Information maybe a bit old
http://www.virtualworldinfo.com/full_list.html
| Virtual worlds are growing fast. In 2009, there were 136 million people active in virtual worlds. That number is projected to grow to over 2 billion in 2014. There are many different varieties of virtual worlds, from 2D and 3D worlds to user-generated content or professional content, from browser-based and download worlds to free or paid worlds, and from chat-based to more game-like massively multiplayer worlds. With so many virtual worlds coming to the market, this website has been built to try and help you choose which one is right for you. Our virtual world list is not complete, but it is a start. We will do our best to update the list as we find new virtual worlds and have time. Get those avatars ready to chat, dance and play games! |
Top 5 Virtual Worlds
| 83% | Onverse | ||
| Onverse is a fairly new virtual world. It really shined in the factors we were looking for most in virtual worlds. While it is a social virtual world, it is more game-like than most virtual worlds. You can run around and collect points for shopping to upgrade from a free apartment, dress your avatar, collect pets, and most of all, play games. The gaming angle is why we both really liked it and also think the future is bright for it. The community was outstanding as well. There is still some work that needs to be done, but apparently this has been built by a very small team thus far, which again bodes well for the future of this product. | |||
| Company | Onverse, LLC | ||
| Start Date | 06/15/2009 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Download | ||
| Website | http://www.onverse.com | ||
| 81% | Habbo Hotel | ||
| Habbo is one of the oldest worlds out there, and thus has a lot of things to do. The graphics are probably the biggest downside to Habbo, but most web-based worlds fall into this catagory due to the inability of browsers to handle complex 3D rendering. There were plenty of fun games and activities for us to take part in. The community was good and communication was easy. Grab a free Guest Room and decorate with "furni", or head out to Public Rooms to meet people and hang out. | |||
| Company | Sulake Corporation | ||
| Start Date | 08/2000 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Web | ||
| Website | http://www.habbo.com | ||
| 78% | There | ||
| There is a fun place. It has a lot of the things we value highly in our ratings system. Tons of areas, customizations galore, and even some humorous situations to boot. The biggest downside we found were the load times. Sure you get into areas fairly quickly, but because everything is loaded as you go, it sometimes took as long as 10 minutes to load the objects around us, leading to some moments when we didn't know why we couldn't move, but came to find out that we were inside a building that just hadn't loaded yet. All in all, the ratings were high though and we had a lot of fun. | |||
| Company | Makena Technologies | ||
| Start Date | 10/2003 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Download | ||
| Website | http://www.there.com | ||
| 75% | Free Realms | ||
| Free Realms is a beautiful world with a lot of activities, customizations, you name it! The problem we found is that it really doesn't feel like a virtual world, it feels more like an MMORPG. They call themselves a virtual world, however, and because we really like the game-side of virtual worlds, they scored very high in most catagories. There are usually a lot of people playing, so we found the community to be helpful, another high score. | |||
| Company | Sony Online Entertainment | ||
| Start Date | 04/29./2009 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Download | ||
| Website | http://www.freerealms.com | ||
| 74% | Second Life | ||
| Second Life is the poster child for the first thing people think of when someone says "virtual world." While it is a wonderful concept and the possibilities are endless, our review board tends to like things more focused towards fun things to do. Second Life is just a little overwhelming for someone who just wants to have a laugh and is more intended as a tool for creation, rather than just being able to hop in and have fun. We have to hand them a top 5 though as if it weren't for SL, most of the others wouldn't have been built. Careful, as many areas are very adult-themed. | |||
| Company | Linden Lab | ||
| Start Date | 06/23/2003 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Download | ||
| Website | http://www.secondlife.com | ||
| 72% | Club Penguin | ||
| Club Penguin is a very cartoony, web-based world owned and operated by Disney. It is targeted towards children and was a little below our personal preferences for community, due to the interaction being primarily with, well, children. While it has a lot of things to do, personal igloos, etc, it just wasn't our favorite place to hang out. It did score high on our rating system however and is a great place if you are under 10 yearls old. | |||
| Company | Disney | ||
| Start Date | 10/24/2005 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Web | ||
| Website | http://www.clubpenguin.com/ | ||
| 71% | IMVU | ||
| IMVU was one of the worlds that took a slight hit for not allowing us to walk around. While technically it is a virtual world, it is strictly focused on chatting and you simply click different points in the world to "attach" your avatar to. The avatars are very pretty and they allow users to create and sell their own objects, but this leads to a lot of direction towards adult-themed dress-up, which also leads to a lower community score because every person we tried chatting with was just looking to make-out. | |||
