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    Move over, nanotechnology and robotics. There's a new sexy technical trend. On 13 May 2002, the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/public/us) profiled the top 10 transformational areas of technology. One area was multiplayer computer gaming.

    Specifically the Journal article looked at LindenWorld, an up and coming multiplayer game being developed by Linden Lab (http://www.lindenlab.com). The game seems like a combination of The Sims and Everquest with a touch of basic Bryce design fooling around thrown in. Users roam around each other's houses and observe new graphical designs that other users have created. For instance, looking at new fabric patterns by snooping in someone's closet.

    Technically, LindenWorld depends on a very user-friendly 3D graphic design feature. In addition, the game seamlessly integrates physical effects of objects (different sounds and different types of bounces on different surfaces for example.) Also the methods of distributing new content are different from Everquest and like games--no resident images on user computers, but rather graphically compressed streaming.

    It's not all just techie computer design stuff at Linden Labs, though. Founder Philip Rosedale says that the most interesting and challenging part of his game design is thinking about how players should interact. How much snooping is ok? How can you limit snooping just to friends? He even has come up with "rating mechanisms" to allow people to avoid troll-type users. (No word yet on how they will deal with DL trolls!) In the end, Philip foresees a virtual world, which will come stunningly close to real everyday life.

    Linden Lab is under some pressure now with Maxis's looming release of SimsOnline (http://thesimsonline.ea.com/home), but Rosedale is confident that they can meet the challenge. Who's ready to get sucked into this Matrix?

    Further info available at this online story (http://www.msnbc.com/news/724801.asp#BODY).

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