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Cloud Party - Facebooks newest venture to kill SL?


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Wait... Blue Mars was SL's first real threat, or was it all the Open Grid and variants...or was it <insert other>.

My question would be "who is their target market and why?"

That seems to be the bigger problem with all of the virtual worlds, especially since their revenue model is initially based around renting out land.  On that basis they've taken the same model as SL but without any hint as to whome their target market actually is, just like SL!

Facebook = lots of registered users

Facebook = lots of micro transactions posting updates and self invasion of privacy

Facebook does not mean lots of people then hanging around in a virtual world.  They can ask LL how that works.

It's interesting and the prospect of mobile version should give LL the kick up the backside that they need and lack of a downloadable viewer may engage people but then equally it may turn out to have downsides.

I'll be watching though.  The article doesn't mention the scripting interface though i've seen that documented elsewhere.

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...That's why I put FIRST real threat... it has the might of Facebook behind it, and love it or hate it, it does have a massive presence, and the ability to promote it. Sadly SL has all but slipped from visibility thanks to zero promotion and, as you say, an inability to keep up with newer platforms such as a mobile client...

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I had a quick run over there to check it out ( hey I visit lots of grids =^^= ) and theres been the usual díscussion over at SLU for a week or so. Its very early and its got the instant FB masses to call on (although yet to see much noise about it there in general) so first impression is - interesting, some nice tech, lots missing, worth keeping an eye on and I'll have a more indepth look when its closer to almost-nearly-primetime. SL killer? Yet to see even a pricing structure, which even the smallest start up OpenSim wannabe comes with, so no idea. Probably not - yet. Ask me when the VCapital starts to run out.

 

mik

edit as my spellink is as bad as ever

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tilly Kiranov wrote:

it has the might of Facebook behind it

Misleading. Facebook auth doesn't imply it has access to whole Facebook userbase. There's no 'might', behind using Facebook verification to pass login info. This app isnt' being 'showcased' by Facebook in any special way, nor is Facebook supplying anything special or unique to this app, vs. any other.

Additionally, the Facebook userbase may well 'throw this back'; there's nothing to show that any of the Facebook userbase has any established interest in Avatarian culture. In fact, the contrary is probably true.

I'm not interested in Cloud Party; it fulfills none of my criteria for being a useful place for me to socialise or create. I don't know who the audience for this geek toy is, but it isn't me.

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Freya Mokusei wrote:


tilly Kiranov wrote:

it has the might of Facebook behind it

Misleading. Facebook auth doesn't imply it has access to whole Facebook userbase. There's no 'might', behind using Facebook verification to pass login info. This app isnt' being 'showcased' by Facebook in any special way, nor is Facebook supplying anything special or unique to this app, vs. any other.

Additionally, the Facebook userbase may well 'throw this back'; there's nothing to show that any of the Facebook userbase has any established interest in Avatarian culture. In fact, the contrary is probably true.

I'm not interested in Cloud Party; it fulfills none of my criteria for being a useful place for me to socialise or create.
I don't know who the audience for this geek toy is, but it isn't me.

Ditto :)

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I agree that it is the first real threat to SL, and I say, "Thank God". It is all mesh based, so they are never going to see the massive overuse of polygons and textures that plagues SL. Plus, the meshes can have bones and be animated. The only real issue that I see with it, has to do with the avatar and it's rig, as the files that Cloud Party supplies won't work in any animation program that I use, and I can use about 6 different programs to make animations with, that all work with almost any platfom possible. My motion capture software loads the rig backwards. It seems that the avatar was developed in Maya. Blender users have made a blend version that works for them, but this doesn't solve the mocap problem to me. So, much like BM, it does suffer from the "You can't do that with anything but this" problem.

Overall tho, this seemingly basic little world, has many features that SL will probably never have, like materials. It does trouble me a bit that they are working on a marketplace when the avatar rig has the issues it does. We'll see how this plays out tho.

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Jacki Silverfall wrote:


Freya Mokusei wrote:


tilly Kiranov wrote:

it has the might of Facebook behind it

Misleading. Facebook auth doesn't imply it has access to whole Facebook userbase. There's no 'might', behind using Facebook verification to pass login info. This app isnt' being 'showcased' by Facebook in any special way, nor is Facebook supplying anything special or unique to this app, vs. any other.

Additionally, the Facebook userbase may well 'throw this back'; there's nothing to show that any of the Facebook userbase has any established interest in Avatarian culture. In fact, the contrary is probably true.

I'm not interested in Cloud Party; it fulfills none of my criteria for being a useful place for me to socialise or create.
I don't know who the audience for this geek toy is, but it isn't me.

Ditto
:)

 

 

 

This is very early on, and I'm sure the last thing the developers want is a huge influx of people. I have my house there tho, with a big dragon on the roof.

