We recently spoke with Doppelganger president and CEO Tim Stevens about vSide, the network of stylish virtual urban hotspots that his company's currently developing. Doppelganger Studios also created The Music Lounge, a virtual nightclub, and Virtual Lower East Side, which it's developing for MTV. Now, it's just about to launch the beta of vSide -- the official date is August 14th -- but we got a chance to tour the alpha ourselves and take a look around. Hit the jump for screenshots and impressions!

The first Virtual Goods Summit took place June 21-22nd at Stanford University, and now the videos of all of the panels are online at the VGS's website.

"Virtual Goods Success Stories," featuring Habbo's Paul Thind, MTV Networks' Kyra Reppen, Nexon's Min Kim and others on how virtual goods helped them make it in online worlds, and "Making Virtual Economies Work," where Areae's Raph Koster and Entropia Universe's John Bates, among others, share their expertise, are just a few of the full videos currently available. Check them out!

A new article in the International Herald Tribune cites the recent availability of an H&M fashion line in TheSims 2 as just one example of how fashion designers are embracing the idea of plying their trade in the virtual space. Now, as the IHT reports, Sims gamers are able to design their own H&M stores and their own clothes, and hold virtual runway competitions. Cosmogirl editor and chief Susan Schultz provides the commentary on the catwalk, and the winner will be determined by user votes.

What's more, one of the winning six outfits featured in the Grand Finale Fashion Runway Showcase will be produced by H&M and sold in its real-world retail stores.

Virtual outposts of fashionable brands to dress avatars are nothing new -- Reebok, Adidas and American Apparel have stores in Second Life, and brands Kitson and RocaWear have storefronts in Doppelganger's upcoming vSide city. But citing the example of Canadian designer Nyla, who's created Second Life counterparts of her real-world designs, the article noted that fashion houses may be increasingly drawn to virtual worlds as a sort of proving ground to market-test new patterns and designs.

[Via International Herald Tribune]

A new article in BusinessWeek introduces the 3D-Web idea that's already been heavily discussed in the thick of the online worlds space:

Google, Second Life creator Linden Lab, IBM, and a bevy of additional companies are moving toward the day when you can stroll around a 3D Web--and not just their own sites--using a virtual replica of yourself that you've created. They are working to establish technical standards, open to all programmers, that would allow the entire Internet to become a galaxy of connected virtual worlds.

The article also highlights some challenges to the concept:

For all the flurry of excitement, there's still a lot of skepticism among tech experts about whether companies can agree on standards that would allow an open 3D world to exist. After all, look at the battle still raging over the HDDVD and Blu-ray DVD standards. For now, Second Life, There.com, and other virtual worlds are fenced-in spaces where one company calls all the shots. If a consumer creates an avatar or a company creates a virtual storefront, they're stuck in that site. Avatars can't stroll from an American Apparel store in Second Life to Wells Fargo's (WFC ) stand-alone virtual-world bank... So it could take up to a decade before anything like this becomes mainstream.

Rita Turkowksi, executive director of the Web 3D Consortium, told BusinessWeek that they hope to launch an avatar that can jump between sites in about eighteen months. The article also cited the newly-launched Multiverse Network platform, whose avatars can move from world to world -- but only within Multiverse's own "world browser," which means they can only surf within worlds created with Multiverse's software platform.

It's an informative article that nicely rounds up what the major players are doing in terms of forward-looking in the arena, though it does allow:

Most agree it would not eliminate the Web as we know it. Rather, it will be possible to move back and forth between Web sites and virtual worlds, just as we now switch between reading a news article and watching a video clip on YouTube. For searching or reading text, today's sites work fine and will continue to do so. But a 3D Internet could make possible a virtual version of activities you might do in real life with like-minded people. You could buy tickets to a baseball game on a standard Web site, for instance, but then go to a stadium in a separate virtual world to meet up with your friends and watch the game (at a lower price than the real thing, one hopes).

[Via BusinessWeek]

Over at our sister site Gamasutra, they've got an interview with Korean designer Hak Kyu Kim, creator of popular MMO Ragnarok Online. Kim's also got a new project, Granado Espada (Sword of the New World) in the works with his new company, IMC Games. In the interview, Kim discusses the difference between developing MMOs and offline games, excerpted here:

What was the biggest difference between developing MMOs and offline games?

HK: The biggest difference is that making an online game is about creating a playground for players. Rather than trying to fill everything up from the beginning, I have to leave a lot of spaces empty that can be filled as the game evolves with its players.

Do you think it’s easier or harder to develop a MMO?

