(* Source: Erick Schonfeld *)
Erick says..
Founded by Tekin Tatar and Kemal Ozisikcilar, BeFunky offers two services: The Cartoonizer and Uvatar. The Cartoonizer lets you upload photos and give them a cartoon effect. Uvatar lets you create a more realistic avatar based on a photo. The startup is releasing a newly designed Website today, and upgrading its Uvatar service to make it more automated.
(* Source: Duncan Riley *)
Duncan says...
UK startup WeeWorld is offering a avatar focused social networking service that is doing some great numbers.
WeeWorld is pitched as the “world’s first multiplatform visual identity” and offers a personalized Web experience that can be used across IM, blogs and social networking sites. WeeWorld users design a WeeMee, a customizable avatar that gets its own space, and embeding is fully built in for users. The site offers a social network platform in its own right, described as “a community offering of entertainment and exploration to enrich their online and mobile experience.”
Where WeeWorld gets more interesting is the link ins with big business. This from their email pitch to us:
On WeeWorld, users actually ask us for brands to help them express themselves. And the more we give them, the more they ask for … I think it works because it’s content, not ads. Plus it’s visual, fun, and helps our users express their mood and personality.
Brand advertisers and agencies are starting to get it and to get what WeeWorld is about. We’re in the midst of a big P&G PROM promotion for example. Girls are snapping up everything from make-up and hairstyles to beauty tips, while embracing brands like Herbal Essences, Crest Whitestrips, CoverGirl and more. They are even participating in brand-sponsored, surveys, contests and forums. Check it out at: weeworld.com/prom/
.
comScore reports that the site did 100 million page views in March 2008 on 1 million uniques, and WeeWorld reports more than 21 million sign ups. The company took $15.5 million in their second round from Accel Partners and Benchmark Capital in 2006.
comScore notes the majority of users are female, and although many might presume that it’s a service targeted at kids, comScore notes broad usage among many age groups.
(* Source: eMarketer *)
At the recent Virtual Worlds Conference held in New York, a keynote speaker asked the crowd of a few hundred for a show of hands. About a third of the attendees represented kids' brands, a third were with virtual world companies and a third were vendors of software and other technology.
Only one person identified herself as a brand manager.
Why don't more brand managers market in virtual worlds?
For one thing, they're scared of wasting money. Established brands spent millions building virtual stores, only to reap disappointing sales, or worse, to be outsold by the brands of in-world entrepreneurs.
Robin Harper, senior vice president of Second Life parent Linden Lab, told eMarketer that part of the problem was a "Build It and They Will Come" mentality.
"Like any other campaign, you have to consider what your objectives are," said Ms. Harper. "Building a virtual store and then not staffing it properly will leave customers disappointed."
Ms. Harper said that on the positive side, there are a lot more ways to market in a virtual world than just setting up shop. She said that Toyota's Scion campaign let Second Lifers test drive in-world versions of the vehicle, making for a more engaging experience than items which couldn't actually be used in the virtual world.
The word "engagement" came up repeatedly during the Virtual Worlds Conference.
That's partially a reaction to a lack of established marketing metrics for virtual worlds. There is also a lack of faith in some of the data that's been thrown around. Craig Sherman, CEO of Gaia Online, said during a session on virtual goods that virtual worlds don't do themselves any favors when they inflate their numbers.
"If 46 million people have visited your site, but only two million do so regularly, then you have two million users—not 46 million," said Mr. Sherman. "And that's fine."
During the same session, Millions of Us CEO Ruben Steiger said that real metrics and benchmarks for success were difficult but not impossible to track.
"Data is trackable on where users are, what in-world items they have and the like," Mr. Steiger said. He added that although many metrics were not comparable from world to world (e.g., Second Life user data and There.com user data might not be completely apples-to-apples), basic statistics like number of users and time spent using a branded item were always useful.
Ben Richardson, vice president of business development for virtual world There.com parent Makena Technologies, told eMarketer that rather than attempt to gain brand recognition within an established community, marketers could also create their own virtual worlds.
There.com recently white-labeled a virtual Ford Model contest for MTV, sponsored by Mariah Carey's perfume. The contest drew 750,000 visitors within two months. Modeling agency staff went in-world, giving fashion advice to visiting avatars.
"What works depends on the community," said Mr. Richardson.
However, Millions of Us' Mr. Steiger said that brands that attempted to create permanent alternatives to established worlds like Second Life would be wasting time and money.
Still, virtual worlds will continue to attract marketers as consumer media consumption changes—especially among young users.
David Simmons at Entropia parent Mindark said "the amount of time that people spend online in virtual worlds demands attention."
(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)
The Gamers Developer Conference (GDC) 2008 began yesterday, and it’s been interesting to see some of the announcements that have come out of the conference so far. As you may have noticed, gaming (which was already huge) is creeping into our every day web activities more and more, on a more complex level. And by “more complex” I mean that it’s more integrated.
