Talk:WorldsAway

Notes

Edited by Stublad (talk) 14:50, 13 September 2010 (UTC) The original notes left by Wikianon are here.. I will write my corrections in bold.

I rewrote the article using citations that should establish the notability required by WP:WEB. The history section needs expanding as I could only find sources for the 1996 to 1997 period. Many useful sources are now deadlinks but are nevertheless still available via archive.org.

This page is a good one for 1996 to 1997 history for the world Dreamscape: http://rabz.sbcoast.com/1997/ it also does 1998 http://rabz.sbcoast.com/1998/ and finally 1999 http://rabz.sbcoast.com/1999/1999.htm

Worlds Away history is tied up with LucasArts' 1986 Habitat, which reappeared as both the downsized incarnation Club Caribe and the more elaborate Fujitsu Habitat. Fujitsu then launched a yet more sophisticated version on Compuserve in 1995. That was the original Worlds Away, or the world of Kymer. Here is where my research gets uncertain. In 1996 or 1997 the operators must have further expanded Worlds Away, not only adding turfs and more areas, but also launching different worlds using the same software but different graphics, objects, and users. Around 2001, it seems Worlds Away had evolved into (or was cancelled and relaunched as) the Dreamscape, and apparantly now as a few worlds.

Just some clarification here.. WorldsAway is indeed linked with Habitat due to Randy and Chip working on both projects. The first virtual world to launch using the WorldsAway technology was known as the Dreamscape. The mythology dictates that the world revolves around one island known as Kymer and it's inhabitants live in the city of Phantasus on the Isle of Kymer.

In 1996 and 1997 numerous changes were made to upgrade the world. Turfs and other locales were indeed opened and technologies were upgraded. The first public world to launch after Dreamscape was in 1997 when Fujitsu held an open public beta test. They let users test out the new client in a world that eventually became known as Hallway. It was such a success that they closed it down briefly and brought it back as a permanent addition to the world roster known as Hotel Silicon. This lasted up until around November 1998. There was only one more world introduced whilst Fujitsu still owned the technology and this was known as Club Connect.

Club Connect was launched in July of 1998 originally envisioned as an Adults only world where people could sit down and chat with each other without having to worry about discussing a subject that might not be suitable for minors. Eventually the world was remodeled and became known as New Radio World. The premise was that they would have sponsored advertising from a particular radio station and in exchange the radio station would have its own exclusive area inworld where DJ's could broadcast their shows and talk to guests live and give out special pizes. A notable partner was the United Kingdom's Capital FM who had their own exclusive area in the London area inworld with special prizes and exclusive artwork.

On May 1st 1999 a company known as Inworlds.com licensed the WorldsAway technology from Fujitsu. They brought all of the shares but Fujitsu remained as an investor in the company holding an equity position in the company. Katsuhide Hirai, former Senior Vice President of Fujitsu Systems Business of America served on the board of directors of Inworlds.com. It is currently unknown if this arrangement is still in existance.

Sometime between July 1999 and November 1999 the world was given another makeover. Key locales were shifted around the cities and unused locales were deleted. The remodeled world formerly known as New Radio World had been renamed VZConnections. This was to tie in with the launch of a new brand name. The company had decided to drop the WorldsAway name and instead rename the brand as VZones which it has maintained to this day.

On the 2nd of September 2001 VZConnections had for the final time been made over and it was relaunched as newHorizones which is still standing today.

I may have digressed a bit here and there but the point I wanted to make was that WorldsAway was simply the name used to market the technology. Dreamscape was the first virtual world launched using the WorldsAway technology.. and that Hallway/Hotel Silicon/Club Connect and it's various remodels were all created and ran under Fujitsu's time of ownership except for the VZConnections + onwards period.

I should also mention that Inworlds.com later became known as Avaterra, INC who eventually became Stratagem Corporation.

I'm new to Wikipedia so I understand I should cite my sources for this info but I'm unsure how to format it to go onto this page so I will list several links that will support my information and make a small note by each to illustrate what they corroborate. It may also be worth noting that I am a long time member of all of these worlds mentioned from 1995 onwards so part of what I've mentioned is from my memory of those times but it's fairly common knowledge amongst members.

