Virtual Worlds News

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We have launched 3DTLC.net, a new blog dedicated to training, learning and collaboration-related issues, trends and best practices. 3DTLC-related news that would have been posted here is available on 3DTLC.net.  If interested set your bookmarks and RSS feeds to 3DTLC.net. More details here.

Birthdays in the News: USA, WWW?

As a nation, we commemorate the "birthday" of the United States during the first week of July, reflecting on events occurring in Philadelphia in 1776. But what of the less-defined territory of cyberspace, the Web, of virtual worlds, and of the so-called matrix? Do those "locales" have a universally recognized date of origin, or birth date?

If they did, it could be argued the date of July 1, yesterday, would qualify. That's the publish date of William Gibson's futuristic novel Neuromancer (published by Ace Books on July 1, 1984). It is a novel many think foretold the creation of the world wide web and immersive 3D environments.

Chinese Game Stocks Tumble on Virtual Currency Regulation

In the three-day period since the announcement of China's new laws regulating virtual currency, stock prices for major Chinese online game operators have crumbled, plunging by as much as 10% according to a report from Seeking Alpha. Affected companies are all traded in U.S. markets and include Shanda Online, Changyou, The9, NetEase, Perfect World, and Giant Interactive. This is a dramatic turnaround after months of share prices generally trending higher. 

QuickStat: Mafia Wars Hits 4M User Milestone

Today social game publisher Zynga announced its Mafia Wars game now serves four million daily active users. This number has doubled in the past three months and comes as Mafia Wars celebrates its one-year anniversary. Zynga calls Mafia Wars "social gaming's most popular crime-based game." The game has over 1 million Fans on Facebook. As part of the one-year anniversary, Zynga has launched new Mafia Wars game content include a new in-game location, Cuba, accessible to players who have reached level 35 or higher. Cuba gives players access to 100 levels from new jobs, own property, and buy from a stock of 52 new in-game virtual items including weapons, armor, and vehicles. This announcement comes within a week of Zynga filing suit against Playdom, whose similar Mobsters title has been running ads mentioning their game as a Mafia Wars alternative. While Zynga claims that Playdom's ads "misleadingly associate" the two games, they clearly aren't slowing down Mafia Wars's explosive growth. [via our sister site VirtualGoodsNews.com]

Sony Hints at Tweaks to Home

A survey sent to members of the PlayStation Network hints at changes afoot at the company's online social gaming service/Virtual World, PlayStation Home.

WeeWorld Honors Farrah Fawcett, MJ

Never mind how Farrah Fawcett died (hmm, explain that to a 12-year-old), she died. On Thursday of last week to be exact. Now, it's time to react -- with pangs of nostalgia, with tears, and with virtual goods.

Mingoville Pairs Books, Events with Virtual World

The teaching-oriented Mingoville virtual world -- an online destination for tweens and teens to learn English -- soft launched in Denmark two months ago. Last week, the group announced a hard launch, some user stats, and bit more of the company's long-term business model.

"Learning English doesn't only take place inside the classroom," said Mingoville's founder and CEO Stephan Stephensen in a statement announcing the hard launch. "It was clear to us we had to be where the kids were -- using social media as a teaching tool."

Virtual Worlds Documentary Readied for Theaters

The video documentary Second Skin has been on the festival circuit for a while, but next month the film jumps to a larger arena. Okay, not in the Landmark Theaters sense of the word, but still, the film's upcoming schedule of screenings in New York City, Somerville, Mass., and Austin, Texas portend good things for the already positively received documentary on virtual worlds and MMORPGs.

Linden Lab: "We Are Committed to Australia"

In light of rumors surrounding a possible "filtering" of Second LIfe to residents of Australia, effectively blocking access to Second Lifer servers, Linden Lab issued a statement pledging its commitment to serving the Australian market.

"Australia has and will continue to be an important market....and we’re committed to providing the best possible Second Life experience for the users in that market."

The statement was issued is response to rumors that Second Life, an online virtual world which lies outside the country's MA-15+ rating, was in the cross hairs of politicians intent on shutting the game down.

Metaplace Extends Reach with New Embed Feature

San Diego-based Metaplace, the online virtual world startup headed by game designer and online prognosticator Raph Koster, disclosed today that Metaplace creators can now embed their Flash-based worlds into blogs or on to web pages.

