Whirled
 | |
| Web address | http://www.whirled.com/ |
|---|---|
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | Three Rings |
| Launched | Feb 28, 2007 |
Whirled is a website created by Three Rings Design. It was announced at the Game Developers Conference in 2007. It is currently in the Open Beta stage, with a scheduled release later in the year. The principle behind the game is that it will be a web-based social world for chat and games, similar to the PlayStation 3 game Home. Where Whirled differs from other sites of a similar genre is that much of the content will be user created.
In this game, you are able to create furniture, characters, and decals. You may also create games. For example, "Orbitz" is a game of which a player had created.
Groups and the Shop
Groups are places for groups of users to meet and chat with each other. The managers of a Group can place objects, known as "Toys" or "Furniture", in the different rooms contained in their Group. Any player can freely enter a Whirled, as long as that Group's managers set it to be public. Once in a Group, a player is displayed as a character based on the avatar they are currently using. Many different avatars can be stored and chosen between, but only one can be used at a time. Every avatar has its own specific states and actions. However, the default, free avatar that a player starts with, an animated piece of tofu, has very few. Groups are completely customizable with any object available in the shop and can create custom trophies specific to the group. Note: Groups are what was formerly whirleds.
The Shop is where users can buy items to decorate their home or Whirled with. Users post their own content to the Shop, and other users may then buy, rate, and comment on it. A percentage of the profit from every purchase goes to the content creator. The type of an uploaded item affects how it will be used. Items are uploaded and categorized in the Shop and in a player's Inventory as Avatars, Furniture, Pets, Backdrops, Toys, Games, Music, Videos, or Photos. The in-game currency in Whirled is "Coins". A player earns coins by playing Games and by other players purchasing their content in the store. Cheaper items are typically of a lower quality than those which are more expensive.
Uploading
Uploading in Whirled is Simple, although there are two different ways of doing it. 1). Find/Create and image and click "Upload" in the desired section of your stuff. 2). Create an .swf in Adobe Flash and upload it in the same way. Uploading .swf's seem to sell more, so are better at higher prices.
Passport
On August 21, 2008, along with interface changes, came a new feature: the Whirled Passport. The Whirled Passport is basically a collection of stamps, which you earn for achievements in the Whirled, such as making a friend, referring others to join, or uploading content. These stamps are generally just the equivalent of Trophies for the Whirled itself, except for the fact that they give you coins for earning them.
Because this feature promotes adding lots of friends, and uploading content to the store, many players have suggested that this might lead to issues with people spamming other players with friend requests, and a cluttered shop. Proponents of the passport disagree, claiming that since there is only a stamp for listing one item in the shop, there should only be one item listed per person, and that the people who spam friend requests will still spam either way.
Currency
Whirled has multiple currencies, which exchange in many different ways. There are Coins, Bars, and Bling.[1]
Coins
Coins are the basic currency on Whirled. They can be earned by playing coin-enabled games. If you list an item in the shop in coins, people can purchase using either Bars or Coins, but whichever currency they pay with, you still get coins. This is the only currency as of March 31.
Bars
Bars have been temporarily removed for Whirled.
Bling
The third and final currency on Whirled is Bling. Bling is special in that you can only get it two ways: selling items in the shop listed in Bars, or a referred player purchasing something in the shop that costs bars. If an item is listed in Bars, it can only be purchased in Bars. Bling is also the only currency which is exchangeable for real-world money (you must have over 500 Bling to be able to exchange for real money). Bling has been removed March 31
Other
Trophies are awards which can be unlocked by completing certain note-worthy achievements in trophy-enabled games. However, not all games are trophy-enabled. Socialization is one of the things for which Whirled was designed. The player's friends are displayed in a list, with the ones most recently online at the top. A player's friend list and profile will always be accessible, unless they lock their rooms. When a player logs in, the first page they see is their home Whirled, which they can customize to their liking with their own content or with items they bought in the shop.
Whirled is programmed in Adobe Flash 9 and AJAX, using the Google Web Toolkit. Whirled's use of the GWT works in most modern web browsers. Because developing content for Whirled requires knowledge of ActionScript and Flash, there are plans for an online way to create simple content for Whirled.Whirled also gives away many different avatars for money or called on Whirled "Bars"
In March 2010, at the Flash Gaming Summit, Three Rings CEO Daniel James stated, "Whirled is at $300K revenue, $5M invested. Abject failure."[2] He later clarified this statement on the Puzzle Pirates official forums, stating "Those are very approximate total investment in the project and total revenue to date. There are no profits. Whirled is wonderful in many ways, but its financial results are not yet good. We remain committed to trying to change that."[3]
References
- ↑ Currency - Whirled
- ↑ Monetizing Your Game Outside of Sponsorship
- ↑ Puzzle Pirates Forums 10 Boggling OOO WTFails