Whirled is a
virtual world
A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...
and
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
created by
Three Rings Design
Three Rings Design, Inc. was an online game developer that was founded on March 30, 2001, by Daniel James and Michael Bayne. The company was named in honor of the Three Rings of the Elven-kings in Tolkien mythology.
The company's first product ...
. Its
Open Beta
A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...
stage was announced at the
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tuto ...
in 2007. It makes use of
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
as an
applet
In computing, an applet is any small application that performs one specific task that runs within the scope of a dedicated widget engine or a larger program, often as a plug-in. The term is frequently used to refer to a Java applet, a program ...
embedded into the website while also having pages of
HTML
The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaSc ...
and
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...
in a sidebar to allow players to manage their friends list and browse various categories of
user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...
. The concept is comparable to the virtual worlds in the
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
game
Home and
Second Life
''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...
, while also incorporating aspects of feed-based
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
sites like
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
and
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. It pushes to make all content user-created, mainly with its approach to creative accessibility using Flash's affinity for
2D vector graphics
Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display ...
and various web compatibilities to make it very simple for players to upload a wide variety of content using simple, conventional
file formats
A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary or free.
Some file formats ...
. Some examples of this include uploading
PNG files to create in-game objects, and
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
files to create a
music playlist for a player's room.
Current Status
In March 2010, at the Flash Gaming Summit, Three Rings CEO
Daniel James stated, "Whirled is at $300K revenue, $5M invested. Abject failure." He later clarified this statement on the
Puzzle Pirates
''Puzzle Pirates'' (also known as ''Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates'') is a massively multiplayer online game developed by Three Rings Design (Later owned by Grey Havens LLC). The player takes the role of a pirate, adventuring on the high seas and pillagin ...
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." After ''Three Rings Design'' deemed the project not financially viable in 2013, they handed over ownership of Whirled to Grey Havens and announced their plans to eventually dissolve the site, officially doing so on April 8, 2017.
Whirled is currently kept alive as a mirror of the original under the name Whirled Club
Mirror sites
Upon Grey Havens releasing the source code for Whirled under their BSD License, several
mirror sites formed. While they had no access to the original database, a lot of content was copied across to create a similar experience managed by the community.
Synced Online
Created On the 1st of August 2016, Synced Online was created alongside Whirled. It was initially only accessible via Hamachi, to players who had paid at least $10 for a Founder Pack. It was later made public via a domain on the 25th of August 2016. On the 8th of April 2017 Whirled shutdown without warning, corrupting its database in the process. This left whatever was copied across to Synced Online the only remnants of Whirled.
Smaller mirrors
Multiple other clones were made in this time:
* WolvesWorld - another attempt at a closed Hamachi version Whirled;
* Glowbe - a return to the original aesthetics of Whirled with a new user experience and mascot 'Lampy' created by the user Drill8Bit;
* TensorTown - an ode to the Alpha version of Whirled codenamed Metasoy (a reference to Meta Son of Yohoho. "Yohoho!" was part of the old title of Puzzle Pirates (a.k.a. Y!PP)) and
*UnWhirled - designed as a corrupt version of Whirled's original style.
Ultimately Synced Online persisted as the main mirror despite being plagued by poor management and regular DDOS attacks.
Whirled Club
Created on the 31st of August 2018, Whirled Club was created alongside Synced Online. This rendition successfully brought back "parlor games" that allow you to play games that are directly embedded into the virtual world's rooms, a feature thought lost since Whirled's closure. During this time, Synced Online's succumbed to an attack that deleted their database leaving only an old backup. Upon finding this backup corrupted the site was closed leaving Whirled Club the only remnant of Whirled.
Current Mirrors
After
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
was discontinued On January 1, 2021, Whirled Club was relaunched as a downloadable client, downloadable at the same domain. Alongside Whirled Club, Synced Online was also resurrected using its backup at the same domain,
though without a client of its own it can only be fully accessed by browsers that still support Adobe Flash.
