Not So Lively
Carl sent me a link to Lively today – it caught my attention immediately. My first thought was, this is what Second Life should’ve been. The fact that it’s unashamedly a Google product helped a bit too.
All the site tells you is that you can “Create an avatar and chat with your friends in rooms you design”. Ok, not much to go by there but enough to get me interested. I already had visions of a mini window on the Cerebra site with our office and staff rendered virtually where clients could go to find out about products and services, drink pixellated coffee, wander between rooms, admire the (non-existent) artwork…
BAM!
The very next thing I run into is this: Requires Windows Vista/XP with Internet Explorer or Firefox (it’s obviously not web-based, as an aside). Sorry for you, Mike.
My immediate shock was somewhat assuaged when I realised there was a YouTube (also Google owned remember) video on the right hand side of the page that would, I assumed, explain the app to me in glorious viral detail. Click on ‘play’ icon, and I get the frikkin’ “This video is no longer available” black screen.
For crying out loud. After refreshing 5 times, I got to see this:
I guess it looks cool, but I still am not entirely what it does / what’s possible with the app. A bit more explanantion on the site might be nice.
Your thoughts?
Your post is appropriately named. In fact I Googled the exact phrase wondering if anyone else was finding Lively to be a misnomer.
So far I’ve tried to get into two rooms. The message “Joining room…” stays at the bottom. Although I can move around in the room, object animation appears to work, and tips appear periodically… I have yet to see another soul.
haha … IE … you can use my cool PC if you like?
Yeah it doesn’t quite seem complete, somehow…
I tried again today. It was much much better. I actually saw and interacted with others. I visited several rooms. I even created my own room called “Jindo Island, Hawaii.” Come visit me sometime.
Yes it’s still a bit slow to launch. But so is Second Life. Once the room “materializes,” the response time is reasonable. I’m quite impressed now.