Today, we hear of Avatar Reality’s upcoming launch of an MMVW called Blue Mars. Those at GDC 2008 get a sneak preview of the virtual world, and you Mashable readers get a bit of a sneak preview as well. The graphics are probably the most noteworthy aspect of Blue Mars, especially at this stage of the game’s life, but equally as important are the platform options Avatar Reality will be extending to third-party developers for creating games of their own.
From the looks of it, Blue Mars will be along the lines of Second Life or Sony Home, where individuals can create realistic representations of things that could occur in real life (shopping, home decor). It could be right up the alley for retailers and brands that would like additional options for integrated online marketing campaigns. I’ll admit, I’ll be anxiously awaiting the arrival of Blue Mars so I can try it out comparatively, though it won’t be available to the public until after Spore is scheduled to actually be released. We’ll see how much free time I have left after that! 
(* Source: Erik Schonfeld *)
An important part of any blockbuster movie’s revenues these days comes from merchandising deals—all the ancillary toys, T-shirts, and backpacks that flood stores after the release of a Harry Potter, Spiderman, or Star Wars movie. Now that virtual worlds are popping up where residents actually pay for digital representations of avatars, furniture, clothing, and other items, perhaps there is a new licensing opportunity there for the movie studios. Paramount Pictures and Habbo, a virtual teen hangout with 8 million members worldwide, may have just struck the first such deal
.
In February, Habbo will begin selling virtual goods inspired by The Spiderwick Chronicles, timed for the release of that Paramount movie. It will later add virtual items from Beowolf and Mean Girls, two other Paramount films that have already come out. Habbo says it has 1.8 million members in North America, which is the area covered by the deal. It will be a long time before virtual merchandise licensing comes close to matching the revenues from real-world licensing (typically, each item costs less than $1), but for Paramount the money is almost a secondary consideration. As teenagers pass these things around on Habbo, it is great marketing for the films. They are giving the movies their own personal stamp of approval, and expressing their identity through the characters and virtual objects from the films.
(* Source: Nick Wingfield *)
Sounds like eBay all over again, only this time... all the goods are virtual and with the estimates and predictions that 80% of the online population will gave a virtual self by the year 2010, I guess this is the new limitless legal marketplace that all gamers were looking for. Welcome eBay2.0.
A start-up plans to help game companies get a grip on the booming illicit market for virtual goods, including everything from currencies to magical swords that help players advance in online games.
Live Gamer Inc. is developing an online marketplace where players of Internet games will be able to safely trade in virtual goods, a business that is often plagued by fraud. In the biggest departure from current methods of trading in virtual goods, Live Gamer says it will only allow trading of items with the blessing of game publishers. Live Gamer is working with Sony Corp.'s Sony Online Entertainment division, Funcom GmbH, Ping0 Interactive Ltd. and other online-game operators to integrate its trading system with their titles.
Live Gamer, based in New York, is attempting to tap into the thriving economies that have emerged around online games, often without the consent of publishers. Within fantasy games like Vivendi SA's "World of Warcraft" and Sony's "Everquest II," players can achieve status and advancement for their in-game characters by acquiring powerful weapons, armor and game currency. But many people prefer to purchase those virtual assets with real money instead of putting in the long hours of game playing required to earn them.
More here
(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)
We haven’t seen Nike get too heavily involved with online virtual “avatar hubs”, but its latest campaign gets pretty wrapped up in Zwinky, taking a few star athletes along for the ride. A new challenge launched by IAC’s Zwinky and Nike invites users to engage in the site in order to get their chance to meet a star athlete, a la Zwinky avatar.
The Field Reporter challenge requires the user to know a thing or two about a particular star athlete, which includes Maria Sharpova, Kobe Bryant, Serena Williams, LeBron James and Abbey Wambach. If you pass the first round of questions, then you’ll still need to solve the clues that will lead you to your star athlete. Find them, and then cart them off to a virtual press release in your stretch Hummer, where you’ll also get the opportunity to ask them a question. It looks like you only get one shot to ask something of your star athlete, so make it good. You’ll also get some Nike gear to take home.
Seeing virtual events or brand marketing inside virtual worlds is nothing new–the trend grew quite rampant earlier this year with th sudden growth of Second Life. What often differs in these smaller, temporary campaigns, is the level of integration for the users. Depending on the brand, the type of campaign, and the long-term goals for that brand, we’ll see different levels of integration into the virtual world. The Nike campaign doesn’t seem to be looking for a virtual way to market its products for long-term use on Zwinky, though this wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Coca Cola’s most recent campaign, however, involved the creation of an entire island on There.com, which will be promoting all sorts of products, and feature branded materials for a longer-lasting effect. Several social tools also use the lure of a celebrity to get a boost of their own, as IAC companies, including Scripps, seem to be increasing efforts since the umbrella company broke off into smaller entities.
(* Source: *)
Cruxy, the marketplace for independent artists to sell their own content, is releasing a Virtual World Widget today.
