If 3D virtual world games mark the first stage toward a “metaverse”, the second stage is platforms for 3D game creation.

A forum friend linked this news item about Forterra launching a platform called OLIVE. If you are not in the know on virtual worlds, Forterra was originally There, inc. the people that built the virtual world There, now run by a seperate company Makena Technologies, which also created Virtual MTV using the same platform.

OLIVE is the software that can be purchased to create your own virtual world whether public or private. It is of course expensive, and will require renting/purchasing servers to run the world, but it opens the possibility of hundreds of similar worlds.

But OLIVE is not alone, not by a long shot. The biggest virtual world out there is Second Life run by Linden Labs. Are they going to just keep their platform for themselves? Until last month, it seemed that way, but they quietly posted a new web site http://secondlifegrid.net/ last month which is in part to help companies have a presence in Second Life, but also it looks to be a means to a “private” second life as well. Linden Labs is actually planning on open sourcing their server platform (video of announcement).

Then you have Multiverse a platform primarily for MMORPG building, which could easily be converted for virtual world building. Worlds.com which has been working on adoptable virtual world platforms for over a decade, the x-rated Red Light Center is based on their platform.

There is also a platform being built by Doppelganger Inc. which built the PCD Lounge which just this summer became vSide. The philosophy of the company is more simplistic, and vSide is obviously geared toward teens. Yet based on screenshots, it is obvious that the Viacom built Virtual Lower East Side (currently in closed alpha testing) is using Doppelganger software. The screenshot above is from vSide.

Virtual Society