As I mentioned in my post about the Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad, I’ve been spending some time thinking about Avatars lately. There really is no type of content for me that combines the feelings of possibility and consistent disappointment in quite the way Avatars do.
I will get deeper into my thoughts on the promise of Avatars (and why I never feel like they fulfill that promise) at some point in the near future but I saw something today that I thought was worth talking about. A new web application launched in beta today called RocketOn which bills itself as:
… a venture-funded startup pioneering the development of parallel virtual worlds. Our goal is to create a new type of virtual world that spans the entire Internet. RocketOn allows you to take your avatar everywhere you go online. You can now play with friends, socialize and explore virtual spaces on any webpages. You can join in treasure hunts across the web, meet friends on your favorite sites, and find virtual goodies as you browse.
Check out the video here:
The idea of the web as a massive MMO spanning the Internet is interesting, but – to me – is fundamentally flawed. Whatever novelty there might be in seeing my friends avatars (and their avatar’s pets?) strolling across my search results and eBay auctions to talk to me about whatever it is I’m looking at (or – more likely – just to talk to me about whatever they feel like talking about) is bound to get cumbersome after a very short time. The target here seems to be younger kids (a similar application called Weblin appears aimed a bit older), who one might assume are more likely to be won over by the cuteness of it all.
However, I just don’t believe this is going to work to any great degree. As comfortable as people have become with multi-tasking, this is pushing it … and, what’s worse, its pushing it for no really good reason. There are very cool Avatar chat rooms that are already miles ahead of these startups in terms of the quality of their Avatars and communication (see IMVU) and having a specific place where that communication happens just makes sense to most people. Letting these Avatars run around on whatever web page you happen to be on results in an unnecessarily chaotic and somewhat pointless collision of behaviors. What seems cute and novel at first becomes annoying and intrusive quickly.
Although MMOs, the Internet, and IM have become so central to so many of our lives it does not necessarily mean that slamming them all together – with a cute avatar that I can buy clothes for – is going to be something many people want.
I do wish them luck and applaud the effort but I think we still have some work to do to fulfill the promise that so many feel Avatars can become.
Jason Jhonson