Features
Avatars & Rooms
Whirled generally functions on the ability to control an
avatar
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appeara ...
of the player's choosing inside of a room owned by any other player. Once in a Room, a player is displayed as their avatar, being able to walk around the room freely and type in the room's
chat to other players. Many different avatars can be stored and purchased, but only one can be used at a time. Every avatar has its own specific states and actions as included by the creator, with no limit to how many may be included. The default, free avatar that a player starts with, an animated piece of
tofu
Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...
created by the game's developers, only includes the "default" idle state along with two simple dances. Furthermore, if an avatar was created by uploading an image file such as a
JPEG or
PNG file, they are known as "static" avatars that are converted into
SWF avatar format by the site automatically, also giving it a primitive animation method by bouncing the image up and down.
Rooms also allow players to place objects inside them; such as Furniture, Pets, Backdrops, Toys, Game Launchers, Videos, or Photos. Music could also be added to a room's playlist in order to listen to it alongside other players. A "
DJ" function was also added in development, allowing other players to play music in a room that isn't theirs, rotating between each player who has added music to the DJ list.
Stuff & Shop
The Shop is where users can buy items to decorate their home or Whirled with. Users list their own content to the Shop, and other users may then buy, rate, and comment on it. A large 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 (known as Stuff) as:
* Avatars
* Furniture
* Pets
* Backdrops
* Toys
* Games
* Music
* Photos
* Videos
Groups
Groups are places for groups of users to meet and chat with each other. The managers of a Group can place objects in the different rooms contained in their Group. Any player can freely enter a Group, as long as the managers set it to be public. Groups are completely customizable with any object available in the shop and can create custom trophies specific to the group. Groups could also list items to the Shop, allowing the group managers to automatically split the profits of each item among other members as they see fit.
Uploading
There are two ways of uploading in Whirled:
* Find of create an image and select "Upload" in the desired section of the user's items.
* Create an .swf file in
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
and upload it in the same way.
.swf files allow players to create fully animated creations, effectively embedding their own Flash file into the game itself. It would allow avatars to have walking animations, states, actions, transitions, and any other unique aspects the creator could define with
ActionScript
ActionScript is an object-oriented programming language originally developed by Macromedia Inc. (later acquired by Adobe). It is influenced by HyperTalk, the scripting language for HyperCard. It is now an implementation of ECMAScript (meaning ...
.
Passport
On August 21, 2008, along with interface changes, the Whirled Passport was introduced. It was a collection of stamps which the player earns in connection to achievements in Whirled, such as referring others to join, uploading content, or rating shop items. These stamps are similar to Trophies, another reward system in Whirled, except for the fact that stamps award the player coins for earning them.
Currency
Whirled initially launched with a straightforward currency that players were able to obtain through various in-game means, known as Coins. Coins were earned by playing games, filling out the passport, and selling content to other players in the store. Cheaper items would typically be of a lower quality than those which are more expensive, but it was entirely up to the seller how much an item would cost. Early on in the Open Beta period, a
microtransactional currency that encouraged players to spend real-world money was introduced, named Bars. Players could choose to sell items both for Coins and Bars at their leisure, depending on how they wish to value the sold item. A separate currency, Bling, was added alongside Bars in order to allow content creators to eventually convert their earnings from selling items into Bars. In a 2013 update, both Bars and Bling were removed once Three Rings handed the site over to Grey Havens.
Trophies
Trophies are awards which can be unlocked by completing certain noteworthy 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.
Code
Whirled is programmed in
Adobe Flash 9 and
AJAX
Ajax may refer to:
Greek mythology and tragedy
* Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
* Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
* ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...
, using the
Google Web Toolkit
Google Web Toolkit (GWT ), or GWT Web Toolkit, is an open-source set of tools that allows web developers to create and maintain JavaScript front-end applications in Java. It is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
GWT emphasizes reusab ...
. Whirled's use of the GWT works in most modern web browsers. Because developing content for Whirled requires knowledge of
ActionScript
ActionScript is an object-oriented programming language originally developed by Macromedia Inc. (later acquired by Adobe). It is influenced by HyperTalk, the scripting language for HyperCard. It is now an implementation of ECMAScript (meaning ...
and Flash, there were plans for an online way to create simple content for Whirled.
References
External links
* {{Official website, http://www.whirled.com/ (dissolved)
The Official Whirled Wiki(dissolved)
Three RingsAn upload of Whirled's source code from Grey Havens
Three Rings Design
Virtual world communities
2007 video games