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'Bye There

Reading the announcement that There is shutting down made me very sad. I'm not all that into virtual social worlds, but There's community was great. There were always people holding events and games. Walking around, you'd bump into people huddled in a semi-circle holding voice chat conversations. They had performance areas you could reserve for putting on shows. It had buggies that you could knock people over in, go off ramps, and take people on rides with. There were jetpacks that you could do tricks on, and there were huge hovercrafts that could seat many people for trips where they could chat, emote, and jump off.

It is the only virtual world I've tried that has ever really felt alive. People could reserve areas pretty much wherever they wanted for placing buildings, furniture, and whatever junk they had. They could set up custom race tracks which would record time trials when not in use, and hold buggy races when they were "open." There was a scheduling system that ensured that whenever one racing zone closed, I could find another and instantly teleport there, building my friends and rivals lists over an evening.

If you logged out without putting your vehicle away, it would stay there. Anybody else could get in and drive it around. They could return it, put it in their inventory, and do whatever until the owner recalled it. That simple ability cultivated a community of people who would get cool stuff just so they could enjoy it with others. It was such a positive place. It was unbelievable.

While the software wasn't perfect, I fear we may never again see an interface to a social virtual world that gets so much right.

I admit that I never put too much money into There. Being Windows-only killed it for me once I got a Mac. But I have nothing but fond memories of There and I wish they could have made it work. There was awesome.

Posted Mar 04, 2010, in the morning.

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