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Orderly, pornography-free and safe for children, "meet-me," an online interactive virtual Tokyo, is Japan's answer to (1) "Second Life". Or so its creators hope.
The sun rises and sets in "meet-me" on Tokyo time. And (2) avatars must ride trains or other vehicles or walk or run to get around a city whose streets and buildings look much like real Tokyo's; they can't jump from place to place as they can in "Second Life".
American Internet successes stories have leapt over to Japan with varying results. (3) YouTube, for example, has done fine. But other imports haven't caught on, opening opportunities for Japanese variations to make it big.
Once it opens on December, it will offer cyberspace shopping, entertainment, games and Christmas lights. Visitors will be able to buy virtual plots of land, housing and furnishings — much as in "Second Life". People also will be able to pick their avatars' appearance, hairstyle and gender.
Hoping for a million users in its first year, Hamaoka is in talks with dozens of companies, including Shibuya retailers, to set up shop in "meet-me".
The operation and design of "meet-me" will be strictly controlled by Transcosmos, ensuring law and order and far more policing and filtering to ban profanity than in "Second Life." AP
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