We've seen a real surge of virtual worlds over the last year. Prokofy Neva's observation that a full 30 worlds are showing off demos at the Virtual Worlds conference in San Jose is evidence enough that there's growth in this area, but there might not be a direct competitor for Second Life. How many of these upcoming worlds will be able to provide a space for independent businesses to thrive?
One contender is attempting to do just that. NOVOKing has opened to the first group of 500 Alpha testers, and will roll out another 1000 Beta accounts shortly. It's the newest virtual world out of China set to compete directly with HiPiHi and Second Life in the virtual world arena. How does it compare, and will it be a place that businesses will call home?
Answering this question turned out to be a real challenge. I'm one of the very few English-only speaking people to have "set foot" in NOVOKing, and the language barrier was pretty difficult. For the time being there is no English version of the client, and most buttons are labeled in text only. I decided to just start clicking things. The very first thing I did was permanently delete my pants.
Mental note: that's the wrong button.
Even though I had to guess at how to do things, exploration of NOVOKing was relatively easy. Walking, running and flying were all simple and intuitive, and soon I was exploring a pre-fabricated city center. Several companies have already set up with NOVOKing, putting billboards up and selling branded virtual goods in the same way that we see it done in vSide. Spending time around these ads is encouraged by the smooth integration of dance animations and other interactive social tools.
The sale of virtual goods is, according to the website, something that every avatar can engage in the same way they do in Second Life:
Novoking's Terms of Service agreement recognizes Residents' right to retain full intellectual property protection for the digital content they create in Novoking, including avatar characters, clothing, scripts, textures, objects and designs. This right is enforceable and applicable both in-world and offline, both for non-profit and commercial ventures. You create it, you own it – and it's yours to do with as you please.
Content creation in NOVOKing has an edge over Second Life in that it enables direct import from professional tools like 3dsMax and Maya. We can expect to see small businesses in not only scripted objects, furniture and clothing, but also professionally designed custom avatars built from the skeleton up. Companies with existing 3D warehouses will have an edge here, as will independent artists who are familiar with advanced design tools.
There are things that aren't yet clear. We know that the in-world currency can be freely exchanged for real-world currency, but we don't know if the exchange rate will be flexible or set. We know that every avatar gets their own apartment to furnish and invite friends to (similar to how Kaneva handles it), but we know nothing about how real estate will work outside of these private areas - or if those areas can be traded.
Despite these mysteries, NOVOKing seems set up to accommodate the creation, sale and trade of virtual goods and has integrated billboard-style advertising schemes. It definitely looks like a promising candidate as a direct competitor to Second Life, and a tempting venue for businesses. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for English versions of the client to become available... then maybe I can find my pants.
