Lively shutting down

Google's foray into 3D chat, called Lively, will be shutting down at the end of the year, according to a post in the Google blog at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/lively-no-more.html .

It wasn't any good anyway, no loss. Disappointing that Google would make something that bad. I suspect they might have let it live a bit longer if it had been any good at all.

I guess they might come up with some other 3D thing like putting good avatars in Google earth street scenes.

Heh... That was brief... I figure, next time around, they'll combine it with Sketchup and we can have some real fun. (^_^)y

It had potential... but it needed a massive overhaul. Eyes on Nurien and HiPiHi...

now the next question is will they try and presue buying LL? it will get very ugly if google takes over SL. say good buy to user created content.

Remember all the posts about how Lively was going to be the end of SL?

As if!

Handy Skytower

I forgot about Lively. I never could get it to work on my main system. Worked fine on my laptop, but I wasn't going to keep draggin that out just to do a 3D gui chat.

Pull one nail out of the coffin.

Wow.. That was quick.

/me wonders if it was just totally not planned correctly or if it was intended to be short-lived. Seems strange google would make that sort of mistake.

Any corporate backed product is going to fail with grown ups as long as they underestimate the drive of adults to pixel bump.

*quickly copyrights the name "Google Undead" just in case they decide to resurrect the product*

Hmmm. Maybe they are planning on replacing it with SL?

This

Not just that, but just to be adults and do what they want, a make what they want. Any replacement for SL will have to afford the creative freedom SL does, or else it will be a smaller niche product than SL is. Until SL becomes the tight assed buttoned down world any of these Corporations will offer, which it looks like where they may be headed unfortunately, they will still be the prefrred place.

Lively was utterly rubbish, sad to say.

Don't mention the alternatives if you don't want your account suspending At least, don't mention any which are any serious and credible competitor

Lively failed because it was a complete pile of pants. The very least they could have done was make it work with sketchup.

Hear hear or you will get at least 4/5 day suspension without even an email saying why lol tho i did get an apology now what we talking about lol

I only saw screenshots of it. The cartoon avatars with grotesquely oversized heads look like they were designed for the 3 - 5 year-old target audience, although some of the other graphics aren't bad.

Heres a blog post discussing it and SL

http://valleywag.com/5094671/second-lifes-death-knell?skyline=true&s=i

Lively was too much hype for what it was.

It was a glorified irc client with 'ooh pretty' graphics, and way too many limitations even then for the public to embrace it.

Sad to say the only other virtual worlds holding strong against SL are the MMORPGS and the sex oriented ones (there are some that are nothing but sex)

The truth is the grind for xp and against pixels are what sell when you can't create content in a sandbox... the limits most new ones place on what goes on make them unable to really compete against SL's fairly open system

Yeah, this is what turned me off of Lively, along with the lack of changeable shapes. Keep in mind, Lively wasn't aimed at just adults. It was also aimed at teens, so you had to deal with that too.

*rubs head* Overall, it just felt clunky. And in no way was it a SL killer. An SL killer MUST have the same level of customization/user created content as SL.

No, I do not want Google to buy LL/SL. I do NOT want any more ads in SL, kthnxbye.

I read the article from the link in Lord Sullivan's post. The writer of that article obviously had very little understanding of the attraction of Second Life - the ability to shape and create your own little bit of it and put it on show for others to see. It's true that SL can seem a bit aimless at times, but it's what you make of it, what game you choose to play in it, if any.

Virtual worlds aren't for everyone and I don't suppose any of them will attract and retain a significant proportion of the real world's population. But I think SL probably hasn't yet reached its stable maximum of active non-bot persistent residents.

I totally agree with you there and just wanted to share the link

In a fit of remembrance, I decided to try Lively again. It's anything but, to be honest. It runs choppier on my computer than Second Life and that's saying something. While the background and other items might be prettier, the avatars are such that if you want to look like a "normal" girl... you're SOL, because you're gonna have either no boobs are big ones. Or a really huge head. There's no way to change that.

Plus, a lot of the base avatars had little in the way of accessories or clothing. It would have almost been better if they had a base avatar and everything be based off that. Plus, even with their base avatar types, there's clothing clipping issues that should have been resolved before they released it.

All in all, they were trying for something that failed epically, because it lacked anything OTHER than social interaction for people to do. Sure, it's great to see a lot of pretty rooms, but what else can you do?