Comments on: Metaverse Overview 2008, Touring Second Life’s competition?

By: Virtual Worlds: Is The US Simply Not Ready? | A Media Circus

Virtual Worlds: Is The US Simply Not Ready? | A Media Circus — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:45:54 +0000

[…] Metaverse Overview 2008, Touring Second Life’s competition? […]

By: PurpleBubba

PurpleBubba — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:59:05 +0000

I was a free member at Red Light Center but their newer updates don’t work on my older video card. However Prototerra.com now has their own virtual world. It’s still early in the building but I’m enjoying my time there so far. Just needs some more people.

By: Yesha Sivan

Yesha Sivan — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:00:38 +0000

Nice post. Re-posted it in my blog. Txs.

By: Melissa Yeuxdoux

Melissa Yeuxdoux — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:31:25 +0000

According to redlightcenter.com’s FAQ, they don’t consider Mac or Linux users worth bothering with, and advises them to spend $500 and get a Windows box from Dell to run the software… so they can do without my business.

By: Vint Falken

Vint Falken — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:08:32 +0000

Oh, he also forgot about MeetMe (by Co-core / Transcosmos) , they even have a whole virtual continent dedicated to Toyota.

By: GoSpeed Racer

GoSpeed Racer — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:49:07 +0000

Been to Multiverse, HiPiHi,There, Entropia, Lively, Twinty, IMVU, Moove, and Weblin. HiPiHi looks most like SL but is quite empty. There is pretty well populated but it’s hard to find stuff you want to but, plus it has people as young as 13 in it, so it’s watered down a bit.

By: Vint Falken

Vint Falken — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:06:06 +0000

Servers: Red Light Center runs on the Prototerra engine, on multiple UNIX machines. (Never heard of Prototerra? Except in video feature above *points up* Google does not reveal much either.)
Building: We have custom software to create our rooms call Ted. (not much info on that either)
Currency: the Ray (Rays) (no idea about exchange rate, need account login)

…
I’m getting curious.

Found this dating from a year ago. For being major competition we have not heard about them much? Any idea how much users there are now? And do ‘metaversevangelists’ rather keep silent about this one because it’s ‘just’ about sex? (3D pr0n world is not a virtual world? Ignoring the Red Light District of the metaverse? ;))

With over 300,000 users (and growing at a rate of 1,500 new users each day), Redlightcenter.com has become one of Second Life’s biggest competitor. Redlightcenter.com is expanding with the rollout of their first major virtual city (Virtual Vancouver), and is introducing several new approaches to operating online retail and services. Users can participate in virtual commerce with commercial space, real time sales, and a new virtual currency, called the ray.

Red Light Center creates a virtual environment that facilitates and encourages human interaction of the Internet in a more natural manner, achieved by creating unique user identities (avatars), allows natural human interaction models. Red Light Center runs on the Prototerra engine, on multiple UNIX machines. Our database is a very beefy dual 2.4mhz processor server with 4 gigs of ram. Red Light Center was designed to mostly runs on the users’ computers, hence our bandwidth is cut down. We currently cap at about 10 megabits for all the content we provide to VIP users. We have custom software to create our rooms call Ted. The textures and avatars are created in various 3d software such as 3d studio max and then imported into Ted.

For those looking to monetize on the metaverse, store fronts and showrooms are available for lease at Red Light Center, a 24 hour marketplace which could a good avenue for business owners to promote products and services that may be of an adult nature. RLC charges a monthly lease plus a percentage of sales generated from the virtual world businesses and promoters can create shopping malls, entire streets, and even their own separate city that can be connected to the RLC through an airport or a subway.

By: Vint Falken

Vint Falken — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:47:22 +0000

Thank you for the tip, Nicole. Sounds like ‘virtual amsterdam’ in a stand alone VW? They do make the daring statement of being the internet’s most advanced virtual reality universe. As far for minors not being allowed, I always believed that goes for Second Life too? ;)

From the flash preview/intro, they seem to be in dying need of prim hair, and buttocks, knees, elbows and breasts are squared too. Do they actually have animations/toys you can’t find in SL? (And if they do, remind me I’ll let Veyron & Tiessa know. :d)

By: Nicole Laine

Nicole Laine — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:50:49 +0000

A big one that I have an account in that is missing from the list is RedLightCenter.com. They also have a social networking component that is lacking in other applications that ties into RLC.

***A major bonus, its for adults only and not for minors.

By: Josh Miller

Josh Miller — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Looks like MyBlogLog is owned by Yahoo now, I don’t think they were before, at least not when I signed up. Interesting though off topic.