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If there is a solid market for virtual worlds, there's room for diversity. We've become a bit jaded in thinking that worlds like SL should be massive and all encompassing, or that there can be only one. We SL users aren't the only people in the world that may be interested in them and we don't corner the potential userbase of virtual worlds or our particular likes and dislikes of any one virtual worlds community.

If Facebook users bite at a virtual world because they use Facebook, great. If some other world only appeals to Scottish men who knit knee socks with no care of privacy or whether their identities are anonymous, that's great too.

SL is but an evolutionary step in virtual worlds development. It has had the effect overall of slowing down virtual world innovation for a while now, which is finally starting to break.

While SL has managed to successfully combine all the elements of worlds that have gone before it (user generated content, currency, etc.), the company has held it back. Due to the fact that virtual worlds get easier to create every year, thanks to some great strides in the tools, we'll be seeing innovation once again.

From a merchant standpoint, the more worlds that mature and allow users to sell things and cash out the better (and I don't mean in an Opensim kind of way, the numbers are too limited).

Eventually, things will evolve until anyone can set up and run a virtual world/space complete with commerce and have access to content built by content creators. More commonly used languages will be part of these worlds, as will common file formats and expanded support for other types of content and access outside of their walls. There will be options for heavier and lighter experiences.

A virtual world is "a" world, not "the" world, or the universe. It isn't in mainstream or customers nature to accept any one space as universal, contrary to startup wet dreams.

If you believe LL's numbers, some 20,000 people a day show an interest in SL and sign up, and only a fraction find it the world they were looking for.

I don't think solid competition will kill SL, only LL can do that. And they're dong a bang up job of it.

A single mega-world as a walled garden isn't going to be the brass ring. The virtual world is dead, long live virtual worlds.

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Jacki Silverfall wrote:


Freya Mokusei wrote:


tilly Kiranov wrote:

it has the might of Facebook behind it

Misleading. Facebook auth doesn't imply it has access to whole Facebook userbase. There's no 'might', behind using Facebook verification to pass login info. This app isnt' being 'showcased' by Facebook in any special way, nor is Facebook supplying anything special or unique to this app, vs. any other.

Additionally, the Facebook userbase may well 'throw this back';

I'm not interested in Cloud Party; it fulfills none of my criteria for being a useful place for me to socialise or create.
I don't know who the audience for this geek toy is, but it isn't me.

Ditto
:)

Ditto to the bolded text here as well.

Interestingly, I was listening to Kim Komando last night (a technology Geekette who has a national call-in radio talk show - have listened to her for years)...and she mentioned an interesting tidbit:  teens are, in her words, "fleeing" FB because now their parents are on it as well thus it's "not cool" anymore.  Just like the jump from MySpace to FB, Kim mused she won't be surprised to see another social networking site that will be popular with the younger set making an appearance soon.

Now just what group of "teens" this is makes a difference were SL is concerned, but even if it's 18 or so, there are a lot of 18ish peeps on SL so if they desert FB, there goes that demographic for the Cloud Party.

Then there's this: "...there's nothing to show that any of the Facebook userbase has any established interest in Avatarian culture. In fact, the contrary is probably true."  I know a lot of people on FB (know that they use it from my brief stint on FB and all the "friend requests" came pouring in prior to me dropping FB like a hot potato) - and they range from people I first met on an online diary (pre-dating blogs) who love to write and post, but would have no interest whatsoever in a virtual world/PC game/MMORPG, etc., to relatives of all ages, people I went to school with, etc.  When I have mentioned SL to any of these people, I get blank "stares."  Many, many people on FB like chat and posting to the exclusion of other online activities.  Perhaps people who play Farm Town or Farmville or whatever may be the ones who would be interested in this venture.

I agree with Dartagnan that a variety of "worlds" that interest various types of people does not mean the demise of SL, it simply means there are more choices.  When especially merchants and content-creators began flocking in droves to InWorldz about a year and a half ago after another series of very unpopular LL decisions, "the sky is falling" was loudly proclaimed and I honestly thought that this might very well be the "world" to draw a lot of population off SL since it is so similar to SL in many ways, and probably has...but it's not the "death knell" people predicted it to be.

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it's at the pioneer stage..

sl didn't have a lot of the stuff we have now at first..

some older residents tell me they didn't have a lot of things we take for granted now..even animations at one point...

i think there is a video over at slu of philip talking about new features that came in 2004..

..let me see if i can grab it..it was prety neat hehehehehe

it took a bit but found it..

http://cnettv.cnet.com/more-exciting-animated-you/9742-1_53-30073.html

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The simple fact that in order to gain full use of it's features you have to sign up through Facebook is enough to keep me away.  Dresden Ceriano is the persona I use for all my online social activities for a reason.  The last thing I want is to be able to be looked up and bombarded by old friends and family members, then have to spend all my time telling them about my boring life... my online time is for me to get away from all of that.  Plus, I simply have no interest in getting in touch with people from my RL whom I've stopped talking to ages ago... I stopped talking to them for a reason.

