Here at Virtual Worldlets, we look at all worlds, whether for entertainment, training, medicare, industry or military use. Thus, we have the situation where different uses judge by different criteria. Below are a series of sub-reviews, each tailored to a different aspect of the world.

Only those to which the world being reviewed has relevance to are displayed for each review.

For some, its the thrill of discovery, the freedom to strike out, to pioneer. Whether its mapping new lands, or exploring unknown fields of endeavour, to be first, to boldly go, this is what explorers live for.

The world is the same size as before, 1.4 square kilometres of island, nestled in an endless sea of equatorial blue water. It bristles with life, with interest and with activity. There are a half dozen different interactive exploration experiences in the form of secret areas to find. A mineshaft awaits exploration, a human head, explored from inside, all the innards to be played with. A zen garden awaiting in quiet tranquillity on the surface.

Other interactivity abounds in the form of vehicles. Magic carets can be unfurled and rode upon. Three anti-gravity scooters, belching fire and smoke, exist likewise. Finally, in the harbour there are jetskis and sailboats able to take several people on each, ready to sail off into the limitless blue yonder.

A huge piano keyboard sits to one side, near the globe. Each key large enough to stand on, doing so presses it down. The note sings clear over the whole world; everyone can hear how good you are with music, or how atrociously bad.

The community in ActiveWorlds Gate 4.1 is pretty much exactly the same as it used to be. Mostly regulars, chatting with their friends, a mix of outside life topics and events, standard chatroom really. There is no attempt to be other than a general chat facility.

The same old limitations for new visitors are present: The avatar choice is disappointing, with only two free avatars, no degree of customisation, and only a limited selection of extra ones if you pay. Personalised avatars are not acceptable in the gate, as they try to maintain a strict G rating, and cannot control what a personalised one might say.


Simple actions such as dancing with your partner in public, are, whilst possible to do graphically using a range of pre-loaded sequence files, it is best to keep them to textual emotes, for the far superior range of expression.

Emotes are supported, and starting any line with "\me" will output your text as an action line in orange instead of a speech line in black.

Additionally, there are two sub-channels for chat. Whispers are direct person-to-person chat, whilst telegrams are the same thing, but with an answer machine service - messages will be recorded for you if you're not online when they are sent.

To compliment this, there are a range of filters - you can add people to your Contacts list, and monitor when they're online.

However, it is impossible to block avatars in most places, and it is possible to have people annoy you by continually walking their avatar through yours.

There are moderators, called GateKeepers, who are volunteers and work to keep the gate G rated. The problem comes as no two GateKeepers have the same idea on what G rated is, and, as they are volunteers, have no direct responsibility to ActiveWorlds itself.

This results in frequent problems, and a continual churn rate of people leaving the gate. Some leave to find homes in the other worlds of ActiveWorlds, some leave altogether; their first experience a disappointment.

View from inside a mineshaft