Regular readers know that before CCLaP, one of the creative projects I used to do was a daily blog called In The Grid, about this odd little "virtual world" (i.e. 3D videogame without a predetermined point) called Second Life. I'm a science-fiction fan, after all, and especially a fan of Neal Stephenson, whose 1992 novel Snow Crash created the blueprint for virtual worlds that most "Metaverse" style companies are following to this day; I would love to see a system finally develop for a worldwide pervasive 3D alternative reality run in real time, which so far Second Life has come closest to but with still a long way to go.

Because of maintaining "In The Grid," I became a fan of virtual-reality pioneer and blogger Raph Koster, who is primarily known as the lead designer of the insanely popular Ultima Online, as well as the creative director behind online game "Star Wars Galaxies." And Raph, see, besides just frequenting all the other games out there and penning incredibly astute reports at his blog about the state of the industry, also has been running a shadowy company called Areae for a number of years, who have been mysteriously burning up investor money behind closed doors and not really revealing what exactly they were all working on.

Well, until this week, that is, when Koster came public with the news -- that Areae has created a new consumer product called Metaplace, which if it works like they claim, will forever change the way we even think of these persistent virtual universes, and the way they will be hosted and linked together in the future. Because Koster, see, has taken the idea of Second Life and has melded it with the concept of websites; where much like a blog or MySpace profile, a person can have a page on the web that's all their own, but in this case the interface on that page is an actual real-time 3D graphical interface, where you and your friends/readers can all gather at once like an old-style chatroom, except all with avatars and actually interacting in a "physical" space.

In effect it provides the same emotional and practical benefits of owning land in Second Life -- a chance to build a club or other gathering space, to have friends over, to maybe open a store, to provide resources for people who stop by, etc. Unlike Second Life, though, you're not required to fork money over to a Linden-Lab-type company (owners of Second Life) in order to own that club; you can simply host it where your normal website or blog is hosted, or have a free page at Metaplace's website much like joining a social network. And then what's brilliant is that, much like hyperlinks at a traditional website, you can have "doors" to other people's virtual spaces, all along the sides of your own space; when an avatar clicks on one, they're transported over to that person's space, allowing for some very complicated communication networks and resulting "maps." Or if you want to look at it in an even simpler way -- if it catches on, it'll be basically a way to decentralize Second Life, using the equipment that already exists for hosting websites.

Anyway, this is a hot alpha-tester invite right now, and unfortunately I was not one of the first 10,000 to get the green light to sign up; if any readers out there got the chance, though, I'd love to have you send in some screenshots and a little guest entry about what you think of it. And in the meanwhile, here below is a video of Koster himself, demoing Metaplace in of course a perfect world where everything goes right...