A gold mine awaits a group of talented developers who can pull off making the metaverse(a virtual world that parallels our own where people work, meet, and socialize). Second Life was darn close, certainly it came out at the right time. But technical debt related to initial infrastructure choices limits Second Life to being not to much more than an adult oriented virtual hookup spot at this point. Too bad.
Some folks at Sun Microsystems recognized Second Life's potential, and the fact that Second Life wasn't going to pull off the metaverse, so they started project Wonderland. Project Wonderland from the outside was geared towards businesses. I'd say it has a long way to go to becoming a mature product, and with this announcement it probably never will.
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2010/02/oracle-abandons-project-wonderland.html
Swing and a miss. This whole metaverse thing is a hard fastball to hit. I understand that. Maybe no one can nail it. But if someone swung with the right bat at the right time...they would make an easy home run.
On further reflection, the opportunity lies wide open to the mega game studios out there. They just have to think outside the box. Two things hold them back. One, wanting to focus on "games" and stay away from business (knock knock, some of the worst corporate types on earth rule over you game thrulls), and their unwillingness to lower themselves to deal with game playing humanity on a more complex level (social interactivity, meeting members of the opposite sex online for love and romance, doing things other than questing, leveling, and crafting). Yet I know many great gaming creators have it in them to create the metaverse. They just need to have their presuppositions move aside, let the ideas flow, and make it.
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