The Cruxy Virtual World Widget will work inside virtual world games such as Second Life, There.com and World of Warcraft. For you Second Life fans out there, you know that there is a lot of stuff you can do to create your own presence and turn a decent profit as well. Cruxy is banking on that drive. Their Second Life player looks like an mp3 player and can be worn by your avatar wherever they go, so you can listen to music. They’re hoping that musicians will use this as further promotion for themselves, leaving them in public Second Life places for others to take, or distributing them to only those avatars that show up at your Second Life concert. Going along with true Second Life nature, the player is fully customizable.
Cruxy’s other new releases include a multi-format social player to present audio, video or image content, a purchase-enabled widget for consumers to buy a download without leaving their current web page, and a Play this Page feature, allowing a browse view or search to be dynamically loaded into the player. A user can take that player’s code with the newly loaded playlist directly from your MySpace page. Cruxy has topped it all off with a new API that includes every component Cruxy has to offer.
Admittedly, Cruxy has come a long way since their initial launch last September. Their Virtual World widget is niche, but a good move considering the typical marketing economy within Second Life and the inevitable shift to systems such as Second Life for the future of social networking. Whether or not their other new tools will help with marketing back on the regular Web is yet to be seen, but we like that they’re advancing the promotional value of their service and extending it to users.
(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)
Gaia, the avatar-filled virtual world, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Sony Pictures. You may be wondering why. It appears to be, in part, for building out Gaia theaters, where users can congregate in virtual rooms for the purpose of viewing video clips.
This was really brought to the forefront of Gaia’s feature set when it launched a VJ tool for users to create their own theaters and feature video clips from around the web. This concept has now been expanded to include content from Sony and Warner, who will be streaming films and television shows inside the virtual theaters found in Gaia. Some content will be pay-per-view while other content will be ad-supported.
This seems to be somewhat of an extension for centralized viewing options that broadcast companies like NBC have taken advantage of for streaming events such as concerts in virtual worlds like Second Life. What’s interesting is that we’re seeing these centralized streaming options pop up in multiple virtual worlds, not just one. It speaks to the importance of virtual worlds, and even moves attention away from the idea that companies don’t need to focus on certain avatar spaces for realistic quality alone.
As Sony has indicated its interest in finding more ways to distribute its content as a way to rival iTunes, this could be considered another way beyond Crackle and its other offerings, for Sony to do so. Gaia has a pretty large following, and while I don’t think television shows and pay-per-view films will make a major dent in Apple’s market share, I do like the idea of streaming content through more interactive and social places, like Gaia.
On the music front, Sony and Warner are in fact the two major labels that have not offered up DRM-free music downloads, which was highlighted in a recent announcement of Pepsi’s deal with Amazon for a promotion that will run beginning next year, during the Superbowl. As advertising and content owners look for more creative ways in which to insert marketing material and content into interactive and social areas of the web, perhaps the integration with Gaia will be a good way for Sony to test out more advertising options for its content.
[via paid content]
(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)
Coca Cola has apparently found it useful to market itself in virtual worlds. Having made its claim in Second Life through various promotions, the beverages company has moved on to There.com. CC Metro is the island Coke has created in this virtual world, where avatars can hang out. There’s a virtual movie theater for viewing short films (this seems to be very popular in virtual worlds), a diner, and shopping stores where you can use your Coke Rewards points to redeem items for your avatar to don on themselves or in their homes.
The island, shaped like a Coke bottle, is one example of a more integrated marketing solution for a brand within a virtual world. It also highlights the usability of other virtual worlds outside of the dominating Second Life. What stands out for this particular marketing campaign is the attempt at subtlety, which greatly differs from Coke’s Second Life promotion which invited users to design a vending machine. Cosmo is another brand that’s found There.com to be a viable virtual world for targeting teens.
But is there anything in particular that makes one virtual world better than another, and will these brands eventually launch larger campaigns that can reach across several virtual worlds at once? Cruxy has created one tool that will work in multiple virtual worlds, making it easier for distribution purposes to have an offering in more than one community.
And as I mentioned before, showing movies in virtual worlds is becoming more popular–this is a far easier format to offer across virtual worlds and Sony has even bought into it, as it’s invested in Gaia. It doesn’t seem like virtual worlds are dying off anytime soon, with Wells Fargo even launching its own, so we’re sure to see more creative implementations of advertising on this front.
[image via nytimes]
(* Source : Nextgreattthing *)
David says :
Target’s avatar fashion show in New York’s Grand Central this week
In September, we reported on how labels like Prada and H&M are getting involved in anime movies like Appleseed: Ex Machina and shows like the Sims 2 Fashion Runway Showcase. This week, Target joined the “in” crowd, sponsoring “the world’s first model-less fashion show”—a holographic experience in which virtual clothes ruled the catwalk, sans the beautiful ladies and gents who usually sport them. The two-day, multi-hour event took place
at Grand Central Station, with clothes dancing to the music across a Target-themed stage. Commuters and others passing by stopped for a quick peek, with the occasional few taking out their cell-phone cameras to capture the event.
