3pointD.com

Hard to believe it was way back in May that we reported that Swedish social networking site PlayAhead was being brought into the virtual world of Second Life by VW services company Rivers Run Red. At long last, the project has launched, according to this Michael Parsons column in CNet UK. It’s a good read, describing the launch “as though the flat profiles of the community’s members have risen up off the page like a pop-up book and suddenly starting walking around with independent life.” Parsons also contemplates “what would happen if other larger social-networking sites made the leap into the third dimension,” and echoes one of our favorite sentiments here at 3pointD: “Current online social spaces like PlayAhead and MySpace are building a two-dimensional path that leads directly to the heart of the metaverse, and once people have started to invest a lot of time and energy into their social-networking accounts, they’re going to be a lot more open to the next step — taking that first, awkward walk as a newly born avatar, stumbling around in three-dimensional space and trying to find someone cute to have a virtual drink with.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.