Last February we hinted at South San Francisco startup Rocketon’s plan to release a virtual world that spanned the web. At the time, it appeared as though the company was pursuing an embeddable widget strategy. But instead of integrating virtual worlds into webpages, it has actually placed one on top of them so that avatars can roam the web just as you currently surf it.
Comparisons can be drawn to both Weblin and PMOG. Whereas Weblin places a little avatar on the bottom of your browser that can be used to chat with other visitors to a webpage, PMOG turns web surfing into a game with mine laying and loot plundering.
RocketOn was co-founded by two veterans from the gaming industry – Eric Hayashi and Steve Hoffman – so it comes as no surprise that its avatars participate in games with each other (as they do on virtual world sites like Club Penguin). However, like most other virtual worlds, Rocketon is also about chatting with friends and strangers, and dressing up your avatar in fun guises. The basic service is free but users can buy special virtual goods with real money or points that they’ve earned by performing certain tasks (or simply spending time using RocketOn).
How does one layer a virtual world onto the web? RocketOn has achieved this in two ways: first with a browser plugin, and second with a Flash browser emulator. Newcomers are expected to try out the virtual world by loading up a Flash app that can be used to browse the web with RocketOn superimposed. More committed users can download and install the plugin so that they can navigate the web as they normally would.
In addition to earning revenue from the sale of virtual goods, RocketOn is working to sign sponsorship deals with brands on the web. Say you visit insecticide company Black Flag’s website. Were Black Flag to sponsor RocketOn, it could build out its own interactive objects (like a roach motel) and entice avatars to participate in its own branded games (like killing as many roaches as possible with a spray can). Likewise, Gap could roll out a virtual clothing store ontop of its website where avatars buy its clothes and wear them wherever they go on the net.
RocketOn will remain in private beta for at least a few weeks longer, but we have 500 invitations to give our readers now. Get your account here while they last.
i went to their flash browser. it sounded like really good usability – letting the user test it in browser before signing up.
unfortunately, you have to be a member to try it. installing a plugin is not that much more of a leap than signing up for some random webapp. from a usability POV, they shouldn’t make registration mandatory until you install the plugin (and are hooked). the flash part should default to a guest account.
at the very least, integrate facebook/google logins. . .
I think there are endless possabilities with this.
I cant wait to see if it takes off.
very fun!!! i’m in the world now (thanks tc). they have these wormholes that take you from site to site. i’ve been to cocacola.com and got a coke from a vending machine – how cool is that? also got some roaches from a roach motel on blackflag.com – ick. also, somehow i ended up watching a video with other users on a video site. and i am collecting gems and things as i randomly browse. my inventory is filling up! another user just challenged me to a game…i can see the potential – and it is vast.
Avatars, games, and chat are one thing. Exposure to mounds of ads, many of which will be creative while most lame and annoying, is another. RocketOn will make a huge bundle on ad sales if participation takes off.
how do u make 1
>>>at the very least, integrate facebook/google logins. . . <<<
it seems as if it works right on top of my facebook page. quite frankly, this feels way more open than all of the existing socially unsocial social networks. and i’d much rather have fun with a product than get slapped upside the head with a banner ad, which is the direction all of the soc_nets are going. can’t remember the last time i ever clicked on one… oh, that would be never.
this is a truly social experience – kudos to rocketon
Hi browse,
If you’ll just take a little closer look at Rocketon, I think you’ll notice the browser embedded version of the app functions identically to the Rocketon plugin. I could see how you’d get confused since more often than not, when companies offer a browser-based version of their application, it’s limited in some way, shape, or form. But, thankfully such is not the case with Rocketon.
Consequently, since the two flavors of Rocketon offer equivalent functionality, it wouldn’t be prudent to have unregistered guest accounts as this would enable less than benevolent guests to harass registered users. Just imagine if AIM allowed guest accounts. Anyone could send me messages without me knowing who they are, and I’d have no real way to block the ne’er-do-well since they could easily hop onto another guest account. Basically, guest accounts would turn my pleasant Rocketon experience into the mayhem that is my e-mail inbox. =)
It’s nice to see so many positive comments thus far. We’ve put a lot of work into the application and there’s still a lot more in store.
-Tristan
Games Engineer at Rocketon
Bonzi Buddy 2.0!
