Active Worlds... ooooo

So the wonders of Active World have been revealed to the Tutes this week... hmm well it has no doubt taken its creators an incredbly long time to come up with and i guess the idea is kind of clever to tour around a 3D world with other users.
The socialising between regular internet msging is similar in the way that it is in text form and between users, but in this 3D environment, every user can read other users' conversations. So the privacy aspect that programs like MSN have (where your conversations are with one particular person unless a third user is specifically added to the conversation intentionally) is lessened in the 3D environment. Essentially though, it is still a relatively shallow way of communicating, with the limits of 2D text to communicate emotions and tone of voice that can still be misinterpreted. Its 3D nature does not extend to the socialising aspect, with all the "tourists" very similar in appearance and able to perform all the same 'physical' functions. Face to face communication just can't be beaten i'm afraid!
I guess the initial idea that there are these other users all round the world that you are interacting with and can write comments to is interesting... But it's only really interesting for about 10 minutes. Walking around and kicking people, waving, jumping, spinning, blowing kisses etc. is an especially good way of wasting time (and doing the macarena is totally random and very funny!) and aside from that, this whole Active World thing really has no point.