Vivaty Combines Social Networking, Virtual Worlds
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Both social networking sites and virtual worlds have grown popular over the past few years, but they each have their disadvantages. Could these be overcome by combining the two? California-based start-up company Vivaty hopes to find out. Currently in private beta, it offers users a virtual room of their own.
From a certain perspective, neither virtual worlds nor social networking sites are quite as "social" as they could be. Most social networking sites, for example, are distinctly two-dimensional experiences. You have a profile page; friends can leave you email; you can chat if you both happen to be online at the same time (though your chat may be limited to just the two of you, and you might or might not be able to use a microphone or web cam); you might be able to post images and at least links to audio or video. It's nice, but it doesn't give you the social experience of being at a party and mixing with a lot of people.
Virtual worlds give you at least a simulated experience of going to different "locations," meeting people, shopping, and doing things. These can be as bare bones as Kingdom of Loathing, renowned for its stick figure art and truly horrible puns (you are usually sent on your first adventures by someone called the Toot Oriole) through Linden Lab's well-known Second Life. One of the most popular, of course, is World of Warcraft.
Many of these virtual worlds exist to allow their players to complete quests and grow more powerful, while others are more free form. They can be great fun, but how well do you really get to know that 20th-level warrior in your guild? Strangely, this kind of "face to face" interaction makes it easier to put on a mask. Perhaps most damning, though, is the fact that you must download unwieldy software onto your computer before you can participate in the virtual world, and pay a subscription fee.
Vivaty is taking a different approach that combines both of these ideas. According to Eric Eldon, writing for Venture Beat, "It wants to be the first to offer sophisticated features - including 3D life such as you'd find in Second Life, but also chat, and the ability to post video and link with rooms elsewhere on the Web - all within a browser. And also accessible on any web page." This aspect, at least, is fairly unusual, if not unique, and deserves a second look.
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