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Google Lively To Be an Online Gaming Platform

Posted by Soulskill on Tue Sep 30, 2008 01:02 PM
from the world-of-googlecraft dept.
Businesses Google The Internet Entertainment Games
GamesIndustry.biz recently interviewed Kevin Hanna, creative director for Google Lively, about the virtual environment's beginnings and the plans for its future. Earlier this month, he announced that Lively would open to developers, and now he says the long-term goal is for Lively to be "used as an online games platform." Hanna goes on to say: "I'd like for it to be invisible, where, when it makes sense to have 3D aspects of the web, that everyone will have already downloaded the plug-in, it's one of the first things you do when you install your machine, and you're able to just jump around and play in a creative space. I feel like a big chunk of the games industry out there has a corporate mentality where you're first to be second, and I've been there, where they say, 'Make sure you include this aspect, and this aspect, and this aspect, to ensure that we have an 80 per cent market share.' And it's sucking the life out of what should be the most creative and innovative medium out there."
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  • Wow. (Score:4, Funny)

    by nawcom (941663) on Tuesday September 30 2008, @01:04PM (#25207257) Homepage
    I wonder how many markets Google will get into. I can't wait until Google starts working on their female douche product line. hehe.

    • Re:Wow. (Score:5, Funny)

      by ivandavidoff (969036) on Tuesday September 30 2008, @01:09PM (#25207329)

      I can't wait until Google starts working on their female douche product line. hehe.

      That would lend a whole new meaning to "googling yourself".

      Or wait, maybe not.

    • A douche that stays in perpetual beta?
      • You underpromise and overdeliver if you're a developer... you do the opposite if you're in marketing.

      • Since when was Chrome successful?

        • Re:Wow. (Score:4, Interesting)

          by AKAImBatman (238306) * <(akaimbatman) (at) (gmail.com)> on Tuesday September 30 2008, @01:50PM (#25207803) Homepage Journal

          I just yanked this from a report on one of the sites I operate:

          Firefox 63.32%
          Internet Explorer 16.33%
          Safari 7.43%
          Chrome 6.36%

          (For the record, the site is nothing that would predispose it to FireFox users over IE users. Unless you count video game players as "pre-disposed".)

          For Chrome to have grabbed that much market share so quickly is impressive. So "successful" is a perfectly acceptable tag. What remains to be seen is if Google will build on that success or let it flounder.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by LandDolphin (1202876)
            (For the record, the site is nothing that would predispose it to FireFox users over IE users. Unless you count video game players as "pre-disposed".)

            depends on the types of video games. IF the games require one to upgrade their hardware, then yeah. They are going to be more tech savy and perhaps more likely to change from IE to FirFox.

          • Video game players are computer savvy; I think that counts as predisposed.

      • Yes, like Corvettes, Axe body spray, hair gel for guys, gold medalions, tight white tank tops (for guys)...

  • Acquisitions Leading Towards 3d (Score:5, Informative)

    by mfh (56) on Tuesday September 30 2008, @01:09PM (#25207325) Journal

    Valve denied it was being purchased by Google [outsurging.com], but it leads me to believe that the opposite may be true. Time will tell.

    • Valve denied it was being purchased by Google, but it leads me to believe that the opposite may be true.

      Valve's planning on buying Google?!? Folks, you heard it here first. Now go spread the word!

    • Re:Acquisitions Leading Towards 3d (Score:4, Funny)

      by gad_zuki! (70830) on Tuesday September 30 2008, @02:41PM (#25208537)

      >Valve denied it was being purchased by Google, but it leads me to believe that the opposite may be true.

      Whoa, I knew Steam was a high-margin money maker, but who knew Value would be buying Google soon?! Between Google's forever tracking cookie and Steam's DRM, it could lead to incredible heights of corporate douchebaggery!

  • Though I'm not really sure it'll work, this actually might make a bit of sense - or at least more sense than simply creating a competitor to second life where you can't build objects.

    It's like an open version of ps 3's home.

    My goodness, imagine the hardware requirements for this thing... and without any foreseeable return on investment? I guess if anyone can do it, it would be Google.

  • I just hope they do better than Shockwave 3D. If nothing else, it would be an improvement in that it's unlikely they'll charge for the creation tools as opposed to the overpriced Director MX.

    • just hope they do better than Shockwave 3D.

      That's not very difficult. That's almost like saying you'd hope they'd do better than Microsoft Bob. Almost.

  • Lively (Score:3, Funny)

    by necro81 (917438) on Tuesday September 30 2008, @01:19PM (#25207455) Journal

    Well, of course online gaming is going to be lively. You wouldn't expect Google Bore (beta) to be a force here.

  • Yeah but does it run Linux?

    And the answer:

    Requires Windows Vista/XP with Internet Explorer or Firefox

  • I don't remember how I stumbled across this, maybe even a link somewhere on /., but I think Metaplace [metaplace.com] seems like it's going to be quite similar. From what I've seen of their news when checking back from time to time, they seem to be moving along and some people have built some pretty impressive stuff with the editors they give you.

    • Seems to be a closed alpha test that only runs on Windows.

      Just like Lively.

      I am SO excited.

  • Anyone else think of VRML (Score:5, Interesting)

    by elrous0 (869638) * on Tuesday September 30 2008, @01:21PM (#25207485)

    "when it makes sense to have 3D aspects of the web, that everyone will have already downloaded the plug-in, it's one of the first things you do when you install your machine, and you're able to just jump around and play in a creative space"

    Everytime I hear someone propose something like this, I think of VRML [wikipedia.org] and the failed (and misguided) attempt to reskin the web into something it's not.

