Another thought about the 3D Web...

After my previous post on my thoughts about the future 3D Web, I got some really interesting comments. We were also wondering who the next big player in the 3D virtual worlds game would be and guess what? The first video I see this morning is a trailer from Sony about Home, a new community based service for the Playstation Network (thanks Trevor for this one). Take a look by yourself:

Looks familiar? Yep, it's their version of Second Life with some great features to connect gamers. And it does look soooo pretty. But what it doesn't look like (at least from this trailer) is an open environment. It is limited to a single console and my first impression is that it is a very sterile environment. Maybe a bit too much.

Anyhow, I take Sony's Home community as a sign that virtual 3D communities are getting big and that that the digital natives of the next generation will probably will be very comfortable with virtual worlds and the ability to travel between different worlds - just as today's natives are comfortable with MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube and Flickr. However, I do hope that more open alternatives (Croquet and Ogoglio are worth mentioning again) will be available on the market. It is also up to us - the users, consumers - to support open source projects and demand more open environments. Let's not just settle for the first cute thing that comes around; we can and should have so much more!