Hong Kong-based developer Linking People has let us know about a new flash-based strategy and RPG MMO slated for release in early 2008, and it's described as "MySims meets Habbo Hotel meets the Settlers." It's called Coobico, and it casts players in the role of settlers on a deserted island, tasking them with building up the neighborhood and competing with other settlers to become the island's most influential resident -- the experience "blends features like city-building, roleplaying and social networking in a casual game-experience," Linking People tells us.

It'll be isometric 2D, to boot -- looks like a lot of companies are realizing that high-powered graphics aren't always necessary, especially when appealing to a casual audience. Elaborates the Coobico site: "To put a good face on the matter: it’s a lightweight strategy-game with no retail box to purchase, no cumbersome client software to download and install and no nasty DRM. Just click and you’re in. Maybe you are, just like us, a sucker for stuff like World of Warcraft, but you just don’t have enough time for it. What’s more, we won’t require you to take a summercamp on how to play and navigate around on Qubus’ Island."

The company was founded in 2006 by three German Web developers, Wetzel, Martin and Winter, who prior to founding Linking People, built commercial and promo sites for international customers (they list Land Rover and Bayer as past clients). They're now focused on developing new social networking games and apps for the Asian and European markets, aiming for a "casual blend" of chat, social networks, Web 2.0 and multiplayer games.

But they're not targeting the "sweet spot" tweens-and-teens -- rather, Linking People's gunning for the market pegged as the "core" of casual gaming and the broader market, those aged 30 to 44.

As co-founder Winter explains: "We see this as a huge, financially strong and yet mostly untapped market -- current games and networks are completely focusing on pre-teens, teens and young adults. We see a large opportunity for games targeted at a more mature audience: people who grew up with videogames, who still like them, but nowadays neither have the time to spend hours of gameplay in traditional multiplayer-games, nor like to play casual titles like Match-3-puzzles."

Coobico is Linking People's attempt to address this market; while it's still in development, it should be interesting to see how it turns out!

When we hear about China's strong concerns over "Internet addiction" and rehabilitative camps for deeply entrenched MMO gamers, it can seem a little sensationalized -- but a recent Yahoo! news report, citing the Beijing News, might make one reconsider the issue.

A man about 30 died in a cyber cafe, and it looks like he was marathon-gaming. "According to preliminary findings, the length of time this man spent online might have triggered heart problems," the Beijing News quoted from one of the emergency medics.

Certainly, the man might've been at the wrong place at the wrong time, and it's a convenient situational overlap to bolster the Chinese government's beef with online gaming. Or, it could be that the individual really preferred to stay at the computer rather than attend to his health. Given China's strong vendetta to curtail online gaming, it's hard to tell.

Wonder what he was playing?

[Via Yahoo! News]

Origin Digital is a media services provider that delivers music and video content on demand, and now they're working with worlds like Second Life to bring this tech to virtual worlds. There's been a lot of talk lately about the importance of having this sort of content available inside a 3D environment; that's the entire concept behind Sony's soon-to-launch (we think) Home platform for the PlayStation 3, and other virtual worlds we've been talking with lately have pegged access to music and other downloadable or streaming media in online worlds as a must-have.

An article in NJBiz says Origin's been working in Second Life to begin integrating this kind of content delivery into virtual worlds. “Second Life or any of the other virtual worlds are places where consumers congregate, communicate and get entertained,” Origin Digital CEO Darcy Lorincz tells NJBiz.

According to the article, Origin's partnered with Phoenix-based MountainMeister Media, a vendor of on-demand media for virtual worlds:

Video viewing over the Web is growing fast, according to eMarketer in New York City, a market research firm for e-business and online marketing and Internet market trends. “Video is becoming more prevalent across the Internet,” says Kris Oser, director of strategic communications for eMarketer. Expectations are high for online video, with U.S. viewers projected to grow from 114.3 million in 2006 to 183 million in 2011, according to a report by eMarketer that was released last month.

