Areae, the company headed by MMOG veteran Raph Koster (Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online), has announced what it's been quietly working on. The new product is called Metaplace, and is basically a platform for building virtual worlds that functions in a similar fashion to the web.

Rather than build a single self-contained MMOG, Areae is offering the tools for users to create their own worlds, and because they will be built on the same platform, the worlds can be linked together, a bit like web pages. Metaplace is in the alpha development stage at the moment and the worlds are limited to 2D and 2.5D, but Areae is working on implementing 3D worlds too.

The web similarities go beyond just linking the worlds; the Metaplace platform is built using web standards wherever possible, so the worlds can be integrated with web pages or use data from the web. It sounds similar in philosophy to the Multiverse platform, but takes the web integration stuff further. Here's an explanation from the FAQ:


Areae is also creating a new MMOG of its own using the Metaplace technology, but no details about that have been released yet except a hint that users might be able to help in its creation.