On December 21, 2009, there was an announcement on the forum of the virtual world “Metaplace,” stating that at 11:59 PM on January 1, 2010, the place would be shutting down.Raph Koster, the designer of Metaplace, had a shorter statement on his own website (raphkoster.com):
Today we announced that the consumer-facing Metaplace service, the one you all know as the user-generated worlds website at Metaplace.com, is closing on January 1st. There’s a FAQ and an official letter on the site.
The reason? Well, it just hasn’t gotten traction. I have many thoughts on why, but I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t go into all of them right now. It is a sad day for us here, and I know many users are going to be very disappointed by this turn of events.
Metaplace Inc isn’t going away – in fact, we have some pretty exciting plans. But those plans are best shared on a future day.
If we have to sunset the service, we want to do it right. So for the next two weeks – come visit, and enjoy and celebrate all of the amazing creativity and work users put into their worlds. We’re providing a way for users to grab the data that makes up their worlds. We’ll be opening a website for the community so that you don’t lose touch with your Metaplace friends. And we’ll have a big party on the last day – because Metaplace.com will not go quietly, but with the sound of meeps and music and laughter.
It was a wonderful world full of wonderful people, and I will miss it more than I can say.
Raph Koster worked at Ultima Online, and later Star Wars Galaxies before creating Metaplace.
Metaplace was released in 2007. Unlike Second Life, Metaplace did not need the user to download any sofware. Using Flash for display, it was entirely “web based.” Graphics and controls were simple compared to Second Life. It was similar to Gaia Online in some ways, the avatars appearing a bit cartoonish. But unlike Gaia, Metaverse failed to break into the teen and young adults markets.
Somewhat like Second Life, one could modify one’s own space, provided for free, into either a game area, personal home, or wilderness area. But compared to SL, one was quite limited in options. Characters could level and receive gold as they went about, Level 101 being the top rank. First available as a Beta, a “final version” was supposed to be available later, but it never came.
The post on the Metaplace forum was filled with users expressing shock, and wondering what they would do. Hopefully some will head over here to Second Life.
Bixyl Shuftan
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