This is a quick list of some of the main virtual worlds. It is boom time for such places at the moment so new worlds are being announced all the time - and going live slightly less often! One estimate placed the total virtual world population at around 40-45m users (Mar 07).
| Second Life |  | Probably the pre-eminent virtual world at the moment by dint of its size (> 11m users at 1 Jan 08), features, openness and convertible currency. The one to beat. There is also Teen Second Life for 13 - 17 year olds. |
| Active Worlds |  | Predates Second Life and now looking a bit tired. That said it's multiple-worlds model is being picked up by several new virtual world companies. Daden MD David Burden still has a house somewhere there, out by Retsmah Crossing. |
| There |  | A very strong, teen orientated world. If you just want to hang out, drive a dune buggy or ride a hoverboard this is the place to do it. The physics are far more accomodating than in Second Life and there are no sim boundary problems to deal with. MTV has used the There platform to create their own Virtual Laguna Beach - expect to be propositioned by a US teen within 5 minutes of going on-line. |
| Multiverse |  | Currently in beta, this takes a similar approach to Active Worlds, producing a white label virtual world engine where each developer can create their own world. Probably a good choice for strong brands such as films and TV shows that want to create a consistent universe (no hobbits strolling across Tattoonie or CSI:Miami). |
| Croquet |  | Croquet is technically one of the most advanced projects out there, and is open source. Features include windows and doorways from one part of the virtual world to the next, and even putting Word and Excel documents onto objects in -world - and benig able to edit them. Only just at version 1.0, but has been picked up by QWAQ as part of their virtual forums offering. |
| Habbo Hotel |  | Fitting into our Teen World category, Habbo Hotel uses an isometric viewpoint, diddy little avatars, moderated chat and strictly controlled advertising. Drawing a mainly teen audience (although we have had some impressive philosophy discussions in there) Habbo is one of the biggest Western virtual worlds with over 74 million registrations since 2000, and 7m unique users a month spending 35 minutes a session. Average age is 13 - 15 though! |
| CyWorld |  | The big South Korean virtual world aimed mainly at teens, but also now with a US operation. Over 15 million members. |
| Kaneva |  | A social networking biased world designed to acts as a 3D room environment into which you can bring videos (from YouTube) and friends. Also shared spaces like a shopping mall and movie theatre. Currently in Beta. Probably very similar to Sony Home. |
| Sony Home |  | Due to launch in Spring 2008. Accessed from a PS3 it gives users their own apartment and communal gaming and entertainment spaces. Expect similar for the XBOX. Does it block a PS port of SL? |
| Open Source Metaverse Project |  | An open source project to produce a metaverse engine. |
| World of Warcraft |  | More an on-line game than a true Virtual World, World of Warcraft nevertheless boasts 8 - 10m users and many use it for socialising as much as for bashing dwarves. The users base is also a lot older than you'd expect. |
| GalaxyLife |  | A UK based world promising multi-platform operation and based around using your social network to progress to Galaxy President where you can start telling the game developers what to do! Not yet launched - and now even the web site seems dead! |
| Pre-teen Worlds |   | We'll just name-check them for now, but before they even reach their teens today's kids are playing in virtual worlds - and often preferring them to the TV, video games or even MSN. Look at places like Club Penguin, Runescape, and Disney's ToonTown. Read an 11 year old's view of Club Penguin, Runescape and Toontown. |
Blogger Robin Good has quite a good feature summary of some of the key virtual worlds, and there is a Virtual Worlds Matrix over at the Virtual Worlds News site.
