HiPiHi goes Public
Chinese virtual world HiPiHi recently announced the beginning of their public beta testing phase with the release of the “Dawn of Society” version - this marks an end to almost a year of private testing under the “Genesis” version of the HiPiHi platform that has amassed more than 40,000 users. The “Dawn of Society” version will re-open user registration to allow new users to join existing “elder” users in the creation of new lands, tools, and artifacts, and participate in the further development of a new virtual society. To date the HiPiHi community has created 12,084 homes, 572,476 objects, and 510 groups.
In line with HiPiHi’s efforts to improve and expand in-world creativity, socialization, and commerce, the “Dawn of Society” version will unveil a few new features, including:
- A more intuitive user naming system, to facilitate better global online interaction. HiPiHi has revamped its previous user registration system, which now supports English, Chinese characters, and numbers.
- A more intuitive and “human-friendly” user interface. Beyond its fresh platinum sheen, the new interface is the culmination of multiple re-designs and a data-driven process based on the desires and preferences of in-world residents. For non-Chinese users a lot of 3-D images have been created to supplement Chinese words.
Besides feature optimization and promotion of in-world creation, the “Dawn of Society” version also heralds the start of a new platform architecture design process for HiPiHi. In collaboration with global strategic partners such as Intel and IBM, HiPiHi’s future platfrom architecture will be more open, scalable, and inter-operable, in order to lay the groundwork for the eventual mainstreaming of virtual worlds.
Previous CScout interview with HiPiHi founder Hui Xu
Image source: HiPiHi