Updated 14 Feb, 2012, 6:01 pm IST

Metaplace Virtual World Now Embeddable

02 Jul, 2009, 11:16 am IST | tech2 News Staff |

The world is getting smaller and the world wide web is tightening increasing the proximity of those who might never meet face-to-face and opening up new worlds to people who might never leave their countries.

Apart from serving as an escape from the real world, virtual worlds are an easy way for people to let their creative juices flow. Metaplace has announced that any virtual world created with them can now be easily embedded into any webpage. This is the first time that fully interactive and customizable virtual worlds can be accessed and featured anywhere on the Internet.

"15 years ago, if you wanted anything 'online' you went to CompuServe or AOL and you got what they let you have," said Richard Bartle, writer, professor and game researcher best known for being one of the pioneers of the massively multiplayer online games. "Nowadays, the World Wide Web enables anyone to create independent web sites and view those of other people. More recently, if you wanted to develop or play a virtual world, you went to World of Warcraft or Second Life and you got what they let you have. As of today, Metaplace allows anyone to create independent virtual worlds and play those of other people."

Metaplace extends the functionality of virtual worlds by allowing users to copy and paste their Metaplace virtual world into a blog or webpage. Users will be able to showcase their creativity, promote and host virtual events, and share their art, games and products from their virtual world onto their existing web presence. Also, since Metaplace's user-created virtual worlds are Flash-based, visitors to the site can enter an embedded virtual world by simply clicking on it, as there is no need to download any software.

"This significant industry step breaks down the remaining barriers between virtual worlds and the rest of the web, allowing worlds to be easily accessed and shared anywhere," added Raph Koster, President and founder of Metaplace. "Metaplace users can now add their virtual worlds to webpages with the same ease that they add a YouTube video."

"With this release, Metaplace will enable me to easily integrate my virtual world across my social networks and across the major blogging platforms," commented Sarah "Kitty" Ray, a Metaplace world owner whose shop, Comic Emporium in Panama City, FL, is one of the premier sources for comics, games and collectibles. "Now, we're able to feature our virtual comic and collectibles store at the center of our web presence and interact and transact with our visitors in the most immersive way."

The ability to embed Metaplace virtual worlds is available for free to all registered users of Metaplace.

Tags: Metaplace , virtual world

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