There is other alternatives to SL for the adult though. While not as mature a product as SL, OpenLife and OpenSource GRID are coming along. OS GRID is still allowing users to connect their own servers to the GRID and run their own sims for free. I’m setting up an enterprise server to do for that. Also SL has gotten too bloated to run on most notebooks. I’m hoping OS GRID is less demanding. That is one thing I suspect EA will bear in mind as they advance their technology.

That’s why it appeals so much more than the hauntingly pretty visages of the Sims.

We actually make what we have.

I think these changes would have been profoundly impacting had they occurred years earlier. But EA figured TSO as an MMOG. They, along with most virtual providers, felt the monthly revenue games model was the way to go. I guess they just didn’t do enough objective user testing to understand that their “game” sucked in multiplayer.

Had they seen the nascent promise of the Social Web and virtual worlds (Second Life was just getting started), they might have realized their “game” was almost set to go as such if they would just make some modest changes (allow for user-generated-content – those thousands of user-created objects to get uploaded). Also get rid of the gaming construct as the main reason for logging in and make it just an activity area within the larger social sense. My first confused boring look into Second Life and just thought, The Sims could bury this place if they ever got their act together.

But EA did the right thing. They put their energies into Sims 2 and it made them a lot of money.It’s just having hindsight, you have to wonder.

But making these changes now is not the same thing. Virtual vendors are everywhere, with more sophisticated offerings. The original user-base has probably seen large defections to other venues All that wealth of The Sims content floating on distribution sites is probably only going to see a fraction of it come over to EA-Land unless the revenue model proves itself for selling goods there. Modders too probably have found other places to express themselves and are not going to be so focused on legacy material they left behind.

EA-Land is looking very dated, IMHO. However, its looks remind me of the most successful virtual worlds, those for children: Habbo, Penguin. EA-Land could be rethought of not as an adult setting but a place for older kids who need something more than Zwinkys but who aren’t ready for MTV Virtual Worlds. EA-Land could fit that bill and if done right, might even be able to hang onto these users even as they grow older.

And the retro graphics I think will play well on Mobile devices, which are projected to overtake (already have in some areas) PC and console use. Being as young teens apparently are already biogeneticaly linked to their Blackberries or handsets (”I’m sorry about the phone bill. But Mom, I’ll die if you take it away!” /sob)

If I were EA: streamline the UCG review process to start taking in as much good modder content as it out there and encourage more of the same as they intend to by allowing people to sell it; allow for speculative virtual land for the greedy suckers but give some space away for free; promote social venues including (ala MTV) bringing in real celeberities as guest avatars; let companies come in with free virtual kitsch and maybe pay to set up an activity area; develop activity areas surrounding new EA release titles to promote interest; develop EA-Land as a gateway for product information, patches and hooking up with like-minded players; and monitor social areas to make sure that EA-Land isn’t going to be used for improper purposes.

It’s a sadly commercial suggestion but one that I think will inject the energy necessary to move the virtual mass of this or any social world forward and find users. And once there’s a good and dedicated population base, interesting, self-less, and thought provoking things will follow.

Was never really a SL fan. Tried it, but there wasn’t much to do….But I DID love flying! Keeps crashing my system though. Don’t know why…

Having to get content approved for upload raises the barrier to entry for cottage industry, and creates an ongoing support cost for EA. Being able to buy newly-minted currency from EA (rather than from other users in a currency exchange, as in SL) suggests they are going to have an inflation problem down the road. As for claims to have ’solved the economy problem’ … people have been trying to do that for thousands of years; good luck.

Seriously, good luck to them; I’d love to see more competition in this space. But I see some serious pitfalls here, and no obvious win over SL.

great scoop though, duncan… i’m sure you’re just as disappointed as us…