A handful of successful online brands are starting to move onto store shelves through licensing and partnership agreements.
Neopets is the poster child in this space and Habbo, on the back of some early dabbling in the space, hinted at the show of a major offline brand tie-up to be announced soon
Look out for more of these crossovers to come in coming months.
4) Branded Items: Not Free For Long
So far, in many virtual worlds such as Meez, branded items have been free. But at least for some items that will soon change.
WeeWorlds head of marketing, Lauren Bigelow, explained the plans of the 25 Million strong WeeMee community: to date, all branded items had been free, but some items will soon cost money, such as premium branded items like an upcoming Paris Hilton.
Why? Charging money for branded items increases exclusivity - and therefore buzz - driving the marketing campaign's objectives. Obviously a revenue stream is a happy side effect as well.
Used well, it sounds like a win-win. Expect experimentation on branded item pricing to happen in coming months.
5) Taking Virtual Responsibility Seriously
Kids world Dizzywood, which announced at the show it had hit 500,000 users, recently used in-game activities to promote respect and responsibility by partnering with the Arbor Foundation for Earth day to encourage kids to plant virtual trees.
Club Penguin has done a lot with WWF and Habbo also has embraced social responsibility when it comes to their users, with a policy in place now restricting the maximum that can be spent on coins each month.
Do these socially responsible activities really pay off? It’s too early to say but respecting users and building up trust surely can’t hurt.