Kaneva: A simpler blend of Second Life and Myspace
Well, for this week, I am to blog about a “virtual hangout.” yah. I didn't want to play anything too bland so I tried out Gaia Online. Unfortunately, I was expecting more of an immersive virtual environment instead of a format that is geared for casual gamers. The interface is entirely browser-based – the user interacts both with a browser and a small, more interactive window that pops-up if you want to go through towns. While the lack of immersion did cheapen the experience for me, I found the games' users to be extremely nice. In fact, I made a friend within 1 minute of town-browsing and she started following me around, even though neither of us knew what we were doing. So perhaps precisely what I was complaining about, the visual simplicity of the world, works in the game's favor – trying to gear to a kinder, more innocent audience. Well anyways, I stopped playing a few minutes later because I wanted to try something else.
I had read about OzWorld on mmosite.com a while ago, and I thought, “well, now here is my chance to try it out!” So after downloading the client, creating an account, and reading about the cool things I could do in the game on their website, I was definitely excited to start playing. However, upon loading the game, I was horrified by the atrociousness of the 3d graphics and was quickly disappointed to learn that much of the game revolved around fishing... basically, standing and throwing a rod into the water waiting for fish.
I guess I was just looking for and expecting to experience something really new, fresh, and polished, so I drew upon my best experiences in the past with virtual hangouts, notably Habbo Hotel, There, and Second Life. After doing some research, I stumbled upon Kaneva, which while still in Beta and greatly lacking in population, provided me with a glimpse of the level of immersion and uniqueness that which I was craving.
When describing Kaneva to others, the most succinct description to give is “a mix of Second Life and Myspace.” When I first went to the Kaneva website, I first thought, “this looks like a cheap imitation of Second Life.” The avatars on the main page all look the same and less polished. But then I noticed pictures of real people below those avatars, which intrigued me. Then, when I clicked on “Virtual World” and watched the introduction video to learn more about Kaneva, I started to learn that the focus of Kaneva is much different than the focus of Second life. While creating an account and personalizing my browser-based page with a real picture of me, I realized that I wasn't just recreating myself in a virtual world, but that I was also enhancing myself in my real world. Confused? I shall explain.
At first glance, Kaneva's virtual world looks extremely similar to Second Life. Once I started playing though, I realized how different they were. After creating my avatar, which, was not very customizable, I was transported to my home, something that can only be possessed with real money in Second Life. At that time, in my home there was a TV, a TV Stand, and a light. I tried turning on the TV and watching some stuff but I couldn't because I needed to upload some media first. So then I tried changing the textures of the walls // adding a picture, got bored, and decided to go to the mall. I was able to buy a full outfit and plenty of furniture without spending any real money. While it is easier to buy things in Kaneva, there is far less customizeability and interactivity in the items themselves. I also do not think there is anyway to create your own items. Thus, I saw a lot of people wearing the same clothing, and a lot of similar houses. But, the plus side of this lack of customizability and interaction is that everything looks cleaner and there is significantly less confusion. Also, this simplicity shifts the users' focus into other things such as socialization, which is enhanced by real-world profile pages that are attached to the in-world Kaneva characters.
Really, the main point of Kaneva is to intertwine real-world with virtual-world. The minute I saw a youtube clip of Family Guy on a flatscreen in someone's house that I had just entered, I knew I was playing in a virtual world that sought to do something different from the other virtual worlds out there. In Kaneva, you can right-click on player's avatars and direct yourself to their “My Kaneva” pages which look somewhat like Myspace pages, with comments, friends, interests, videos, etc. You can also “rave” other people and places both in-client and in Kaneva community website which is basically like giving a “thumbs up” approval. You can also leave “blasts” which are shorter versions of Myspace “bulletins.” To use your television in the game, all you have to do is upload videos or links to videos and create a playlist. TVs are also hooked up to various channels which users can upload their media to. As Kaneva is still in Beta, I expect them in the future to add more in-game features for other types of media that which you can already upload such as “flash widgets”, games, and music. This level of connectivity between the real-world and virtual-world is not achieved so easily with other virtual worlds.
Unfortunately, for now, while the site gets many unique users, there aren't that many people on Kaneva at certain times. Maybe the link between fantasy and reality is just not what the market wants right now. Perhaps linking the two can only be successfully done for a mass audience in a purely browser-based casual aspect, i.e. Something where you DON'T have to download a massive client. Perhaps the absence of customizability fails to maintain player intrigue, something to keep players invested in the world for a longer period of time. Really, as of right now, the virtual world of Kaneva is simply not interesting enough to compete with the big guns of virtual space. However, the idea of linking virtual and real is fresh enough for me to see Kaneva's potential.
My biggest beef with the Second Life universe was many people's reluctance and sometimes downright aversion to talk about real life experiences. I remember one of my Second Life friends telling me to always be cautious about asking people about their real lives because “Second Life and Real Life don't mix.” Many seem to be so focused on enhancing their Second Life and living Second Life fantasies rather than enhancing their real life. In fact, I've met many a Second Lifer who have cybersexual relationships in Second Life while maintaining real life relationships as well.
The reason why Second Life does so well for many is that it appeals to their fantasies while Kaneva is viewed as a meager virtual Myspace. Thus, if I were to simplify the dichotomy... Second Life is an explorer's game while Kaneva is truly a social game. Potentially, Kaneva appeals more to our social instincts while Second Life appeals more to our curiousity. Butterfly v. Monkey.
Side Note:
Something I noticed.... the willingness by the Kaneva designers for the users to think “real world” really infiltrates many aspects of the Kaneva experience. For example, when signing-in to kaneva, you are prompted for your E-mail and your password, just like Myspace and other social networking sites, not your avatar name and password, like Second Life.