Target’s show was anything but revolutionary—no one seemed overly impressed. But it’s a perfect example of how avatars are going mainstream, filtering into various forms of entertainment from fashion to facebook pages to film. The latest issue of Wired reports that 3D movies are making a fast comeback: this month, Angelina Jolie’s Beowulf will debut in 1,000 3D theaters across the country; next year, James Cameron’s $190 million movie Avatar will premiere—a film the producer says will be “Titanic in space.” Avatars are also becoming lead characters on tech-less shows like Law & Order–even delivering news reports on the Fox Business Network.
With virtual entertainment increasingly in regularity, it’s only a matter of time before our avatars on AIM start getting together and planning events of their own. My spiked-hair, tight-jeaned avatar, for instance, is really set on seeing the next U2 concert in Second Life. If you’re down, have your avatar talk to mine and we’ll make it happen.
(* Source : Virtual World News *)
Habbo Hotel launched the Traxmaxhine back in June to bring music to the virtual world. Right now they act as basic jukeboxes for user-created tunes, but Habbo wants to use them as stores for existing artists as well. While record sales are falling and artists are looking for alternative distribution methods, labels are apparently dragging their feet over compensation and digital rights management issues before getting into the virtual world.
"Habbo users want the ability to support and identify themselves with their favorite bands or recording artists inside our virtual community,” Teemu Huuhtanen, President N. A. and EVP for Habbo business at Sulake told Digital Media Wire. “We are continuing to work with the major record labels on the issue of digital rights and compensation to provide our user base what they are asking for – a way to purchase in Habbo songs and digital goods licensed by label artists."
There.com has a partnership with Capital Music Group, which allows users to purchase CDs from interactive kiosks, but not digital tracks. Likewise, MTV has made big moves in virtual worlds, and Vside has always had a strong music theme with ties to both Interscope and Downtown Records. And plenty of people allow you to upload content, but it seems like nobody has made it easy to buy mainstream digital music and integrate it with your virtual world experience. Or are we missing someone?
(* Source: Sean P. Aune *)
We usually talk about things to help you with your work, now we’re going to help you relax! Actually, scratch that: if you get hooked to any of the games on this list, you might actually lose your job. Listed below are 30+ free MMORPGs for you to enjoy.
Don’t forget to check out our post where you can suggest future toolbox topics! (This list, for example, came from one of the suggestions.)
Anarchy-Online.com - A 3D game set in the far future; it features multiple expansions, and is a winner of many awards.
ConquerOnline.com - An MMORPG mixing elements of kung fu with magic.
Cronous.com - A 3D fantasy MMORPG that supports zoom-in and zoom-out graphics effects.
DarkEden.com - Who can resist playing as one of the creatures of the night, a vampire.
Deicide - A3D fantasy game with a skill system divided in to close, ranged, white magic and dark magic. As with most “free” games, it’s free until you try to get the really good equipment.
Dofus.com - A manga inspired, strategy based game with over 3.5 million players. Free for basic play, costs for extra content.
Drift City - Get ready to jump in your car and drift race around the city. Has a very anime inspired vibe to the artwork.
DungeonRunners.com - Choose from fighters, mages, or rangers, and explore a fantasy game where some dungeons can take as little as 15-minutes if you’re strained for time.
Fishing Champ - Proving that any thing can be turned in to an MMORPG, now you can wile away the hours fishing for virtual fish.
Flyff - Short for “Fly For Fun”, Flyff is a highly rated, and popular MMORPG set in a fantasy environment.
Hero - Set in a land filled with ancient Chinese myths, it’s a martial arts take on a MMORPG.
Heroes in the Sky - Takes to the skies of the World War II Pacific theater, and over the skies of Normandy.
KalOnline - A MMORPG set in a medieval world with a large amount of advancements.
KnightOnlineWorld.com - A 3D medieval game that heavily encourages partying up with other players.
Martial Heroes - A 3D game set in the world of martial arts fantasy fighting.
MythWarOnline.com - Goes for the classic 2D, painted backgrounds feel.
Ran Online - Set in a fantasy version of Asia where somef orm of evil has come from the sky; it’s up to you to figure out what the hell is going on.
Rappelz - A fantasy game set in a 3D world where you can party up and kill monsters.
RF-OnlineGame.com - Set in a far off galaxy, it’s an immersive sci-fi game with three warring factions.
Risk Your Life Part 2 - Another 3D fantasy environment.
Scions Of Fate - A 3D game based on a comic of the same name.
SecondLife.com - With appearances on CSI: New York and the American version of The Office, this game gets bigger by the day. While the game can be free to play, don’t be surprised when you start spending tons of money to buy yourself an island.
Sherwood Dungeon - From MaidMarian.com; no registration is needed, just enter a name and hit enter.
