(2021)
recounting worldschat
Created in 1995 and released officially in 1998 by Worlds Interactive Inc.,
Worlds Chat is a free 3d chat program; the first of its kind.
Worlds was an innovation for the time and yielded what
one could call modest success, popular amongst average early internet patrons and garnering support from
large companies and celebrities such as Aerosmith, Britney Spears, and David Bowie, each represented by
their own visitable "World" used to promote the brand. Users may also create their own virtual spots,
with something called Shaper.
I'm going to cut to the chase, Worldsplayer and its hijinks are already decently documented these days and there's no
statistics or cold hard facts I can present that aren't already available somewhere else, and probably with
more stylistic flourish.
I want to talk about what Worlds means to me specifically,
and try to capture why it has become
so ludicrously near and dear to my heart.
logging on
It’s hard to commit anything to my memory but I think I first heard about Worlds in early 2020,
either through a tumblr post I would see now and then showcasing a couple screenshots or through my friend
mentioning she wanted to play, but any which way my interest was piqued.
It’s funny, when I was younger I used to be really scared by basic 3d rendered environments-
think out of bounds areas on a video game. It just creeped me out, these infinitely spanning fake-real places
which definitely, in my imagination, harbored malicious glitches that could harm my computer and also come out
from behind a one sided rect in the form of a skeleton and probably kill me. Nowadays I love that kind of
stuff and feel right at home in these sorts of spaces. I think a lot of people do.
Tangent aside, the first night I logged on was eventful, looking back on it. After choosing my avatar
from a gallery of eccentric characters I poked around and ended up at one of the default worlds, Animal House,
where coincidentally a lot of people were gathered in the living room and I ended up as the stand-in bartender.
Most of the users in this screenshot were regulars that I would come to be familiar with through
nature of association.
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recounting worldschat
Created in 1995 and released officially in 1998 by Worlds Interactive Inc., Worlds Chat is a free 3d chat program; the first of its kind.
Worlds was an innovation for the time and yielded what one could call modest success, popular amongst average early internet patrons and garnering support from large companies and celebrities such as Aerosmith, Britney Spears, and David Bowie, each represented by their own visitable "World" used to promote the brand. Users may also create their own virtual spots, with something called Shaper.
I'm going to cut to the chase, Worldsplayer and its hijinks are already decently documented these days and there's no statistics or cold hard facts I can present that aren't already available somewhere else, and probably with more stylistic flourish.
I want to talk about what Worlds means to me specifically,
and try to capture why it has become so ludicrously near and dear to my heart.
logging on
It’s hard to commit anything to my memory but I think I first heard about Worlds in early 2020, either through a tumblr post I would see now and then showcasing a couple screenshots or through my friend mentioning she wanted to play, but any which way my interest was piqued.
It’s funny, when I was younger I used to be really scared by basic 3d rendered environments- think out of bounds areas on a video game. It just creeped me out, these infinitely spanning fake-real places which definitely, in my imagination, harbored malicious glitches that could harm my computer and also come out from behind a one sided rect in the form of a skeleton and probably kill me. Nowadays I love that kind of stuff and feel right at home in these sorts of spaces. I think a lot of people do.
Tangent aside, the first night I logged on was eventful, looking back on it. After choosing my avatar from a gallery of eccentric characters I poked around and ended up at one of the default worlds, Animal House, where coincidentally a lot of people were gathered in the living room and I ended up as the stand-in bartender. Most of the users in this screenshot were regulars that I would come to be familiar with through nature of association.
