ABOUT INSTANT MESSENGERS

Lively isn't exactly an online game, but it isn't that far off. You will create your own character (avatar) and you can even design your own personal space. From there, you simply choose where to want to go. Maybe you'd like to virtually visit a quiet cabin in the woods, a mountainside retreat, or a quaint coffeehouse in Vienna. Lively, in its way, offers these treats. All you have to do is point and click.

Lively is available through a browser plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer. It is Windows only for now. Lively does not feature one coherent world like Second Life but splits worlds up into different rooms. Lively was originally developed as a 20% project by Niniane Wang.

Users can choose from a number of preset animations for their characters, ranging from shaking hands with others, to applauding, crying, etc. By double clicking on certain items in the virtual world, users can also often activate some preset animations such as sitting down on a chair or jumping off a dive board.

For now, the content in Lively is being created only by Google, though over time, they are planning to allow users to start creating their own content as well.

Rooms can be easily embedded into any webpage and worlds often launch with a basic skeleton of the room within just a few seconds.
 

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