Archive for April 2001

Metaverse – 1st three-dimensional online role playing game

Last week we had to pull the plug on our Metaverse investment (code name “Nikoworld”). Below is the trailer for the concept of the 3d online world based on Tad Williams ‘Otherland.* After spending about $6MM on concept development and trailer, we had to scratch the project. As with our 1994 attempt to build a unified messaging system on the early AOL backbone in Europe, lesson learned again: “Being too early is the same as being wrong!”.

*Otherland is a science fiction tetralogy written by Tad Williams and published between 1996 and 2000. The story is set on Earth near the end of the 21st century, probably between 2082 and 2089, in a world where technology has advanced somewhat beyond the present. The most notable advancement is the widespread availability of full-immersion virtual reality installations, which allow people from all walks of life to access an online world, called simply the Net. Tad Williams weaves an intricate plot spanning four  volumes, and creates a picture of a future society where virtual worlds are fully integrated into everyday life.