GameCyte

Does anyone remember The Palace?

Back in the mid-90s, when the world was learning to fear the internet, enterprising minds were starting to explore the different ways we could interact with others online. The Palace emerged as one of the first graphical chat programs to really take root; while others had long experimented with GUIs and visual enhancements to existing IRC and instant message systems, The Palace enjoyed a period of success due to its interactive avatars and navigable virtual environments—both of which could be customized by users.

If this sounds awfully familiar, it’s because The Palace was one of the earliest graphically driven instances of what we now call a virtual world, with persistent commercially-provided servers, heavily-involved communities, and really interested corporations wondering how they can profit from it. Of course, it mostly amounted to deciding where you wanted your smiley-face avatar to sit on the very busy background while trying to keep up with the chat bubbles. Nearly a decade later, other enterprising minds asked the question, “What if we took this concept and fleshed it out with all our terrifying modern technology?” Well, they did that, and it was called Second Life. Then, someone much smarter asked, “What if we took this concept and fleshed it out, but it didn’t suck?” Thus, Whirled was born.

Whirled is among the newest virtual worlds (You get it, right? World? Whirled?) to rise up and compete for your rich inner life. The browser-based universe is the creation of Three Rings, the media darlings behind Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates and Bang! Howdy, and focuses on user-generated content for fun and profit. Yes, the company whose office is a steampunk undersea wonderland complete with full bar and tentacle couch has the idea that its users are going to supply the unique and creative ideas.

This is not to say Whirled is a desolate wasteland without its users. Whirled went open beta on March 25^th, and there’s already quite a lot of content in place. But is it any good? Can the non-talented find worthwhile pursuits in this user-generated world? And, should we attempt to put our own creations in place, how painful will it be? I signed up for an account and decided to see whether or not, as was my experience on Second Life, I would be stuck flying around an extremely drab landscape at 12 fps until I gave up after being accosted by another user with multiple disembodied wangs.

Whirled is browser-based, so access is pretty straightforward. There’s even an option to try it out without getting an account, which I decided to sample.

Well, aren’t I adorable? The “guest” avatar has me as a little blue ghost, but I’m still smiling. Pac-Man must be on break. A pirate is having a discussion with a wad of tofu about drawing materials, and there’s a lady with a polearm in front of me who looks to have had better days. The snow outside is animated, and “Strawberry Fields Forever” is playing over my speakers. I try to say hello to everyone, but apparently my ghostly vocal cords are too insubstantial. Well, interaction will come in due time. I decide to wander around a little more.

Very similarly to the original Palace, mousing over a room connection will highlight it. There’s also a button at the bottom which will instantly highlight all interactive hotspots in the room. I find myself in a tastefully decorated living room, watching TV with a sleeping knight. Must be the blood loss, I suppose. The TV is showing a cartoon about a pianist and his dog—and I do mean showing; the cartoon is playing in full motion and sound in its little frame.

Whirled is flash-based, and the inherent potential behind that is already becoming apparent. I personally have no experience animating or programming in flash, but if the internet has taught me nothing else, it’s that lots and lots of other people do. Of course, my train of thought leads me towards Newgrounds, and I’m reminded of my unpleasant Second Life encounter. The biggest risk in any venture centered on user-generated content is the nature of that content. Whirled has a system in place that allows users to flag and block inappropriate content, naturally, but user complaints are nothing without in-game support to back them up. We asked Three Rings to tell us more about their intended support program--look for an update soon.

It’s time to see what I can do with an actual account, so I sign up. Whirled rewards me with 1,000 coins, which it explains can be used to get set up with fancy new avatars, décor for my house, and all manner of fun tchotchkes. If I get a grand just for existing, I’m sure I’ll need more in order to renovate, so I decide step one is to start farming coins. The best way to do this, says Whirled, is by playing some games. Twist my arm, why don’t you.
Whirled’s game interface reminds me immediately of Kongregate, a productivity killer I visit rather frequently. Games are listed by genre, rated by the users, and quite a few of them have leaderboards and offer trophies to add to your profile. It’s very Xbox-Live-meets-Popcap. The first game I was offered, in fact, was Filler, a game I’ve already played on Kongregate. Whirled has a number of original titles as well, just as Kongregate has games exclusive to their site, but this does make me wonder about how the games will generate profit for their creators. Other game portals offer a variety of revenue streams to the creators, be they through a portion of ad sales, cash awards for high ratings, or otherwise. In playing a game on Whirled, however, I didn’t see a single ad, and I wasn’t charged a single unit of in-game currency—in fact, playing rewarded me with additional coins. We've asked Three Rings to provide some insight as to how game designers will be compensated—stay tuned for more details.

Another game I found myself instantly drawn to was LOLcaptions, a game which will be very familiar to those of you who remember Get the Picture, an online captioning contest hosted very briefly by an offshoot of Berkeley Systems. Images are presented to the players from a Flickr pool, and everyone has a short time in which to caption the photo, and the best one (as determined by votes) wins. It’s very much like Acrophobia meets Rorschach test meets i can has cheezburger.
Whirled’s game selection isn’t all retreads and familiar faces. Fans of Mac Hall and Three Panel Soul’s Ian McConville will see his influence in many of the avatars and items, but he’s also created an entire game of his own.

