CyberTown
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CyberTown (CT) (formally ColonyCity) is an online community with places (chat rooms) available either through a 2D or 3D chat environment. Users are able to have jobs within the community, thus gain virtual money called CC's (CityCash) that can be used to buy 3D homes and items. Each user is allowed a free home and can locate it within any of a number of colonies subdivided into neighborhoods and blocks.
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Engine
The Cybertown trademark image are the 3D worlds that is has. The 3D worlds run on the VRML programming language, which is easy to design and modify. A chat program designed by Blaxxun is also coupled with the VRML 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
- Law Enforcement
- 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 75 000. 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.
Ever since the merge CyberTown expanded at a fast rate in terms of new worlds being opened and new users joining on. At this point CyberTown had a little for everyone. There were those who were just passing by, those than didn't want to do anything else but chat, and those who wanted the responsibility of volunteering and holding a job positions with numerous places for advancement.
However CyberTown eventually declined to an urban decay society. It had expanded so far that promises made were never followed up on. Eventually the society broke down to the point where many public arguments and finger pointing was placed on city-wide message boards. Most of the arguments were based on agism, both real age and time since joining. Also the City Council, the highest authority of CyberTown, was accused of improper management and censoring of the citizens, leading into a civil war of sorts.
In 2002 blaxxun interactive sold CyberTown to Integrated Virtual Networks (http://www.integratedvirtualnetworks.com/index1.php?is_ct=1) who charge users a fee for membership.
blaxxun was new founded in 2003 and continues to develop and market its client/server technology, now in its seventh generation.
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, in the Flea Market, or in the Black Market.
A major problem behind the the economic of Cybertown was staggering inflation. Wages increased often or had bugs which gave citizens large sums of money. The daily wages provided more CC's than one would normally need. There was no taxation system put into place to subtract from the wages to keep things in check. Although prices rose rapidly for items, people were still able to save large sums of CC's which made the idea of the economy rather pointless.
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, steaming 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.
Technology
Cybertown's various places exist as chat rooms. Users have the option of chatting in either 2D or 3D mode. The 2D chat is an java applet, and the 3D chat runs off of the Blaxxun plugin.
External links
- CyberTown (http://www.cybertown.com)
- Blaxxun (http://www.blaxxun.com)
- Integrated Virtual Networks (http://www.integratedvirtualnetworks.com/index1.php?is_ct=1)