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News

  Metaplace To Close Virtual World Platform
by Chris Remo [PC, Console/PC]
4 comments
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December 21, 2009
 
Metaplace To Close Virtual World Platform

Virtual world software platform developer Metaplace, Inc. will be closing its flagship property Metaplace in January after "not gaining enough traction to be a viable product," the San Diego-based company said today.

Metaplace is a software platform that allows its users to create their own 2D Flash-based virtual worlds, which are hosted on the company's own servers. It is still in its beta phase, according to its official website.

While the Metaplace platform itself will be shut down on January 1, proprietor Metaplace, Inc. will continue on as a business, undergoing an unspecified "strategic shift."

The company has already disabled various components of the platform, like its VIP account system, which allowed users to pay $9.95 a month to get additional functionality including creating multiple worlds.

After the shutdown, users will lose all access to the assets and code they have created for their worlds. Metaplace says it does not currently plan to license out its server technology to private users, but that it may do so if there is sufficient financial interest.

Metaplace, Inc. was founded as Areae in July 2006 by Raph Koster, the MMO designer previously known for his work on Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. Koster has voiced a hope that initiatives like Metaplace would help to established World Wide Web standards for virtual worlds.

"It was a wonderful world full of wonderful people, and I will miss it more than I can say," Koster said on his personal site following the announcement.
 
   
 
Comments

Alberto Xaubet
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Maybe publishing the Metaplace In.c engine and tools in free and comercial version we'll help to distribute the product that i think is good and is at the right moment and place.

Soren Andersen
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Wish I had known about this earlier... I think it looks cool enough from the trailer on their front page.

Dan VanBogelen
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I gave it a try a few months back, it wasn't too bad. Had a bit of a learning curve, content creation had to be done outside of the software, using what ever graphic tools you had. The environment was only 2D using tiles to build on in a isometric viewpoint.

I used tools like Maya and Photoshop to create content but really had a hard time getting everything sized up right once it was imported. It was Beta so I don't have much to complain about, but the low population and high learning curve didn't help its growth.

David Swift
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Huge shame... they were incredibly ambitious and I was really excited to see what people managed to create with their tech, but unfortunately the platform never found its killer app. Perhaps they should have concentrated on providing a platform for existing Flash developers and scaled from there instead of trying to solve the entire MMO game pipeline from scratch.

Will be interesting to see where the company heads next.


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