Virtual Cities

OK, so creating video games is quite a popular pursuit. There are degrees for future designers, programmers, testers, reviewers, etc. Great promise for changing the way we learn. But, how do we push out a project to a community effort? Web 2.0 says the people have the power when it comes to content. I'm thinking the ultimate community project, just begging to be attempted, is the virtual city. Google Earth provides the globe for us to drop our city onto. Google provides a nice SketchUp application for beginners to quickly produce virtual buildings and other architectural structures. Could we get a whole town to quickly model all structures and have someone stitch it into a coherent whole? Certainly, the time has come, no? Twelve years have passed since the Virtual Reality Modeling Language suggested a road for us to follow in building virtual content. Planet 9 Studios has professionally built virtual cities (San Francisco and New York kicking them off). I think someone ought to attempt to get a city to model itself from the ground up, grass roots and all. Hopefully, my Virtual Cities page will promote the idea well enough to find interest out there. If we build it, they will come (right?).

planet 9 studios: home page
gasworks: gasworks