Online video is a marketing platform that, while a small source of revenue now, has the potential to rapidly expand. “It’s the fastest-growing online advertising medium,” says Oser. “It’s growing 89 percent this year. In terms of actual dollars spent, it’s from a very small base of $775 million.” Online video advertising in the United States will increase to $4.3 billion by 2011, eMarketer estimates.

Origin Digital, founded 10 years ago, is not an advertising firm, but the increased demand for video online may help drive its own expansion plans. Lorincz says the company has a staff of 32 with additional offices in Denver, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, as well as in London. He adds that the staff may expand up to 50 by next year. Lorincz says the company may generate more than $5 million this year, but he would not elaborate further nor discuss profitability. Investors in the closely held company include Constellation Ventures, part of Bear Stearns Asset Management in New York City.

[Via NJBIZ.com]

CNET is reporting that Hoover senior fellow and Stanford professor Michael Boskin will become chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors for Gaia Online; he'll head up the new organization for the teen and 'tween-targeted online world (CNET's count is 2.5 million monthly participants and over 100,000 daily transactions) and provide "ongoing guidance and analysis" of Gaia's virtual economy.

This isn't the first time a virtual world has brought in a qualified real-world economist to oversee in-world transactions; EVE Online announced a similar move earlier this year.

As the CNET article correctly notes, it might be surprising to some to see a man with Boskin's credentials putting his muscle behind the online economy of what is essentially a kids' game. Not only is Boskin an academic, the article says, but he serves on the boards of companies like Exxon Mobil, Oracle and Vodafone. According to his Hoover Institution biography, he also serves "as an adviser to presidents and prime ministers, finance ministries, and central banks around the world, from the United States to China."

"I find it very interesting how many people are willing to spend time" in the virtual world, Boskin told CNET News.com, adding that he was attracted to his new role by "how the economy of these sites, and in particular of Gaia, have evolved; how people are making decisions on how to spend their time, (and) how much time to spend."

Essentially, Boskin said, an economy is an economy, regardless of whether the participants are teens in a virtual world or captains of industry in the physical world.

"The fundamental similarity is people making decisions about how to allocate their time and use their skills," Boskin said. "That is at the core of what is similar about them. There's some things we can learn about what (is going on) in the real economy by what is going on in Gaia.

According to CNET, Boskin will retain his roles at Hoover and Stanford -- but it's interesting to see a qualified real-world economist start considering virtual worlds as a viable, informative and constructive professional avenue.

[Via CNET.com]

Talking as part of an in-depth new interview published on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra today, Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce has commented on just how and when a World Of Warcraft sequel might appear, also specifying Warhammer Online and Age Of Conan as the MMO's major competition as its moves towards its third year of operation.

When asked "Do you think there will be a need for a World of Warcraft II? Or will it just be expansions for a long time?", Pearce explained:

"The game's only been out for about 2 1/2 years. So I think for the foreseeable future it’s going to be expansions as it relates to World of Warcraft. We haven’t even thought about the idea of a World of Warcraft II. I mean, we are all really invested in the game ourselves as well, we’re part of the community, we play the game. And we love it and we want to make sure that it has a long lifespan.

However, when asked what circumstances would require a sequel, in the eyes of the team behind the multi-million selling MMO title, Pearce explained:

"What would necessitate a sequel? For us as gamers, we are making the games we want to play. So it would really be about the dev team, and if they said ‘OK, we just can't do what we want to do in regards to the Warcraft intellectual property with the current structure’. It would have to be a situation where we said: 'This is what we want applied to what we want to do, and we can't do it on the current framework’."

In addition, when asked what Blizzard might see as some of its major competition in terms of MMOs, Pearce noted:

"There's a lot of great stuff out there, and a lot of good stuff on the horizon. Certainly the Warhammer Online game has a lot of potential, Age of Conan, that looks like it has potential. There's some good stuff out there inbound so we don't spend a lot of time dwelling on what other people are doing. It’s more important that we feel that we're doing right by our customer base, regardless of what other people are doing."

