[...] to be known as The Lounge, which was itself PCDLounge before that, I think. Doppelganger also did the Virtual Lower East Side for MTV; the old link for that seems to be gone behind a password. They opened in the summer of [...]

[...] to be known as The Lounge, which was itself PCDLounge before that, I think. Doppelganger also did the Virtual Lower East Side for MTV; the old link for that seems to be gone behind a password. They opened in the summer of [...]

MTV: One Avatar, Their World…

I caught an entry over on Virtual World News (Link) calling attention to a clip on C|Net (Link) that smacked of public relations bull. From the short write-up on VWN:
MTV announced its dedication to the idea of One Avatar, One World in Jeff Yapp&#8217…

[...] guys are looking at virtual worlds simply isn’t the same way anyone else is. READ IT ALL HERE: http://www.raphkoster.com/2007/06/13/virtual-lower-east-side/... [...]

[...] has launched its fifth virtual world in a year, “Virtual Lower East Side,” a very detailed replica of the actual Lower East [...]

Having an open source format for the continued development of VLES

I asked Mashable to clarify but there’s been no response. I’m guessing this is a mistake, but has anyone heard something like this coming out of Doppelganger?

[...] some critique [...]

[...] on the act. Virtual visit to Stanton Social, anyone? Seen and Heard:Famed game designer Raph Koster blogged about VLES last night and  concluded [of Viacom/MTV]:  “The way in which these guys are looking at [...]

* Invincible widgets. I’d like to remove many of the widgets on my pages.

* Divided profiles. I don’t like having a user profile in addition to an artist profile. I would have preferred simply an artist account.

* Trendy lingo. I’m not keen on the trendy localization. Let’s be BFFs? No thanks. I don’t even like "Add Friend".

* Profane localization. The "Us, Us, Us!" widget includes a section titled "Tell us a story about the most fucked-up show you’ve ever played." Couldn’t this have simply been "Tell us an interesting story"? Or how about customizable section headings?

* Bandocentric. Artists are referred to as bands. I’m not a band. I’m solo.

* Male-ific. BFFs/Friends are called "Bros". I don’t think that term is gender-neutral.

* No stats. Where’s my profile/music metrics? Maybe AudioStreet spoiled me. If vLES is going to be used to promote artists, there should be tools for that purpose.

The more I think about it, the more I don’t like the Web side of vLES. All that stuff should be integrated into the client. When you view someone’s profile from the client, the external browser opens. The website should just be a place to get people started.

I know vLES is still in alpha, but I’ve tested alpha games before and there was a lot more done in them than what vLES provides.

- too dark and claustrophic (i.e. the scale may be accurate but it’s tough to manuever in those tight spaces)
- same basic app as The Lounge and Tyra of course, but I needed a new account to log in. Bummer that.
- even with the download, teleporting from club to club took a while for everything to load. I suspect some of that comes from textures not being optimized as the geometry didn’t seem heavy. Speaking of which, I found the environments a bit too disconnected from the cell-shaded avatars. I liked the Lounge, but this pushed it too far, imo. A bit less realistic and somewhat more stylized would be nice.

(I should cut-n-paste this for the devs)

The web-based side was interesting. They provide users with a blog and whatnot. A bit like Kaneva in that regard.

Oh, and American Apparel is in it. Figures.