(* Source : Virtual World News *)

CVSherman says : 

 When we spoke with Kaneva CEO Christopher Klaus back in August, he hinted that the game-oriented virtual world would be rolling out a series of casual games in its fourth quarter. The first, Dance Party 3D, launches tomorrow with prepaid cards for access and bonus items, in $10 and $25 varieties, appearing in Target by October 1. What sets Dance Party apart from a business point is that it's being marketed as a standalone game instead of just a value-add for existing Kaneva users. "There are lot of people who want to go into virtual worlds, but there are a lot of people who don't understand the concept, but they want to go dancing," said Klaus. "Instead of saying, 'There's a world and we have a dance game,' we want to go out and say, 'Imagine the world is our theatre, and here's the movie we just produced.' We want to make this a packaged game similar to traditional games and talk about it that way, and then say, 'By the way, one of the major features is that you end up in a virtual world.'"

"It's kind of flip-flopping it for the virtual world industry. While I think virtual worlds are important, to go out there and reach a broader segment, say people who are into music or the club scene or dance games, you just say, 'Here's a full-on game for you.' I think we're going to find members who join the game just to play the game. I think we'll also find members who join for the game and then realize that they can decorate their homes. As we add more games, it becomes like a themepark where you can run around to all the different rides. You advertise the new rides, not just the theme park."

Klaus does say the virtual world creates a different atmosphere than a standard dance game would. For one thing, it draws on the fact that Kaneva already encourages its users to stream media into the world and create their own spaces. Every club can have all of YouTube's library as its DJ's archive, letting users dance along to any video they can find.

Maybe more importantly, Dance Party 3D is still meant to be a social game. If you play Dance Dance Revolution against two or three other users, you're there to compete in the game. If you're dancing in a club with 50 other people and then happen to start a competition, you're already tied into the social experience.

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