Shot Online - Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and wish you could go golfing? Well, now you can! Yes, it is a golfing MMORPG.
SilkRoadOnline.net - A fantasy game set around the real life Silk Road trading route.
Space Cowboy - Mixing traditional MMORPG with FPS style action, you’re a fighter pilot on a distant planet. The game is free to play… until you want new parts for your fighter.
Tatsumaki: Land At War - Set in 16th century Japan, before the introduction of firearms, you can play as part of the Shogunate or the rebel factions. Currently in beta, they are looking for more testers.
TricksterOnline.com - Cute characters based on animals, fighting isn’t necessary, and free to play until you start buying yourself a home and more.
TurfBattles.com - A 3D fantasy MMORPG that’s free at the beginning, and you have to pay to advance.
Upshift StrikeRacer - Jump in your car, race around Triumph City… shoot up some other drivers. Free to play, some upgrades can be purchased with your reputation.
VoyageCenturyOnline.com - A nautical based MMORPG where everyone captains their own ship.
WarRock.net - Free FPS style fighting across land, sea, and air. Free to play, upgraded weapons is where you can start spending the big bucks.
(* Source : Virtual World News *)
Obviously mobile tie ins for virtual worlds are a big deal. From a marketer's perspective, the best things about virtual worlds--their immersive, tight communities--suddenly become all pervasive. From a user's stand point, well, it's pretty much the same. While the Yankee Group's recent study has had its math called into question, its argument that Anywhere Consumers will drive the future is still a compelling one. "Companies that provide remote access—through mobile devices or other means—to their web experience will have a greater impact than pc-centric companies," said Senior Analyst Christopher Collins. With companies from Sony and Microsoft to third-party hackers in Second Life looking at ways to give users another screen to head into the world on, it looks like consumers will have plenty of options. We present a round up of the major plays being made.
1. Sony's Playstation3 Home: Although it's been delayed until Spring 2008, this console-based virtual world has a lot of people--both hardcore gamers and worldophiles--excited. Sony is working on tie ins to its games, portable devices, and marketing partners for business, but it wants to take all of those connections mobile. Executive Vice President Phil Harrison said ,"We have the Home client now running on a mobile phone. The touchpoints and community experience of home are expanding to the mobile environment." At the very least, users should be able to upload and download content like pictures from their phone to their Home.
2. Microsoft: No one knows what Microsoft's virtual world play will be, but at the Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo, Daniel Schiappa, Microsot's General Manager for the Strategy Entertainment and Devices Division, set out some plans for the future: "If a year from now we don’t have anything, then we probably won’t have anything." While Microsoft already has outlets in the Xbox 360 and PC, Schiappa said the company's goals would be to include all of its devices, including mobile.
3. Second Life: Linden Lab isn't doing anything official for a mobile client--at least that they've announced--but there's a flurry of activity out there for third parties to fill the gap. The ngi group's 3Di.jp released its Web-based application, Movable Life, earlier this month, which is also accessible through mobile applications. Comverse Technologies, though, was working on its mobile client back in February, and there's plenty more out there.
4. Habbo Hotel: Earlier this month, we reported that Sulake had 110,000 users on its experimental mobile client. At Virtual Worlds Fall, CEO Timo Soininen told us that the world had 120,000 users, and Sulake had plans: "It's just been a research project up until now. We wanted to have a proof of concept to show it could be done. We're currently using the Nokia Symbian platform, so you need a Nokia phone. But it is exciting. We're discussing with various parties how to take it to a new height. Because it's clearly proven that there's demand. For Habbo we've had the basic technology for almost two and a half years, but the operating costs for data has been preventitively expensive up until now, especially with the young demo. And the technology reach for the young demo has been low, up until about a year ago. So it might go for a slightly older audience."
5. Disney: Disney's had its fingers in virtual worlds for a while, but it made a gigantic leap in August with its acquisition of Club Penguin. Tucked away in the press release for the sale was this tidbit: "Strategically, Disney plans to develop a Disney-branded connected entertainment network that allows users to access Disney-branded content, including virtual worlds and Disney.com games and videos, any time and anywhere, as well as communicate with each other across platforms, through a Web-based hub connected with PCs and mobile devices such as cell phones and game platforms." Disney already has firm plans to create a sort of metaverse network for its Nintendo DS games with DGamer, which will allow users to "chat, create personal avatars and trade game-themed items, across the room or anywhere in the world with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection."
6. Cyworld: In June the Cyworld US offices explained that they had plans to go mobile for the US market in the first quarter of 2008. Cyworld's parent company SK Telecom has a relationship with Sprint (via Helio) and T-Mobile USA’s parent company in Germany, so the corporate infrastructure shouldn't be too hard to put into place. In Korea, the mobile application has brought Cyworld 2.5 million users, so it's an understandable desire. “We’ve been dragging our feet on this, because we want to get it right," Cyworld USA Vice President of Marketing and Sales Michael Streefland told GigaOM . "We commissioned a research report to figure out what Cyworld Mobile would be in the U.S., and we’re still figuring that out.”
