Doppelganger Studios got its start with virtual music club The Music Lounge, and soon moved on to its next project-- building the ultra-hip Lower East Side of Manhattan into an online world, Virtual Lower East Side (VLES).

Now, as InformationWeek reports, Doppelganger's ready to add some intriguing new city hotspots to its slate, with Tokyo's Harajuku and Shinjuku districts, Paris' 7th Arrondissement, and Milan, in addition to planned communities like Seaside, Florida all tentatively slated for an August 2007 release. Since its launch in May 2006, Doppelganger's only signed up 150,000 members-- so it makes sense that they're looking to expand their reach.

"We wanted to base it on a real world city because that's the environment the average user is familiar with," said Andrew Littlefield, the company's chief creative officer and founder. "And it gave us an opportunity to insert advertisements."

Advertisements clash with fantasy environments like the World of Warcraft, explained Littlefield. But teens readily accept them in a world with more verisimilitude.

"In a focus group, 90% of teens preferred commercial-rich environments because they felt it was more real," Littlefield said.

But Littlefield believes a light touch is necessary. "Teenagers today have really been the target of the most sophisticated media campaigns since they were born," he said. "They're very, very used to ads so one of the things we wanted to do was introduce these things with a very light touch, so it didn't feel like ads being jammed down their throats."

[Via InformationWeek]