RocketOn is a San Francisco based startup is making a 2D virtual world you can access across any site through an embeddable widget. They also just raised $5 million from the D. E. Shaw group’s venture capital unit, bringing total investment up to $5.8 million.
In its alpha state, this virtual world is simply a chat widget with some avatars you can walk around the screen with the click of a mouse. You can chat in real time with other people on the network and walk into a variety of themed worlds (chat rooms) with different features. It’s also obviously targeted toward kids, with its fuzzy-looking avatars and chat profanity blocker.
The more complex functionality includes friending, profiles, fame, and items. Each world has an object or character you can interact with (dancing stones, little monster, arcade games). Although, you can unlock more worlds and features by inviting more users.
However, their widget strategy strikes me as odd because it flies in the face of the safety centered walled gardens other kid oriented sites have built to keep kids safe (Club Penguin, Webkinz, and others).
Update: RocketOn updated us, stating that the widget below was part of an experiment in October of last year. Also, the company says “we’re not targeting kids. I know those initial avatars look very Club Penguinesque, but when you see the full system, it will become clear that we’re going for teens and up (15+).” We’ll see how it evolves when the final product is released.
Avatar Chat (Virtual Worlds) in full screen mode
Add Avatar Chat to your profile, blog or web page!
Chat withYour Friends!
Kids segment on the web is hottening up. Heard of some other site as well…WebKinz…or something.
-Peyton
http://www.techbanyan.com
deadpool 15 months.
Brilliant idea.
Yes they may lose some control/privacy but this will spread like wildfire. Every kid will embed it on their myspace page.
We offer an embeddable kid-friendly search engine Quintura for Kids. It is safe and very interactive. and we spent much less to create it.
I had thois idea years ago and unfortunately told people about it.
Someone give me a few million so I can make my projects instead of others stealing them.
It’s useful idea.
TAGFRIENDS is like this embeddable virtual world in Japan. It’s not for kids only.
Every kid will embed it on their myspace page.
So….
How is this going to be COPPA compliant with things like profiles & places for un-moderated content (identifiable information)?
Fingers crossed they realized that a filter might pick up a swear, but completely miss a phone number, home address, school name, last name, etc…
Hi Eric, James, Alvin,
Congrats on this announcement. Good to hear about the progress you’re making and I look forward to seeing the product in action.
Regards,
Michael.
Good point. It’s also obviously targeted toward kids, with its fuzzy-looking avatars and chat profanity blocker.
brilliant – and if the techcrunch update posted means anything, this appears to have huge potential
This seems super cool! It sounds like a great idea! Can’t wait!
Sounds cool. I can’t wait to see what it actually is.
i read the press release and it said “Parallel Virtual World” — anyone know what they mean by that?
Apparently it’s supposed to be something for teens…
Jasan
“i read the press release and it said “Parallel Virtual World” — anyone know what they mean by that?”
could it be that they have discovered the answer to the universe? – - or mebe they somehow have a fresh way of designing their world? whatever it is, i’m staying tuned cos the current worlds are definitely getting old. they all focus on realism and not on fun. just how real does my avatar need to be, anyway? so not fun. i was on a site the other day and went into a “dance club” – the boys were all standing around and the girls were dancing. that is boring enough in real life – to have the same thing happen in a world is mega-boring. peace
yeah, and when I ask someone to dance in a virtual world I get rejected – ultra-depressing and totally whack. screw realism…bring on da fun rocketon!