The full Gamasutra interview also includes Pearce's comments, previously revealed on the site, in which he reveals that the company has a third team hard at work on a new unspecified title, separate from World of Warcraft and StarCraft II, plus a multitude of other views on the firm's MMO and RTS franchises.

Virtual Worlds Management has announced that Christian Renaud of the Cisco Technology Center will deliver the Thursday keynote at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo to be held October 11, 2007 in San Jose, California.

Renaud is the chief architect of Networked Virtual Environments for the Cisco Technology Center. Its staff members support Cisco's Corporate Development unit, helping to determine Cisco's future technologies and developing them into new revenue streams for the company.

Renaud will discuss the ways that virtual worlds platforms and technologies will drive the creation of new enterprise apps. "With all the media attention surrounding virtual worlds, this conference is the ideal opportunity for corporations to learn how this technology can be applied for maximum benefit and increased productivity," he says.

Renaud continued: "I hope to help with this effort by distinguishing what it really means within the context of existing and future communications infrastructures and how organizations can leverage the benefits of virtual worlds technologies and applications."

Chinese online game developer CDC Games announced that the company has joined with CCP Games (EVE Online), Ons On Soft (Shine) Sonokong (Shaiya) T3 Entertainment, developers of Audition, and Wemade (Mir II) in founding the Online Game Alliance Against Piracy (OGAAP) to fight the piracy of online games in China.

The goals of OGAAP are to establish a platform for industry participants and stakeholders to exchange ideas and share experiences; conduct market and technology research; propose industry-wide policies and practices; and lobby relevant government bodies and lawmakers to enact anti-piracy legislation.

The alliance will also actively promote public awareness of copyrighted online game usage, educate online game players about copyrighted content and vigorously pursue the continued shutdown of pirated online games as well as the arrest and conviction of their operators.

Piracy has been a major issue for the Chinese gaming market, encompassing activities like operators running private servers, and macro programs that imitate popular online games.

CDC says OPTIC Communications, which is now one of its business units, has helped the Chinese government convict two operators of "piracy for profit" of one of their online fantasy games, Mir II. These two landmark cases both resulted in criminal convictions versus private server operators; one received a three-year prison sentence, and the other paid a fine of $67,000 and was sentenced to six years.

In the latter case, the operator was running an illegal macro program that allowed players to purchase online game merchandise, such as special powers and weapons. With over 20 million users currently registered as players of Mir II, the revenue impact was "substantial," CDC says, before the illegal operation was shut down.

OGAAP is to be a non-profit organization headquartered in Beijing, and says it's already in discussions with several of China's governmental organizations that oversee the games industry to seek their support for the initiative.

"At CDC Games, we have long recognized the potential severity of illicit piracy activities, and have achieved success in individual campaigns against piracy," said Peter Yip, CEO of CDC Games. "The formation of OGAAP is a milestone achievement for the online game industry and will seek to leverage the combined power, experience and efforts of many key industry players."

He continued: "Like other segments in the entertainment industry, we have experienced an increase in piracy, especially with some of our more popular online games. Our primary objective is to reduce, and if possible, eliminate these piracy challenges so our industry can continue its vibrant growth throughout China. This alliance and the recent successful convictions of illegal operators are major steps in achieving our objectives."

The BBC is reporting that IBM students in Ireland are working to create a solution whereby the blind can access and experience virtual worlds -- they've designed audio technology that uses "3D sound" to create a sense of space. Their work is part of the Extreme Blue research initiative which brings groups of students together for 12 weeks to solve a problem set by senior researchers.

According to the article:

The project - called Accessibility In Virtual Worlds - is what the company describes as "a proof of concept" at this stage, but it will be passed on to IBM's Human Ability and Accessibility Centre in Texas for further development.

For their work the Irish team decided to use the Active Worlds online environment rather than the more popular Second Life (which has almost 9.5m accounts) because it allowed them more flexibility.

As the article notes, Active Worlds is comprised largely of user-contributed content, which made it ideal for the students to experiment within the world. "When the user comes into the world, the items are described as well as their positions," researcher Colm O'Brien told the BBC. "There is also sound attached - for example, if there's a tree nearby you will hear a rustling of leaves," said Mr O'Brien.

