What is the original vision? As far as I can tell it was chatting with avatars that resembled real people. What does that get you? A few underpopulated pretty environments, lots of chat, and people having virtual sex with their virtual bodies (most likely because their RL bodies are not quite as appealing).
Basically, there is no compelling storyline beyond "present yourself as better looking as you are in real life." That's why vibrant virtual worlds are normally based around games, which have compelling story lines around which the social atmosphere grows, rather than simply glorified chat services (which in the opinion of many are worse than other chat services since they provide an additional unneeded function).
Basically, there is no compelling storyline beyond "present yourself as better looking as you are in real life." That's why vibrant virtual worlds are normally based around games, which have compelling story lines around which the social atmosphere grows, rather than simply glorified chat services (which in the opinion of many are worse than other chat services since they provide an additional unneeded function).