The 3D Internet

Home of the 3D Internet, Virtual Worlds and Community Chat


"3D Internet". I've been thinking about this term a lot lately. We seem to have forgotten about it, so I'd like to explore what it means, in terms of AW past and present and web interaction in general. Active Worlds claims to be the home of the "3D Internet", but what does this term really mean?

In some quick exploration of historic Alphaworld, you can see what this term meant in the mid- to late-90s. People and companies built their homes and shops in the metaverse, creating 3D "websites". They could showcase their interests or products, chat with friends or potential customers from around the world, and interact with their environment like never before. Without having actually been there, I can only imagine what the "3D Internet" must have meant to those exploring the cutting-edge of chat and interactivity, in the years following what could still be considered the infancy of the web.

We don't see the shops and close-knit personal homes of the Internet in AW these days. We seem to focus on cities, RPGs, and other various games and events. Every non-gaming public world has to be a "build world". Everyone wants the biggest object path with which to build skyscrapers, houses, and industrial complexes. Everyone has a city in AW, and we've all played at least one of the many RPGs, past and present, in AW. This is fine for showing off what the software can do. Everyone these days wants to see the most powerful 3D graphics and game engines, so we push the limits of our RenderWare and build highly advanced SDK applications to serve interactive games.

But it feels like we've lost something. Everyone goes off to Alphaworld, AWTeen, or elsewhere to build by themselves or with a small group. We build for the sake of building. After all, with the small userbase and the odds of someone stumbling across our builds, it's hard to build for any other reason. What could we be building? What could we be missing?

The 3D Internet.

Imagine this scenario. AW has a world where people build houses to introduce themselves; show off picture galleries from their vacations or family photo albums; and kick back, relax, and chat with friends. Companies set up e-commerce shops to advertise themselves, display and sell products and services, and chat with potential customers. It starts out small of course, because we the community are just getting things together and getting the word out. Then the news starts rolling and AW is advertised as the revolutionary new "3D Internet". Everyone can ditch their boring 2D website and build an interactive 3D home. A couple big companies set up shop in AW. They might even hire AW community members to make models or textures or build an in-world store for them. They would probably advertise their new online 3D store and bring their customers in to see it. People like shopping from home, right? Why not go to the actual store -- shelves, boxes, customer service reps, and all -- from home?

And what if we had a 3D social networking world? Instead of a profile page, we could have a house with all our information and pictures. We could even have a bot-run guestbook sitting on the kitchen table.

This is thinking outside the box, but it's not reinventing the wheel. The idea has been there since 1990s Alphaworld. This is just finding the future of the web in the past of AW. It's been done before, but it could seriously revolutionize the Internet. Of course, these are just my thoughts, and I'd love to hear your thoughts as well. Can AW revolutionize the web? Should we try to build a "3D Internet"? What could this do for AW? Would it do anything?