Active Worlds is the exception that disproves the rule. These guys know how to play the game, and they've been at it and have hung in there successfully and profitably for years. Active Worlds is really owned by the community that forms it and creates its own little environments. Looking at a satellite map of the community looks like an aerial view of Los Angeles. This is the kind of place where people get lost for years.
People meet, make up games, build their homes, and even get married here.
This is the very strategy that Active Worlds has been pursuing, and it just created a very nifty world for the customers of Juno to wander around in. Pulse Entertainment has taken a very different tact with 3D by enabling some of the very coolest entertainment on the web. If you want to instantly understand why 3D is inherently better than video on the web, you only need to check out Li'l Green Men on the Entertaindom site. Pulse's business strategy is to license its technology to web sites to increase stickiness and increase customer retention. They're responsible for the technology behind NBC's Virtual Jay and, of course, Virtual Bill .