Text-to-speech software also played a role in the research, reading chat from avatars out loud from their text boxes. The research also found success by attaching "sonars" to user avatars so that the blind can determine the proximity, direction and rate of approach from others.

The research team received feedback from blind mentors -- one in IBM's Dublin lab and two based in the company's Texas research center, and also worked with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland. The research proved that the concept of equipping virtual worlds for use by the blind is feasible, and the team made recommendations and set accessibility standards.

"IBM believes that virtual worlds are going to be the next big evolution of the web and if this happens... it's not right for blind people to be missing out on what the rest of us have available," O'Brien said.

Former Origin and Sony Online exec Raph Koster has revealed the major product from his new venture capital-funded firm Areae at the TechCrunch 40 conference in San Francisco, a new online worlds platform called Metaplace.

According to information posted on the official Metaplace website: "Metaplace is a next-generation virtual worlds platform designed to work the way the Web does. Instead of giant custom clients and huge downloads, Metaplace lets you play the same game on any platform that reads our open client standard. We supply a suite of tools so you can make worlds, and we host servers for you so that anyone can connect and play. And the client could be anywhere on the Web."

The official FAQ continues: "You should be able to stage up a massively multiplayer world with basic chat and a map you can build on in less than five minutes. It's that easy. Inherit a stylesheet -- puzzle game, or shooter, or chat world -- and off you go... Metaplace will support everything from 2d overhead grids through first-person 3d. However, right now we only have clients that do 2d of various sorts, including grid view, 2d isometric, 2.5d heightfields, and so on. We expect to keep working on the 3d client support."

In addition, Koster himself has commented on the announcement on his official weblog, explaining of the technology: "We fully expect most users to be players, not makers. That’s just how it is. So for us, fun is absolutely key. I’m putting my money where my mouth is on that point, too. Yes, we have a new MMO we’re working on. And yes, we’re doing it in Metaplace." Further information on the roll-out schedule of the Metaplace technology is expected to be released in the near future.

PlaySpan, a publisher-sponsored in-game-commerce network, has announced that it has secured $6.5 million in Series A funding from Easton Capital, Menlo Ventures and Asian investors.

The company is looking to position itself advantageously in the virtual goods market, as real money transactions (RMTs) are seeing wider adoption among revenue models for publishers of virtual worlds and online multiplayer games. PlaySpan pegs the market for in-game commerce at $2 billion this year.

The company says it is building a network for microtransactions and in-game financial exchanges to enable more publishers to integrate commerce into their games. The company has not announced any of its partners yet, but its official website says that PlaySpan has signed up seven MMO games to date.

In addition to the funding announcement, PlaySpan also announced today three new additions to its board. John Friedman, board member of IGA Worldwide and General Partner of Easton Capital; Shawn Carolan, board member of IMVU and Managing Director of Menlo Ventures; and Steven Lee, Partner at STIC International are the newest additions.

"[This investment] will help create a new class of revenue opportunities for publishers and will allow gamers to enjoy their game experience with commerce,” said Karl Mehta, PlaySpan co-founder and CEO. “We are extremely fortunate to have a complimentary group of global investors that bring solid experience in the gaming, internet and financial service industries.”

We recently talked about Empire of Sports, an MMO from Infront devoted entirely to the world of competitive sports, recently announced at the Leipzig Gaming Conference. At the time the game was unveiled, we were intrigued – after all, aren’t MMOs usually devoted to the fantasy set? When you think of it, though, sports in a persistent universe is a strong concept for an online game, especially in an era where many companies are developing casual alternatives to the Warcraft universe – and the MMO model whereby individuals train and compete against one another to get stronger makes it a natural environment for a sports game. And of course, the idea of being a “team player” is right at home in competitive sports, a useful consideration as the industry learns the importance of community and a strongly networked player base.

