Online gaming on Google's Lively to take on "corporate mentality"
by Samuel Axon 
Sep 29th 2008 at 4:00PM
Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Browser
Kevin Hanna, creative director of Google's Lively, said at AGDC that he hopes that Lively will become an online gaming platform that will challenge the status quo in a game industry he says is currently dominated by a "corporate mentality" that is "sucking the life out of what should be the most creative and innovative medium out there."
He said that game developers and publishers seem eager to be "first to be second." That is, they have no interest in creating anything genuinely new. They just want to capitalize on ideas that have already been proven. His hope is that Lively will lower the barrier to entry so would-be developers ("passionate startups and kids in college") can experiment with new ideas with less risk.
So far, the aspects of Google's vision for Lively as a game development platform that we've seen have looked like a greatly scaled back, poor man's version of MetaPlace; just the tools for creating simple arcade-like games, without any of the loftier purpose. But Hanna's comments suggest that at least some folks on the Lively team have grander ambitions after all.
He said that game developers and publishers seem eager to be "first to be second." That is, they have no interest in creating anything genuinely new. They just want to capitalize on ideas that have already been proven. His hope is that Lively will lower the barrier to entry so would-be developers ("passionate startups and kids in college") can experiment with new ideas with less risk.
So far, the aspects of Google's vision for Lively as a game development platform that we've seen have looked like a greatly scaled back, poor man's version of MetaPlace; just the tools for creating simple arcade-like games, without any of the loftier purpose. But Hanna's comments suggest that at least some folks on the Lively team have grander ambitions after all.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tony said on 4:11PM 9-29-2008
All the talk in the world is great, but what we've seen so far doesn't exactly impress or innovate. I can't imagine anyone looks at this and sees something disruptive or original.
We'll see I guess. If they put their money where their mouth is they could do something interesting.
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