We'll probably be talking more here at Worlds in Motion about the great blogs to watch for ideas and discussion on the virtual worlds space, but for now, let's peek in on the personal blog of Raph Koster, whose intriguing Areae project is still under wraps. As a designer and director with exposure to the multiplayer and online worlds concepts since the early nineties, Raph's experienced point of view on the space is invaluable-- game guru Tycho of Penny Arcade fame calls him a "prophet."

Raph can also be relied on for snippets of inside info:

I just got an anonymous tip that the figures reported for BarbieGirls.com are not only accurate, but that there is internal concern that the servers won’t handle the load once the toy MP3 players with virtual item asset codes hit the stores.

With those figures-- 3 million users in 60 days while still in beta-- Raph's informant could very well be spot-on.

Another good blog-to-watch is Nabeel Hyatt's Brinking. Nabeel is the founder of Conduit Labs, a venture-backed group of gaming and entertainment vets putting together an as-of-yet unnanounced online social networking/virtual world project. He moderated the "Why Virtual Goods Matter" panel at the recent Virtual Goods Summit, and, according to his site, was nominated by MIT Technology Review in 2004 as one of the "Top 100 Innovators Under 30." Currently on Brinking, some thoughts on how Nielsen's new attention-based web metric boosts social networking sites, as well as a discussion on CyWorld's $80M virtual goods biz.

One more today-- Adrian Crook's FreeToPlay, subtitled "alternate revenue streams for digital entertainment." Crook currently heads up Relic Labs, an internal group at THQ developer Relic Entertainment, where he develops new game concepts using emergent themes like casual gaming, Web 2.0 and free-to-play business models. His latest tells readers "10 Things You Didn't Know" about surprise dark-horse Shockwave hit Sherwood Dungeon by Maid Marian Entertainment.

We'll be taking a closer look at some more neat gems from all of these important sources in the future!