What's after podcasting? Mudcasting?

I'm a big fan of games and gaming. I think that sites like Flickr have been successful because they are aware of gaming concepts and how making a site "gamelike" draws people in and keeps them coming back. Social sites are only so "social" in terms of finding and making friends. You have to actually have something to do once you have all those friends and connections. This is why I think that something is coming next -- perhaps not the very "next" thing, but that there will be someone who learns that if you combine social "software" (think social site?) with gaming concepts (like MUDS) you will get something very cool. Imagine if instead of a typical fantasy setting that most MUDs are set in, you had a world where your RSS feeds, podcasts, blogs, images, music, etc etc were not only available for you to share and browse, but you could actually create new things out of these and other basic elements. Imagine if a friend created a simple "golem" which when coming in contact with you could read to you a message/song that someone else assigned it to send you. You might then clone the "golem" and modify it so that it would return the email, but also find along the way some RSS feeds that were relevant.

Imagine if you could combine the aspects of social sites with game concepts like MUDs or Second Life. This would also incorporate my earlier idea of socially constructed interfaces. Someone creates a great UI for a music player. Via the "MUD" you encounter this player and clone it for yourself and place it at your "house". Others come by the public area of your "house" and take notice of the player as well -- perhaps making new copies. You might also have the concept of "subscribing" to an object. Folks may really like your little creations and instead of cloning them, they "subscribe" to your message golem. Every time they go touse it, it's the upgraded, new version that you may have just released.

Mark my words. Crazy as it sounds. MUDS?! Strip away the fantasy / sci fi veneer, add some RSS, XML, Ajax, or whathaveyou. Add the ability to share, create, subscribe to "objects" and you'll have something very very interesting.

I've seen another aspect of this. My 7yr old daughter plays a game called "Virtual Magic Kingdom". A free disney game which allows you to play the role of a kid who's wandering around the Disney themepark. You can create your own "rooms" which have items like chairs, teleporters, gumball machines, etc. What is amazing to me is that she and others in the game are creating "emergent games". Meaning they will take two gumball machines, place them in a room with some ropes to create paths, then run a simple game where two people run down the path to get a gumball, and run back -- as a race. Even in this limited world - the kids are creating things that are "emergent" -- not what they were orginally intended to be (just decorations) but new objects and games not before predicted. Imagine if they had a place where they could create more adaptable things and be able to build on each other's work. Like a virtual Lego set meets avatars meets BASIC/LOGO.

Sure, go ahead and call me goofball. I am seeing this in other places too. I was toying around in Half-Life 2 - with some online worlds that people are creating. They are using the MOD-ing system to create amazing objects - in game.

So... imagine if you went one step further and set up your own little world. Perhaps there will be some easy to learn language, or some drag and drop builder that lets you create internet enabled "things" that have properties like color, or URL access. You combine these together in interesting ways and "publish" them on a site. Folks come in and toy around with your stuff -- further evolving them or offering suggestions. Imagine like a seti@home style system, only peer to peer. It would be incredibly addicting. You log in -- see all of your creation's status - get updates from your smart objects - talk to other people - tweak your subscriptions - read your object creation requests.

Ok, enough ranting for now. If anyone is reading this and is in some way moved to comment, please let me know.