Which World is More Like the OASIS of Ready Player One -- Second Life or Metaplace?

Raph Koster makes a good case that his ambitious but now-defunct virtual world project Metaplace had an unanny resemblance to the OASIS world in the acclaimed, bestselling geek classic Ready Player One, adding:

If you were ever wondering why something like the Ready Player One/Snow Crash style world hasn’t been made — well, there it was… open from 2007 to 2009. It saddens me to see it forgotten so quickly, though in many ways it really did end up as just a footnote in virtual world history.

I haven't forgotten it, and I think there's a strong case that Metaplace was just ahead of its time. I could easily see a version of Metaplace revived for the tablet era doing quite well. (Witness the strong showing of Minecraft for mobile, or even Linden Lab's Blocksworld.) At the same time, not having read the novel, I'm not sure Metaplace is the closest analogue to OASIS, as opposed to, say, Second Life:

For one thing, Ready Player One author Ernest Cline used to visit Second Life, and a fan of the book created in Second Life a version of The Chatroom, a key setting from the novel, with Cline's approval. (Read about it here.) With that said, let me leave the "Which world is more like OASIS?" question to the book's readers, and quietly tiptoe out of the Chatroom.

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Comments

[Jo Yardley]

I don't know Metaplace and have to judge it by its graphics.
To me it doesn't even come close to the Oasis while SL does.
The main thing about the Oasis is immersion and realism, you actually feel like you're inside it, like it is real.
Metaplace looks more like just another facebook social game.

[Ai Austin]

I used Metaplace and continue in Second Life and OpenSim... and I have read the novel. On many grounds Second Life comes closer to the 2044 version of the OASIS. The availability of educational areas that are largely separate to the entertainment and role play areas in SL is very Ready Player One OASIS orientated.

Try the "early" 1980s text MUD version of the OASIS yourself perhaps... see

http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2013/05/12/back-to-the-future-in-the-1980s-oasis-mud/

[Ares Shoreland]

Agreed, Jo Yardley. The thing about the OASIS, is that it blurs the lines between real and virtual.
Second Life is not quite there yet, and I think we still have to see a new generation virtual world, that will obviously use technology like the Oculus Rift.
We still don't know if High Fidelity will be completed, and how it will work or look, but its use of the OR and accelerometers in devices we already have for movement will sure be a great thing in the virtual world space.
Talking about the Oculus and Second Life, if it is implemented right and enables selection and communication while wearing the headset, it will be a great milestone. Wherever it gains popularity is a whole other story.
The general public is not yet ready for this kind of thing, i think, and the ones that look foward to sometning like it for some time are likely the ones that will use it.

[draxtor]

What Jo said! The book is sooooo describing what SL should have been and WHAT IT STILL COULD TOTALLY BE [in conjunction with the right hardware!] I loved Metaplace and was sad how fast it died but the full immersion described in "Ready Player One" is very very much like SL. With all [big big big] due respect to Raph....ahhhh no!!!!!

[Raph]

I wasn't trying to create a comparison!

That said, Metaplace had separate educational spaces too. :)

Really, there were two fundamental differences between MP and SL. The first was the graphics. MP in theory supported 3d or 2d, and many devices. In practice it ended up being 2d and web. SL of course is 3d and actually doesn't have very good 2d support.

The other difference is that SL is a world with sims and MP was a network of worlds. This is a pretty big difference that isn't all that visible at first. Of course now with OpenSim we do see some aspects of that in the larger SL universe...

[draxtor]

Raph!!! I LOVED Metaplace and damnit: text always looks really harsh & I did not mean it that way :) I just NOW read your text and apologize for the hastened comment! I sooo wish something like Metaplace would have survived - something that invigorates users to become creators rather than mere consumers...ahhh well...memories: Obama in Ghana in SL AND METAPLACE = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Crxk9rxDc

[Iggy]

I've played in both VWs and just taught Ready Player One to my first-years this Spring.

I'd say neither world quite resembles OASIS. In Cline's book, one usually needed a starship to travel from planet to planet, and the Gunters and their corporate foe employed massive space fleets. In Metaplace, the TPs were point to point and I don't recall any spaces being otherwise linked (Raph, correct me if that's not so).

SL has many contiguous areas, notably the mainland and the connected sailing sims. These have a Z axis for flying. That said, sim-crossings are iffy (if somewhat improved recently) and many SLers merely TP from place to place, as in Metaplace.

We'd have a quasi-OASIS if someone made a contiguous space-based metaverse with VW tech, paired it with the Occulus Rift or similar, then had each sim be a solar system one could only fly to and between.

Hey, Raph! Build that using a better engine than SLs, and I'll be right over in my Starship for a duel :)

[Metacam Oh]

If anything, Entropia Universe more "resembles" the OASIS. But none of these places have the ambition to be an OASIS.

[Cube Republic]

Neither resemble Oasis in an way shape or form.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

You don't have to build Oasis. You just need a single killer app with sufficient modularity and an adaptable structural paradigm to accommodate unlimited expansion by third party developers, plus adequate incentive for others to contribute their skills and talents. Oasis will grow from that nucleus.

Metaplace never had the killer app. Second Life never had the modularity, and it disincentivizes creativity with a punative tier structure.

If an Oasis-like virtual space ever arises, it will likely be courtesy of a non-profit cooperative driven by rational actors rather than the capricious and perverse whims of the market.

[CodePrime8]

I was big into SL back in 2005-2007, and when I read RPO I was like, "ITS SECOND LIFE!!!" in comp. to the Oasis, it started as a PC interface only, and the google/hapitc's came later. Same as SL. If SL got more attention, and catches, it could be the Oasis. I ran a store inside SL and made some real world money by selling virtual items. It has a currency exchange. It has real estate, and you can rent.