Raph's Website » Metachat launches on MySpace

Metachat launches on MySpace

March 13th, 2008 (Visited 1419 times) Tags: metachat, metaplace

Wow, itâ€™s been a crazy couple of weeks.:)

Weâ€™ve said all along that Metaplace is a platform for making all sorts of virtual worlds. I know a lot of you are waiting for games written in it â€“ specifically an RPG, probably. But well, games are hard, and they take time. And we didnâ€™t see any reason to wait! So we decided that it was time to start releasing some of the worlds that have been made with Metaplace, and today we launched the first one â€“ a simple chat room.

This is part of the OpenSocial launch on MySpace, so itâ€™ll be interesting and exciting to be in the first wave of appsâ€¦ as of right now, we seem to be the #1 app. Of course, it just launched a few minutes ago. I fully expect to get overtaken any second now by Flixster…

Thereâ€™s a more detailed post on this over at the Metaplace website, including some implementation tidbits.

If you have a MySpace profile, you can hit the apps page to add it, or visit Metachat directly.

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Virtual Worlds News: Metaplace Launches Metachat on MySpace wrote on March 13th, 2008 at 9:27 pm:

[...] Raph Koster said it best: "Weâ€™ve said all along that Metaplace is a platform for making all sorts of virtual worlds. [via Metaplace] [...]

Massively wrote on March 14th, 2008 at 3:00 am:

Filed under: Business models, Culture, Launches, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Browser, CasualA few of the Metaplacefolkshave announced that their first virtual world has been released on MySpace in the form of an app called Metachat, which you can add to your Myspace account right now. In terms of virtual worlds, it’s not much — there’s a chat room, obviously, and a

Topic Digest: Metachat launches on MySpace (Metaplace) wrote on March 21st, 2008 at 9:05 pm:

President Raph’s Website :Metachat launches on MySpace

cliff said on March 13th, 2008 at 11:52 am:

The “visit Metachat directly” URL is bad, is coming across as http://http//www.myspace.com/metachat - Looks like the colon was probably left off the typed in URL and the extra http:// got prepended automatically.

Kaa said on March 13th, 2008 at 11:53 am:

Raph, fix the link to Metachat

Raph said on March 13th, 2008 at 12:01 pm:

Fixed.

Michael Chui said on March 13th, 2008 at 12:45 pm:

All I want are the embed codes so I can mess with it elsewhere without making a MySpace account. =P

Morgan Ramsay said on March 13th, 2008 at 12:45 pm:

Security error connecting to alpha.metaplace.com:5007

Also, the app doesn’t appear to work on musician profiles.

Raph said on March 13th, 2008 at 12:50 pm:

Also, the app doesnâ€™t appear to work on musician profiles.

No apps seem to yet. They just don’t show up. Don’t know why, it seems to be MySpace’s thing.

We’re investigating the security error.

Keen said on March 13th, 2008 at 3:17 pm:

I came. I saw. I threw Tomatoes at Tami.

Jason said on March 13th, 2008 at 3:38 pm:

Any chance I can get a version that uses proper English? “ur”? Really?

HatHead Rickenbacker said on March 13th, 2008 at 8:48 pm:

Doesn’t seem to work for me - your metaplace screen tells me I need flash version 9,0,115,0 or greater and that I have version 9,0,115,0 installed.

Prokofy Neva said on March 13th, 2008 at 9:38 pm:

Actually, I’m not waiting for games. I realize they are hard. That’s why I don’t learn and play them : )

What I’m waiting for is just a place. I mean, it could just be like an online felt board you put shapes on but you know, a place. With a few chairs, table, poster on the wall, you know, interactive place?

I’m a little creeped out by the MySpace thing. I don’t have any class aversion to MySpace as so many do. But MySpace has all these emos and goths and cutters and I just find it scary.

Raph said on March 13th, 2008 at 10:04 pm:

Doesnâ€™t seem to work for me - your metaplace screen tells me I need flash version 9,0,115,0 or greater and that I have version 9,0,115,0 installed.

