Versu – Page 2 – Ciaran Laval

March 8, 2014

Linden Lab Say No To Sale Of IP And Codebase For Versu

Inara Pey has reported that Lab says “no” to an independent future for Versu. Inara’s blog post links to a blog post from Emily Short, who had been trying to negotiate a deal to buy the IP and codebase for Versu after Linden Lab announced they would no longer be supporting the project :

After careful consideration, Linden Lab has decided to cease development and support for dio, Versu, and Creatorverse. We’re grateful for those who took the time to experiment with these products in their early days, but ultimately we have determined that due to a number of factors, we and our customers will be best served by focusing our efforts on continuing to provide exceptional service and compelling new experiences for the users of our other products.

So Linden Lab don’t see a future for the project, but like the boy with the ball, they’ve decided to take their ball home instead of letting someone else play with it. Emily had previously tried to convince Linden Lab to Open Source the project, which Linden Lab refused to do.

Then Emily tried to negotiate a deal to buy the IP and codebase, which as Emily announced on her blog, ended up with a no :

So for those who were curious, Linden has now given me a definite no about selling me the codebase and IP.

However there is another pain point in all of this for Emily. Blood and Laurels, which had just been completed has obviously now been shelved, but as Emily explains in the comments, Linden Lab own the text :

Blood and Laurels can’t meaningfully be rewritten — they own all the text and images as well as the engine it runs on. I was working on that story concept, on and off, for nearly 15 years, so having finally finished it and been really excited about it, only to have it vanish into ether, makes me sad. Still, on a total scale of possible bad things to have happen to one, it’s not very far along the bad thing spectrum. So we go on to the next.

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February 21, 2014

Ex Linden Praises Versu Engine, Linden Lab Really Should Allow This To Live

The disappointment over the loss of Versu continues, with several people bemoaning the loss of what they consider to be a concept full of excellent potential. Now at this point it should be pointed out that excellent potential does not mean excellent delivery, but Versu certainly hit some right buttons. Here is a quote from an ex Linden :

The Versu underpinnings are genuinely revolutionary; my jaw dropped in the meeting where you explained how the engine works.

Inara Pey’s blog post : Could Versu live on links to an excellent article in the New Scientist : AI makes social game characters all too human.

The thing with Versu is that it wasn’t just about its functionality as an interactive fiction tool, people were very impressed with the artificial intelligence in the project, to quote that New Scientist article:

Claudio Pedica of the Icelandic Institute for Intelligent Machines at Reykjavik University is impressed by the way Versu models social practices. “Social rules create constraints on what actions an agent can do,” he says. “That’s a very powerful metaphor for human interaction.”

I can’t help feeling that Linden Lab have missed a trick here, because whether Versu was ultimately a success or a failure in the interactive fiction stakes, the artificial intelligence angle is something that would greatly benefit Linden Lab’s products as a whole, they would certainly benefit Second Life.

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February 20, 2014

Emily Short Wants Versu

I was reading recently that the family of the man who wrote the song “It’s a long way to Tipperary” still receive £30,000 a year in royalties. Obviously by now that’s going to be quite an extended family. I’ll expand on this later in the post.

Two blog posts from Emily Short identify some pain from the closure of Versu by Linden Lab. The first post actually has nothing at all to do with Versu initially, the conversation regarding Versu appears in the comments. The first post is about general examples of what can be achieved from Interactive Fiction : A (Mostly Recentish) IF List, For Breadth. That post excited me purely because it mentions Sorcery! by Steve Jackson and Finkle. I played the fighting fantasy books by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone when I was a lad! I loved those books.

However it’s in the comments where Versu gets a mention with a commenter suggesting Versu should be added to the list and Emily replying:

Versu I’m not listing here because there isn’t currently anything that people can pick up and try: Linden is no longer supporting it, has not released Blood and Laurels, and has taken down the older Versu app. I am investigating whether there is a way for me to regain ownership of the IP and carry the project forward on my own, but I don’t have concrete information to share about that at the moment. I made a pitch for Linden to open source the project as it currently stands, but did not succeed.

I suggested that Linden Lab might want to consider open sourcing Versu or handing the IP to Emily Short, Richard Evans or some other interested party in my recent post about the closure of Versu.

Emily followed up on that comment with a blog post about the closure of Versu : Post-Linden. In this post Emily explains about the closure of Versu. Emily also mentions how she would like to see people who may have started working on Versu in academic environments being able to publish their work in some form. Emily also says:

I am currently trying to see whether I can get back the IP for Versu and the apps that we built that Linden did not release, including Blood and Laurels.

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February 19, 2014

Versu Should Get A Second Life

Well my spider senses have proven to be correct with Linden Lab issuing a press release : Linden Lab Refocuses Product Offering

After careful consideration, Linden Lab has decided to cease development and support for dio, Versu, and Creatorverse. We’re grateful for those who took the time to experiment with these products in their early days, but ultimately we have determined that due to a number of factors, we and our customers will be best served by focusing our efforts on continuing to provide exceptional service and compelling new experiences for the users of our other products.

Whereas most product closures upset some people, the most disappointing aspect for me is the loss of Versu. From the blurb of the soon to be removed website:

Versu is an interactive storytelling platform that builds experiences around characters and social interaction. Each story sets out a premise and some possible outcomes. As a player, you get to select a character, guide their choices, watch other characters react to what you’ve chosen, and accomplish (or fail at) your chosen goals.

As a content creator, you’ll be able to create your own characters, improvise new dialogue and gestures for them, and even build entirely new stories and games for others to enjoy.

Unfortunately Versu didn’t make it to the content creation part. However there’s a lot of potential in this concept. So here’s the thing, is Versu dead or will Richard Evans, who may well still be the owner of Little Text People, or Emily Short, of Emily Short’s interactive storytelling, be able to continue with the product?

This is where things get a bit confusing, has Little Text People been released from Linden Lab back to being an independent company?

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February 17, 2014

Emily Short’s Next Versu Adventure – Blood And Laurels

Emily Short’s next Versu title will be Blood And Laurels, set in ancient Rome :

Cults. Conspiracies. Poison. Stabbing. Blackmail. Seduction. Prophecies and rumors. Divine wrath — or possibly just bad weather.

Death and glory in ancient Rome. Built on the Versu engine, coming soon to the iPad.

One day it will be coming soon to an android device … one hopes! There are already six Versu titles available for the IPad, the new title will be number seven. Those who attended the recent Oxford/London meetup may have already seen Blood and Laurels in action.

I love the concept of interactive fiction, but I’m yet to be wowed by it. I do believe there’s a lot of potential there for people to get creative and have fun.

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