Few words really get me as excited about MMOs as the following: OPEN and EXTENSIBLE. Today, the team at Areae announced the long awaited brainchild of Raph Koster and crew, a new virtual world *platform* called Metaplace.

At first glance, you might think, “oh great, is this just another Habbo?”, but consider the possibilities a bit further. Sure, you could probably create another Habbo-style game to run within Metaplace, but you’re not restricted to that. There’s already clients for 2D of various sorts, including grid and isometric, and 2.5D heightfields. A 3D client is also in the works. So if you wanted to create Burger-Time for your website, had rudamentary graphic skill and working knowledge of LUA, you could make it happen. What if you wanted to create multiplayer Burger-Time that is part game, part world where you explore various burger joints for different challenges of skill, earning golden arch medals and coupons for bonus items like french fries for completing them? CHECK! Ok, I’m not 100% positive yet, having not actually toyed with this platform myself, but I’m willing to bet it could be possible.

Taking it a step further, what if some of these games depended on the device you were using to connect (cell, PDA, PC, Mac, Wii, PS3, etc.)? You could take advantage of the various interfaces to create all new game experiences!

This is just a wacky off-the-cuff example, but it seems to me that you don’t even need to have a game at all. It could just be a world (though you might want to make sure you consider some sort of hook in your design else people might look for the EXIT door very quickly)

Anyways, I’m pretty stoked and am looking forward to taking a crack at this beastie! The potential is high and I’ve got a great deal of faith in Raph and crew. I’m actually quite interested in what they’re able to put together for their own MMORPG built within Metaplace. Will this overthrow WoW, EQ2, and the other major MMORPG players? Probably not, but I think this is aiming to be something fresh and different. A new way to play, to explore, to develop, and to interact. This could be very revolutionary, and I think Metaplace is one to watch in the next year!