Decatur mulls Second Life-esque ‘virtual world’
Monday, December 22nd, 2008Decatur, the walkable suburb that is to Atlanta what Park Slope is to Manhattan (think about it), wants to develop a ‘virtual world’ a la Second Life.
According to the city:
Similar to other social networking tools, Virtual Decatur will provide an environment in which residents, businesses, institutions and visitors can interact and connect around a common interest. However, it is it is imperative that the project go beyond the features of traditional virtual environments. The overarching purpose of this project is to allow users to interact with the City in new and innovative ways that are not possible in the real world. It is envisioned that the real world experience may be enhanced through participation in Virtual Decatur.
Possible options include virtual City Hall tours, opportunities to win coupons or discounts at real-life stores, streaming video of city meetings that would allow viewers to comment, and access to city and business information.
The project, which was developed with the assistance of DeVry University game development student Justin Hubbard, is currently accepting submissions. There’s no word yet on what it might cost. Or the more important matter of what the city will do if Dancing Goat’s virtual location becomes a staging ground for online protests filled with pixellated phalluses. There are lots of jokes to be made here, folks, so chime in if you can’t resist.
(A tip of the viking helmet to both Decatur Metro and Brandon Sheats’ Twitter updates for this interesting bit of news. Game Politics and Gizmodo also have given their takes on this. The online reaction has been mixed, with many commenters wondering why taxpayer dollars are being spent on the project and others predicting a swarm of hackers. Others applaud the move and say the city should be given time to test the concept. From what it appears, it’s a first.)
