Virtual Worlds Forum

Taking a look outside the conference for a mo, there's a really interesting post over on Metaversed.com suggesting that there are just nine social virtual worlds once you strip out worlds that aren't yet available to the general public, and children's worlds (writer Nick Wilson thinks they deserve a separate category - a view that's also been expressed here at the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe). So, taking the definition that a social virtual world is one with "game-like immersion and social media functionality without narrative driven goals" and "a sense of presence with others at the same time and place", what are the nine on Metaversed's list? 1. Second Life (pictured) 2. ActiveWorlds 3. Kaneva 4. vSide 5. vLES 6. Entropia 7. Ogoglio City 8. There.com 9. MTV's Worlds Interesting stuff. Of course, the fact that a lot of worlds that aren't widely available have been stripped out means that in the coming months, this list will swell as they launch commercially. Nick's conclusion is that the virtual worlds space is smaller than people think, there's a lot of technology platforms that aren't as such virtual worlds, and that "we're over-hyping the 'metaverse'". Thoughts?