    • I think the key here is "when it makes sense", which is not very often IMO. Trying to turn the entire web into a 3D interactive environment is a lousy idea. On the other hand, being able to see 3D representations of certain objects (say products in an on-line store) does make sense. I *hope* that this is the kind of "sense" that is being considered here.

    • VRML was hyped when we only had dial-up modems. We have a wee bit more bandwidth now, and a bit more graphic processing power than last time.

  • The Matrix (Score:3)

    by megamerican (1073936) on Tuesday September 30 2008, @01:38PM (#25207693)

    Does anyone else think that this sounds like the beginning of the creation of The Matrix?

  • Snow Crash? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Xelios (822510)
    I would love to see a 3D sandbox where freelance programmers could just be given the tools to create whatever they want and share it in a virtual world. Anyone could download a client application and navigate this virtual world like Google Earth.

    Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson portrayed a world like this. Destinations could be anything from lavish corporate offices where company execs conduct virtual meetings, to virtual clubs (which would really be nothing more than spiffy looking chat rooms), to games,

  • 'Make sure you include this aspect, and this aspect, and this aspect, to ensure that we have an 80 per cent market share.'

    Like making it only work for Windows? Yeah, that pretty much sucks the life out of it for me.

  • I thought it said online gambling platform.

  • First REAL attempt at a Metaverse? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Cornflake917 (515940) on Tuesday September 30 2008, @01:57PM (#25207913) Homepage

    Second-life's attempt to be the world's Metaverse turned out to be just a huge advertising/hacking cluster fuck. Not saying that that Lively won't be a advertising/hacking cluster fuck but at least it sounds it would be more open to programmers, which will allow for more diverse possibilities, so there could be just as much good stuff as bad.

    • I'd like a second life where I could create a 50 megaton virtual H-bomb.

      Nuke them from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

    • Actually, Metaplace [metaplace.com] is already far ahead of Google on this one. Just running the system, though, makes Firefox use about as much memory usage as World of Warcraft.

      However, the system is pretty cool. I've been beta testing for while now. But a flash based virtual world embedded in a browser simply cannot compare to a stand-alone app.

    • Second-life's attempt to be the world's Metaverse turned out to be just a huge advertising/hacking cluster fuck. Not saying that that Lively won't be a advertising/hacking cluster fuck but at least it sounds it would be more open to programmers, which will allow for more diverse possibilities, so there could be just as much good stuff as bad.

      Oh yes, we can always rely on Google to save us from advertising. Kinda funny, since Google is an advertising company.

    • Not saying that that Lively won't be a advertising/hacking cluster fuck but at least it sounds it would be more open to programmers

      Second Life: in-world creation of in-world content (no special tools needed for building and scripting), open source client, active cooperation with competing open source server platform, runs on Windows 2000, Mac, Linux, in-world scripting based on Mono, ...

      Lively: no user-created in-world content, in-world or out, just promises, no developer API, no information about an API, j

      • "In-world creation of content" == "In world _ONLY_"

        SL, for something so mature, is in a very sad state as a platform goes.
        - No way to legitimately back-up created items (and the unsupported ways of backing up are so universally shunned you can't even mention using them for your own content)
        - Very poor offline tools for content creation. Using photoshop and in-world tools some very good designers have made some very awesome stuff. It's even more impressive when you realize that only the most

  • It is funny to say, but think about it. Google has a mass of information that covers the entire web, including personal data about you and me. If it wanted to, google could track its users of the new google phone. Heck i have google maps on my blackberry, so they could track me too.

  • Is Slashdot... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by diablovision (83618) on Tuesday September 30 2008, @02:38PM (#25208491)

    Is Slashdot now becoming the marketing arm of Google? I swear this is like the 90th article about some new whiz-bang software they developed. There are other companies writing software!

  • Out of all the 3d user interfaces I've used, this is probably the worst. There's no connection between you and your avatar at all, and even getting your avatar to walk along a straight line is frustrating... the normal motion is to have you avatar teleport from one piece of furniture to another while you pan around at a distance.

    If simple movement is so hard, how on earth do they expect people to use it for a gaming platform?

  • Google Lively To Be an Online Gaming Platform (Score:5, Funny)

    by melted (227442) on Tuesday September 30 2008, @02:58PM (#25208759) Homepage

    Here's the translation from the corporate speak:

    "We've released it and no one bit. We have no idea what to do with it, so let us see if we can use other people's ideas for free."

  • I read about lively quite a time ago ... but tried it just now to see how it feels.

    And i must say ... it sucks ... big time!

    If they do really want to make anything fun of it ... it looks like starting from scratch would be a good idea.

    Why ?

    - Its slow (on a dual core system that runs cyrsis just fine)
    - Loading takes ages
    - Controll via point and click not well done
    - Camera controll annoying
    - Overall usability far away from google standards

    • Nothing is stopping Google from turning these two applications into something better than Second Life.

      Well, except that Second Life already exists, and Lively sucks balls compared to it.

      Lively has no source code available, that I can find. The closest thing I could find [felipebarriga.cl] has barely started to reverse engineer Lively, and appears to have no actual code written. And the official client is XP/Vista, IE/Firefox, nothing else.

      Contrast this to Second Life, which has an open source client, with officially supported Windows/Mac/Linux versions.

      From what other people are telling me, it doesn't get any better once you

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