CyberTown

History

Colony City was started in 1996 as a showcase project of Blaxxun Interactive. Colony City made use of VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), a standard for displaying 3D content, including virtual worlds and avatars, on the Web. These VRML files became shared virtual worlds using Blaxxun's server technology, enabling people from all over the world to meet and interact in rich-media environments in real-time on the Web.

In 1999, Colony City merged with CyberTown which dramatically increased the users to a few thousand. At the time CyberTown was mainly a portal site with categories of links, but Colony City was able to use the ideas from the categories to make 3D worlds and expand CyberTown. To allow this influx of citizens to have homes in CyberTown, new "colonies" - virtual places to live - were created.

In 2002, Blaxxun Interactive sold CyberTown to Integrated Virtual Networks.

As of February 2012, the CyberTown website was taken offline.

Revival

A group of former citizens has dedicated itself to restoring CyberTown as it was prior to its original shutdown, and, in 2019, a pre-alpha version of the platform was successfully launched as CyberTown Revival, a free fan-made restoration. CyberTown Revival is the result of hundreds of former residents drawing on everything from archived blog posts to the contents of former citizens' hard drives.

Economics

Citizens were able to hold jobs within the city, earning a daily wage in CityCash. Citizens could use CityCash to purchase upgraded 3D homes and 3D objects. Citizens could also create their own 3D objects via VRML and sell them in the city's mall for profit. This created a plethora of diverse and rare items that could be sold secondhand either out of a citizen's backpack (inventory), in the Flea Market, or in the Black Market.

Places in Cybertown

;The Plaza is the first place a user is taken once logging in. It links to other places, and thus is akin to a real city plaza. ;ePlex: The ePlex is an entertainment center. It features games such as bowling and video poker, an art gallery, streaming video and music, and even a dance club named The Black Sun. ;The Clubs are clubs created by CyberTown users based upon interests. Persons with a specific amount of EXP can create a club, anyone can join one. ;The Flea Market is a central place for people to sell items that they own. ;The Black Market is akin to the Flea Market, except visitors are not allowed to view the chat. The Black Market was a linked to area of the cyberhood colony. ;The Mall is where members can purchase items for placing in homes or giving as gifts or prizes. All items available for purchase were created by members. ;Le Café is a fun place to hang out, get a drink, and chat with friends. ;The Bank was a location to send money to other players, and other CC related functions. ;The Library is a multilevel building designed for peaceful reading. In 2D there are links to many online book sites. ;The Suburbs are 3D worlds created by members of CyberTown. ;Outlands: The Outlands was a 3D battle arena where members used teleporting blasters. Back in the early days of CT there was an event called "morph games" where two factions the Loyalist and Rebels fought in official scored battles for the control of colonies. In the original morph games, the Morph/Rebels faction won the "battles", and gained control over the cyberhood colony. Subsequent games such as aftermath were won by the rebel factions, before ultimately closing out due to tampering by Game master Talonn, to fix the results of the games. ;The Pool was another hang out area similar to Le Café and the ePlex. ;Sunset Beach was a beach hangout spot similar to Le Café, the ePlex, and other themed areas. ;The Fun Park was an amusement park themed hangout area similar to Le Café, the ePlex, and sunset beach. ;The Water Park was a water park themed hangout area similar to Le Café, etc. ;The Theme Park was a theme park hang out area similar to Le Café, etc. ;Flyby Park: a reused version of the NeoWorld battlegrounds from the original morph2 games, flyby park was named after mayor Flyby, who died and subsequently had the park named after him as a memorial. ;The clubs: residents could start a club, using the premade club buildings. ;NeoWorld: site of the original "battleground" from the first morph games which involved a treasure hunt in order to "win control" of the CyberHood colony.

References

References

1. Baggs, Robert. (2022-06-16). "CyberTown: The Metaverse Game That Was 20 Years Too Early".
2. Robertson, Adi. (2022-04-21). "When the virtual city of Cybertown went dark, its citizens rebuilt it".
3. Kaneva, N. "Narrative power in Online Game worlds", p.56-73 in Williams, J. P., & Smith, J. H., eds. (2007). ''The players' realm: studies on the culture of video games and gaming''. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. {{ISBN. 978-0-7864-2832-8
4. (1998-11-09). "BLAXXUN ACQUIRES CYBERTOWN, PLANS PORTAL TO THE FUTURE - Tech Monitor".
5. (2022-04-24). "Virtual World History: Part I".