By now everyone knows that Raph Koster and Areae finally announced their big project:  Metaplace.  Other blogs have covered the details that we know at this point, and you can also visit Cuppytalk to read her letter to the community.  So this isn’t a breaking news post, and I’m not going to pull out the crystal ball to say whether or not Metaplace will be a huge hit.  There’s certainly a large amount of excitement in the air at the moment, but an equal amount of hesitation.  Some folks have already dived headfirst into the pool, while others are simply dipping their toe in at the moment to see what the temperature is. 

For me, having read the information that’s available and watching the brief demo video today, I’m actually left with more questions than I am commentary.  So here are my questions:

1.  How robust, powerful and user-friendly is the Metaplace toolset going to be?  To me, tis is a very important question to answer.  Essentially it sounds like you will be able to create anything in Metaplace from an Amazon storefront, to a virtual chat room, to arcade type games, to teaching platforms, and full blown MMOs.  That’s a pretty wide variety of things with one toolset to do it all.  In terms of MMOs, if one wanted to make something akin to the level of complexity we have online right now, would the tools be robust enough to do that?  If they are too complex to learn and use, you turn people off and that would defeat the purpose.  If they are too simple, you have accessibility but you’ve sacrificed the complexity of the game you can create.  So ponder that while I throw in a couple of quotes by Cuppy on the toolset:

First of all, Metaplace is a platform that allows you to build any sort of world or game that you wish. Our tools will enable users of all skill levels to create games that can be played anywhere on the web that reads our open client standard…

Far better tools, faster development time, lower budgets, and openness to new talent. There really isn’t a limitation to what people can make with Metaplace – and there are a lot of creative people out there with limited access to expensive tools and large teams. We’re simplifying things so that even you can make something totally awesome, even without programming skills.

I love the fact that it will be accessible to people of all skill levels (even non-programmers like me!).  That’s the only way I’d have a chance to enjoy it.  But it makes you think, what about the folks who really know their stuff?  What’s the upper limit?

2.  Will the rating system be precise and accurate enough to reward the true gems?  One of the initial concerns I’ve seen is whether or not Metaplace will turn out to be a junkyard or a jewelry store.  In some respects, I think it depends on who gets wind of Metaplace and gives it a spin.  While some may not think the modding community is that great, I can recall lots of great user created content in everything from NWN mods to FPS mods and worlds to WoW UI mods.  There are a lot of creative folks out there that can actually pump out some pretty cool stuff.  But the fact is, they are probably outnumbered 20 to 1 (or more) by folks who won’t do much of anything worthwhile.  Here’s a quote from the MP site:

We hope there will be millions of worlds made with Metaplace. It could get hard to find stuff if we’re right, so the portal lets you easily search, rate, review, and tag worlds and games of all sorts.

O.k…millions of worlds?!  That may be overstating things at the moment, but you get the picture.  If there is a ton of user-created content out there, how are we ever going to find our friend’s world, much less know which worlds are the “best”?  That’s where the “search, rate, review and tag…” system comes into play.  I just hope the rating and reviewing system is pretty robust.  Will the true gems rise to the top or languish in obscurity?  I like the fact that things will be tagged as I can see wanting to try games in a certain genre that may not have made it to the top of the popular list.  When you think about how open and accessible Metaplace will be, who are the majority of raters and reviewers going to be?  Probably not folks like us, dyed-in-the-wool MMO vets.  I just hope no one finds a way to hack or exploit the rating/reviewing system – that could be bad.

3. What about trademark/copyright issues?  If someone wants to create a game, of whatever style, based upon or incorporating elements of other popular IPs (i.e. Star Wars/Trek, Matrix, LoTR, D&D, James Bond, comics, other computer/console games, fantasy author’s worlds, etc.), what are the legal requirements or ramifications of doing so?  Does it become a legal quagmire, or will anything based on an existing IP be off limits?  Must everything created be completely original?

4.   Will Metaplace become Profitplace?  Because of Metaplace’s web 2.0 compatability and ease of use, could there possibly be those who will find a way to use it for profit?  I’m assuming people will be able to profit if they design a game and choose to charge a fee to play.  And I think that’s great – if people put in the time and effort, make a great game and want to profit off that game, super.  I’m mainly thinking of the negatives that might occur.  Cameron at Random Battle brought up this very point in his post today – because the urls for each game are unique, will there be a “land rush” of sorts as people gobble up what they consider to be “prime” names and then charge exorbitant prices for them?  Are there other ways people might find to turn Metaplace into Profitplace (either in a good way or a “negative” way)?

5.  What is Raph’s “new worldly MMO” going to be?  For me, the announcement that Raph is going to be creating his own MMO using the Metaplace tools was exciting.  I’ll take a wild guess and say it’s not going to be traditional high-fantasy.  And this relates back to my first question – if Raph is using it to build his next MMO, the toolset must be fairly powerful and robust.  Let the speculation ensue.  I can’t wait to find out.