With the success of Second Life, virtual reality simulations have come into their own in the past 5 years. Promising users an contact that transcends the limitations of real life, a virtual reality sim lets you be whatever you want to be right from the relax of your own home. No wonder that the whole of these virtual worlds/simulations has increased exponentially in the past few years.
There is a virtual world where you can generate your own avatar and roam around in a 3D world populated by other There.com members. You can interact with other members, build your own houses, dress up your characters, buy stuff for them, etc. In other words, There aims to generate an online identity for yourself that reflects the real you, or, as There.com itself puts it, be "everything you've imagined and wished for".
There is no ifs ands or buts a downloadable application (around 500Mb in size) that runs on your desktop. The principles requirements are quite low and if you bought your Pc within the past 2 years, you shouldn't have any qoute running There.com.
There works on a membership model. Basic membership to the virtual world is free, but you have to shell out money for superior features like voice chat, or to buy virtual goods such as houses, clothing, accessories, etc.
Once you setup the There.com application and become a member, you will be prompted to generate your avatar. This 3D avatar will be your bodily representation in the virtual world, and you have access to a wide range of templates to pick from when manufacture your avatar. You can dress up the model from a few different sets of clothing and accessories. Later on in the game, you can buy different items for your avatar to trick out his appearance.
After your avatar is created, you can basically walk around the discrete environments (desert, tropical paradise, city, town, etc.) chatting up with other members. If you have a superior membership, you can even voice chat with your fellow There.com users. There essentially works like a somewhat surreal simulation of real life; you will meet a wide range of habitancy in the virtual world, all dressed as wildly as you can possibly imagine.
Where There.com no ifs ands or buts shines is in its creation of a living, breathing world. You can buy and produce your own house (and even put it up for rent), go shopping for shoes and clothing, buy yourself a car (or construct your own ride), hold an exhibition of your 'art' (which you can later sell for Therebucks - There.com's virtual currency), generate your own virtual movies, and lots, lots more. The way you interact with other members and the world around you makes for a delightful experience, and it is not extra lowly to charge up deep and meaningful friendships with habitancy halfway across the globe.
However, in terms of pure features and interactivity potential, There cannot hold a candle to Second Life. Although these are two fully different beasts (Second Life is more of a virtual reality simulation, while There is more chat and habitancy oriented), comparisons to Second Life are inevitable, if unfair.
In terms of graphics, There does not match up to the most recent Pc games such as Call of Duty 4. Nonetheless, the "game" still looks quite good and runs very smoothly on even old Pcs. There's servers are more than capable of handling the load of some thousand players, and there is hardly any lag while playing the game.
Users concerned about privacy issues will have to just buckle up and go with the flow. A virtual world, by default, does not endear itself to privacy, and There is no different. Although you can block individual users (or groups of users), it is very easy for other members to see what you've been up to in the game. Paranoid habitancy should best avoid this game.
In conclusion, There is a great virtual world that excels in its handling of chat and people-to-people interactions. If you are finding for something more complex and demanding, you might be disappointed with the petite features that There offers, but for those of you finding to meet new habitancy without all the hassles of a virtual life simulation, There is the excellent tool.
"Now YOU Can Create Professional 3D Animations, Games And Graphic Models Like Pixar and Dreamworks In 2 Hours or Less..."
0 comments:
Post a Comment