150+ Youth-Oriented Virtual Worlds Now Live or in Development

A new study highlights the growth and competitiveness of virtual worlds targeted at kids and teens.

http://feeds.ign.com/~r/ignfeeds/games/~3/372101943/902075p1.html

Srtategy Guide for Virtual World Investors

[reposted from GameDaily]

Strategy Analytics announced that it will be releasing "Defining the Total Economic Return from Virtual Worlds Applications." This guide is designed to help companies better plan their virtual worlds investments in order to receive larger returns.

"Virtual Worlds have witnessed considerable growth among consumers, but companies have lacked the economic justification, metrics, and process to guide investments," said Harvey Cohen, President of Strategy Analytics and chief architect of the study, while adding "Virtual worlds can serve as a strategic catalyst for penetrating youthful markets as well as a checkpoint for demonstrating a company's focus on innovation."

"Companies will require more specific measurement tools in order to continue their investments in virtual worlds," commented Barry Gilbert, Vice President and Research Director of the Strategy Analytics Virtual World Strategies program. "Multi-billion dollar global brand companies looking to target the global youth market should be investing a minimum of one percent of their advertising and promotional budget in virtual worlds."

A recent report said that over $150 million had been invested in virtual worlds during the second quarter of 2008.

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/strategy-analytics-releases-guide-on-virtual-world-investments/?biz=1

Tim Kring, Executive Producer/Creator of Heroes, Speaking at Virtual Worlds Hollywood

Kring will speak at the panel entitled 'How Virtual Worlds Influence the Future of Entertainment.'

http://feeds.ign.com/~r/ignfeeds/games/~3/343898856/893110p1.html

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PlaySpan CEO to Address the Global Economic Impact of Virtual World Economies

[reposted from ign.com]

PlaySpan, the gaming industry's first publisher sponsored in game commerce network, is proud to announce that CEO Karl Mehta will address the esteemed participants of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival on Monday, August 11 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, UK. Speaking before industry academics, developers, publishers, educators and public servants, Mehta will discuss the many ways virtual world economies impact real-world economies through real money transactions.

"Speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival is a monumental privilege and a chance to educate a broad segment of gaming professionals on a new and important gaming sector," said PlaySpan CEO Karl Mehta, "As the gaming industry's leading microtransaction solution, PlaySpan represents the cutting edge of virtual world monetization. We believe that this opportunity to convey our insight to the prestigious leaders at EIF represents a major step for the understanding of virtual world economies."

Now celebrating its sixth year, the Edinburgh Interactive Festival is powered up to showcase the continued popularity, growth, and influence of video games. This year's Interactive Festival will be more influential than ever, drawing a wide array of press, public and professionals from the world-renown, three-week Edinburgh International Festival. The Edinburgh Interactive Festival offers more events than ever for delegates, with an expanded consumer focus on television, film, and interactive media – creating an engaging spectacle for all.

New to Interactive Festival 2008 will be Features, Exhibition, and Recruitment areas specifically designed to give the public access to the latest games and interactive entertainment job opportunities. Tickets can be obtained from any Gamestation store in Scotland or at the EICC on the day of the event.

Registration for the Edinburgh Interactive Festival is open now at: www.edinburghinteractivefestival.com

http://feeds.ign.com/~r/ignfeeds/games/~3/324213365/885500p1.html

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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Virtual Worlds In Motion

See below from games.ign.com. I met Jim Bower (Numedeon) at the Games for Health conference earlier this year and he is definitely worth hearing.

Sept. 16-17, 2008 will mark the return of the Worlds in Motion Summit, taking place at the Austin Game Developers Conference (www.austingdc.net) in the Austin Convention Center. The event, which saw its successful debut at the Game Developers Conference 2008 (GDC 08) in San Francisco this past spring, will map the broadening of the worldwide business market through the expansive and growing social game networking space. The Worlds in Motion Summit, presented by WorldsinMotion.biz, is of particular value to those looking to successfully leverage their content and brands into interactive online worlds.

In an exciting development, Stephen Andrade, Senior Vice President, Digital Development and General Manager, NBC.com will be joined by Rajat Paharia, Founder and CEO of Bunchball in a first-of-its-kind presentation, titled "Dunder Mifflin Infinity: A Case Study in Using Game Mechanics to Drive Community Behavior." Participants will hear how Bunchball's Nitro meta-gaming platform is being used to drive user behavior and increase engagement on Dunder Mifflin Infinity, a social networking and user-generated content site for fans of NBC's hit TV show, The Office.

Additional confirmed speakers for the upcoming Worlds in Motion Summit include:

- James M. Bower - Founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Visionary Officer of Numedeon Inc.

- Jonathan Epstein - CEO of Double Fusion

Teemu Huuhtanen - Executive VP, Marketing, Ad Sales and Business Development of Sulake Corporation and President, North America of Sulake Inc.

The conference will examine the results that both independent start-ups and established Fortune 500 companies can derive from actively participating in the virtual world space. The Worlds in Motion Summit will map the intersection of games, business and entertainment in virtual worlds, and provide a look into where these virtual worlds are headed. Beyond traditional notions of linear gameplay experiences, the Worlds in Motion Summit will delve into the increasing socialization of games and online worlds, and the integration of personalization and player-generated content into gameplay.

Additional information on the event and confirmed speakers can be found at: http://www.austingdc.net/wim/index.htm

EVE Online Now Ruled By Real-World Elected Council

(from Kotaku)

Iceland. It's where all the cool kids go to have a summit. Reagan and Gorbachev rapped about nukes there in 1985; 20 years later, the Supreme Metal Council condemned the overuse of the devil horns hand-signal. And now something billing itself as EVE Online's democratically elected government will meet there.

The Council of Stellar Management — which sounds like something from Dilbert — was formed by EVE developer CCP back in March, and now the two bodies will meet to discuss issues both real- and virtual-world pertaining to the game. The CSM's nine delegates and five alternates serve six month terms and were elected back in March. They rep a gamer community approaching 250,000, according to CCP which bills the stellar managers as "the first democratically-elected governing body in a virtual world."

"The CSM will empower players with a formal communications channel to directly impact the development of their society as it grows more and more advanced," a release says.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/307526816/eve-online-convenes-real+world-elected-council

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Sims Franchise To (Re)Explore, Virtual Worlds?

[from Kotaku]

In a somewhat bizarre interview with The Times Online, Nancy Smith (head of the Sims division at EA) said that " in light of the popularity of virtual worlds ... the Sims may soon become a multi-player game." The article fails to mention the failed experiment of The Sims Online, later rebranded to "EA-Land" and scheduled for closure in August. But Smith talks of potential new (and old) modes for online play:

Ms Smith was adamant, however, that The Sims would not break wholly with its past, and would continue to require players to buy and install software on their machines before being able to play. Some virtual worlds, such as Club Penguin and Habbo Hotel, can be played entirely within a web browser ....

The Sims franchise would also continue to explore new revenue models that have become associated with virtual worlds, she said, including sponsorship and the sale of 'virtual goods', as on the fashion-focused virtual world for teens, Stardoll.com.

It's a really odd interview in light of the online element that already fell flat on its face; maybe second time will be the charm for the Sims?

The Sims prepare for a sociable future [The Times via Worlds In Motion]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/306946984/sims-franchise-to-explore-uh-virtual-worlds

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