HK: I feel that to make a good MMO you need to obtain various types of knowledge, from business economics, to statistics, to history, to marketing, and many others, as all those bodies of knowledge are critical to making the game as good as it can be. For example, business and economic knowledge is very important when you’re trying to create the economic system within a game. This can’t be done well unless you as a developer know how to make it work.

I guess there’s a lot of math involved in keeping the right balance.

HK: Yes - if you want to maintain the right balance, it is very important to hire the right type of experts in statistics.

You can now read the complete interview at Gamasutra, which includes Kim's thoughts on the Asian market, distinguishing his game from the other offerings, and the background of Ragnarok Online.

Worlds in Motion sister division CMP Technology has launched the free Beta version of a new online environment, Innovation Generation, which is intended to foster technical learning and discovery in kids and "...launch the next generation of engineers, scientists and mathematicians."

The Flash-based interactive environment is centered around features such as 'Explore Your World' - a virtual city that depicts and demonstrates how science, technology and math are involved in all aspects of everyday life.

In addition, other features of Innovation Generation include 'Flex Your Innovation Muscle' - web-based games enabling kids to learn about science, technology, electronics and math, and 'Change the World Bulletin Board' - a virtual bulletin board with the Top 10 ideas that will change the world; winning ideas move to the 'Let's Build It' challenge arena.

Paul Miller, executive director, Innovation Generation, commented of the Beta launch: "Innovation Generation was specifically created to address these critical issues, by connecting children to the world of technology, encouraging discovery and ultimately closing the gap between the demand for innovative technologists and the number of students receiving degrees in science, technology, electronics and math," said."

He continued: "For example, our program features video interviews with real world innovators who share the creation, development and implementation of their special ideas and encourage viewers to start their own unique innovation journey. In a fun interactive environment, the site will build a social community that reinforces that math and science are cool, educating kids to become the Innovation Generation."

Innovation Generation is currently available, in Beta, at http://www.igenstudio.com, and will be officially available in November 2007 through an annual subscription.

[This article originally ran on WorldsInMotion's sister site Gamasutra.com.]

Gartner analysts, in a recently-released assessment, warned that enthusiasm surrounding online worlds "must be tempered with a realistic assessment of the security and risk-management issues they expose enterprises to." Analysts advised companies sensitive to issues of branding, social and ethical positioning to "exercise particular caution in uncontrolled virtual worlds," citing Second Life as an example to watch, and preferring "heavily moderated, targeted alternatives" such as There, Kaneva and Activeworlds instead.

Gartner analyst and vice president Steve Prentice identified five categories into which major issues facing corporations can be grouped: IT-related security risks, such as the download of unverified apps and issues of firewall permeability; identity authentication and access management, concerning the potential for multiple characters and avatars that make it difficult to verify who a user really is; confidentiality in chat and stored information; brand and reputation risks, and lastly, productivity, which Prentice feels might decline, at least during the initial corporate adoption phases.

“The risks enterprises face as a result of their involvement in virtual worlds are real and can be significant. They shouldn't be ignored — but neither should the potential opportunities and benefits that arise from using these new environments for corporate collaboration and communications,” Prentice said. “When planning enterprise activities in virtual worlds, an enterprise's awareness of the risks, as well as a reasoned and objective analysis of them, will enable it to objectively evaluate the overall situation and offset risks against often-nebulous benefits.”

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape.]

This week, our Online World Atlas charts a course for the high seas with Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, the successful MMO-slash-puzzle game from Three Rings Design. Let's hit the deck for an overview!

Numedeon's Whyville, a virtual world for kids, has gained some attention with its success over the past year. Now the San Antonio Express-News is reporting that founder and Chief Executive Jim Bower is leveraging his professorship in computational biology at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio to help Whyville teach kids about life and science.

According to the Expresss News, the Texas Workforce Commission recently granted Whyville with over $440,000 to build a Whyville Biotech and a Whyville Advanced Manufacturing Center to educate young users in those areas -- kids will work to develop vaccines to the in-world virus WhyPox at the biotech center as they learn about world disease control and prevention, drug design and discovery, and new techniques in computational biology.

"From a work-force standpoint, this is huge," Bower told the Express-News. "We have a 'cool' factor, but we're also doing something very useful for these industries.

In addition to science, Whyville residents are also learning fiscal responsibility. Through a partnership with Toyota to sell Scions to teens and 'tweens in Whyville, kids learn about lending and financial services as they must earn enough in-world "clams" to make the payments on time, and a Whyville Toyota engineering facility teaches kids about advanced design.

"This activity is intended to teach kids how to manage credit and be responsible," Bower told the Express-News. "Every kid in Whyville has a credit score. Better to understand how that works now with clams than figure it out with real money when they grow up."

