Archaeological Tour of Active Worlds...

Here I am as a default Tourist Avatar somewhere in the Activeworlds Gateway in order to commemorate The Extreme Builder Talent Show at ON 4E facing W. This monument is of Cy, the very first avatar designed in Alphaworld (which later became Active Worlds). In Second Life's indigenous jargon, Cy can be seen as a basic "prim" avatar

This post was originally drafted on November 14th, 2008. Since my thesis has started in earnest, I have not had the time to prepare this posting for online publication since it was low on my list of priorities.

This post was about my brief archeological tour in Active Worlds which was one of the Ancestors of Second Life and still exists as an active avatar community. Active Worlds and Digitalspace Traveler were my main hangouts in 2001 so it was very nice to return to AW to see what the place looks like now that Second Life is the dominant chat-based virtual worlds platform.

Since I am analyzing avatar community platform predecessors to Second Life, I will likely produce a new blog posting that reflects upon my experiences returning to reflect on the design affordances of avatars in Active Worlds

So, here are some more photos from this tour back into Active Worlds...


Here is a close up of the sculpture's base at the Activeworlds Gateway at ON 5E facing W.

...and another angle...these are tourist photos, after all ;-)

- Activeworlds Gateway The Extreme Builder Talent Show at 2S OW facing S. Here I am now as a female tourist avatar. I am posing with a surveillance mirror and a local male tourist is also visible in this picture.

Activeworlds Gateway and The Extreme Builder Talent Show at ON 6S facing W. I really love the design of these teleportation portal windows as they provide a landscape preview of the next world one might potentially enter. I wonder if Unreal Tournament looked at Active Worlds for the development of their own portal design?


Activeworlds Gateway and The Extreme Builder Talent Show at 4S 1E facing W.

Activeworlds Gateway and The Extreme Builder Talent Show at12S 14W facing SE. Here I am killing virtual time with my free purple glider hoverboard. I think There.com also used to have hoverboards similar to this glider except that they were somewhat expensive to purchase.


Activeworlds Gateway and The Extreme Builder Talent Show at 1N 8W facing E. This shows the special clock that only tells the exclusive VRT (Virtual Reality Time)...This time zone is indigenous to AW's local world. Using an in-world time zone makes sense because the lighting in this world does not seem to correspond to a regular 24-hour clock.

...and now, here is a photo of my extremely brief venture into the ultimate heritage destination, Alphaworld...

AlphaWorld at 1999N facing N. Here I am as an untitled hourglass icon avatar. These hourglasses represent rezzing avatars in AW. These icons show that an avatar is idle and the equivalent in Second Life is the infamous "afk SLump".