A Quick Peek at Onverse
With the collapse of There.com, a lot of former Thereans are now virtual homeless. Many members of There avoid Second Life for various reasons, so they have been visiting many other worlds. One that is getting a lot of buzz among the ex-There people is a little known virtual world called Onverse. And for good reason, Onverse is probably the 3D virtual world most like There. You won’t find vehicles, but you find cartoon avatars, houses to decorate, There like environments to explore, and social events with decent sized crowds to hang out in. So I decided to take a closer look at Onverse.
There are basically two strategies in business. Go big, and try to be everything to everyone, or go small and cater to a small audience. Part of the go small strategy is to get by with as little overhead as possible, and rely on word of mouth advertising.
Onverse is definitely in that small category. The company consists of five guys working out of a garage in Tempe Arizona, a town I am very familiar with (Google Lively was also based out of Tempe before it closed down). It also seems to have only a small advertising budget relying on word of mouth advertising.
They have been around almost a year and they have seen quite a bit of growth. When I first logged in last June, there were very few people, a typical result with most new worlds I visit. Since then the number of people I see keeps getting bigger, the environments have more and more instances, it has become a small and busy place.
Onverse is not limited to PC, it runs on Mac and even Linux. The graphics are simple and cartoon like, designed to work on any computer. Possibly even a phone app in the future. Basically it can run on anything, and probably works just fine on a dialup modem, assuming you want to wait for the large download. All the graphics in the game are pre-loaded in the client, meaning there is no graphics lag, but you will have to occasionally update your client whenever new items are added to the game.
The disadvantage is that there is no user created content. You can customize your avatar and you can get a free apartment to customize too, but you can’t create your own clothes or items due to restrictions of the Torque engine. This will no doubt limit the appeal of the virtual world to many. Another limiting appeal might be the strange looking avatars. They are definitely of the cartoon variety and the customization is a little limited.
On the upside, the virtual world is family friendly, and very easy to use. Onverse has one of the best tutorial areas I have seen in a 3D virtual world. By the end of the tutorial section you will know all that you need to know. The interface is simple and uses the normal keyboard and mouse controls you probably used in other programs.
Bottom line, Onverse is a small virtual world that won’t appeal to everybody, but it should find an audience that likes the cartoon look and feel. Kids and young teens, especially young girls, will likely enjoy the environment and social activities the most, but it is appealing enough for all ages to check out.
Nice article, really like their cross platform support. Mac version runs smooth and fast and as you said, its a fun safe place.
“Many members of There avoid Second Life for various reasons, so they have been visiting many other worlds.”
Why do you suppose Thereans really don’t want to move to SL? For me it isn’t the adult content but the sense that it would be admitting defeat. I have a SL account although I have only used it twice. When I was looking for a 3DVW I first tried SL then tried There. My SL avie never made it out of the “Newbie” area but not only did I stick with There, within a week I had purchased new clothes and later a porta-zone. There felt more comfortable while I never really got my sea legs with SL. Perhaps, as you say, “It’s the avies, stupid.” While There avies were decidedly less detailed then SL’s, they were much more “human” with the idle behaviors and automatic emotes. I know SL avies laugh when you type LOL but they don’t react when you type “wow” or “happy.” In There I fealt like I could be “someone” while in SL I felt like I was trying to be “something.” I’ll be trying Onverse tonight.
Is this Onverse a There-clone? :S
Anyway, I think the biggest potential for a successfull 3D world is through Facebook. They have the crowd, I don’t know how many millions. And they’re probably looking at SL, maybe some of the other tech’s. What I think is probable is they’re going to use some game-engine as the platform, and allow paying members to have “land” (much like SL?). However, due to them being big, I don’t think they’ll allow nudity, and they’re going to have strict enforcement of copyright for “wares” (props, clothings, textures etc.).
You really ought to look at Onverse again now. It’s grown so much and I’d say graphics in general are way better as they’re making higher quality items and they totally redid the hub. Avatars have even changed, although you still can’t customize them too much. And finally, so many features have been added, like a new website/social network, vehicles, swimming, new games, and home building. Take a look