[Via San Antonio Express-News]

With what appears to be an accidental re-release of its announcement of the BarbieGirls online world launch, Mattel shed some more light on the tie-ins that will be available with the accessories to the virtual world. As previously announced, the world is accessed via the USB key inside of $59.99 doll-shaped MP3 player with a 512 MB memory -- now we know it comes with a belt clip, storage case, and adjustable ear buds.

More significantly, though, Mattel will also sell accessory packs, which will unlock new bonuses and content, like accessories, fashions and pets, in the BarbieGirls world, at a retail price of $9.99 each.

Mattel also says it plans to reach four continents and more than a dozen countries this fall on an unspecified date, launching in five additional languages around the world, including Spanish, French, Italian, German and Portuguese.

[UPDATE: The link to the release was removed from the above article, as the erroneous press release has been taken down. You can find the original July 7th BarbieGirls announcement here.]

Acclaim Games (BOTS, 9Dragons) has announced that its new free-to-play MMO, 2Moons, has entered open beta to a strong showing. "We opened the site on Monday July 30th and we were blown away with over 100,000 downloads, so much that our first world got filled in 24 hours," said director David Perry, adding that the launch announcement was delayed until a new server set could be opened.

The fantasy MMO, which will let players form guilds and battle monsters, is an adaptation of Dekaron, a Korean MMO, and is targeted toward players 17 and older due to violence, language and mature content.

It's the newly-refurbished Acclaim's fourth MMO, and will support itself on a mix of advertising and virtual item sales. Acclaim says 2Moons Shop will be opened within a few weeks of the open beta launch, and, players will be able to use Acclaim Coins to purchase optional game items like customizable clothing, character game enhancements and access to bonus content, with new items added regularly.

"This is the final phase of testing with the help of our 2Moons community before this game is commercially released. Unlike the previous Closed Beta, during this period we will roll out all the key features of the game one at a time for them to experiment with and give us feedback," Perry says.

[Via WarCry.com]

Remember Danica McKellar, best known for playing girl-next-door Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years? She's grown into a career as a mathematician -- she co-authored a mathematical physics theorem and published a math book for teenage girls called Math Doesn’t Suck: How To Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail.

Now she's visiting Habbo to chat with its users -- in a press release we received, Habbo says she'll be there today (Wednesday, August 8th) at 3:00 PM Eastern and 6:00 PM Pacific, and she'll answer kids' questions about tricky math problems, and about growing up as a child star.

I wonder if the residents of Habbo are even old enough to know what The Wonder Years is?

Earlier, we noted that BarbieGirls, apparently by accident, re-ran their launch announcement press release previously dated July 7th. Likely it's this latest they meant to announce -- that they're up to 4 million users since its launch (they recently claimed 3 million users in 60 days in mid-July).

According to the release, BarbieGirls continues to grow at an average rate of 45,000 users per day. While that's certainly nothing to sneeze at, it does signify a bit of a slowdown in signups for the site -- the release itself quoted GigaOM's Wagner James Au:

"In the first 60 days of its existence, the new online virtual world Barbie Girls has signed up three million members, and they’re adding new ones at the rate of 50,000 a day,” said Wagner James Au, GigaOM. “This is staggering growth by any standard, but even more so because Mattel’s MMO is still in Beta.”

The go-live date is August 13th, and will be launched in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese, as previously reported in the initial announcement. Mattel also says it'll bolster safety features "later this summer" with the addition of parental controls that will require parental permission via e-mail for girls to register on BarbieGirls.com and access certain chat functionality. The beta already features the ability for users to lock their rooms to other characters, block and report offending users, and "robust" moderation.

Marketing and tech agency Spunlogic is now offering custom analytics tools specifically for virtual worlds to its service offering, on the heels of its development of The Place to Meet, Crowne Plaza Hotels' island in Second Life.

Spunlogic now hopes to apply the analytics they developed for Crowne Plaza to a broader client base in a range of virtual worlds, to help marketers understand specifically how and where users are interacting in their virtual space (and how many there are), and assist them in optimizing their virtual branding opportunities.

"Marketers are pulling out of Second Life because they don't know how to effectively optimize their islands and advertising campaigns," said Dr. Melissa Read, Director of Behavioral Research at Spunlogic. "We provide sophisticated analytics tools to help our clients effectively measure their user engagement in-world in order to develop targeted marketing and branding strategies."