7. There.com: There doesn't seem to be any rush to go mobile, but when we spoke with CEO Michael Wilson in July he remarked that "We believe in extending the platform to as many devices as possible and to more light-weight devices. We’ll be making an announcement next month about lighter weight devices. The problem is that the just doesn’t have a good network. If we were in Asia it would be easier." We haven't heard that announcement yet, though, and There.com says there's nothing to report at this time.
8. Trion: When Trion received $30M in funding in July, CEO Lars Buttler said that the company is pursuing a technology that "essentially build games that are more real time and dynamic, so we can deliver storylines on a daily basis." The game will feature multiple channel-like components across multiple platforms, allowing users to access their information from PCs and mobile devices."
9. Moshi Monsters: These upcoming toys from MindCandy, I don't think, engage directly through a cell phone interface, but they do work with your ring tone. The Guardian reports, in Aleks Krotoski's take on mobile worlds, that the release asks users to "Clip your moshi monster to your bag or jacket, then relax and do whatever you want to do! When your mobile rings your MoPod magically springs to life!"
10. Everybody Else: Because no day is complete without a little rumor mongering, let's not forget that Google is supposedly working on a virtual world, and it's set to make an announcement about its (separate?) mobile platform within a matter of weeks.
More seriously, mobile is booming as its own separate channel for entertainment, marketing, and engagement. In June Forrester reported that 3 of the 15 largest interactive agencies in the U.S. see virtual worlds as having one of the greatest impacts on their design practices. But 12 of 15 see the mobile channel as significant. If virtual worlds want to go mainstream, there's not a much simpler direction than mobile. And as more virtual worlds place a premium on casual elements, it seems like a sure thing.
Did we forget someone? Maybe. Do you know of more happening in mobile virtual worlds? Hopefully. Let us know.
(* Source : Tameka Kee *)
THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE United States (HSUS) has partnered with Makena Technologies to launch an interactive campaign at There.com. HSUS will use branded virtual and real world merchandise, as well as live events to raise awareness and funds in the fight against animal cruelty. The effort is a departure from HSUS' typical marketing campaigns, which are geared toward the 50+ demographic. By establishing a presence in There.com, the organization is aiming squarely at the 20- to-30-year-old market. There.com members can purchase HSUS merchandise for their avatars--and even acquire the corresponding real-life version at the HSUS storefront, connecting real merchandise to virtual sales. "We are always looking for new ways to celebrate animals and confront cruelty; and working with There.com to take animal protection into the virtual world reaches a new audience with a message of compassion," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States.
(* Source : Mike Shields *)
As news organizations slash budgets and scale back bureaus, CNN is expanding—except not in real life.
In the week of Nov. 5, the news giant is set to open a news-gathering outpost in Second Life. And unlike news service Reuters, which embedded a real reporter in the online virtual world last year, CNN will rely on Second Life "residents" to do all the legwork.
In the space, the network will create a variation of its i-Reports, the real-world vehicle through which average citizens contribute eyewitness reports. CNN will equip Second Life denizens with kits enabling them to transmit copy and photos. Visitors to Second Life will be able to get the latest news via kiosks scattered throughout the virtual community.
And the network will act as a sort of journalism school, offering guidance to avatar citizen journalists via weekly "news meetings" directed by CNN.com staffers. And top CNN personalities including Larry King will conduct virtual training sessions for budding cyber journalists.
Given that Second Life users tend to be highly passionate about the virtual space, CNN execs believe the community will embrace user-generated journalism—more than they would embrace simply repurposed content.
"We looked at what are people doing [in Second Life] that is meaningful to what we do," said Susan Grant, executive vp of CNN News Services. "I love that we don't have to take things from the real world and force them in."
As for whether the world of Second Life will generate news events worthy of reporting, i-Report producer Lila King is not concerned. After all, visitors to the online world include news-making personalities like Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House who most recently had the public guessing whether he'd jump into the presidential race (he hasn't).
CNN's association with Second Life comes at a time when the digital phenomenon is awash in media hype but still far from cracking the mainstream. Its unique user base has hovered between 400,000 and 700,000 per month over the last year, according to Nielsen Online, and has twice fallen below the research firm's minimum reporting threshold.
More here
(* Source : Virtual World News *)
"People have been ignoring the fact that there are 12 other virtual worlds out there that have hundreds of thousands of visitors," says Jonathan Nelson, special adviser to Omnicom CEO John Wren. "My bet is this stuff is here to stay." Omnicom recently took a significant stake in Millions of Us, and the Wall Street Journal story gives a fair amount of time to Millions of Us projects. The main point, and one that developers like Millions of Us have been touting for a while now, is that virtual worlds are prime for advertising, but Second Life isn't the only or even the best option out there. Based on Comscore figures for the month of September, Second Life ranked at the bottom of 12 worlds in numbers of unique visitors. And, yes, the number (235,000 for last month) is drawn from users accessing the software for the world, not just visiting the website. Even the rapidly declining Millsberry.com--down 17% from last year, but still at #5--saw 2.5 million unique users. Webkinz led the pack with 6 million unique users. [via WSJ.com]
![[Many Lives]](http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/MK-AM456_ADVERT_20071022213246.gif)
(* Source: Dan Neumann *)
Creating a successful advertising model for virtual worlds should be easy. There are more potential ad forms, but, until recently, the market was not diverse enough to encourage the adoption of meaningful standards. Once ROI standards have been established, media buyers, marketers, and brand managers will have more persuasive arguments for continued or increased brand involvement in the medium.
