Yesterday, I accidentally found myself wandering around in an alternative virtual world. I say "accidentally", because I just happened to click through a link from another site, and before I knew it, I'd found myself in "Whirled".
Whirled is a peculiar kind of mish-mash ... it kind of works like a social networking site, with a heavy emphasis on in-browser "casual" games. Playing the games scores you cash (and levels!), which let you equip your "virtual room", change your avatar, buy pets etc. You can invite friends to your room, or go exploring different areas of the world (and yes, just like that other virtual world that we all know and love, Whirled full of big, empty nightclubs...)
Users can create their own content (and sell it through the in-world marketplace) - though, you need to be au-fait with java and flash actionscript to build in any kind of interaction, so it's not an option for the faint of heart!! ... and the developers say they intend to introduce a game currency <-> real world currency exchange mechanism at some point in the future. They also intend to allow "adult content" in their world eventually, once they've constructed a suitable method to ring-fence it away from minors.
The Whirled environment is terribly primitive, compared to - say - Second Life (insert at least two generic verbs and mandatory trademark reference here). There's a very jarring disjoint between the two primary activities of playing the games, and exploring the 3d world. Rooms are two-dimensional, and have a Lucasfilm SCUMM feel about them.... which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the "stuff" you can buy to kit out your room is purely cosmetic. If you buy a chair, you can't actually *sit* on it; it's just there to make your place look pretty. I invited a friend over to test some of the features with last night, and her comment that "it's basically just IRC with pictures" was pretty close to the mark. All you can do is walk around the screen, and chat.
On the other hand, Whirled _does_ have a couple of very compelling things going for it. Firstly, ease of entry .... the whole thing is browser-based (built on flash / ajax), and has a very web 2.0 approach to sign ups, encouraging you dip into the games as a guest before you join, and teasing you as you go along with little comments along the lines of "if you had an account here, you would have just earned X gold coins." ... and, secondly, the whole focus on the games aspect gives you a real sense of something to do. At any given moment I can happily go and grind away at some games, to give my character more money, or a higher level (and access to better features) - and chat to a bunch of other people doing exactly the same thing; in doing so you get the sense of shared endeavour that you get from more traditional MMORPGS, and that works as a kind of social lubricant - you have something in common with everybody else playing the same game. The in-whirled games also have an xbox-style "gamer achievements" system attached to them (with little icon medals, just like you find on xbox live!) ... but given my crack-like addiction to achievements on the xbox 360, it's probably a good idea if I don't look too deeply into those... it's a very smart idea on the part of the developers though!
Many of the people who try out Second Life (insert at least two generic verbs and a mandatory trademark reference here) but bail out after their first experience usually cite the fact that they were turned off the platform because there's "nothing to do". I get the impression that those people would *love* the approach taken by Whirled; it gives you a _very_ structured work-for-reward route to improving your avatar and earning more "stuff".
So, yeah. As a virtual world, whirled is probably *far* too over-simplistic for people raised on Second Life (insert at least two generic verbs and mandatory trademark reference here) ... though it might be an interesting "second platform" for professional content creators to keep an eye on, as I can imagine whirled luring in a *vast* amount of users further down the line. In the meantime, if only some enterprising entrepreneur could take the more addictive elements/user retention aspects from whirled, and somehow transplant them to SL, we might be onto a real winner....
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