the Social Web
the Metaverse and
the Future of Games
a small insight on what’s happening
Corné Kox - Hanzehogeschool Groningen
October 1st 2009

Let me introduce myself

Corné Kox

35

Hanze University
‣ Lecturer Digitale Media
‣ WEB
‣ Beeldtaal (Film and Animation)
‣ Educatieve Multimedia
‣ (Last years) stage
‣ Coordinating ‘Bureau Projecten’

CKM Extended
‣ Network for goal directed communication
‣ Advice and implementation
‣ Digital / New Media
‣ Crossmedia concepting
‣ I like to tell stories ;-)

Asked to talk to you by
Josef about a lot of stuff ;-)

So I have to run through...

75 slides, hope you don’t
get bored ;-)

Metaverse Roadmap

Metaverse - 4 pillars

Metaverse Quadrant

Metaverse Quadrant
Virtual
Worlds

Virtual Worlds
‣ It is about ‘out there’ and ‘now’
‣ (yet) Not our real world
‣ Ever heard of Cross Reality or Dual
Reality?
‣ Senses physics and translates them into
the virtual worlds

Virtual Worlds
A virtual world is a computer-based
simulated environment intended for its
users to inhabit and interact via
avatars
source: www.wikipedia.org

Neopets
‣ <2003
‣ Age <10
‣ 45 mlj users
‣ 2005 MTV
‣ 120 miljoen

Club Penguin
‣ age ± 12 >
‣ 15 mlj users

Habbo Hotel
‣ <2003
‣ age ± 14>
‣ 90 mlj users
‣ does 4mlj a
month (nov ’07)

Gaia
‣ <2003
‣ age ± 14>
‣ 12 mlj users

There
‣ Late 2005
‣ Age ± 20>
‣ 1,5 mlj users

Active Worlds
‣ Age ± 25>
‣ 1 mlj users
‣ Still growing
‣ Education

Second Life
‣ Age ± 30>
‣ 14 mlj users
‣ Silence after the
storm?

Second Life
‣ Q2 2007 - Hype
‣ Still growing
‣ But more serious
‣ Phase II

Second Life
‣ Land ownership
is still growing

Just for fun?

Hell no!

SL - Immersive World
‣ Linden Lab
‣ Rivers Run
Red
‣ SL Grid
‣ Collaborate
‣ 20 Oct 2008

Virtual Worlds
‣ After the Hype
‣ Still investments are being done
‣ No longer just signage (marketing)
‣ Training
‣ Education
‣ Recruitment

Virtual Worlds
‣ Also a lot of companies moved out
‣ They took the experience
‣ And are building their own Virtual World
‣ ABN Amro
‣ Randstad
‣ IBM

A lot of different worlds
‣ Looking for standards
‣ ISO MPEG-V
‣ Expected soon (2010)

ISO MPEG-V
interoperability, virtual travel (ranging
between worlds), interaction and rich
communication with the physical world and
developing avatars that better show human
emotion.
May 2008, Call for requirements - Jean H.A. Gelissen, Philips

Second Life / Virtual Worlds
‣ Where did it go wrong?
‣ Weird interfaces
‣ You have to learn the program
‣ To much space for to little people
‣ Search isn’t embedded well enough

A look at the interface...
‣ Minority Report
‣ 2002

The interface of the future?

Hell no!

A look at the interface
‣ Cebit
‣ Hannover
2008

Just a demo?

Hell no!

A look at the interface
‣ iPhone
‣ 2008

A look at the interface
‣ MS Milan
Project
‣ 2007

You’ll have to learn it
‣ >30
‣ ‘Net niet’
‣ <30
‣ ‘Netters’
‣ >45
‣ ‘Nieters’

You’ll have to learn it
‣ Meet Corey
‣ On Guitar
Hero
‣ Age 2,5

To much space
‣ Keep it in control?
‣ Have to know
which platform
people come
from?
‣ Need more users?
Sony Playstation - Home
PS3 sales:10.500.000
(March 2008)

Search...
‣ Google?
‣ 348.387.097 (and
more) search
queries each day
‣ That’s done by how
many users?
Google Lively
Beta

Google?

Web (2.0) meets
Virtual Worlds?

Metaverse Quadrant
Mirror
Worlds

Mirror Worlds
‣ Based on our daily reality
‣ Google Earth, Google Streetview, MS
Virtual Earth, Earthmine, Everyscape
‣ Has a bigger relevance (recognition)
‣ ‘There’ with the experience
‣ Websurfing towards real places on our
globe

Mirror Worlds
Google Maps, in combination with Google Streetview

Metaverse Quadrant
Augmented
Reality

Augmented Reality
‣ Enriching the environment with digital
information
‣ It’s about ‘here’ and ‘now’ (location based)
‣ Hardware?
‣ Camera
‣ Screen

Augmented Reality
BMW Augmented Reality, BMW Research Project

Augmented reality
Layar, a Dutch AR Browser

Metaverse Quadrant
Lifelogging

Lifelogging
‣ Weblogs, videoblogs, microblogs, youtube,
flickr etc.
‣ Users share, re-use, co-create and share
it again
‣ More and more into innovation, like gps
and sensor technology
‣ ‘to follow’ or ‘to be followed’ - communities

Lifelogging
Lifelogging - Nike Plus

Metaverse
‣ Communities matter
‣ People can create a group
‣ Around brands
‣ Around intrests
‣ Around organisations
‣ Can influence organisations

Communities
De ‘Lego Factory’ Community

Hey, this is ‘Social’

There were Social
Networks long before the
Internet...

Social Networks
Social Media in Plain English

Most marketeers don’t
know how to handle this...
yet...

What does this mean for
future gaming?

Future Games
‣ Become intelligent (automatic content
creation)
‣ More and more with physical interaction
‣ Brain machine interaction and biometric
tools influence the game
‣ Location Based
‣ Combining media and devices

Last examples
Project Natal, Game Intelligence, Microsoft

Last examples
The truth about Marika, Sweden

Thanx for being here!
Corné Kox
corne@ckmextended.com
065 065 7000
http://www.linkedin.com/in/cornekox
http://www.twitter.com/corne

Sources
‣ http://www.virtualworldnews.com
‣ http://www.metaverseroadmap.org
‣ http://www.metaverse1.org
‣ http://www.emerce.nl
‣ http://www.wikipedia.org
‣ http://www.secondlife.com
‣ http://www.hrlog.nl
‣ http://www.youtube.com
‣ http://www.layar.com