In 2000 I did an internship at a Dutch media company and created a 3D VRML video site. The interesting thing for me at the time was that the server composed the final VRML by combining a template with database results, similar to PHP. I have no idea how common this was, but I was pretty proud of it at the time:) Unfortunately VRML plug-ins where not that great, even worse when I needed them to be able to play real video, so it was never deployed.
Oh yeah, I remember the VRML plugins with their horrendous navigation solutions. POTS Modems were also insufficient to reasonably stream scenes of any complexity. It was a technology about 10 years ahead of its time.
I always considered the successor to be SecondLife. I guess the Metaverse is trying to be the successor to SecondLife, but I think they're trying to solve the wrong problems with it and are not likely to be successful.
One thing I learned in that internship is that 2D is way more useful for navigating most information than 3D environments. Only when the information itself is 3D it becomes more valuable, and even then a projection to 2D might give a better overview.
Games have done Metaverse like 3D multiplayer environments for years now, but always combined with gameplay or construction elements. I don’t really see the point of going to a 3D chat environment if there are no work/entertainment benefits in them that are clearly superior in 3D.
