Lively … not

None of the VTOR Authors were impressed by Google’s Lively but I don’t think any of us thought it would be killed off this soon. Five months later? Huh, what?

Talk about virtual life being snubbed out quickly! It’s like you create an avatar, walk around, get to know a few places and then BAM! Gunshot to the head from some dark alley. Come on, Google, give Lively a little more chance:

Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it’s the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people’s lives. But we’ve also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off. That’s why, despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we’ve decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year

Virtual world can be harsher than the real world, indeed.