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Wtf is Weopia?

Weopia is a virtual world that is specifically for dating. You don’t login and meet people in there. You don’t sift through the crowds and pick out your next victim date. Nope. This is a private virtual world set up for you to take someone you have met online elsewhere on a date.  Oh, and you pay per login for you and your date! $4.95 for two logins that last for that one date.

They’re making a pretty audacious claims….

Harvard researchers, huh?

I’m pretty sure they’re talking about the claims that these researchers made about improving online dating by adding a virtual world environment. However, the fact they imly that these researchers have said this about Weopia specifically is pretty audacious to say the least. And ‘works’ how exactly? The researchers specify that a virtual world makes online dating more realistic. They did not say “Paying Weopia will ensure you to get laid, reproduce, marry and live happily ever after.”

What do you get for your money?

Anyhow…. they do offer a free trial. So I tried it. What they claim you get is a romantic virtual world to yourself for just you and your partner. What you actually get is…

Patrick Swayze meets RoboBox!

….a very square looking avatar.

…a large expanse of deserted virtual land,

Ok, so my flying skills need some work!

…access to four different types of vehicles

4. Try to persuade someone to come to an empty virtual world to date me.

and ‘conversation starters.’ Though, if I ever resort to asking someone what their perfect day is as a conversation starter I am going to hang myself in self-punishment for the use of cliches like that!

So,worth it?

Well, conversation starter advice aside, there are actually some cool things about it.

The Good

Awesome graphics (well, sky, terrain and water at least…avatars not so much). On the login screen you’re asked to pick from the graphics level you want. I went with the second from highest option available and even though I wasn’t on the best graphical settings, I was still impressed with them.

Yay, flying in a straight line.

The graphics are more like those of Blue Mars than Second Life. However, another plus side is the performance. Despite excellent graphics, performance is great. This, however, is likely to be due to the fact that there’s nobody else on the grid!

Damn, where'd all the people go?

Another plus, I do believe, is the inclusion of voice, which is a bonus (in my opinion) in any virtual world. But that’s where, for me, the good ends.

The Bad

The whole concept. I took a free trial. The free trial, which I signed up to at weopia.com, involved entering my email address. Weopia then sent me a link for the download, some login credentials for that session and a link to send to my date. My date, however, crashed. And then I crashed (hmm, what was I saying about good performance?). And then my free trial login session had expired before I had even gotten chance to clap eyes on my squarish avatar date. Fail. Add to that the fact that there are few places to explore (though the ones that do exists are indeed pretty) and you can’t build etc and it’s really just a very pretty chat room. If I wanted to just date online and have a virtual world date with someone I had met in a chat room, for example, why would I not just invite them into Second Life and save the $4.95? Plus, in SL avies are much more customisable. And there’s animations )

Verdict

Pointless. Though pretty.