metaplace-closing
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Raph Koster on the future of Metaplace
January first of this year brought about the closing of Metaplace, sad news for everyone involved. Shortly before the announcement was made, Eurogamer had an interview with game designer Raph Koster regarding Metaplace. In the end, they made the decision to release the interview in spite of the closing, as it contained some very good insight into the goals of the staff as well as information about the inner workings. The interview is especially interesting in light of the fact that Metaplace has repeatedly stated that it is not going anywhere, and that we should expect to see more very soon. "Metaplace Inc. isn't about to go away. In fact, we have some pretty exciting plans to announce in the not too distant future," Koster stated. Since we can assume that the basic philosophy and overall goals of the team remain the same, the interview is definitely still relevant for anyone who was a fan of Metaplace. Take a look at the full interview here, and enjoy!
Marketplace traction with the UGC model and the closure of Metaplace
As you read last night, the UGC (user-generated-content) virtual environment side of Metaplace is shuttering on New Year's Day, 2010, just a scant couple of weeks away. "The reason?" says company president Koster. "Well, it just hasn't gotten traction." Nor should it have at this stage, really. Metaplace only went into open beta in May this year, meaning that it is closing before it really launched. We believe that is several years too soon for traction with its (now canceled) model.
Metaplace announces January 1st shutdown
The Metaplace development team made the announcement today that no fan of a game likes to hear: "Today we have unfortunate news to share with the Metaplace community. We will be closing down our service on January 1, 2010 at 11:59pm Pacific." The bottom line to the reasoning behind the decision is that Metaplace simply is not making enough headway to be a viable (read: profitable) product. Fans will surely have a number of questions about this, and the community team has provided a FAQ to answer most of them. While it's sad news for both staff -- a significant number of whom have been laid off due to the closure -- and fans of Metaplace, the community team is holding their heads up and maintaining an optimistic outlook. The goodbye party on January first is being treated as a celebration of the fun that's been had, rather than a gathering to mourn the ending. Community Manager Tami Baribeau also shared some hopeful news in a blog post: "Metaplace, Inc. as a company (and as a tool) isn't going away. We have whole new shift of focus ahead of us and a smaller team set out to accomplish some big goals." Our sympathies are with the staff members affected by this, and with everyone who has invested their time, creativity, and effort in Metaplace. However, we join their team in looking forward to the good things anticipated by the company.
