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Yahoo! Instant Messager Virtual Pub

 Add-on to basic instant messaging
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If I say to someone on Yahoo! Messager "Let's have a drink" I visualise the Instant Message window growing to fill my screen and displaying a pub interior, with overlaid text. You could then continue chatting to the person you were chatting to before, but in the virtual pub. Some communication would be lost and you'd have to repeat yourself (pubs are noisy). After ordering a drink from the barman you'd have to nip to your kitchen to get a beer out of the fridge and a packet of crisps.
—hippo, Oct 18 2001

Active Worlds http://www.activeworlds.com/
The AOL of 3D on-line communities. [Aristotle, Oct 18 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004]

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       I'm at work - if I purchase this premium version of the IM software, will they send me a mini fridge and those hanging cardboard peanut packet dispensers? Can you fit my office with a smelly, sticky carpet, or are we to have a minimalist All-Bar-One style place?
—lewisgirl, Oct 18 2001
   

       And as the conversation wore on, letters and indeed whole words could be omitted, and some slluuurrring could be approximated. Also the screen could blur slightly.
—Nadir, Oct 18 2001
   

       You only get a cheap cooler I'm afraid, which you have to fill with ice from the canteen, but yes, you will get cardboard peanut packet dispensers (no, not "cardboard peanuts" before anyone asks). For ambience you will receive by post either (i) a beer-soaked carpet tile, or (ii) a stilleto-heel pockmarked wood laminate flooring tile.
—hippo, Oct 18 2001
   

       What about a grumpy barmaid coming along every hour or two and sullenly wiping down your keyboard with a damp cloth?
—stupop, Oct 18 2001
   

       Every now & then your screen should display a random group of people laughing raucously and generally looking like they're having a much better time than you.
—DrBob, Oct 18 2001
   

       Woody Harrelson could moderate . . .
—bristolz, Oct 18 2001
   

       After a particularly long session, I assume that the log file would lose some data integrity, too.
—daruma, Oct 18 2001
   

       Oi! Did you spill my pint?
—pottedstu, Oct 18 2001
   

       You could do this with Active Worlds (see link) and a whole host of other 3D community software.
—Aristotle, Oct 19 2001
   

       C=}>;*{))   

      
The drunk, devilish chef with a toupee in an updraft, a mustache, and a double chin has his eye on you
—thumbwax, Oct 19 2001
   

       Periodically, it would be Karaoke night in the Yahoo! Instant Messager Virtual Pub. As the bouncy ball hops along the words of your favourite song at the bottom of the screen, you have to type along with it.
—hippo, Oct 20 2001
   

       and you would wake up with your mouse in your mouth
—po, Oct 20 2001
   

       my kkeyborad;s all stikcy.
—lewisgirl, Oct 20 2001
   

       Hey Po,   

       ÊÊÊÊÊÊ<< and you would wake up with your mouse in your mouth >>   

       Much better than you waking up with my mouse in your mouth!!
—bobzaguy, Oct 20 2001
   

       yours looks more like a rat
—po, Oct 20 2001
   

       Naturally, the virtual pub would have an MP3 virtual jukebox.
—hippo, Oct 22 2001
   

       The next day, there should be a "hangover" setting, which gives your IM messages a tinted, curved look that gives you a headache just from looking at it...
—Galileo, Nov 12 2001
   

       Update: Yahoo! Instant Messager v.5.0 (from messager.yahoo.com) has what it calls "IMVironments" - so you can have your messages scroll across a snowscape for example, with falling snow and throw snowballs at people you're talking to by pressing Ctrl-G - that sort of thing. So it would be theoretically possible to create a Virtual Pub IMironment. I doubt if Yahoo! will do it though...
—hippo, Dec 05 2001
   

       With everything being closed, maybe the time has come for this idea. I'd probably change it now to "Skype Virtual Pub" or something...
—hippo, Mar 21 2020
   

       "If you build it, they will come."
—blissmiss, Mar 21 2020
   

       We would like to apply for the post of Virtual Doorman.
—8th of 7, Mar 21 2020
   


 

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