Will Google Wave Play a Part in Your Game?

[Asmor]

I still haven't actually managed to work out what Google Wave is.

It's kind of like a cross between a message board, a wiki, and email, with a pseudo-RSS paradigm in that you can pull together many disparate sources into a single reader, theoretically a reader of your choice though at the moment obviously Google's the only game in town.

The whole concept is treating a conversation (a "wave") as a single object, and allowing that object to be displayed many different places (e.g. on a blog, in your main google wave reader, etc). Even though there are many disparate sources, since they all are based off the same object, all sources are always up to date and no matter where someone edits or contributes to a wave all sources displaying that wave are updated simultaneously (literally simultaneously... as in real time, keystroke-by-keystroke).

So just to show you some idea, consider if ENWorld decided to jump ship on vBadvanced and use google wave as the model behind it, replacing all of the threads with waves. They'd look pretty much identical to their current incarnation. However, if I reply here, I'd also see the wave back in my centralized reader, along with waves from other websites, blogs, etc, all collected into one place.

It's definitely an exciting idea, but just to clarify my laughter above there's no way it's going to replace email any time soon, if for no other reason than the fact that email's so deeply-ingrained. That said, it has a lot of potential, if enough sites pick it up.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

It's definitely an exciting idea, but just to clarify my laughter above there's no way it's going to replace email any time soon, if for no other reason than the fact that email's so deeply-ingrained. That said, it has a lot of potential, if enough sites pick it up.

Agreed. If Google Wave is open-source enough to gain a critical mass of independent developers, it might not replace email, but it would probably replace Facebook, et. al.

 

[SeRiAlExPeRiMeNtS]

Google wave is the most promissing new tech I have seen in years... And yes it can be a cool way to play online and/or manage a offline campaign...

 

[Kurtomatic]

Turning the tide: a hands-on look at Google's Wave

Cheers!

 

[Mistwell]

Pardon me while I catch my breath... I'm laughing so very, very hard, you see.

Well, what makes you think it won't, given how it can do both better than either individual type of application, is open source, and is backed by a company with essentially unlimited dollars?

 

[Mercutio01]

I'm not Asmor, but I'll throw my two cents in--at this point, it would be like dropping cell phones completely in favor of texting. People are simply too accustomed to email to up and drop it.

Now, it may evolve such that email falls the way of VHS and audio cassette tapes, but I don't think it will be anything like a massive replacement envisioned by Google.

Plus, the concept would be pretty hard to explain to people who don't know wikis or forums or, heck instant messaging (I'm sure there are some out there) from their elbows. In the age of DVR, On-Demand, and online web-streaming, there are people who still use VHS to record programs--a lot of them.

 

[Asmor]

Well, what makes you think it won't, given how it can do both better than either individual type of application, is open source, and is backed by a company with essentially unlimited dollars?

And COBOL is obsolete and unneeded.

The question isn't whether Wave will replace email (it won't) or chat (wtf is that even supposed to mean? IRC? IM? Face to face conversation?). The question is whether Wave will become popular enough to stay relevant, or if it will become a flash in the pan.

If it were any company besides Google backing it, I'd say there was a 99% chance that in 5 years no one would even remember Wave. As it is, Google's going to be fighting an uphill battle just to get it to a critical mass of clients, both end users and other companies and websites.

I'm not Asmor

Nobody's perfect.

but I'll throw my two cents in--at this point, it would be like dropping cell phones completely in favor of texting. People are simply too accustomed to email to up and drop it.

Now, it may evolve such that email falls the way of VHS and audio cassette tapes, but I don't think it will be anything like a massive replacement envisioned by Google.

Pretty much. Email is very, very deeply ingrained not just into society, but into technology itself. Pretty much every website on the internet which is more than just a couple static HTML pages includes some form of automated email, for example. Identity confirmation, password recovery, mailing lists, reminders, notifications, etc.

And that's just automated stuff. You think everyone on Earth is going to switch to Wave instead of email? PEOPLE STILL ****ING USE INTERNET MOTHER-****ING EXPLORER 6! (sorry, touchy subject). It's only in the last year or so that IE6 has started to decline to the point where serious websites can maybe, kinda, sorta start considering dropping support for it. And it's not actually to that point yet, as far as many people are concerned.

So no, Wave isn't going to replace email any time soon.

Plus, the concept would be pretty hard to explain to people who don't know wikis or forums or, heck instant messaging (I'm sure there are some out there) from their elbows. In the age of DVR, On-Demand, and online web-streaming, there are people who still use VHS to record programs--a lot of them.

Heh, I could never figure out how to record on my VCR. But then again DVDs became popular while I was still in high school.

 

[Nai_Calus]

I still use IE6 on the rare, rare occasions I actually use Internet Explorer for things. I should really give 8 a go sometime.

I've had IE6 in use because, after I let windows update install IE7, IE7 wouldn't ever work. At all. For anything. I had to uninstall it, which brought IE6 back, which continued working as if nothing had ever happened. It's made me a little wary of 8, to be honest.

Even after reading this stuff, I'm STILL not sure I get the concept of Google Wave or what it's trying to do. I'm left with, from what I understand of it, a big feeling of 'meh'.

 

[Asmor]

I still use IE6 on the rare, rare occasions I actually use Internet Explorer for things. I should really give 8 a go sometime.

As someone who hates Internet Explorer with the passion only a fanboy can muster (I started with Netscape, moved to Mozilla, and now use Firefox), IE8 is in a whole 'nother league from IE6 and, frankly, it's a good enough browser to stand on its own merits (i.e. it's not just "good compared to IE6", it's actually good).

Not that it's going to displace Firefox as my favorite browser. Just saying. Do upgrade.

 

[Nikosandros]

Getting back to the original topic, I think Wave could be a very useful tool for handling PBEM games; I can also imagine using it to handle session summaries, house rules and character sheets archives for my FtF games. When it will become available to the general public, I'll definitely give it a try.