Checking In On Yellow

Yellow World - To the average user in Active Worlds, passing history is a common activity. We see it every day, and often we work and build among it. Ruins of projects built years ago stand proud in many of our aging worlds, the masterpieces of users who once held a place of prestige in our community have now become quaint and outdated testaments to our lasting history. Once vibrant community centers that are far beyond their prime now echo silently, and many of these places go months - even years - without visitors.

For a time, the same was true of Yellow world. Released in September, 1996, Yellow world is one such place with historical value. The world was commissioned as a demo world for the U.S. Department of the Interior, dubbed the "Virtual Yellowstone" project. The world was very popular among the user base, and it was eventually expanded and opened for public building. Working in this themed world projects came and went, while communities also rose and fell. For a time, things were good.

But as is often the way of things, interest in Yellow began to wane in the early 2000s. In what seemed to be a fall from grace, Yellow - along with many other public building worlds - stopped receiving updates from Active Worlds, Inc. There was certainly no shortage of development in the browser, with new features such as larger cell data limits, skyboxes, terrain, and water being added over time. Even with the new features, development in many of the public building worlds staggered, and the community moved on to private worlds, active public worlds like AWTeen, or just left entirely.

Thus for years, Yellow world was under a veil of silence. Unappealing to the building community and starved of updates, there was simply no point to work in such outdated conditions. It was not until Digigurl arrived on the scene in mid-2007 that things began to look up. Digigurl worked with Active Worlds, Inc., and other members of the community to restore Yellow to glory. Bringing the world up to date with many new objects, a new sky, terrain, and an interactive ground zero, Yellow has once again become an appealing world to for builders.

So then, have these changes drawn people back to the world? Seeking an answer on the state of Yellow since the re-opening in November, 2007, we sought out Digigurl and caught an interview at Yellow's Ground Zero.

AWNews: So Digigurl, what do you think of the state of things since you re-opened Yellow World in November of last year? Are you doing better or worse than you expected by this point?

Digigurl: The overall state of things in Yellow has improved dramatically; Yellow is no longer an eyesore to the public, and I am doing much better than I thought I would at this point. I'm getting an over-whelming amount of support.

AWNews: That is good to hear. How about in terms of a community? Do you think the userbase has returned to Yellow after its years of inactivity?

Digigurl: Slowly but surely people are coming back to Yellow. Since the overall amount of users has dropped in AW, I doubt it will return to what it once was but one can hope. :)

Digigurl: Oh yes, Yellow is looking for town builders to bring more of a sense of community to Yellow.

AWNews: Town builders? Do you have a plan for a centralized community in Yellow?

Digigurl: I would like there to be. However, since I'm tied up with gz and the object path I can not build a whole city by myself. So, I'm hoping someone will come along and pop a squat!

AWNews: Understandable. Do you expect things to pick up in the coming months as summer arrives?

Digigurl: I haven't really thought of it, i really hope it does anyway :) Tunablues and dreamer2 have done a wonderful job with helping me out.. we've gave the users everything we possibly can now it is just up to them

AWNews: We've notice on the AW Forums that some users are starting to pick up Yellow as a venue for their events - one such being C P and a revived AW Camp. What are your thoughts on this?

Digigurl: I am excited that people are choosing yellow for their events. ^_^ They have my full support!

AWNews: We've also seen that you have some events planned soon, would you like to comment about them?

Digigurl: Oh yes. The Yellowstone annual BBQ is coming up. The BBQ is set to honor Yellow's past, present and future. As well as the people who made all of this possible.

AWNews: Do you plan to enter Yellow in the Multi-World Egg Hunt this year?

Digigurl: Yep. I think I'm going to put bunny ears on all of the bears.

AWNews: Awesome, seems then that there will be plenty of things to do here in the coming months. Anything else before we wrap up?

Digigurl: Yes. If AWI reads this... please let yellow have V4 rights, we have gone this far with it.. why not take it all the way?

AWNews: Sounds good. Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us!

Resurrected from the bottom of the world list, today we can count on Yellow to have at least a handful of people exploring the wilds or using the rejuvenated object path to make Active Worlds' next masterpiece. The world is even being used to bring dead events back to life! With the successes seen since November, shouldn't it only be expected that similar success stories can be found in other worlds such as COFMeta and Mars?