SL v. World of Kaneva: Compare and Contrast

It looks like the Kaneva virtual world is finally out of closed beta, I think.

http://www.kaneva.com .

It may insist on being launched from the address bar in Internet Explorer instead of working properly from the Start Programs menu.

What do folks think?

Looks like MySpace meets YouTube meets Digg with no real custom content beyond very simplistic The Sims style house rearranging and everything else purchased from the company store. That's just what I gleened from a cursory look at the website. Without SL's creative freedom and commerce, no thanks.

I took a look and, like all other non Second Life games, the female avatars are just plain ugly. Those wannabe Second Life platforms need to get with the program if they want to attract any users.

When they say, "More avatars coming," I for some reason lose complete interest.

I've yet to figure out how to put a picture in there. There's a few Second Life related places in there.

If you run into me there, please try to avoid the use of the word Rave. Thanks.

It does have a Myspacean flavor to it on the confusing 2D website.

I haven't figured out how to, or if you can, work the apartment door yet.

I don't recall offhand if there's a way to make clothes; if there is, digital clothiers here might want to take a look and see if there is any money to be made.

We should be able to put some SL pictures and videos in there somewhere.

From what I saw from the website, Kaneva content is canned. They continually make reference to "our designers" before listing the incredibly lame offerings available.

Give Someone a Gift!
Want to show your 3D friend some love? Give them a gift. The Virtual World now features gifts you can give other people, such as: teddy bears, bunny rabbits, heart-shaped candy boxes, birthday cakes ... all now available.

No bat rezzers. What good is a virtual world without a decent bat rezzer, I ask you?

It's like SL because it has: 3d environment. Customizable avatar. Able to chat with other players. You can decorate your house with furniture.

It's not like SL: Can't make anything. It has npcs. You must buy and sell items to the npcs. Instanced housing. Doesn't seem you can run out of a building into another building. Seems to be all teleporting.

All in all it's more similar to a 3d chat room or to the non-combat area of an mmog. It seems that player created content is still the elusive missing element. I could right click on the apartment walls and there was an option to upload a texture. I guess that you might be limited to customizing your home. But it is a beta.

I wonder if their designers are working on the realistic penis attachments for those avatars. <chuckle>

Gives me claustrophobia. I want to go outside and fly around.

Hmm, they are giving out an iPod as a prize for participating in a stress test.

Horribly limited to the point of crippled, focused on the lowest common denominator; a mere shadow of our grid. Leaving you with a profound sadness once you know what can be.

I predict it will be huge and eat us all, simply because it's so dumbed down and might be somewhat stable.

The "stable" part comes from canned content. When you don't strain the asset servers with a continually changing Inventory of unique creations, life is much easier.

Easier and duller.

I supposed that's one reason I'm less inclined to go ballistic over the technical issues that bedevil SL. To date, the only alternative is to have content provided by the company, which guarantees a mundane and predictable product. And that kind of virtual chat world doesn't interest me in the slightest.

What SL provides is all the whacky, eccentric creativity of RL. A critical mass of talented amateurs who take the world in directions undreamed of by a small group of corporate designers.

Hah! You made me laugh.

It's even more overrun with 12 yr olds then SL, has far fewer options, and is 'dumbed' down to the 'really dumb' point.
Maybe we'll be lucky and it'll take all the really dumb people with it.

I found not one redeeming factor about it.

Wow, what a waste of time that was.

Perhaps the Tyra Banks Studio might amuse those who find Kaneva intolerable.

http://tyrashow.warnerbros.com/fun/virtual_studio/virtual_studio.html

Which of those two is better?

I'd rather scoop my own eyes out with a melon baller.

whens the Springer version come out?

I've never seen the Tyra Banks show, didn't know she had one until I read about the virtual world. Is it like the Jerry Springer show? How sad.

The platform that runs the Tyra Banks show also runs a thing called The Lounge, which is interesting, and mercifully didn't remind me of the Jerry Springer show at all.

There's me and a stranger in The Lounge:



It will be nice when some other place opens up a VR that runs on computers that allows some form of fast easy object creation by users. Wouldn't need to be inworld building, just something that is real simple to get started with like SL's build editor.

