Metaplace – What do you think of it?
Metaplace is the current project of highly regarded developer Raph Koster. In a nutshell, it is a community of user created worlds that can be social hangouts, games, “MMOs”, etc. Users have extensive tools to create their worlds. Adele Caelia wrote a good review of Metaplace on Bright Hub, if you need more details.
Have any of you played/used Metaplace? If so what do you think?
If you haven’t, what are your thoughts on the concept after reading up on it a bit?
Sounds pretty cool. I probably would have jumped on something like this a few years ago.
I wanted to like MetaPlace so much, but just found it totally unable to grab me.
I’ve logged in about 3 times, I think the last, most recent time was to try Bartle’s game of walking from one end to the other of his daughter’s room.
I wanted to like it because I was a long-time LegendMUD player, and the area Raph Koster built in LegendMUD, is still, imo, one of the finest examples of MUD writing I’ve ever seen. I think he was the first builder I ever complimented (ok raved to, is more like it) on a quest.
And yet… MetaPlace just leaves me totally cold. I find most of the worlds to be… pointless, and it doesn’t trip the feeling of ‘ooh shiny new exploringness’ for me at all. After the first two times, I couldn’t even bring myself to log-in for events that the MetaPlace newsletter sent me.
Maybe I’m the wrong target audience.
I think the problem is that it hinges completely on user generated content (UGC). The fact is, most gamers make HORRIBLE game designers. Metaplace depends entirely on UGC right now, and that’s rough.
If they can design good ways for people to find the “good worlds” then that could all change. I think that’s one of the key things for Metaplace in the long run.
The concept is very cool, and they recently added the ability to play it inside a browser, inside forum software, etc. That’s super nifty.