Daden Limited is no stranger to virtual worlds, having already created several products and won a few awards for their work in existing systems. In a new whitepaper entitled “The Future of Virtual Worlds” they look 20 to 30 years out and what they think is coming, and I have to admit it’s an impressive bit of work. In particular, I like the graph above showing how the space has exploding into little submarkets that they believe will re-coalesce into something useful in the near future.
Over the next two decades the boundaries between these will become blurred, and related systems such as messaging, entertainment, on-line games and even the web and desktop will be drawn into the maelstrom. The eventual model may be one where the “systems” will largely coalesce around a new 2 x 2 matrix defined by private and public access, and information and experience spaces – not by technology or even applications – although the Information axis is likely to be dominated by “web” like systems, and the Experience axis by virtual world like systems.
I also love that they very clearly and early make the definitive statement that Virtual Worlds ARE NOT the 3D Web.
One thing that we are quite clear on is that Virtual Worlds ARE NOT the 3D Web, and the future of the Web is not Virtual Worlds. A web page full of text and graphical imagery is an incredibly information rich environment. The Web will remain, for the short to medium, and maybe all but very long term, the most efficient way to view, assess and interact with most transactional information and services. Virtual worlds are about immersion and community. The two are quite fundamentally different. Virtual Worlds convey experience, the Web conveys information.
The entire paper is only 19 pages long, but it’s a good piece. They cover the background of the technology, and how the movement into “serious games” and “Games as simulations” are the first steps toward Virtual Worlds. They also cover some of the current problems like file formats, geometry formats, and some of the infrastructure that will have to be built to make this a reality.
You can go download it (fill out the form at the top of the page) here.
I just downloaded the paper. Thank your for posting about a good, concise virtual worlds/Second Life-related article. It is very timely.
A sidebar: Interesting how the download to pdf was accomplished by Daden’s site. I’m not sure HOW, actually. The process was different than anything else I’ve used before (I’m running Windows 7 64-bit with Chrome browser). But I’m not complaining. It worked very well, and Daden’s site was cool. Thanks again!