I did have some links to show where the Kymer/Phantasus info came from but the links are currently down. I will reupload the pages I have saved and put them here at some point.

I obtained information about Hallway and Hotel Silicon from here: http://vzn.eddcoates.com/worldhotel.shtml and used some of my own thoughts.

For the information given about Club Connect/New Radio World/VZConnections/newHorizone (all the same world, just different layouts and names.. same population) I used this link: http://vzn.eddcoates.com/worldnh.shtml

I used this page for the information regarding the sale of WorldsAway's technology to Inworlds.com/Avaterra, Inc/Stratagem Corporation: http://siliconinvestor.advfn.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=9722880

My first idea was to merge the four (Habitat, Club Caribe, Worlds Away and Dreamscape) into one article that covered the whole history from 1985 (when Randy and Chip actually created Habitat) to the present day Strategem worlds, but I now think that would not work well, if only because they each have their own distinct communities. Maybe Worlds Away and Dreamscape are the most eligible merge candidates? I leave this to others to decide!

Personally I don't think merging these would work because Habitat was the one that started it all and so it deserves it's own article. Club Caribe ran off of the same technology that Habitat did so it was merely Habitat with a different community and artwork but even so I believe it warrants it's own page. WorldsAway and Dreamscape could potentially be merged but I feel if the Dreamscape page was properly redone it could go into a lot of depth about it's creation, it's history and it's present day state. The WorldsAway page should emcompass the creation of the technology, it's inspiration, what happened during the time it was known as Worldsaway from 1995 to 1999.

Meanwhile here are some archived useful links, before they become lost forever:

• Remembering 1.x - A Worlds Away user's memories from December 1996 to 1998
• Worlds Away and VZones - Philipp Lenssen's memories from 1996 and 20004
• On Being a God - An Interview with Jim Bumgardner, creator of The Palace

-Wikianon (talk) 02:09, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Timeline

Edited by Stublad (talk) 15:31, 13 September 2010 (UTC) The original notes left by ajwkpd are here.. I will write my corrections in bold. My corrections are based on being an active user of WorldsAway from 1995 till the present day and from having done extensive research into the subject by interviewing former Producers of the WorldsAway project and speaking with others involved the entirety of my time inworld. I will be able to cite some of this information soon.. I did an interview with the Lead Producer of the WorldsAway project Jeffery Douglas also known as Oracle Vaserius in the Dreamscape where he walks us through his time being brought onboard at Fujitsu in 1994 and how the product was created from the ground up, etc. I shall post this soon as it's former online home is currently unavailable.

Here is a timeline based on my existing knowledge. If I can cite this, I will add it to the main entry. I was an active user of WorldsAway from 1996 until 1999. I've also done a fair amount of digging and research on my own over the years. This should be a helpful starting point for anyone else doing research. The continual name shifting causes a lot of problems. There are not a lot of dates here because I just do not know them:

LucasFilm's Habitat becomes Club Caribe available on Q-Link with the C64.

Habitat was launched as Habitat via Q-Link on the C64. This incarnation was only ever known as Habitat. Eventually Habitat closed and was relaunched as Club Caribe later on but it was a completely different world.

Fujitsu licenses technology in Japan, becoming Habitat, which is used with Fujitsu's FM Towns computer system. Visually, the biggest difference from this and Club Caribe are the colors.

Fujitsu develops Habitat II

Fujitsu began work on Project: Reno which eventually became branded WorldsAway. It was developed entirely in the USA by a team of Fujitsu staffers led by Randy Farmer and Chip Morningstar who had originally created Habitat. Habitat II was the WorldsAway technology localized for the Japanese language brought over by Fujitsu. It appeared at a later date than the Dreamscape which launched in September 1995.

Habitat II comes to America via Compuserve as WorldsAway

See above

WorldsAway's offshoot is made available on Compuserve, known as Pride! This is specifically for Gay & Lesbian users.

Dreamscape was made available first in September 1995.. Pride! was launched a year later and was indeed targeted at Gay & Lesbian users although this wasn't a prerequisite to join the world.

