Sounds like just another pick-up scene in just another smoky pub. But think again. This is actually a tête-à-tête I had with a woman (I hope) in a 3D-Chat room at Habbo Hotel. Yeah - I danced with her, had a drink (the bar only served non-alcoholic beverages - damn!) and even managed to get her phone number. Too bad she's from Sweden or I might have called her too.

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3D-Chat or three dimensional chat is the latest in net services to catch extremely transient surfer interest. The concept is simple - this chat has visual interface added to make the 'chatting' experience more believable. Not only do you get to communicate with people all over the www, you also get your own 3D shell to dress up in, do back flips and charm the pants or skirt off the object of your cyber affection.

Looking for 3D-Chat rooms, however, can be quite a pain. Services provided by Gnarf, Worlds, Moove and Habbo Hotel might just be the future of chatting. Needs and resources differ from person to person though. You might not have a 56.6 KBPS modem to download a 10MB set-up program. You could have an irrepressible urge to dress your cyber-persona in an all-black outfit. Heck - you could wish to make your chat-shell sneeze and throw bricks. Whatever your 3D need, one of these 3D-Chat rooms will definitely be right down your alley.

	Website	Download Time	Look and Feel	Performance
1	www.gnarf.com	The site loads in 3 minutes.	Pixilated graphics and cumbersome locomotion.	Low frames per sec and a 'stuck' feeling.
2	www.worlds.com	To run, you have to install a 10 MB exe file.	Cluttered room architecture and a low frames per second rate.	Once loaded, runs reasonably smooth. Low frames per second rate.
3	www.moove.com	To run, you have to install a 4 MB exe file.	Tacky room architecture with bleak pixilated graphics.	Tacky room architecture with bleak pixilated graphics.
4	www.habbo.com	The flash site loads in 2 minutes.	Very slick flash graphics. However, the interface is pseudo-3D.	Very slick flash graphics. However, the interface is pseudo-3D.

	Website	Hit	Flop	Rating
1	www.gnarf.com	The site has high traffic. Loads fast enough.	Most visitors are German so, unless you understand the language, the site isn't too much fun.	3/10
2	www.worlds.com	There is a huge choice of shells. The shell can perform actions like sneezing and jumping.	Heavy exe downloads, painfully tedious sign-ins and mails that tell you about membership renewals.	4/10
3	www.moove.com	Actions like back-flips and dances make it fun. You can even throw bricks at others who tick you off.	Actions like back-flips and dances make it fun. You can even throw bricks at others who tick you off.	5/10
4	www.habbo.com	Simple, quick interface with high traffic. The rooms look great and clutter-free. You can have a drink at the bar or even shake a leg. Truly a great community.	Isn't 3 dimensional in the true sense. Could pass as pseudo-3D.	8/10

Once you have decided which chat room suits your needs best, you can rest assured the experience will be an interesting one. The novelty fades off soon though -- in my case, a day at worlds.com and I'd had enough - and low bandwidth or messed-up hardware will only serve in dampening the thrill. Only habbo.com stood the test - it was fast, cool and very happening.

3D Chat might not last forever. The initial excitement will fade and it will be seen for what it is - a utility. 'Just how much of a utility it is' is a question only time will answer.