Metaplace, a company founded by San Diego-based Areae, has just launched a virtual world at TechCrunch40 that can be embedded on the Web via a flash-based client widget.
Dubbed Second Life on the Web, Metaplace leverages open standards to enable players to develop worlds that can be accessed anywhere from the Web to mobile networks. Every world is indexed, tagged and rated by users on the Metaplace
portal, so virtual worlds in the Metaplace network can be easily linked
together.
The Metaplace network aims to link virtual worlds. Metaplace enables users to create a virtual apartment for decorating, a plaza where readings and musical events happen, space-action games, Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games or MMORPGs, casual games, and an Amazon storefront.
Metaplace is backed and run by, Raph Koster and John Donham, who both have “massively multiplayer” experience.
Bottom-line: Metaplace offers a widgetized platform that connects users to virtual worlds via the Web.