Lively

Title
Developer
Publisher
Genre
ESRB Rating
Demo Release Date
Full Release Date
Platforms
Official Website
Demo Download Size
Review Date

Lively
Google Inc
Google Inc
Social
Not Rated
8th July 2008
8th July 2008
PC (Reviewed)
http://www.lively.com
Unknown
9th July 2008

What did I think before playing?
I hadn't heard of this app until an email went around at work pointing out Google's exciting new project that may be a competitor to Second Life et. al.

What is included?
This is a new project that is out in (perpetual) beta, just as all Google projects are. You get to do some simple customization to a character, create and decorate your own 3D chat room, then chat with people in those spaces.

What did I think afterwards?
The link that went around at work was for a Tech Crunch article on Lively. It was interesting since there was a demo video as well as an embedded version of the app right on the page, (I have done the same below by embedding my room.) So if you are intrigued enough to click on one of these embedded objects you get a pop-up window containing the Lively homepage with a prompt to install their viewer. After quickly doing that the pop-up closes and you are put back on the page you were viewing, with the room loading itself up. Easy, assuming you already have a Google Account.
Perhaps things are running slowly under the weight of all the sudden interest in the project, but I couldn't get into a chat room at all, so I never go to try the chat properly. I tried a couple of different rooms and would load up the assets but never see any characters appear, even after waiting 10 minutes. I had to give up and tried creating my own space instead. That worked out fine. I first setup my character and then put some furniture in a room, as seen in the image above. The options available at this point are somewhat limited, but you can see where this project is probably heading. There is mention of a catalog to choose more custom items for your character and space, so I would expect these to be funded by some form of micro transaction, (I know Google has a wallet system, but do they need to develop themselves a PayPal?) It is a definite competitor to all of the other game-like chat spaces out there, such as Habbo Hotel. I would imagine it helps if you have an existing Google Talk friends list since that is supposedly what Lively is built on top of.

Would I buy the full game?
This is a free game so there is nothing to buy! I can't imagine myself using this app much though, beyond a little experimenting. And I'm pretty certain I wouldn't go spending real money on virtual items for my avatar either, but I'm sure plenty of others will.

Demo Pros
A colourful beta of a new Google pet which is free to play, easily accessible via a browser and relatively easy to use.

Demo Cons
As a developer you know that in a beta you should expect bugs. I couldn't connect to a chat session and was told that I couldn't see the catalog because Google thought I was a bot. That is a pretty big turn off as a consumer's first experience. I also found the mouse control frustrating in trying to direct the camera so I could move my character and the items in my room.

Demo Rating 5 / 10

Thoughts after playing the full game?
If I play the full game I will put comments here about whether I feel the demo was representative of the final product and if I am happy with the purchase.

Sales Figures
If I can find sales information about a game after it has been released I'll add that here. It may be useful to track demos to sales performance.