We’re working on a fix for that, in fact. If you have Linux, it’s one cause; if it’s a Mac, it’s another. For the latter, I believe going to Flash’s site and reinstalling the latest version will fix you up.

Morgan Ramsay said on March 13th, 2008 at 10:31 pm:

I still get the same security error. Tried several times tonight.

Raph said on March 13th, 2008 at 11:46 pm:

OK, will investigate in the morning. You running on Windows? What OS and browser?

Morgan Ramsay said on March 14th, 2008 at 12:28 am:

Windows XP Professional SP3, Firefox 2.0.0.12

I believe I also tried…

Xubuntu 7.10, Firefox 2.0.0.12

But don’t quote me on that.

Windows XP Professional SP3, Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.11

Works; although, the app had an error (possibly JavaScript) and didn’t load before I logged into MySpace. That makes me wonder about people viewing MySpace profiles who don’t have MySpace accounts.

Eolirin said on March 14th, 2008 at 9:35 am:

Lemme know when you’ve got an equivalent for Facebook

Rik said on March 14th, 2008 at 10:38 am:

Any chance on a link to the ap that doesn’t use the phrase “myspace”? It’s a blocked site on many work networks.

Susan Wu said on March 14th, 2008 at 3:39 pm:

Congrats on the MySpace launch. Hopefully soon you will have to deal with the problem of “What to do when our userbase is comprised of 20 million teenagers.”

Morgan Ramsay said on March 14th, 2008 at 6:19 pm:

Trouble Connecting

We had trouble connecting to the server this may have been caused be the internet. Please retry.

Text bug!

Error #2048

Sounds like an alpha, all right. Just encountered the error that comes after the 2,047 previous errors. ;p

Ryan Shwayder said on March 14th, 2008 at 6:53 pm:

Iâ€™m a little creeped out by the Second Life thing. I don’t have any class aversion to Second Life as so many do. But Second Life has all these emos and goths and cutters and furries and sex freaks and I just find it scary.

Eolirin said on March 15th, 2008 at 6:22 pm:

… Okay, since snark is being invested in response to the whole class aversion thing, I think it needs a little addressing, as off topic as this whole thing is. I tried to resist, really I did…

The whole, there are emos and goths and cutters, oh my! thing *is* a class aversion, because, at least in the US, class has vastly more to do with sub-culture than money earned.

See this for further reference: http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html

To grab just the most relevant bit: “Class divisions in the United States have more to do with social networks (the real ones, not FB/MS), social capital, cultural capital, and attitudes than income.”

Prokofy Neva said on March 16th, 2008 at 5:52 pm:

>The whole, there are emos and goths and cutters, oh my! thing *is* a class aversion, because, at least in the US, class has vastly more to do with sub-culture than money earned.

Oh, well, my comment was a bit too compressed for most people.

But, um, no. It’s not class aversion. Because I wouldn’t mind making a MySpace, which is viewed as “uncool” and “amateurish” and “cluttery” filled with cats and tacky music by most arrogant tekkies who hate it (and they’re too cool for Facebook, too, they’ll go on Twitter, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Flickr).

Goth and emo isn’t really a “class”. It’s a culture. It’s a sub-culture that is paid for by parents who can afford to keep their kids in that lifestyle. They aren’t drop-outs from society, they live in suburbia.

Danah can think and say what she likes, and I realize she’s credentialed and does research and beloved by everybody, but I don’t agree with what she says. She *wishes ardently* that class was based on culture. She WANTS class to be built on a social network and social capital principal so that she, as a maven of the new media, can be part of the intellectual elite that controls society by pronouncing on it in this fashion. But class is both more simple and more complex. Only “progressive sociology” pronounces on class as something made up of “power networks”. Traditional economics divides classes by income levels and job title.

Of course, in some ways, the cultural aversions that upper classes have to middle and lower classes are just cultural aversions (they hate Wal-Mart’s or SUVs, let’s say — you can really get the flavour for this by reading “Bobos in Paradise” and “Deer-Hunting with Jesus”) but in other ways, they are directly tied to income (very wealthy people in Silicon valley can hate the Northeast and call it “racist) and also really profound political and religious differences (religion can be political or cultural or both).