The MacArthur Foundation has expressed in the past the potential it feels virtual worlds hold for philanthropy and education. As part of over $50 million earmarked for digital media and learning initiatives, it recently announced a year-long exploration of those possibilities with a $550,000 grant to the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School for Communication. Now, it continues in that vein with the announcement of a new grant, in an undisclosed amount, to the New York-based nonprofit GlobalKids.

GlobalKids, which focuses on educating students in underserved communities about international and public policy issues, will use the grant money to foster discussion around the use of virtual worlds to support philanthropy. Along with fellow grant recipients Common Sense Media, which provides entertainment media ratings for kids, the students will add a special panel to each track of the upcoming Second Life Community Convention, focusing on the increasing presence of social justice organizations in online worlds and how these organizations are using the medium to extend their reach.

“Virtual worlds are already a burgeoning frontier for business and entertainment, but the public sector has been slow to get involved,” said President Jonathan Fanton of the MacArthur Foundation, which recently announced a year-long exploration of virtual worlds. “From MacArthur’s recent experience, it is clear that residents of virtual worlds are hungry for ‘in-world’ opportunities to engage on serious social issues and to act on their philanthropic impulses.”

Weblo, which has embraced the label of "Monopoly on Steroids", features domains based on real-life assets whose owners earn income by attracting traffic to their sites. It's just announced the sale of what it says is the first real country to be sold virtually -- It's England, bought by four so-called "Kings" from North America, who netted the property with a bid of $60,001, outbidding thousands of other Weblo users in a month-long action.

According to Weblo's announcement, the 4 Kings will earn money each time an English city or property is purchased, in addition to all of the ad revenue in virtual England. They also can re-sell the country at a profit, like the virtual mayor of Seattle who reportedly sold his city for $2000 after buying it from Weblo for only $40, or the virtual Empire State Building, bought for a dollar and sold for $250.

Weblo says Atlanta, Tokyo, Vancouver and many other cities have also resold for profits, with over 9200 cities sold worldwide. Until now, the state of California boasted the highest sale price in Weblo history, going for $53,000.The virtual mayor of Seattle sold his city for $2000 after buying it for $40 from Weblo.

“The popularity and success of the England auction has opened the door to the possibility of future auctions for other countries. With 776 international states and provinces already sold our members are now asking us to auction off countries,” said Weblo.com Founder and CEO Rocky Mirza.

The uninitiated may mistake virtual worlds as the territory of hermetic computer geeks, but Switzerland-based sports marketing company Infront is hoping to change that impression with the unveiling of Empire of Sports, an MMO devoted entirely to the sporting world, at this month's Leipzig Gaming Conference in Germany.

According to parent company Infront Sports' announcement earlier this summer, Empire of Sports will create a persistent universe for virtual athletes to create avatars, train, compete in sporting events and earn goods and awards.

"This is the first-ever virtual online multi-sports world with role-playing elements,” managing director Christian Mueller said in the announcement. "There are single sport online games, but no one has seamlessly integrated multiple games around the entire sports lifestyle. The user becomes a 3D avatar, capable of developing his or her virtual body, skills and capabilities through sport and training all-the-while socializing within the Empire of Sports community. We have built this game from the ground up to be a fun and competitive environment while meeting your friends and making new ones."

In an interview with WarCry.com, Empire of Sports' managing director, Mueller provided a few more details -- Empire of Sports will have a "lobby" interface surrounded by "virtual city-like" community centers based on real cities, and the first three sports available will be basketball, tennis and skiing, with both single and multiplayer options, and additional sports to be announced in the near future.

The extensive developer blogs on the Empire of Sports site provide a sneak preview into a particularly interesting feature -- the implementation of a lifelike body model, with metabolism and maintenance of energy reserves playing a role in a virtual athlete's success, just as in real-world competitive sports. "In the very beginning of the game play, metabolism doesn’t really matter that much. You just got to make sure that you’re always eating and drinking enough. You’ll see how your energy is consumed while doing sports and how that impacts your virtual athlete’s performance," Muller explains. "Over time, we’ll introduce you to the key principles of the metabolism through missions and training. This will allow you to understand and manage your metabolism better."

As of yet, however, Muller's mum about how payment will work. Though he says the world will contain shops and auction houses, it's unclear yet whether microtransactions will play a role. "I can't be too specific about the business model yet," he says. "The reason for this is that we're carefully watching the environment to see in which direction it is going and which model fits the game the best. We have noted the rise of micro-payment based models, and potentially it could work very well for 'Empire of Sports'. On the other hand, we know about how sensitive gamers can be and our ultimate goal it to provide unmatched value, which should be a combination of a fantastic new game with an attractive overall price."

The Leipzig Gaming Conference takes place August 24-27.