Brawler Whirled is a mouse-and-keyboard side-scrolling beat-em-up that pits you against the cutest damn gnolls you’ve ever seen. I felt really bad about stabbing them, but to be fair, they started it. It plays really well, even for an under-construction title, and has all the beat-em-up staples, right up to the ultra-cheap end boss who was awfully fond of one-hit-killing me repeatedly. Most all of the entries in the Whirled catalogue are still being refined, what with the site still undergoing beta testing, but the majority of them are nonetheless quite fun, and some are bound to be real gems with a little polish. Some, on the other hand, well…

With a few hours’ fun under my belt and 5,000 coins in hand, I decided to splurge a bit on some new stuff. Whirled’s shop area breaks down into nine sections: Avatars, Furniture, Décor, Toys, Pets, Games, Photos, Music, and Videos. Most of these are fairly self-explanatory, though some of them did confuse me a little. The Music and Videos would obviously have been the sources of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and the cartoon in the living room, and the selections struck me as a minefield of copyrighted fun, but I’m sure that’ll be ironed out by launch.

Furniture, Décor, and Toys all sounded a little similar, but the division actually makes sense; Décor affects the overall motif of your room, from the shape to the color of the walls, hardwood or shag, etc. Furniture, by contrast, are movable objects, which you can place every which way in your room for optimum feng shui. Toys, finally, are bits of furniture which are interactive for you and your guests, and can range from the simple and predictable to the completely awesome. I visited the in-game home of one of my Whirled pals for some examples.

The home I visited, in my nice “new user” wad-of-tofu avatar, looked strikingly like the lobby of the Louvre, with a few significant changes. To one side was an office-style corkboard, festooned with notes from visitors—a click allowed me to leave my own. A small plate of cookies by the reception desk disappeared as I ate them, replaced with sad, meager crumbs. And, a tank with seven or so goldfish bubbled calmly nearby; I was informed that when the tank was purchased, it contained only one. Over the span of a few days, as its owner and her visitors had fed the fish, they had multiplied of their own accord. I guess fish in Whirled multiply through mitosis, but that’s still pretty neat.

The best toy, though, was a series of eight balls scattered about the floor. Upon lifting one into the air and letting it drop, the ball would produce one of eight drum beats with each bounce. By lifting the balls at different heights and thus generating different bounce-per-minute speeds, one could produce an enjoyable, thumping rhythm track for the room’s ambient noise. The sound is shared with the rest of the room’s occupants, and they too can change up the beats, allowing one to collaborate. Or, if it got horribly annoying, one could simply mute it.

My friend, Belle Forteresse, announced she was off to procure a new avatar, and then she’d show me how to set up my own house. I hadn’t yet seen my little slice of surreal estate, so I decided to grab a look and start poking around on my own. My home had come pre-furnished, replete with choice accommodations like a crackling fireplace and easy chair. Some slippers, a cigar, and a fez, and I could really relax in here. I also discovered that my time in Brawler Whirled had been awarded with a bonus avatar, and I changed my guise from bean curd to soldier of misfortune. Belle arrived shortly thereafter, her new avatar consisting of a very simplistic yellow butterfly. I was a bit underwhelmed, but then this happened.

From its little thorax came the sound of grinding machinery, and the butterfly extended a rubber chicken into the air, which promptly began whirling about, filling the air with cascading sparks, and the sounds of Video Killed the Radio Star. With that, Belle fluttered away, leaving my jaw on the bottom of my helmet.

Clearly I had my work cut out for me if I was to impress the next disco butterfly to come my way, so I worked my way through the decorating tutorial until my home was suitably awesome.

Now we’re talking! Bar, jukebox, fuzzily-cropped guitar… swank. The final step of the tutorial invited me to select a pet—essentially, a bonus avatar with a mind of its own, which would either roam around my home, or follow me through my journeys across Whirled. I prepared to select a suitable companion, when I realized that Brawler Whirled had given me yet another bonus. Well, how nice, a free pet! This was working out just fine.

In retrospect, this was probably a really stupid thing to do without a “rolled-up newspaper” avatar to go with it. I would have named him but he stabbed the language center of my brain.

Whirled has a few interface bugs here and there that need work—I found myself able to cheat my way into a few trophies, I didn’t realize my in-game friends had left me mail until they told me directly, and I wonder a bit about spending game currency for YouTube videos that I could upload myself for free. In addition, I wasn’t able to generate any of my own content; at the moment, Whirled will only accept Flash items you’ve programmed outside the game, though they’re working on some in-game design tools. On the plus side, I believe choosing Flash as a medium is going to make possible a community of highly-accomplished artists and programmers who won’t need to experiment and learn in an entirely new environment. In addition, Three Rings’ stable of creative minds have taken the time to populate Whirled with their unique content, a great deal of which demonstrates the potential fun that can be had playing, collecting, and running around with avatar envy.

I remember playing The Palace back in 1995. I’m looking forward to trying it out again in a version that doesn’t suck.