One of the great promises of virtual worlds is contextual ad delivery. In most virtual worlds, advertisers will have access to almost every detail about your avatar and have the ability to scrape and save chat data. Since most people’s avatars are well removed from their true identities, privacy concerns are reduced. An obvious example of this would be to serve ads for virtual goods based on keywords in your chat. Another might be to serve ads based on one’s in-world physical interactions and activates. Ad models for real-world goods are still being worked out, but even these lines are becoming blurred.
The potential for contextual ad delivery in virtual worlds is huge, but there are still many unanswered questions. How should ads in Virtual Worlds be sold? How should ad value be measured? The CPM model works well in 2D, but in 3D its accuracy is diminished. Some interesting ideas under discussion are CPA (cost per action) and duration of engagement models. These models better reflect the nature of avatar-based interaction. It makes sense that the amount of time an avatar spends engaging a brand is a good reflection of ROI.
(* Source: Dan Taylor *)
Thanks Dan for the great work on finding these new 15 after he listed the 50.
Following on from my previous round-up of 50 virtual worlds, below are fifteen virtual worlds currently in development.
 | Adventure Rock bbc.co.uk/cbbc/adventurerock/ Larian Studios / BBC Virtual world for children ETA: Fall 2007 |
 | Flowplay http://www.flowplay.com/ Flowplay Casual gaming community ETA: Fall 2007 |
 | Meet-Me http://www.co-core.com/ Co-core Virtual rendering of Tokyo ETA: Fall 2007 |
 | Novoking http://www.novoking.com/ Novoking Chinese 3D avatar environment ETA: Fall 2007 |
 | Pirates of the Caribbean Online http://apps.pirates.go.com/pirates/ Disney MMOG based on Disney IP ETA: Fall 2007 |
 | Planet Cazmo http://www.planetcazmo.com/ Pileated Pictures Browser-based teen world ETA: Fall 2007 |
 | Twinity http://www.twinity.com/ Metaversum Virtual/real life mashup ETA: Fall 2007 |
 | Whirled www.threerings.net/whirled/ Three Rings Design Casual gaming community ETA: Fall 2007 |
 | Zoodaloo http://www.zoodaloo.com/ Zoodaloo Virtual world for kids ETA: Fall 2007 |
 | PlayStation Home http://www.homebetatrial.com/ Sony PlayStation virtual community ETA: Spring 2008 |
 | Spore http://www.spore.com/ Maxis / Electronic Arts Will Wright's god game ETA: Spring 2008 |
 | Uworld http://www.uonenet.com/ UOneNet Chinese virtual community ETA: Spring 2008 |
 | Lego Universe http://universe.lego.com/ NetDevil / Lego MMOG utilising Lego IP ETA: Fall 2008 |
 | Infinity: The Quest for Earth http://www.fl-tw.com/Infinity/ Flavien Brebion Space-based MMORPG ETA: 2008 |
 | Adellion http://www.adellion.com/ HonourBound Ltd. Medieval MMORPG ETA: Unknown |
(* Source: Dan Taylor *)
A great round up by Dan...
If you relied solely on the mainstream media for your knowledge of online trends (more fool you), you'd be forgiven for thinking there was only one virtual world. Second Life has hoovered up huge swathes of column inches and airtime over the past 12 months (see earlier post on the Second Life media frenzy) with only the occasional nod to World of Warcraft or Habbo Hotel.
However, there's much more to virtual worlds than Second Life. Immersive online environments are a huge growth area, as demonstrated by the below round-up of 50 virtual worlds, ranked by approximate user numbers (with a few, for which I couldn't source viable user data, tacked on the end). It's worth stating that the approximate user figures are just that: approximate. Gleaned from a wide range of different sources, they are mostly self-reported and cover a multitude of differing definitions. I've tried to reconcile the figures wherever possible to try and reflect number of active users rather than number of avatars or visitors to the website, although many will still be way off base.