[In Part via WarCry.com]

We recently reported on how Toyota's Scion is helping kids learn about financing and fiscal responsibility in Whyville -- now, the car that just loves being virtual is launching a club in There.com, through a partnership between There parent Makena and virtual design studio Metaversatility.

According to Makena's press release, the latest in-world marketing campaign around the Scion involves "a large-scale, interconnected 'tower'" of the Scion xA, xB and tC car models that have been transformed into nightclubs -- users'll be able to explore the car's interior features via the ladders and walkways inside an "urbane and modern" party spot that features music, dance floors, fog effects and even a hot tub. Interactive kiosks will be available to users looking for more info about the Scion product and lifestyle.

"Club Scion is an excellent example of how There.com works closely with marketers to develop concepts that enable consumers to interact with products and brands in ways that have never been done in other mediums,"said Michael Wilson, Makena CEO. "We're well beyond banners and text ads. These are truly immersive marketing programs."

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape.]

We're swordfighting, carousing and bilging with Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, the MMO-slash-puzzle game from Three Rings Design. Let's hit the deck for an overview!

The BBC has commissioned a new kids' show from Ragdoll, the minds that brought us Teletubbies. It'll be called Tronji, and the BBC has picked development studio Nice Tech to produce and create an MMO for kids based on the series on its AliceServer technology.

Nice Tech says it expects to complete the game by early 2008 on a development schedule of only twelve months -- which pegs the release date at some point in the month of March, since Nice Tech's announcement says that Ragdoll and the BBC have been playing in the Tronji world since March of this year. Seems they release and auto-update new builds weekly, with no one involved more than five working days behind build reviews, for what they call a "near real-time tracking process."

"Working alongside a studio with a global reputation and strong IP has been a positive challenge for us," says Ben Simpson, Nice Tech COO. "We have been keen to learn from their experience and streamline our own working practices. We feel we have really grown through this partnership– and in such a short time!”

Nice Tech says it will begin focus-testing Tronji with kids over the next four months.

According to a ComputerWeekly.com article, IBM is developing its mainframe systems with the aim of enabling transactions in virtual worlds. Steve Mills, head of IBM's software biz, said recently at the company's UK research lab said that the virtual world-conscious tech giant is looking at new approaches to bolster its investment in traditional mainframe systems.

"IBM aims to invest the majority of its research and development dollar into building software that can link traditional transaction systems to modern interfaces, for example, releasing automatic teller machines that link to banks in virtual worlds such as Second Life," Mills said.

The company's currently testing its Smart Bank app, which simulates a high-volume banking environment with a virtual ATM linked to a real payment system that uses web services to authorize transactions in realtime from a core banking system.

The article says IBM is also pursuing an acquisition strategy in conjunction with the R&D effort, first with the August announcement that it will acquire Princeton Softech, allowing users to identify and store historical data on less expensive storage while storing current data on more resilient networks. Additionally, IBM's July purchase of Data Mirror allows realtime identification and delivery of modified data, while its June acquisition of Telelogic is geared to improve its services arm to support users developing industry-specific software.

"By following its acquisition strategy, IBM will boost its position in the transaction processing market and fill gaps elsewhere in its software management offerings," Gartner research VP Jim Duggan told ComputerWeekly.

[Via ComputerWeekly.com]

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape.]

We've spent a few days living the pirate's life in Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, the MMO-slash-puzzle game from Three Rings Design. So what's the conclusion?

CMP Technology announced that it has launched a metaverse services division. The division, which is being run out of the CMP Software Group, a sister publication to Worlds In Motion which includes Dr. Dobb's Journal, will offer project management, asset conceptualization and design, scripting and building. It'll also offer custom app development, multimedia engineering, virtual event production, proactive asset and audience management, and engagement metrics.

The company says it plans to use its various brands to attract global audiences to the builds and events that this new metaverse division will be creating for its customers. It's part of a larger CMP initiative to expand into Second Life, following the April launch of its Dr. Dobb's Journal's Life 2.0 Spring Summit event.

The next Life 2.0 event, to be held September 15-21, 2007, will focus on the "Opensource Grid" and will feature keynotes and panels from metaverse players. Currently, Dr. Dobb's Island is hosting discussion groups held Tuesday and Friday of each week focusing on technology, trends and business topics.

"By 2011, Gartner expects that 80 percent of Internet users will be participants in some quadrant of the 3D metaverse and CMP's goal is to lower the complexity barriers, cost and risk of metaverse engagement so businesses of any scale can play profitably with these powerful tools," said John Jainschigg, CMP Software Group director of online technology and new business.