#CYBERTOWN REBORN FREE#

As of 2010, the average number of users online hovered around 30 when numbers over 500 online at any given time were not uncommon in the early days. Though this never became widespread and was dealt with swiftly by Security, the community nonetheless began to decline. A few individuals tried to take the issues to the citywide Message Boards. Inevitably, this led to some public arguments as well as finger pointing. But in this they have confused the promised NEXUS version of Cybertown, a program developed by Cybertown technicians but never completed, with IVN's Silhouette technology.įailed promises to improve on the technologies behind Cybertown made within the community in fact, along with the fee introduced when IVN came into the picture, seemed to hit the community hard. Many have said the development of Silhouette was to be the next stage in Cybertown's development. Cybertown members were offered a first chance to participate in Silhouette-a BETA version which did not become popular because a fee was required to use the interface-but it was never meant to be a technology solely for Cybertown use. From direct observation, IVN's interests seemed primarily aimed at development of Silhouette technology, a video / VRML interface, when they took the reins. In 2002 Blaxxun interactive sold Cybertown to Integrated Virtual Networks who charge users a fee for membership. The expansion has since died down and no new 3D worlds have been created. There were those who were just passing by, those that 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. At this point Cybertown had a little for everyone. This created a huge demand for jobs which in turn created a more dynamic economy and gave new objectives for people.Īfter the merge Cybertown expanded at a fast rate in terms of new worlds being opened and new users joining on. To allow this influx of citizens to have homes in Cybertown, new 'colonies' (places to live) had to be created. At the time Cybertown was mainly a portal site with categories of links, however Colon圜ity was able to use the ideas from the categories to make 3D worlds and expand Cybertown. Midway through 1999, Colon圜ity merged with Cybertown which dramatically increased the users to a few thousand. Those that were employed were most likely part of the development team or were the first people to arrive. 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.īefore the merge of Colon圜ity and Cybertown, Colon圜ity had a massive unemployment problem which neared 90% of users unemployed, making the main purpose people came to Colon圜ity was to interact with the other users.

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. All its 3D objects were created by its citizens.Ĭolony City was started in 1996 as a showcase project of Sony. Citizens are allowed and encouraged to create 3D objects for use in Cybertown. 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. The 3D worlds run VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), which is easy to design and modify. The Cybertown trademark image are the 3D worlds that it has. 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 New web site was launched by the fans of cybertown on As of February, 2012, the domain for Cybertown and its parent company, IVN, was offline. The cost was $5.00 per month or $49.99 a year.Īs of September 2011 the site's membership base declined.

#CYBERTOWN REBORN FREE#

Each user was allowed a free 2D home and could locate it within any of a number of colonies subdivided into neighborhoods and blocks. Users were able to have jobs within the community, earning virtual money called CC's (Cit圜ash) that could be used to buy 3D homes and items. There were places ( chat rooms) available either through a 2D or 3D chat environment. Cybertown (CT) (formerly Colony City) was a free (changed to pay per year in 2002), family friendly, online community.

Cybertown reborn