Manyland: a virtual world where you draw stuff and it becomes real

I guess I don’t know, but isn’t that minecraft?

hope it doesn’t have a centralized server or else the copyright people will come a knockin. also because when given people unlimited capability to make anything they want people invariably make penises (i think there is a law of the universe that open creativity tends towards penises) the “think of the children” crowd will come a knockin too.
for perspective see: little big planet.
minecraft skirts this nicely by having a decentralized structure…

I see “forcing you to create a new account” as a benefit, not a detriment.

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I read that as Maryland: a virtual world where you draw stuff and it becomes real…and I thought, “Who knew?” Damn working third shift and getting no sleep.

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yup https://www.youtube.com/results?q=spore%20penises&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&gws_rd=cr&um=1&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&gl=CA&sa=N&tab=i1

Yeah, this. Note to devs: if your service requires me to log in with Google/Facebook, I’m not going to use it. I don’t want everything I do to be connected. Try again.

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Wow. It’s a crazy world.

Sort of. It’s more like Terraria, with the ability to create custom blocks but without, um, gameplay. Has anyone tried it? Is there actually stuff to do? The video seems to think that a single, rather common mechanic constitutes a game, but maybe it’s misleading.

(The custom-content thing is neat, but the problem is inevitably that, um, most people can’t draw.)

Exactly. I was interested but stopped right when I saw “Sign in with either Google or Facebook”. Um, no thank you.

As somebody who has considered making something similar several times, and as somebody who has experience with making social drawing websites, I wholeheartedly agree with the following comments:

  1. User created content = so many penises
  2. At the end of the day, most people can’t draw / contribute good content

But you know what? They actually built this damn thing, which is more than any of us can say, and the only real way to prove the naysayers right or wrong.

So I’m sorry for my bitterness, and I’m glad they are trying it out.

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A 2D platformer version of Second Life.

Cybersex in 3… 2…

We understand the concerns, and thanks for the feedback! Just wanted to say, for reference, we don’t do anything like post on the wall or connect to friends or shadyness. But yes, I know that doesn’t remove all concerns, and the feedback is noted… we will consider this for the future!

You are right, the video just shows a minimal piece of the overall pie (I hope that’s an expression). Some of the early testers have stuck with us since the early days and enjoy things a lot, as there’s so much to do, especially in a group when ideas and mini games created on the spot pop back and forth. I’m not suggesting it must be for everyone, by the way, just wanted to give this angle too. Hope you can perhaps give it a brief try and see if you might like it! (We’re currently working on a technical issue with spawn points, by the way, the login will be back once that’s fixed :slight_smile: )

It’s about the only time I was comfortable with using FB to access a service. It’s there, but unobtrusive. It’s fun!

Right, we are very aware of the different troll phenomena. (My friend and I once made a sketch swap site, and I think from the 100,000 sketches submitted in the first week that we saw in the moderation queue, we could have started a 10 square kilometer museum of… uhm, you know what :slight_smile: ).

We have an inner ring/ outer ring concept with upranking to get to inner and a vote and flagging system and so on. But these aren’t the true core – what will be crucial is that the good community, meaning all of us, and their combined watching and voting power, will outweigh the less positive people (or convince them to join the fun of creating good stuff). Everyone right now who’s in the world and doing good, and chatting and guiding and building, is already making a HUGE difference (as we’re admittedly a super small group right now). In fact, we hope that part of the Boing Boing crowd will give it a try and join too as we love this blog and the people that might read it, and we need every good manyzen in the world now :slight_smile:

well it’s not just trolls, those replicas of world 1-1 from super mario brothers on little big planet were very well done(many of them) and the community at large loved them…copyright lawyers however did not.
when given the unlimited ability to create, copyright law tends to get in the way and ruin everything beautiful. just a heads up

Speaking as a developer - the reason that some devs choose to use Google/Facebook for sign-in/account creation is because spending the time to build a user account system is not only a pain in the butt to do right - ie in a manner that doesn’t result in your username/password being plastered all over the internet - it’s also time wasted on developing functionality that other people have already created. Devs don’t want to spend time working on the dreary stuff like that, they want to be working on the fun, actual functionality of the app.

Edited to add: on top of that, a WHOLE LOT of people are very happy to have less accounts and passwords to remember, as well, so removing barriers to entry is a big deal too. Just look at this thread here on the BBS talking about how there are (a little bit) fewer comments nowadays, due to people not wanting to bother to create an account (which in the case of internet commenting, is definitely a net benefit. You get far fewer drive by trollies).

I personally would prefer something like OpenID, myself, but I can totally understand why the developers would choose to go this route.

Very useful input, thanks so much!

It’s more like what would happen if Second Life and the NES console had a baby out of wedlock, gave it up for adoption, and it was raised by Minecraft who happened to be on his second marriage, to the Sims.

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