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Chinese produce a copy of Second Life
Well, not really, but it’s a hard headline to resist when you hear that the Chinese Government has given its blessing to the establishment of a ‘virtual economy’. However it is obvious that by establishing this as a ‘new’ world, on the Entopia Universe ‘Calypso’ planet, rather than building the planned economy in SecondLife that this will be a rival. As with most things in China the scale is awesome, the planned development will target a market of 150 million users, allowing 7 million simultaneous users, with the project expecting to generate 10,000 job opportunities, and initial annual revenues of $1billion. Cyber Recreational Development, CRD, is the company created to build and operate with Swedish based Entropia Universe bringing in external skills based on their existing games on Calypso.
Those who have read my previous blogs on the topic will know that I am sure that virtual reality is a crucial development area for technology, but am less convinced on the leisure aspects of living out my fantasies in virtual reality, preferring to spend what free time I have with family and friends. This now appears to be a western developed economy point of view when compared to the Chinese views on the values of their new virtual world. Sadly these are hard to access as they are mostly in Chinese – (thanks to a colleague living there for the further information).
If you live in a vast rural economy with a poor infrastructure then being able to visit a ‘developed’ world, even if virtual, to be able to see the sites, visit shops, maybe even to meet distant family, and play chess, or other ‘physical’ games, has immediate attractions. Use a low cost currency to make what would otherwise seem to be unaffordable luxury goods available, and it becomes an even more interesting commercial proposition for a wide variety of retailers. In a less developed physical economy where the vastness means even large investment programmes will take years to make a difference a virtual economy has a different appeal.
And it’s the topic of to whom does it appeal, and why, that might turn out to be the true separation between SecondLife and Calypso. I am sorry to say it, but with increasing popularity, SecondLife is suffering from a new influx of SLifers who see it as an environment for some very undesirable social behaviour. The ‘freedom’ charter to allow SL to develop as its citizen’s choose is beginning to suggest there is a need for governance, or possibly even government. The news releases do feature the continuation of Chinese national policy on ‘managing’ Internet use, or abuse, and I assume will therefore have controls over identity, in my mind becoming a major issue in SL, and behaviour.
Is this good, or bad, development of virtual worlds? Time will tell, but it does show a different path will some alternative values that at least to me seem to make sound sense and offer real commercial value.
Posted by Andy Mulholland on June 6, 2007 | 
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Comments
# on June 6, 2007 2:50 PM, Tim said:
As ever, I'm game for a reply on a virtual worlds posting! Interestingly, this news actually made page 3 of The Guardian the other day.
I am assuming that the Entropia implementation will be a closed environment - as the Chinese government would have fun and games policing it otherwise. Entropia is already a large & well-established (global) virtual world, but with a stronger gaming emphasis and hinged around a science-fiction theme. It does place high demands on PC requirements, even more so than SL - which could put a strain on rural infrastructure in China. Friends who have tried it tell me that it is just as unstable as SL, and it will be interesting to see whether it can actually handle the projected loading. There is a smattering of Real World companies in Entropia, and commercial builders who will build you sites there - but the majority of builders(aside from SL) are focusing on largely US-based virtual worlds such as There.com, Kaneva and Active Worlds, while looking to the soon-to-be-release Areae as another channel. Entropia's Swedish provenance (and propensity for mass slaughter) seems to put most of these companies off!!
Although Entropia shares much in common with Second Life in terms of broad features (3D; avatars; inworld economy; user-generated content) I think in China's case its main competitor may come from closer to home. South Korea is the home to many massive online environments, but the one I would single out is Cyworld. This has a resident population - pretty much uniquely Korean - of over 18 million! It recently launched in the US, but I don't know its take-up. Content-wise, Cyworld is a much simpler environment, but from a social networking point of view it is very strong.
Linden Lab have been very quiet about the Chinese deal. It was never clear whether they bid for it - and they have remained tight-lipped since the announcement.
A final thought - China already has a brand new virtual world, called Hipihi (based in Beijing), that is currently in Beta test with commercial release in Autumn 2007. It, too, has a strong Second Life look-and-feel, and indeed is often described as a "clone" or the Chinese Second Life.
# on June 6, 2007 3:37 PM, andy mulholland said:
the naming of other worlds is very interesting, any other examples any one knows of?
# on June 6, 2007 3:37 PM, andy mulholland said:
the naming of other worlds is very interesting, any other examples any one knows of?
# on June 24, 2007 4:07 PM, Shaun Lennox said:
Andy,
Enjoyed your recent presentation to our team and the perspectives around the new markets within virtual worlds. The numbers above are 'awesome' as you say. Will be interesting to see how this develops.
Shaun Lennox