CyberTown
| Cybertown | |
| File:Cybertown.png | |
| Homepage | www.cybertown.com |
| Platform | Blaxxun |
| Owner | IVN |
| Founders | Hawk & SFX |
| Membership Status | Free (as of 31 July 2011) |
| City Mayor | LadySilverSplash |
| Deputy Mayor | editme |
| Colonies | Sci-fi Entertainment Games Virtual Worlds Cyberhood Inner Realms The Campus 9th Dimension Adventure Hi-Tek |
Cybertown (CT) (formerly ColonyCity) is a free, family friendly, online community. Following a private purchase of the community in 2003 and the implementation of a subscription only service, Cybertown had seen a rapid decline in activity over the last few years. Announced on July 31, 2011, Cybertown has returned to a free membership up until the end of 2011 at the very least.
General
Cybertown has a mix of city places, public areas and residential colonies. Every area has its own (chat room) available either through a 2D or 3D environment.
The history of this site has been discussed in detail by Nadeshda Kaneva as an illustration of the social dynamics that emerge in online communities [1]
Experience Points
Every day a citizen logs in to Cybertown, they are given 21 experience points (exp). In addition, employed citizens are awarded a weekly experience bonus dependant on the seniority of their job. Although experience points do not act as a ranking system in Cybertown, it generally identifies those citizens who have participated the longest and hold the highest prestige.
Social Structure
Citizens are encouraged to hold jobs within the community, allowing them to gain virtual money (CityCash) and weekly experience bonuses. There are two job types; colony and city. The colony structure is as follows; Colony Leader, Colony Deputy, Neighborhood Leader, Neighborhood Deputy, Block Leader & Block Deputy. City jobs are wide ranging and generally are either Leader or Deputy positions (excluding Security, C.E.R.B. etc). Citizens are generally able to hold both colony and City positions.
Engine
The Cybertown trademark image are the 3D worlds that it has. The 3D worlds run on the VRML markup language, which is easy to design and modify. It uses The Blaxxun Community Platform coupled with the Blaxxun Contact VRML Viewer control, to interact in 3D worlds to make it more complete and capable of having a society structure by adding social interaction between users.
History
Colony City was started in 1997 as a showcase project of Blaxxun interactive of Munich, Germany. Colony City made use of the VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), a standard for displaying 3D content, including virtual worlds and avatars, on the Web. These VRML files became shared virtual worlds using Blaxxun's award-winning multi-user server technology, enabling people from all over the world to meet and interact in rich-media environments in real-time on the Web.
Colony City Society Elements:
- Jobs
- Currency
- Home Ownership
- Purchasable Items
- Security
- Rank Hierarchy
Before the merge of ColonyCity and CyberTown, ColonyCity had a massive unemployment problem which neared 90% of users unemployed, making the main purpose people came to ColonyCity was to interact with the other users. Those that were employed were most likely part of the development team or were the first people to arrive.
Midway through 1999, ColonyCity merged with CyberTown which dramatically increased the users to a few thousand. At the time CyberTown was mainly a portal site with categories of links, however ColonyCity was able to use the ideas from the categories to make 3D worlds and expand CyberTown. To allow this influx of citizens to have homes in CyberTown, new "colonies" (places to live) had to be created. This created a huge demand for jobs which in turn created a more dynamic economy and gave new objectives for people.
Economics
Citizens are able to hold jobs within the city, earning a daily wage in CityCash (CC's). Citizens can use CC's to purchase upgraded 3D homes and 3D objects. Citizens can also create their own 3D objects via VRML and sell them in the city's Mall for profit. This has created a plethora of diverse and rare items that can be sold secondhand either out of a citizen's backpack (inventory), in the Flea Market, or in the Black Market.
A major problem behind the economic of Cybertown was staggering inflation. There was no taxation system put into place to subtract from the wages to keep things in check. and so people realised that the "regulars" could afford more. So they made objects for the mall, purchased them for a paltary sum before anyone else could, and then sold them exclusively at inflated and ridiculous prices. But for many newcomers, the mall was regularly bare of "good" items, and the flea market was far too expensive.
City Places in Cybertown
- The Plaza
- The Plaza is the first place a user is taken once logging in. It links to other places, and thus is akin to a real city plaza.
- ePlex
- The ePlex is an entertainment center. It features games such as bowling and video poker, an art gallery, streaming video and music, and even a dance club named The Black Sun.
- The Clubs
- The Clubs are clubs created by Cybertown users based upon interests. Persons with a specific amount of EXP can create a club, anyone can join one.
- The Flea Market
- The Flea Market is a central place for people to sell items that they own.
- The Black Market
- The Black Market is akin to the Flea Market, except visitors are not allowed to view the chat.
- Employment Office
- The Employment Office is a place where citizens can go to view job offers and apply.
There are several more places to explore and enjoy - come visit!
Cybertown Returns Free
During the 2011 Summer Gala Awards on 31 July 2011, City Mayor LadySilverSplash announced that after several months of work behind the scenes, Cybertown would cancel the membership requirement and return to a free-to-use site until at least the end of December 2011.[2]
"[City Mayor] LadySilverSplash [87354] : As of today, ALL members--current, past, new--**excluding perm banned members, of course**--have FREE access to Cybertown at least until the end of the year!"