Flash and 3D online Environments

A colleague recently asked on LinkedIn :
Is SecondLife going to grow -- or will a newer, improved environment take center stage?A number of answers surrounded the use of Second Life and Google's product Lively.

As an interactive house, we fully support use of these technologies in the business environment (obviously).

However, I responded with the following, that takes online Flash and 3D environment gaming to a whole new level. We've developed interactive architectural and engineereed product environments for clients, and believe that online Flash 3D has a LOT to offer (particularly in a B2B marketing environment) in the very near future. Just wait till we hook it up to a Wii controller!

A completely different alternative is one that is a custom-built 3D environment using Flash-based engines, such as the open-source Away 3D... see more (PaperVision, as well) and the *really* interesting Alternativa (honestly, check out the demo).

Both elevate the online Flash environment to the level of 3D gaming, which is an incredible leap forward possible through Actionscript 3. We're exploring the real-world applications of these for some clients, which are similar to just what you suggest. It does mandate more detailed attention to actually building the environments, but then, you do have full control over access, function and design.

I think we can see online gaming using Flash coming...and it might be interesting to use SL as a pre-viz tool for a more customized game experience.

_bill