WorldsAway 2.0 enters beta testing on the web in the form of Hotel Silicon

First it was simply known as the 2.0 beta world which shortly after became known as Hallway which afterwards become known as Hotel Silicon.

WorldsAway 2.0 is made available via the web. At some point here a split occurs and Compuserve membership is no longer required. Up to this point, I think monthly access via Compuserve was $50-$70 a month unlimited. By the hour you could spend hundreds of dollars a month.

You didn't need a Compuserve membership but up until late 1998 at the very least you could still access the worlds via Compuserve. I think Compuserve membership login stopped working sometime in mid 1999 around the time the technology was sold.

At this point, WorldsAway effectively is three seperate places - Dreamscape, Pride (possibly become Queery Universe at some point here.), and Hotel Silicon (it was renamed, I don't remember what.) I am very unclear about this timeline as this is nearing the point I stop being an active user.

When we went to the web around late 1997 we had Dreamscape, Pride which became Queery Universe in November 1998 and Hallway/Hotel Silicon. Hotel Silicon was moved to Club Connect which became New Radio World which became VZConnections which became newHorizone.

There is a world created for Delphi Forums. May just be DelphiZones.

DelphiZones is only a very recent world.. it's actually a small trial area that exists within newHorizone and it can't be more than a couple of years old as of 2010 so it does not fit here in the timeline.

As some point a Korean world named Glass City is created. I do not know the current status of it.

We don't know much about Glass City other than we all flocked there around 2000/2001 due to Dreamscape and VZConnections being down for quite some time due to financial problems. It's currently closed: http://vzn.eddcoates.com/worldglasscity.shtml

(?) Ownership shifts from Compuserve to Avatera (sp?). This company has an IPO/becomes a publicly traded company

Fujitsu always owned WorldsAway, Compuserve was just a partner that enabled them to reach a wider audience. Inworlds.com bought it and they switched their name to Avaterra, Inc. They did get onto the stock market and their ticker name was something like AVAR

Avatera folds/gets delisted, (?) turns in to VZones. As of 2009 the owner is "Stratagem Corporation" - stratagemcorporation.com

We aren't sure what happened with the company going public but in the early 2000's probably around 2003/2004 the company became known as Stratagem Corporation and it's been the same company the whole way through since the acquisition from Fujitsu.

At some point Pride/Queery closes.

On the 20th November 2000: http://vzn.eddcoates.com/worldpride.shtml

At some point, in Japan, Habitat II becomes J-Chat (http://j-chat.net/)

Several new worlds are launched: SeduCity (adults only), Enter The Night (vampires), Funkytimes, (unknown and has folded.)

Seducity was launched in August 2001... Enter The Night is actually just an area within Seducity that launched within the last couple of years (as of 2010) and Funkytimes was a chat room website that Stratagem had purchased and set up a world for but it closed for some reason most likely due to inactivity.

The last major software update was in the 90s, with the launch of WorldsAway 2.0. The introduction of virtual good sales with Avatarwares has allowed the introduction of new graphics. However, Dreamscape can today be described as a ghost town. I am unaware of the status of the other worlds.

Dreamscape, newHorizone and Seducity are all still going, the popularity has declined but they are still in existence. There is also a free world known as chatzone that is frequented by people when the other worlds are down and has started to grow a small Korean population: http://chatzone.vzones.com

-Ajwkpd (talk) 05:07, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Hotel Silicon was always treated as the beta-test world, with limited graphics, free accounts and was often reset.. Robirrelevant (talk)

Software

Even in the very early days, WA was actually accessible via the internet, despite being a compuserve-only feature - simply access the internet, connect to Compuserve via their internet gateway, access WA which launched the standalone client which connected directly to the WA servers, then switch back to the compuserve client and disconnect from compuserve!

In 1996, a clone server was developed simply by monitoring the communications between the server and client, written in Visual Basic.

The client was mostly written in TCL, with code stored in plain text within database files. This allowed many people to patch the clients to give extra facilities, some were simply useful and some took advantage of the then fairly lax security of the servers to rather naughty things, e.g. looking into other players pockets, or duplicating tokens en-mass!

Robirrelevant (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 17:04, 8 April 2010 (UTC).