| Company | IMVU Inc | ||
| Start Date | 04/02/2004 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Download | ||
| Website | http://www.imvu.com/ | ||
| 71% | Club Cooee | ||
| Club Cooee is another approach to a chat-based world. The spaces are very confined and you can't really walk around and explore a world, so it took a movement hit in our ratings. It was fun and the community was pretty good. The avatars and "world" have a consistent style, which we liked, we would just like to see more things to do than chat. | |||
| Company | Cooee GmbH | ||
| Start Date | 02/2009 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Download | ||
| Website | http://www.clubcooee.com | ||
| 68% | Whyville | ||
| Whyville is an older web-based world that is targeted towards children. A positive take on the world is that they try to give kids a way to learn while playing the game. It scored very high on system specs as it can run on older machines and even runs decent on dial-up. It scored low on graphics and high on fun activities and community. | |||
| Company | Numedeon Inc | ||
| Start Date | 1999 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Web | ||
| Website | http://www.whyville.net | ||
| 66% | Twinity | ||
| Twinity is a mirror world, meaning it tries to be as close to the real thing as possible. The world is pretty and allows you to explore real areas of the world that you might not be able to in real life due to geography and travel costs. The problem with trying to go with realistic avatar models is that the slightest mess-up and it's annoyingly obvious, with their animations being case-in-point. Twinity scored high on potential and graphics while scoring low on community and fun activities. | |||
| Company | Metaversum GmbH | ||
| Start Date | 09/2008 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Download | ||
| Website | http://www.twinity.com | ||
| 65% | Vivaty | ||
| Vivaty seemed to have a lot of bugs for us, but it is still in a beta so we didn't mark it down to much for it. The world is pretty and it's facebook integration was nifty. The avatar models, males primarily, really didn't appeal to us. It was a little hard to figure out at first, but we started creating our scene after some time. Vivaty did score high on potential as it is new and still in beta. We'll see what else is in store moving forward. | |||
| Company | Vivaty, Inc | ||
| Start Date | 11/2009 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Download/Web | ||
| Website | http://www.vivaty.com/ | ||
| 64% | Blue Mars | ||
| Blue Mars was the most graphically compelling world that we visited, almost to its detriment though. We were using a high-end, new computer to run it and it was still way too much for it to handle, with some serious rendering lag. Potential is here, but it may take a few years for your average player to even be able to run Blue Mars. You gotta love the idea of exploring a terraformed Mars though! | |||
| Company | Avatar Reality | ||
| Start Date | 12/17/2009 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Download | ||
| Website | http://www.bluemars.com | ||
| 63% | vSide | ||
| vSide is one of the worlds that could have scored much higher if it weren't for a few key things. They use a cell-shaded render of their world and avatars, which gave it good graphics consistency. They also have a lot of music to listen to which was awesome. The problem came down to community, which is a shame. Not once, not twice, but three times when we were simply asking around for help we were verbally attacked by other users because we were newbs. Maybe this is part of the fun activities in vSide, but as far as this site is concerned, it didn't make us want to score the community very high and unfortunately it is very important to us. | |||
| Company | ExitReality | ||
| Start Date | 2008 - Couldn't find exact start date | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Download | ||
| Website | http://www.vside.com | ||
| 60% | Kaneva | ||
| Kaneva was a fun world that seemed to have a lot going for it, with what seems like some big-time sponsors. As we explored however, it became apparent that the world and avatars felt a bit awkward and left a lot to be desired. The world seems to thrive off of being "famous" and it's all people talked about (wanting us to rate them to be more famous). It is also a social network, and has some web-based casual games on there site, but they didn't seem to do anything for our Kaneva account, they were just there to spend time on the site. | |||
| Company | Kaneva, Inc | ||
| Start Date | Late 2004 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Download | ||
| Website | http://www.kaneva.com | ||
| 60% | Meez | ||
| Meez has great animations and tons of avatar combinations. The avatars themselves are comical almost to the point of being bizarre with big eyes and mouths that take up most of their heads (kinda like muppets). While we laughed a lot, we just felt disconnected from a thriving world that we could explore. Meez has a lot of potential though as it runs on Java in a browser and looks better than most web-based graphics. | |||
| Company | Donnerwood Media | ||
| Start Date | 06/18/2008 | ||
| Cost | Free | ||
| Distribution | Web | ||
| Website | http://www.meez.com | ||
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