It's more than that. Heck, I use it for more than that today.
>I don't believe that it will ever be possible to make a world, where a
>"player" can come along, insert his code into it and start moving around. I
>also don't think that it should be attempted. Even if the bandwidth could
>handle it (it can't!), chaos would ensue.
Chaos is good.
>I see VRML as a 3d graphics file format, with facilities to surf the web in
>3D, nothing more. If we want to build games, let them be closed worlds (like
>the current MUDs, DOOM etc) with people needing to download all
>code/graphics necessary in order to play them.
But those games will use 3d objects (Look at all the PC Virtua Fighter
clones for evidence) and users are really into customizing their games
(look at the Doom WAD files available for evidence). Using a standard
file format like VRML for those 3d objects will allow users a choice of
tools and encourage re-use. These are clearly worth the effort to game
authors, since tmey don't have to write authoring systems.
It's likely that things like the current crop of PC games will want to
rsad in VRML files and convert them to some internal format for their
own reasons, but VRML is a reasonable format for object interchange
_today_.
To see a MUD client which supports VRML, check out Pueblo:
http://www.chaco.com/pueblo With Pueblo, users can cesate their own
VRML scenes and link them into existing MUDs _today_. Just think what
they'll be able to do _tomorrow_, either with standard VRML or with
custom tools which extend VRML (in VRML-compliant ways) like Pueblo.
-glenn