On Jan 20th AltSpace announced it will close.
https://altvr.com/sunset/
Using the terribly stupid expression ‘sunsetting’ as opposed to ‘nuking’ which would be more accurate.
This is a terrible shame, and something that many of us feared already when Microsoft bought the platform. Why is it that big corporations cannot resist destroying small and successful smaller companies? What’s in it for them, are they trying to make it work, kill it so their project can survive or steal workforce, or maybe a mix of the 3?
All I know is that during Covid, for many people, AltSpace solved all their social needs, and became for the first time an “alternate” world in which to live. I for one saw it as a place that actually, to some extent could be thought of as the beginnings of a metaverse as described in my favorite Sci Fi books of the 80´s and 90´s. I met people chatted with them and discussed with them, all without really noticing that I was in fact alone in my room talking to the air, and looking at a cartoon woman who did in fact have a gravelly low possibly middle eastern accent. AltSpace concentrated on community building, and there were many, from Yoga and meditation to religious and bible study to stand-up and open mike.
I hovered in the “World builders” communities, where people discussed building techniques and were often concerned with real world money-making, discussing crypto and NFTs in the metaverse or making fun experiences. In these communities stars were born, to name one Artsy (https://www.artsyvr.com/) who built opulent and expensive apartments and party spaces, often for real world paying clients. There was Educators in VR, headed by the busy and intellectual Lorelle VanFossen, which, while platform agnostic and still continues in a variety of other metaverse, was born from AltSpace to provide genuine university researchers and educators wanting to make learning experiences in VR and a place to discuss and share ideas on pedagogics and practical techniques in VR. They ran courses on how to successfully hold events and conferences.
And then there was the raves. As my mate James said after I had given him a quick tour of AltSpace, “It’s all about the clubbing isn’t it?”. In this area there were also big names like the MOMA rave series, built and operated by Zack and Moman, (who were interviewed this week in an AltSpace talk show and afterwards briefly opened up one of there rave-worlds for one last dance.
The Inner Circle whos huge impressive rave worlds were fun to explore and party in, and X…. that was a bit more gritty and simply built but streamed real life DJs playing live into the VR space. VR was big on Psi Trance for no apparent reason and most clubs seemed to adopt that genre or music, there was a few smaller clubs however that concentrated on other genres, the super dark and smoky Indie club, and the Rave Cave, which despite its name was playing mostly Jungle and Drum and Bass.
Of course there are other metaverses, are ENGAGE XR, Spatial VR, VRChat, Mozilla Hubs, Meta Horizon Worlds, and Rec Room. But there are problems and issues with all of these and no one place can really take the place of AltSpace. The AltSpace builders are now all busy downloading their content and trying to get it to work into these other platforms, I’ve been getting alot of mails from Spacial, who are obviously seem an opportunity now. VRchat however, despite being eschewed by the more grown up target group of AltSpace seems to be the main contender, they can compete on functionality, is also Unity based, and already has a big modding community, although the focus here appears to be on “cool costumes” rather than events and worlds. Consequently VRchat always feels a bit like Second Life to me, either full of sweary kids, or creepy adults wearing furry costumes or overtly sexual anime bimbo skins. Being almost 60 and entering here, does make one feel a tad uncomfortable and I tend not to talk, fearing, shouts of Pedo, from the crazy kids.
AS I mentioned in Documenting VR I have collected many of my visits to AltSpace on my YouTube channel.
There is however one intriguing underdog. Back when AltSpace was still free, there was this guy, Shane. Now Shane had this script that made it possible to build in AltSpace itself, instead of building in Unity and uploading. Well Shane went over to SideQuest tje underground independsnd Quest app library, now it seems he has, with the backing if SideQuest produced a pretty great new little metaverse, super high-quality look, utilising the excellent ReadyPlayerMe avatar engine, and available as an AppLab app right in the quest. Looking good so far!
https://www.altlabvr.com/banter
I wish I could say that my little home-made metaverse, Virtropolis, was ready to go online and be a little addition to the space created by AltSpaces demise, but unfortunately it’s still nowhere near completion.
RIP AltSpace