Q&A: Onverse CEO Steve Pierce

In development for over a year and a half, virtual world Onverse opened its doors to users just last week. The five-person team launched on a shoestring --"on savings, family and ramen noodles," founder and CEO Steve Pierce told me today).

I spoke with Steve and asked for a bit more detail on the new site.

VirtualWorldsNews.com: You're live, correct?

Steve Pierce: We opened our beta last week and have been running in stealth mode so we could make sure our server code was stable.

VWN.com: Can you tell me about the site, the user experience?

QuickStat: New Poptropica Island Drives Traffic Surge

Earlier this month, Poptropica launched a new region in the kids-targeted virtual world. Astro-Knights Island was brought online on June 10. As a result, the site experienced a surge in traffic as 1.2 million users logged on to explore the "Medieval space adventure"-themed island. That spike in traffic helped the site secure a spot in Quantcast.com's list of top 300 Web sites, according to a Poptropica statement. Astro-Knights Island brings the total number of islands on the site to nine and has resulted in more than 120 million online characters having been created since the 2007 launch. Later this summer, Poptropica will launch its tenth new island for visitors. The world was developed by Family Education Network, a division of education and technology behemoth Pearson.

NewsBrief: Organic Motion Heads South

Organic Motion, Inc., a New York City-based company with a Project Natal-like motion-capture technology that doesn't require a bulky bodysuit or system of sensors, says it will open a business development and sales office in Central Florida this summer. The goal is to tap the area's defense-training, entertainment and medical simulation industries -- relatively strong sectors in a geographic region less affected by the slumping economy. While the company's technology seems suited for use in virtual worlds, Organic Motion has yet to find a breakthrough partner. An Orlando TV station today posted a video report on Organic Motion.

NewsBrief: Second Life Banned in Australia?

True, the Australian government is considering whether to block access to online games containing content which lies outside the country's MA-15+ rating. As the Sydney Morning Herald states: "Australia is the only developed country without an R18+ classification for games, meaning any titles that do not meet the MA15+ standard -- such as those with excessive violence or sexual content -- are simply banned from sale by the Classification Board, unless they are modified to remove the offending content." The proposed approach to filtering could impact the availability of virtual worlds and MMOs, however one site is reporting that Second Life has, indeed, been banned. Second Life-focused blog New World Notes, among others, is saying the reports of SL's demise have been blown out of proportion. The report, however, is being widely covered.

Microsoft Puts Halo Fashions On Digital Runway

Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry Hyrb, better known to gamers by the handle "Major Nelson," recently confirmed to consumer weblog Kotaku that he and other Microsoft employees were participating in an internal beta test of avatar marketplace features. Among the features currently in testing are licensed virtual goods for avatars based on Microsoft video game IP. The image to the left (click to enlarge) shows a sample of what the licensed virtual fashions based on Microsoft's Halo property will look like.

"Regarding that entry on my Gamercard, that's something we're testing as part of the next dashboard release (nope...not ready to announce a date yet!.) If you remember at E3, we announced avatar marketplace, and the ability for games to award avatar items. We're testing that infrastructure," said Hyrb in a statement on Sunday. [via VirtualGoodsNews.com]

"Regarding that entry on my Gamercard, that's something we're testing as part of the next dashboard release (nope...not ready to announce a date yet!.) If you remember at E3, we announced avatar marketplace, and the ability for games to award avatar items. We're testing that infrastructure," said Hyrb in a statement on Sunday. [via VirtualGoodsNews.com]

Disney Deals with Spil to Promote Club Penguin

In mid-2007, Disney Corp. made a bid for and acquired the kids' virtual world Club Penguin. It paid $350 million in cash and laid out an additional $350 million in incentives. While the popularity of Club Penguin is undeniable -- it is the top virtual world in United States with an audience of nearly eight million, or 4.3 percent of all US-based virtual-world users; and the Nintendo DS iteration released last year become the fastest Disney video game to ship one million units -- that popularity wasn't enough to qualify the sellers for the first $175 million tranche.

Now, in a likely effort to accelerate user adoption along with revenues from virtual goods, Disney and giant European-based Spil Games announced a deal that will see Club Penguin promoted among a select number of Spil game portals.