In terms of trends, the kids market appears to be a significant growth area and that's without including avatar chat sites (e.g. IMVU, Zwinktopia) or the growing legion of pet/doll sites (e.g. NeoPets, GoPets, MyePets, Be-Bratz, Stardoll).
 | World of Warcraft http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/ Blizzard Entertainment Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 9m |
 | Habbo Hotel http://www.habbo.com/ Sulake Launched: 2000 Approximate no. of users: 7.5m |
 | Nicktropolis http://www.nick.com/nicktropolis/ Nickelodeon Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 5.1m |
 | Runescape http://www.runescape.com/ Jagex Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 5m |
 | Club Penguin http://www.clubpenguin.com/ New Horizon Interactive / Disney Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 4m |
 | Knight Online http://www.knightonlineworld.com/ MGame Corporation / Noah System Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 4m |
 | Barbie Girls http://www.barbiegirls.com/ Mattel Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 4m |
 | Coke Studios http://www.mycoke.com/ Studiocom / The Coca-Cola Company Launched: 2002 Approximate no. of users: 4m |
 | Gaia Online http://www.gaiaonline.com/ Gaia Interactive Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 3.5m |
 | MapleStory http://www.maplestory.com/ Wizet / Nexon Launched: 1999 Approximate no. of users: 3m |
 | Dofus http://www.dofus.com/ Ankama Games Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 3m |
 | Guild Wars http://www.guildwars.com/ NCsoft Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 2m |
 | Whyville http://www.whyville.net/ Numedeon Launched: 1999 Approximate no. of users: 1.7m |
 | Second Life http://secondlife.com/ Linden Lab Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 1.5m |
 | Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom http://vmk.disney.go.com/ Sulake Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 1.4m |
 | Disney's Toontown http://play.toontown.com/ Disney Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 1.2m |
 | Mokitown http://www.mobile-kids.net/ Neue Digitale / Daimler Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 1.1m |
 | Lineage / Lineage II http://www.lineage.com/ NCsoft Launched: 1998 Approximate no. of users: 1m |
 | There http://www.there.com/ Makena Technologies Launched: 1998 Approximate no. of users: 1m |
 | BOTS http://bots.acclaim.com/ Acclaim Games Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 1m |
 | Webkinz World http://www.webkinz.com/ Ganz Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 1m |
 | AlphaWorld http://www.activeworlds.com/ Active Worlds Launched: 1997 Approximate no. of users: 900,000 |
 | Entropia Universe http://www.entropiauniverse.com/ MindArk Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 600,000 |
 | Virtual MTV http://www.vmtv.com/ Makena Technologies Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 600,000 |
 | Virtual World of Kaneva http://www.kaneva.com/ Kaneva Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 600,000 |
 | Final Fantasy XI: Online http://www.playonline.com/ff11eu/ Square Launched: 2002 Approximate no. of users: 500,000 |
 | EverQuest / EverQuest II http://everquest.station.sony.com/ Sony Online Entertainment Launched: 1999 Approximate no. of users: 500,000 |
 | Faketown http://www.faketown.com/ Identity Play Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 500,000 |
 | Dubit http://www.dubitchat.com/ Dubit Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 500,000 |
 | Cybertown http://www.cybertown.com/ Integrated Virtual Networks Launched: 1995 Approximate no. of users: 500,000 |
 | Playdo http://beta.playdo.com/ Playdo Launched: 2000 Approximate no. of users: 400,000 |
 | Eve Online http://www.eve-online.com/ CCP Games Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 200,000 |
 | Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates http://www.puzzlepirates.com/ Three Rings Design / Ubisoft Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 200,000 |
 | Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar http://www.lotro.com/ Turbine, Inc. Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 200,000 |
 | Star Wars Galaxies http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/ LucasArts Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: 200,000 |
 | City of Heroes / City of Villains http://uk.cityofheroes.com/ Cryptic Studios / NCsoft Launched: 2004 Approximate no. of users: 180,000 |
 | vSide http://www.vside.com/ Doppelganger Launched: 2007 Approximate no. of users: 150,000 |
 | Ultima Online http://www.uo.com/ Electronic Arts Launched: 1997 Approximate no. of users: 135,000 |
 | Dark Age of Camelot http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/ Mythic Entertainment / Electronic Arts Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: 125,000 |
 | The Sims Online http://www.ea.com/official/thesims/thesimsonline/ Maxis / Electronic Arts Launched: 2002 Approximate no. of users: 100,000 |
 | Xivio http://www.xivio.com/ Xivio Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 22,000 |
 | citypixel http://www.citypixel.com/ citypixel Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: 20,000 |
 | Teen Second Life http://teen.secondlife.com/ Linden Lab Launched: 2005 Approximate no. of users: 5,000 |
 | Westward Journey II / Fantasy Westward Journey http://corp.163.com/eng/games/westward_journey.html NetEase Launched: 2002 / 2004 Approximate no. of users: ?? |
 | Scions of Fate (Yulgang) http://fate.netgame.com/ KRGsoft Launched: 2006 Approximate no. of users: ?? |
 | Legend of Mir II / Legend of Mir III http://www.legendofmir.net/ WeMade Entertainment / ActozSoft Launched: 2001 Approximate no. of users: ?? |
 | MU Online http://globalmuonline.com/ Webzen / K2 Network Launched: 2003 Approximate no. of users: ?? |