This doesn't mean that I won't check it out anonymously at some point, but that would exclude me from actually become a part of the "community" there and that's such a huge part of being in a VW for me that I'm positive I won't be there for very long.

And another thing... although Dresden has turned out to be a lot more like my RL self than I ever imagined he'd be, the creative freedom that I felt I had during his development is one of the things that I enjoyed the most about being in a virtual world.  I'm not sure how I would have felt if the impetus was on me from the start to me a representation of my RL self, but I'm almost positive it wouldn't have been as much fun.

...Dres

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Dresden Ceriano wrote:

The simple fact that in order to gain full use of it's features you have to sign up through Facebook is enough to keep me away.

 

thats all the convincing i need right there..

<<<<<<<< hates facebook or the glue it uses that has people thinking everyone has to have one...

it's pretty bad when grandmothers are telling you .."you need a face book!! get with the times!!" LOL

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I think you've made the most viable point of all this.  The intrusiveness of facebook and programs like it. Ive spoken to many residents who; not only have a facebook for their avatars but also a RL one as well.  And their main concern is the two linking. 

The beauty of a virtual world such as SL is that it presents an opportunity to delve into a part of yourself that you may not want publicly plastered on front pages.  Say a teacher in a small, conservative town wanted to become a female roller derby player. In RL, most likely in that small town he would be ostracizes and might fear repercussions from the community regarding his profession.  SL has provided an outlet for people to live out..and ultimately create endless possibilities without fear of prosecution. SL is the answer to the question; What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?

Facebook and programs like that, that link and track and update your every move are the biggest threat to a world with endless possibilities.  As adults with children, we of course friend them to keep tabs on their goings on.  But do they really need to be updated that dad just visited an explicit virtual sim? Or mom sends a shout out from an all male virtual review?

The problem is, SL for so many is the seedy side of themselves they wouldn't share with everyday people. The underbelly of it all is that we are animals, and worlds like SL allow us to shed our skin and indulge in being the creatures we truly are. Its a freedom real life rarely affords. 

Ive read a lot of what you all wrote here..and you're all a lot more eloquent and knowledgeable than I am by far.  This is just my rant on how I view this whole thing.  Please excuse my rant, as I rarely make sense to anyone but myself.  I just feel its all so intrusive, and yes facebook..If I had wanted to speak to someone I hadn't seen in ten years; you would be the last people I would use to contact that person. Facebook is the epitome of self-centered indulgence harboring on Andy Warhal's 15 minutes of fame idea. But I counter with..Just because you all know I wiped my ass in the Denny's on Main St. USA doesn't make me any more famous. It just makes my ass clean.

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Yes, well said. I joined FB when it first appeared. As a RL musician/performer, many of my contacts on MySpace fled to this 'new, trendy' networking site. I left within two weeks, as the inane, mediocre email updates of what 'friends' who I seemingly knew because they were friends with someone I did actually know, were having for breakfast was clogging up my email.

SL needs competition, badly. The main reason LL get away with their contempt for the long term SL resident is down to their not having to worry about any viable competition.

However, such a virtual world that necessitates having to go through FB to take part is an instant turn off. Sadly.

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Dresden Ceriano wrote:

The simple fact that in order to gain full use of it's features you have to sign up through Facebook is enough to keep me away.  

I couldn't agree more. I do an OS-level domain block on Facebook on every computer that I control. I want nothing to do with those data miners and their so-called linkages that they fantasize exist between the millions of data points that they mine.

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Hello Medhue (/me waves),

I am not so sure about your remark "It is all mesh based, so they are never going to see the massive overuse of polygons and textures that plagues SL." - what makes you think that?

As far as I could see there are no polylimits or any accounting (like LI) in place as of yet, and the texture size limit is 1024x1024, - same as SL; so it should not be too hard to upload pretty 'heavy' meshs ploywise, with a bunch of materials, each of them overlaoded with a 1024.

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I think LL can probably sue over the text "Cloud Party", since "Cloud Party" seems to be what SL is reduced to often enough anyway.

Not that I complain, though.

But I must admit it makes me nostalgic for the old Ruthie parties (which seem like they might also be making a comeback).

 

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Bree Giffen wrote:

I hope Cloud Party does well. It will hopefully introduce the virtual world and avatar idea to millions. It may drive people to SL as well.

Thats what I was thinking as well, that it might make others who have never heard of Second Life give it a try. CP at the moment feels kinda limiting, but it is cute. I can log in from a browser tab, in fact, I logged in 7 times at once :)

cloud party

http://its.cloudpartytime.com

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Checked it out. Looks very much like IMVU to me. Dorky cartoon avatars. Not much going on there unless you want to chat.  No animations to speak of.  You can get a house and funish it, but it looks like eveyone elses.  You can't use the furniture, its just decoration.

Of course all this may change if they manage to attract content creators and a market for their creations.   However, I doubt you'll see a mass exodus from SL to CP.anytime soon.  I was bored after 5 minutes.

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