Re: storing visiblity info. in VRML (fwd)
Steven Piasecki (sm3_14@SIRIUS.COM)
Wed, 6 Sep 95 16:32:01 -0700
> >
> > Well, in Snowcrash the protocol was developed by the ACM, and space
> > was sold to companies, with the profits going to maintain the
> > infrastructure. So the person with the most money gets ( 0, 0, 0 ).
> >
> > An extension of the current situation is much more likely. There
> > will just be dozens of interconnected vegas-style "strips", with each
> > one seeming to be the center of the metaverse while you're there.
>
>I offer the following conjecture: the entire concept of "virtual real
>estate" may very well fall flat on its butt. The whole concept is
>predicated around the notion that users are actually willing to wander
>around a virtual world on foot when the neighborhood is commercial.
>On-foot traversals are tedious, and it's very unlikely that people
>will waste their time going out of their way to see commercials.
>
>It seems that the concept only works if people are "forced" to be
>there, as in, if they are "captive subscribers" and that's how the
>interface works, or they're in the middle of a game universe and there
>happens to be a rotating Coca-Cola in the sky. If VR advertizing
>pollution does indeed take off, I'd expect to see "no advertizments!"
>bantered about as a feature of many online services. They may charge
>more, of course....
>
>Cheers,
>Brandon
This is my problem with the metaverse conceptualized in Snow Crash- it
constricts us to an already known paradigm- this reality (TR) The really
wonderful aspect of VR is that it can trancend some of these paradigms
(driving down streets with addresses, using trolleys, motorcycles, etc) Why
should I be forced to drive through a virtual housing development or
comercial strip? Why couldn't I be able to teleport wherever I wanted? And
why do I have to be forced into a ground plane and horizon line? It is my
fear that the more people conceptualize the metaverse as an extension of TR,
the more it will be corrupted by TR. Let go of the ground and the concept of
real estate- VR is limitless. Unreal estate is a better description.
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---------->looking towards the future
in the reflection of the past<----------
sm3_14