Worlds in Motion talked to Empire of Sports’ managing director, Christian Müller, about how the idea, born when he, a 30-year gamer, got hooked up with a sports marketing company, came to be. Müller, previously impressed by his first experiences with the immersive, persistent WoW universe, had what he describes as “a revelation.” “I didn’t expect it to be that powerful and attractive,” he says of his first experience with the world’s most popular fantasy MMO. “I was already working in sports for some time, and I felt like, ‘couldn’t we do something like that, with sports, in a virtual world?’” At the time, Müller explains, French developers F4 approached Infront, which focuses on sports marketing, and the idea came to life.

Sports For Everyone

There’s been a lot of talk lately of “casual” MMOs – persistent multiplayer worlds that can appeal to a broader audience. So what defines a so-called casual MMO – is it the amount of time investment required, the complexity of the control scheme, or the depth of the world and its story? “We are a casual MMO, in the sense that sports is casual,” Müller explained. “We don’t want people to have to spend five hours to do a football match, and the ski races take only minutes. Nevertheless, we want to attract casual players; at the same time, we can appeal also to the hardcore.”

Sports is a tricky medium by which to appeal to this “hardcore” audience, so how will Empire of Sports address them? “It’s RPG character development, really,” Müller elaborates. “Specifically, developing the avatar in various sports, tuning muscle groups and stuff like this, so you can invest a lot. And it’s also a skill-based game. You have to press a button at the right time, and if you are not close nothing will happen. We also have pro gamers testing it, and they are really interested, and they didn’t expect this.”

Further, Müller identified three elements he feels define a casual MMO, particularly Empire of Sports – the business model, a casual play element and a focus on community. “Virtual worlds can be a very important cultural element,” he noted. “It’s starting to become like the East, and I hope we can contribute a little with Empire of Sports.”

Here's video of Raph Koster's presentation of Metaplace, the project that he and his company, Areae, have been keeping under wraps leading up to its debut at the TechCrunch 40 in San Francisco.

OnNet USA has announced the closed beta test for its World War II flight combat MMO, Heroes in the Sky. Beta testing will run until September 20th, from 4-7 PM PST each day.

Heroes in the Sky has both single and multiplayer online worlds. Currently, players can choose from two historical maps -- Normandy and the Pacific -- and the game's "Dog Fighting" feature provides three different gameplay modes: Survival, Deathmatch and team Deathmatch.

Heroes in the Sky is free to play at Gamescampus.com, OnNet's gaming portal which was itself introduced in April of this year.

“We are extremely excited to bring Heroes in the Sky to our gamers. This game offers many hours worth of enjoyment as they fly their way through a variety of missions, “said Chris Keswani, team leader, Heroes in the Sky.

Sony's Tokyo Game Show keynote address has revealed it is delaying its PlayStation 3-specific Home online world from a release date later in 2007 to Spring 2008, with Sony exec Kaz Hirai waxing lyrical on the possibilities for the virtual environment.

As part of the keynote, attended by Gamasutra, Hirai commented: "The power of the PS3, as well as the networking, by putting [these] together we can offer the realistic 3D virtualization of society -- what we call PlayStation Home. I'm sure you're expecting a lot... this was originally scheduled to be launched by the end of this year... it is going to be taking place in the springtime of next year."

The reason for the delay? Hirai cited user feedback. A new service called Dress: Everybody's Fashion Entertainment will be added to Home, but there were no details.

Later in the keynote the discussion turned to Home during the moderator-led Q&A session, and Hirai had plenty to say. "I've always said that I like to call it an interactive game -- something that has interactivity in my definition will be a game. I think that home is a new method or way to enjoy interactive entertainment. In the broad sense I call this a game as well."

When it comes to whether or not Home is a new business model, Hirai noted: "We have had a lot of discussion within the company and we are thinking about it a lot. We have had for a very long time a very traditional type of video games business model... however in this networked society I think we can have this new world called Home, that our users can enjoy, that we can also provide applications through Home's functionality. I think that there can be many business models."

