MTV.co.uk yesterday announced the launch the beta of House, a Flash-based virtual world for socializing and hanging out in a lightly branded environment. Registration is tied through the Flux social network, just as the Virtual LES is now, which you can also create avatars for independently. The site is just now in beta (and focused on the UK, it seems), so there weren't many other people online when I checked it out, but there are already some limited activities (games, accessing content, etc.) accessible by clicking on characters tied to the various rooms and channels they represent.
Unfortunately, my avatar (left) never finished loading (above), but they all take the fairly simple, cartoony style of the rest of House.
The announcement says that House will offer exclusive content to users, like news, media, and contests, as well as a place for avatars and sponsors to reach the MTV UK audience in more depth. That's something MTV has had a fair amount of success with Pepsi on the States side in vMTV, but what I find really interesting is the switch between the richer, client-based worlds of vMTV and vLES and their Web-based UK counterpart.
That's something MTV has experimented with before, offering a Virtual Hills experience in Gaia Online that then drove significant traffic back to MTV's own heavier virtual worlds. There's no information, though, on whether MTV UK's House might tie in to the rest of vMTV. MTV has discussed plans to roll out House worldwide.
“Mtv.co.uk is about building a community for online audiences that are passionate about entertainment and music, as well as being socially conscious, and therefore our digital activity is evolving and adapting to allow the audience to express themselves more”, Philip O’Ferrall, Vice President Digital Media at MTV, said in a statement. "By carrying out continuous research to find out what our audiences really want, and by introducing an enhanced user experience where the audience can interact with each other and the brand whether that be advise on sensitive issues or sharing great MTV content - we are in turn responding to their needs."
House was built by Yomego, a UK-based interactive entertainment agency with a white label platform for virtual environments and communities.
Comments