The issue with MySpace to me is that you have, as Susan Wu just pointed out, 20 million teenagers. And my impression of MySpace is that you have tons of kids friending each other and friending everybody very promiscously just to show they have friends. So I don’t want 20 million friends because talking with emos and cutters isn’t really intellectually fulfilling for me, and I say this as a person who isn’t insisting on a cultural credential-based conversation. This is an age cohort/demographic thing, not really ‘cultural’ or ‘class’. Hey, I’ve known some emos and cutters, like you wouldn’t believe. I’m just done with that particular period in my life

Ryan snarked at me that SL is filled with goth and emo and cutters and that creeps him so oh gosh we have a case here of hyPROKisy ohnoes. Well, yeah, SL has goths and emos. But you can pick and chose among the clubs, venues, places — you have a kind of marketplace of styles and types and you can select and filter. Outside a welcome area, few people are trying to force-friend you. It’s a world, not a web page. You could have an island not even viewable, or a parcel closed to the public. Actually, I don’t chose to do that — I have open mainland rentals, and trust me, I have emos and cutters and furries and every conceivable creature but they pay me : )
I *chose* to have them, or not (some people close their rentals and have invitation only or gated communities precisely so they don’t have to have furries)

Myspace just doesn’t feel that way to me. I can only report how I feel — I’m just unhappy that Raph didn’t launch this thing on Facebook. Why, I have no idea. Doesn’t Facebook have all those widgety things? Why MySpace when you don’t have a huge commercial thing — yet?

Prokofy Neva said on March 16th, 2008 at 5:55 pm:

What I’m more scared about right now is there is no Sunday poem and Raph hasn’t posted for 3 days.

Raph said on March 16th, 2008 at 6:50 pm:

Iâ€™m just unhappy that Raph didnâ€™t launch this thing on Facebook. Why, I have no idea. Doesnâ€™t Facebook have all those widgety things? Why MySpace when you donâ€™t have a huge commercial thing â€” yet?

Because MySpace happened to be launching its app widgety thingy, so it was a chance to put ours in the first wave.

What Iâ€™m more scared about right now is there is no Sunday poem and Raph hasnâ€™t posted for 3 days.

The poem is written and due to be posted any moment now.

Kerri Knight said on March 17th, 2008 at 12:20 am:

The issue with MySpace to me is that you have, as Susan Wu just pointed out, 20 million teenagers. And my impression of MySpace is that you have tons of kids friending each other and friending everybody very promiscously just to show they have friends. So I donâ€™t want 20 million friends because talking with emos and cutters isnâ€™t really intellectually fulfilling for me, and I say this as a person who isnâ€™t insisting on a cultural credential-based conversation.

soooo…

…you prefer some degree of insulation between yourself and certain behaviors/identities/social or cultural sub-grous, yes? Would you say having a degree of autonomy and ability to pursue interests and topics free from nonconstructive (possibly even distracting) noise agrees with you?

Because that sounds like the foundations of a village.

Grats on the app to all those involved, I’m not a myspacer but I was excited for ya!

Prokofy Neva said on March 19th, 2008 at 9:24 pm:

>Would you say having a degree of autonomy and ability to pursue interests and topics free from nonconstructive (possibly even distracting) noise agrees with you?
Because that sounds like the foundations of a village.

Well, I’ll wait until they put it in Facebook, or maybe Second Life. SL kind of has web-on-a-prim now. Hey that would be funny, taking Raph’s worlds and putting them on a prim in Second Life. Then maybe video yourself doing that. Then maybe upload it to YouTube.

Michael Chui said on March 20th, 2008 at 12:33 am:

Hey that would be funny, taking Raphâ€™s worlds and putting them on a prim in Second Life. Then maybe video yourself doing that. Then maybe upload it to YouTube.

Do it. Please. That would be so awesome. Maybe we can achieve infinite regression and crash the internet.

Open up that YouTube video inside the world being displayed inside SL.

I’d do it myself, but I’m incompetent. And I’m not sure I remembered to install SL on this computer…