I am looking forward to seeing Hipihi when I get the chance.

A world that would let you do 2D painting on the inworld surfaces might be interesting.

And see, this is the very thing that gets me so angry with SL and the direction LL has decided to take it:
There are enough crappy VR worlds based solely on COMMERCE. What intrigued me and addicted me to SL was that it seemed, when Phillip the Pusher-Man first got me hooked, to be based solely on CREATIVITY. Shopping Mall hells, Land-Baron coups, and Club-A-Go-Go lag issues aside, SL seemed to want to be different... smarter, quirkier, less concerned with being taken seriously by Sony or Toyota or the producers of the L-Word and more interested in expressing the dreams and fantasies and TALENTS the platform itself gave its residents the power to breath life into.
My fear, which is slowly becoming a reality, is that SL will be 'dumbed down' in this manner in LL's attempt to make it more commercially paletable to large corporations in the same way it's been turned from an adult enviroment to an all-ages show just so Phillip could throw the word "Millions" around.
IF a VR world really wanted to compete with SL, they ought to spend the time LL doesn't reading this forum and seeing what the long-time users of this platform feel is lacking from SL, what the real issues are with the platform, and how to create something truly competitive to the platform.

He's right though.

Heh, I have this thought fairly frequently, when people object to a feature suggestion because implementing it would require changing something fundamental about SL. Was thinking it last night, in fact. When one suggests changes they'd like to see in SL in these forums, it's not just Linden Research that might be implementing the changed features.


I think I got the relationship between TBS and The Lounge confused, The Lounge is the "main grid" and TBS is a place within it.

I find the look of The Lounge to be quite interesting and pleasing. Nice to see one that doesn't try to look like SL and Cybertown and Active Worlds and umm, all the rest. The Lounge appears to be a sort of music marketing scheme, music plays, and it's obvious the idea is that you will end up buying some of it.

If Chip went to The Lounge, and it had 15 or 20 or so different streams of progressive rock music playing, and the occasional appear of an avatar being operated by a member of Spock's Beard or Porcupine Tree, I bet he might not think it was so bad. Not a replacement for SL of course, but better than the Beltway at rush hour.

I have seen it a couple times. It's nothing like Jerry Springer, thank goodness! Her entertainment scope is mostly limited to helping thin girls who think they are too thin, or helping their mothers stop encouraging their bad habits...stuff like that. It's not a bad show, but I'd rather see Tyra modeling, helping other models and being a great role model for young women through other means.

As for Kaneva, I signed up and went to their little mall. I noticed that they have some shops available for rent. So I was thinking....user created content! Great! I signed up for the development program, but there's not much in there...nothing to develop. I scanned their website backwards and forwards for some information on avatar texture maps for clothing...but sadly nothing.

I contacted them via email and received a reply stating that they do not allow user created content. Bummer.

Why do you feel that in-world building is a good thing?

Isn't it frustrating to be trying to build when other people are distracting you?. What do you gain from being able to build within the company of others?

I suppose initially, it's quite novel to be able to build alongside others. It's kind of fun to spend 10 minutes throwing together some prims to make a penis car or something equally crap and untaxing, then drive it around the sandbox running other residents over. But let's be realistic, how many people stay building in the sandboxes?. It seems to me that everybody quickly becomes tired of all that. They then buy their own land and go build in private.

Having a quick look at Cybertown. It uses the Blaxxun Engine and seems to work much the same way as Active Worlds. Also *EMPTY* of people. Grafix are simpler and that blaxxun thingy doesn't like firefox. Some interesting textures. I might go back just to rip a few textures for my builds in SL. Dunno about all this shopping and hanging out malarkey.... I'd rather build up the environments / places. If land wasn't so effin' expensive in SL I'd build up more places including SciFi / futuristic ones as hinted at by CyberTown.

I took a few wrong turns and ended up staring at pages of 1995-style flatweb pages complete with tiled starfield backgrounds. Navigation is a bit weird and gives me vertigo.