Raph Koster announced Metaplace at the Techcrunch 40 yesterday.
Some elements of his vision totally resonate: open; reduced barrier to entry in creation of content; platform of solid tools.
Some things remain a little sketchy: Compelling content is needed to drive a good platform – this is still unproven; Do consumers want to search through thousands of worlds like they do thousands of casual flash games vs. going to somewhere with a compelling single game/community experience like World of Warcraft?; Can they actually implement certain elements of the vision – especially a 3D client and make that work within the vision?
What is for sure is that it is a more ambitious and thoughtful approach to virtual worlds than any other company I’ve seen right now. So it’s a watch this space.
Links:
http://venturebeat.com/2007/09/18/metaplace-building-a-universe-full-of-virtual-worlds/
http://www.raphkoster.com/2007/09/18/metaplace/
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15542
only the wise 