Meez Finally Launches Virtual World

[reposted from Mashable]

Meez users have been requesting a virtual world in which their custom avatars can roam around and become more social with each other for some time, and now they finally have what they've always wanted. Meeznation is the brand new virtual world made just for Meez avatars.

The virtual world wasn't entirely under wraps, as Meez has been testing out a few virtual rooms through its Facebook application earlier this year. This testing laid the groundwork for many of the social aspects that were applied to Meeznation. The virtual world hosts games, customizable rooms, various applications like a graffiti wall, and the ability to do things like watch YouTube videos with friends.

Unlike most other virtual worlds that have grown out of an avatar-creation and sharing site, Meez has layered in a good deal of functionality, activity and interaction for the avatars. For instance, there's chat capabilities in every virtual room, and similar to an IM chat client that converts the characters ";" and ")" into Meez avatars will act out certain commands that you type into the chat window. Type in "rofl" and your Meez avatar will roll on the floor laughing.

Some reactions aren't as readily known, and you'll have to learn by experience to figure out what these actions are. During the demo of Meeznation, presented by Director of Marketing Michael Lehman, I noticed some avatars sitting cross-legged, floating in the air. As a newcomer, it's not very obvious that you'll need to type in "Ommm" in order to get your avatar into this meditative position. Having such "secret" reactions and interactions within the virtual world adds more of a gaming quality to Meeznation, and will hold some users' attention longer, especially as Meez intends to continually introduce new actions such as this.

Other actions seem better fitted with certain virtual rooms, which can be branded as part of Meez's advertising options within this virtual world. Just as brands like Nike, Panasonic and Sears have provided gear, objects and backgrounds for avatar customization, some virtual rooms in Meeznation can be presented to offer even more interactive marketing.

One example shown to me during the demo of Meeznation was a listening lounge for the upcoming 50 Cent album. Here users can listen to songs, click on album posters on the wall to purchase those corresponding albums through iTunes, chat with others about the album, and even have rap battles with each other.

Rooms aren't limited to brands and those predefined by Meez–individual users can create their own custom rooms, just as they would an IM chat room. The amount of interaction that can go on in one of these user-launched virtual rooms is enhanced by a "message system" that allows users to communicate with each other even if they're not in the same room at the same time. One thing that Meez learned from testing virtual rooms on Facebook is that real-time chat is fun, but not all-inclusive. Enabling users to leave messages and gifts for each other in a virtual room is like having an inbox in your virtual world chat room.

And most of the behavior that takes place within these virtual rooms can be measured for Meez's purposes, and for branding purposes as well. Metrics will be acquired based on user activity, as an extension of what Meez already provides in terms of stats for user behavior. This will consist of looking at the conscious decisions that users make, such as entering a room, how long they remained in the room, and what types of branding paraphernalia they interacted with.
While Meeznation isn't directly connected with the Meez Facebook application (in terms of visiting back and forth between the two apps), new rooms launched on Meeznation will be available through the Facebook application as well. This too could lead to some interesting behavior analytics that can be accounted for in regards to advertising and branding potential of Meez's virtual world.

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