Interoperability; was: [sldev] Call for requirements: ISO MPEG-V ...

[Mike Monkowski]

I didn't feel like spamming the list with separate replies to each note, 
so I put them all together here so that anyone who's not interested can 
just delete a single note.

First, although there are technical difficulties, which Tateru Nino 
pointed out:
> That would, of course, require the transfer of the avatar, the account, attachments, textures, LSL scripts(!), animations. Essentially a bit of a free-for-all, asset/content transfer, AND have the scripts reliably executed at the destination.
> Let me go out on a very tenuous limb here and suggest "fat chance". 
and IP issues, which Lawson English pointed out:
> how willing is LL to let specific assets loose?
> how compatible will the destination world be with the avatar stuff and its appearance?
> how willing will said world be to let the avie keep its origianl name and other such thigns?
> how willing will said world be to let an externally generated avie be a "first class" citizen? 
> and so on.
and business models, which Felix Duesenberg discussed:
> The main question to answer for any such thing to happen is, where's the business angle to justify such an effort? Creating interfaces and mappings between spaces that were never made with interoperability in mind is not a trivial task. Ultimately the customer, the user will have to pay for it to be enabled. Is there anything you want to do so badly that you'd part with your hard earned L$, PED, gold nuggets or real world currency? And, even before that, what's the business advantage for the respective companies running those worlds? 
> Apart from the technical challenge, you'd have to crack the business models first. If a company makes money by selling you stuff they make in-house, wouldn't they find it hard to see the advantage in opening the floodgate. Why would e.g. MindArk, CCP or Microsoft want that? Why would Linden Labs? Those being answered, we'd have a starting point. Hope I didn't miss a piece.
and also
> Now, who is going to be able to convince Blizzard and the rest that they want that, too? My guess is that this will be a task of the magnitude of creating a standard for videotape or disk formats... bringing mighty competitors to work together and compromise. Talk about herding cats, big fat ones. 
and the fact that some transfers are already taking place, which Tateru 
Nino pointed out:
> Assets are already transported between worlds, no code required. Look at the number of content assets in SL that have been ripped from other worlds and from assorted games.
> I swear, if I see yet another cybernetic vampire castle made from Unreal 2 textures, I'll probably hurl.
that's not really the question I was asking.  I'm not so concerned with 
the question "How?" but rather the question "Why?"

Christopher Yeoh wrote:
> Between say WoW and SL it may not be important, but between SL and say something
> like ActiveWorlds or other virtual world environments with similar purposes
> it will be very valuable to not have to reimplement a version of a build
> or tailor/dress an avatar for each world.
which I understand to be a means to minimize effort.  But this leads to 
a couple more questions:  Why would you want to do the same thing in two 
worlds if there were a mechanism to travel between the two worlds?  And 
aren't building, tailoring, and dressing the fun parts?  Why would you 
want to minimize those?

But there are other points of view that I never considered.
Felix Duesenberg wrote:
> When reading about this discussion I spontaneously dismissed the idea, but upon second thought that is not so clear indeed. A while ago I played Entropia Universe, and took a brief glimpse at EVE Online. I too had fantasies of being somehow able to move my avatar between them. I have no clue what purpose it serves, but the idea is cool in a very fundamental way.
and
> Great  :)  Needed to elicit that mention... I keep forgetting that others like to think differently. I'm not so focused on designing my appearance, more on the aspect of all these worlds/games being used as communication tools.
I think I have the same bias.

But Argent Stonecutter wrote:
> I don't believe that it's possible to create an avatar in WoW that  will 
> look like any of my avatars in SL, and frankly I have no  interest in 
> playing Warcraft or Everquest or any other MMORPG until  that changes.
and
> OK. At the moment, my avatar in SL is a ferret. Four legged, about  two feet long, which is big for a ferret, I admit, but until LL  loosens up on the mesh and skeleton that's the best I can do.
> 
> I have a collar with feathers stuck in it that I wear sometimes.
> 
> If a friend of mine invites me to visit him in WoW, is it possible  for me to visit him as this avatar?
and also
> I've spent hundreds of dollars on my avatar over the past three  years: that and land rent for the Coonspiracy is where pretty much  everything I earn in SL goes to. Why wouldn't I spend real money to  carry that around with me?
> 
>> And, even before that, what's the business advantage for the  respective companies running those worlds?
> 
> Getting people who would have absolutely no interest in visiting WoW  as an elf or a thinly disguised hobbit to play the game? People  willing to pay a premium to have a custom avatar, but not willing to  pay a penny to be a dark elf no matter how fantastic a costume Sony  or Blizzard or whoever come up for it?
which seems to imply that identity is not just an abstract concept that 
manifests itself differently in different worlds, but rather something 
visual, that cannot be extended with approximate recreations.  Even if 
WoW allowed ferret avatars, it wouldn't be the same ferret.  Am I 
interpreting this correctly?

Mike