Virtual worlds redux

2010-12-13

(post prompted by looking at PlaneShift, and wondering how things had progressed since I last played a MMORPG).

There seem to be three universal truths: the first that some things change faster than expected; the second that others change slower than expected; and the third, that we usually get them the wrong way round. As the esteemed Richard Holway was reputed to have said, "I'm great at predictions; I'm also p***-poor at timing." As I dug through one or two old blog posts about virtual worlds, then, I was struck not just by how long ago I wrote them, but also by how little has changed since I did. Which isn't to invalidate any of the principles, more to illustrate just how hard it is to gauge just what is round the next corner. It's worth remembering, for example, that Facebook was only just being launched beyond educational establishments at that point.

Here's a quite interesting presentation from 2008 which would be worth revisiting from today's context.

Update: Further reading up about Habbo led me to this post about Anonymous. It's a small virtual world.