Cloud Party has a bunch of new updates, as I just learned from Cyn Skyberg, the former Linden Lab VP who's now Community Director at the web-based 3D world co-funded by SL co-founder Cory Ondrejka. In brief, the major updates are free customizable spaces, and social sharing features that make it easier to find and promote cool Cloud Party places. Here's Cyn's breakdown:
"In a nutshell, we've made small space free to use - we're going for fast to load, lightweight experiences that anyone can use easily. You can upload templates (we have a few starter ones, more to come) to create a quick meeting or chat space, have a party or just hang out with friends without a lot of work. The free small spaces are totally customizable, just as any part of Cloud Party is, and allow you to have a full and rich experience with very little setup."
Cloud Party's updated homepage displays a bunch of user-made builds listed according to most "Likes", which is part of the social sharing action. More about Cloud-berg from Skyberg:
"Of course, delving into the deeper experiences is always part of the experience, and so we've made it much easier to not only find, but tag and share other's creations, improved search, and added a nifty optimization tool so you can monitor and measure the efficiency of your build."
So there you go. At this point I think Cloud Party really needs to be optimized for tablets, where lightweight 3D worlds are better suited, while high-res, heavy client worlds like SL are better suited for the Oculus Rift revolution.
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Hamlet, we often disagree, but you are onto something. If what you call "the Oculus Rift revolution" happens, it will start among PC and console gamers.
I'd buy an Occulus + console for a WWII fighter-combat game; 30 years ago I watched fighter pilots at NASA Langley spar in a 3D simulator the size of a planetarium, and I just kept waiting for the home version. Still am waiting.
If my students are any indication, light clients that run on smaller devices might hook them to try a virtual world like Cloud Party, but then, they've little taste for any gaming beyond casual games done between checking status updates and texts.
Posted by: Iggy | Thursday, August 22, 2013 at 01:50 PM
"So there you go. At this point I think Cloud Party really needs to be optimized for tablets, where lightweight 3D worlds are better suited, while high-res, heavy client worlds like SL are better suited for the Oculus Rift revolution."
I wouldn't label Cloud Party "lightweight" in comparison to Second Life that way. Cyn's lightweight assessment was about ease of use. But when it comes to mobile vs. desktop considerations, Cloud Party has some of the drawbacks Second Life does. For example, the new larger builds are allowed to use up to 500mb of bandwidth on load. Which is quite comparable to Second Life regions that can quickly eat through half a gig of cache. Both are prone to eating away at mobile data caps easily.
Also, I wouldn't exempt Cloud Party from hardware like the Oculus Rift. Browsers are already in the progress of implementing APIs for gamepads, and some browsers already ship with experimental support, which would expose the Oculus Rift for web use. It's quite likely we see support for Oculus Rift in Cloud Party via desktop browsers supporting gamepads before we see all mobile browsers supporting WebGL finally. The great thing is that both are eventualities and a big perk of having the likes of Google and Mozilla developing your virtual world client along with you.
Posted by: Ezra | Thursday, August 22, 2013 at 02:32 PM
Cloud party is so very unuser friendly and prices for land and what you get make secondlife look like rock bottom discount,
Those waiting for cloud party to take off after all these years will just keep having their heads in the clouds.
Posted by: MonkeyseeMonkeydo | Thursday, August 22, 2013 at 06:16 PM
@MonkeyseeMonkeydo
Odd statement considering all islands (even free ones I believe) are 1 kilometer x 1 kilometer in size now.
No, in Cloud Party you aren't allowed to use enough scripts and mesh to cause lag, but that's maybe more a feature for Cloud Party than a "rock bottom discount" for Second Life.
Posted by: Ezra | Thursday, August 22, 2013 at 08:52 PM
@Iggy: Yeah, with Oculus rift already available in War Thunder, hopefully a consumer version won't be too far behind :/
Posted by: Adromaw | Friday, August 23, 2013 at 04:50 AM
"while high-res, heavy client worlds like SL are better suited for the Oculus Rift revolution."
The Oculus Rift revolution will happen, much as the Joystick revolution did...
Oh wait... it didn't. Remember those:
http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=402048011
Yeah, its a gamer toy. The rest of the world won't go down the stick my head in a box and look like Urkel 2.0 route.
Oculus Rift alpha version:
http://www.mikeziarko.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/0015-0402-1209-5543_SM.jpg
Just not going to happen.
I never really went back to Cloud Party after the whole Facebook fiasco. I gather I don't need a Facebook account for it anymore - I tried it once after that, but didn't get far. Couldn't find the option for making myself a furry, let alone a neko.
I rather like interconnected worlds too. Its why I persist on living on SL mainland. Island hoppers in SL might be better suited moving to Cloud Party, and with recent sim closures maybe some are... though I remain unconvinced.
The personal private sandbox model IS more popular than the shared world model - even in SL with all the island livers... but Minecraft proves that point more.
Cloud Party is more a Minecraft competitor than an SL competitor due to that. Its just got more closer-to-realistic graphics than Minecraft: not better, but a different aesthetic.
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Friday, August 23, 2013 at 08:29 AM
@Pussycat
80% of Second Life isn't mainland though, its private, disconnected regions. And 20% of regions that makeup mainland are dotted with abandoned lots.
Mainland is more a novelty of Second Life than a definition of it. It's definitely a differentiating factor to Cloud Party, but not one large enough to say they're more dissimilar than similar when it comes to how everyone's spaces will piece, or not piece together.
Posted by: Ezra | Friday, August 23, 2013 at 12:27 PM
@Ezra: there are at least as many connected private regions as not in SL - and some of these interconnected estates are larger than the populated landmass of Cloud Party.
My problem is that Cloud Party falls between being a social and a creative world, whereas Second Ligfe is managing to be both. It does not have the first-mover or traction advantages to be a good social world, and it's more complew creativity tools (you need to develop externally in mesh which is not noob-friendly) will put off many of the amateur creators that find SL good to work with.
I would like someone to try VWs in the mobile space, and with mobile devices becoming more powerful and the abundance of free wi-fi hotspots, this is becoming more practicable.
Posted by: Hitomi Tiponi | Friday, August 23, 2013 at 05:38 PM
I spend 80% of my time on those 20% of lots than are mainland.
I am able to spend 0% of my time doing so on some other service... so I could care less if the portion is no ideal in SL: it exists, and that is better than not existing.
I really don't encounter many issues with abandoned land either. I see plenty of places on SL's mainland that are occupied. 20% vacancy rate is a bit of a good thing in terms of providing space...
But are you sure its 80%, and not 79.23%? :D
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Monday, August 26, 2013 at 10:12 AM