Ok. I’ve used this for about an hour and here’s my 2 pence (or cents for the us chaps):
- casual
- easy
- fun
- totally unique
- crazy potential
As a 40+ ad guy, this seems to offer me two things – a unique way to get visitors to my site and a way for people to have fun with my brands. It’s amazing that these blokes are able to put interactive stuff on sites and give things out to users when they get to a site. Someone named happygal just gave me a chicken and I have no idea what to do with it – but it’s cool! It’s anyone’s guess how effective/successful this will be but I’d bet a hard-earned quid that it’s no worse than the death spiral money pit of banner ads. Many of us are looking for somewhere else to put our ad spend – this might very well be it for me. I will say one more thing – my teens are going to love this – the two things they do every night are browse and IM chat with their pals
Very cool – I love the idea of being able to take more than simple data presence with me as I’m browsing around and it has the potential to be much more ’social’ than current social networking – extending the concept to any web property. Let’s hope it doesn’t become ad saturated.
VCs are probably falling all over themselves for this one. Great idea.
Prediction: RocketOn will announce some crazy funding within the next two to three weeks.
Ah, but can you take your avatar to adult sites and ummm…. “interact” with other avatars viewing the same site?
That could make those sites truly sticky.
By “sticky” I mean as in the stuck together pages of your brother’s pr0n magazines!
WHOA!!!
Just wait until they publish their API that allows websites to “RocketOn-enable” site elements allowing them to become aware and intelligently interactive with visitors.
@Tristan
If you guys haven’t thought of this yet, sure, I’ll take the credit… and the REWARD!!!!!
A great business/research function would be to allow a person to “plot” (as in create and manage) a series of portals to which others can subscribe and follow.
Settings will allow a person to only see portals that they are currently “tracking”.
Additionally, the plotter and the tracker will see a history of each other’s movements… AND text/audio/video annotations.
Talk about asynchronous collaboration!
Of course, all of this data can be retrieved by the plotter (and the tracker if the plotter allows) as a dynamically created page at http://www.rock...on.com/myplots/(plotname)
There, all of the annotations can be presented in portal sequence order with page links that expand to reveal a portion of the subject site on hover, and redirect on click where the page and all of the plotter’s and followers’ annotations can be read or activated in situ.
this is not a new idea…..i am sure most of the tech ppl got this idea long long time back…only diff is who will execute this fast…and super fast….they gonna hold the market…i am surprised to see it took this long for some one to execute it
Way to go Steve and Eric! This is going to be huge, great potential.
Nice work, but they probably will face the same old dilemma Lucasfilm Habitat, SecondLife and others have. “Hey, where’s everybody ?”
i ditto admaster. using it felt like peanut butter in the chocolate to me.
go to a site. have fun on the site, chat with ppl i never knew would have known were there and get the cool stuff to take away. others see my cool stuff and go to the site to get their own cool stuff.
no slam dunk because they’ve yet to really launch – but its a phenom of an idea, they seem to be far along great execution seems to be underway (~sk). there were tons of people hanging out on sites all over the place – really gives life to browsing.
shiz
This is honestly the coolest thing ive ever seen on the internet next to the discovery of stumble upon and facebook, the technology is amazing, it runs well, its fun and easy to use, i can see this getting very big soon.
Looks like an annoying experience. Certainly nsfw.
If only one of these things added a function to add/vote up or down on tags for the various pages. then they would actually be adding value to the web, could integrate with somewhere like delicious and use simple wiki like commands to add to personal bookmarks e.g. /Interesting Startup/.
Someone really needs to make a more professional less intrusive interface for this to really work. The tagging could be a form of points/currency and could be used as a good reason not to be an asshat (if your tag suggestion voted down loose points – up win) with tags (also ability to vote tags down and out could mean that an autotagger could do the first layer – then users refine) think of the search/social bookmark value of weighted tags and digg like button for site. Points system could be opened up to flash game dev’s as a points system e.g go to a car/whatever site – see someone there – challenge them 100points for a drag race in a car which you have modded with points buy new clothes/carparts/whatever with universal points system. Girl version gould be runway battle with pretty clothes. endless possibilities. Could even integrate a micropayments system eventually so we can give hard working bloggers/amateur musicians…etc what they deserve.
Brands can sponsor games/items for a small fee users can create items for free and sell for points…etc
I have thought lots on this and tried emailing it everywhere to no avai. I am perfectly willing just to give all my thoughts on this away just to see it done/work on it if you want to discuss drop me a line at screins@gmail.com
i cant play rocket on
Also similar to something a demo from the people that created “pushlets” some time ago.