Hirai touched on Home's ability to support in-game advertising, and sales in a "virtual mall." "The more I think about it, the more I think there are a multitude of business chances that can be created not just for ourselves but our business partners as well. This will also open the door for non-game companies that have not had access in the past. We have been meeting with such non-game people... we have provided some of our ideas and we have also tried to listen to the ideas that they have to see what kind of advantage that there could be for these non-game people."

When it comes to Home's delay, "We want this to be a worldwide service and at the same time we want to be sure we have functionality" for all territories. "We want to be sure we have a range of services for our users all over the world -- that's how we want to start the service. So we decided to delay the service launch date."

When asked how Home is different from Second Life, Hirai stated the obvious -- it's on the standardized PS3 platform. He also said, "We want to make sure that this is somewhat of a controlled environment, instead of a lawless environment. We want to make sure that we have that level of comfort and security."

[This article is cross-posted from sister site Gamasutra, which will offer full coverage of Tokyo Game Show over the next few days.]

In a recent press release, Nokia has announced that D3Publisher will use its SNAP mobile platform to develop connected games for Java-based mobile phones. This means that the mobile version of D3Publisher's Earth Defense game, expected to be available by end of 2007, will be equipped with mobile connected functionality, to let players battle against each other, check scores and communicate via their mobile devices.

Lots of online game makers are coming to understand that users want to tailor their access to the world, and this kind of technology is enjoying increasing scrutiny as it becomes more evident that mobile connectivity is a good avenue for this -- users want to be able to check in with their game without a full login, whether it means checking item auctions, messages or character stats on the go. Expect more online games to have mobile options using technology like SNAP. An online mobile game will necessarily be a simpler experience than a full PC or console-based MMO, and while the mobile version of Earth Defense seems to be a separate, stand-alone mobile online game, it provides a good peek into how this technology can be used as an integrated adjunct to existing MMOs.

Nokia plans to distribute Earth Defense Force on select Nokia handsets, and make the game available for global operator-assisted download.

"SNAP Mobile provides us with a carrier-grade platform that ensures a consistent mobile gaming experience for our dedicated fan base and expands the reach of our games to a global level through Nokia's distribution channels," said Yuji Konishi, Director and the Vice President of Mobile & Network Business Division of D3Publisher. "After much consideration, SNAP Mobile emerged as the ideal partner that could take our established Earth Defense Force game and make it suitable yet entertaining for a wide selection of mobile devices, while still retaining the online features that our game players have come to enjoy."

Groove Media has announced the beta release for its multiplayer online UTour Golf game, which will allow players to compete for real cash prizes in a "pro golf simulation". It's free to play, and users who join the beta will get a chance to brush up ahead of upcoming tournaments. The game is part of Groove's SkillGround technology platform, which assigns all players a skill ranking in its various titles to keep competition on even footing and to secure transactions.

In UTour Golf, players can select from a variety of golf courses and game rule sets, enter tournaments or compete head-to-head. It's also got tiered tournaments from Rookie to Legend, and UTour Golf promises automatic skill matching and accessibility for players inexperienced at video games. It also emphasizes its community features; players can chat in-game, track and compare stats, invite friends to participate and practice, and view the prizes available.

"The proven technology of our SkillGround platform ensures a fair environment for cash competitions," said Jon Walsh, CEO of Groove Media. "The transparent ranking system along with an accurate skill matching system makes UTour Golf fun for rookie and veteran players alike."

Among the interesting demonstrations at this year's TechCrunch 40 was FlowPlay, a self-described "next generation social entertainment platform for casual games." In other words, it's a network for browser-based casual games that implements an customizable avatar-based social element, where users can earn virtual goods and either integrate the gameplay experience into the social world, or simply do one or the other.

It seems to be targeted more at girls, with the ability to style avatars fashionably with accessible, 2.5-dimensional cel-shaded graphics in the anime style. Additionally, it looks like another one for the teen-and-'tween set.

Apparently the FlowPlay folks used their time to show a demo video, less discussion, and their new website has precious little information ready about the product itself.

[Via TechCrunch]

We recently took a peek at Qwaq, whose secure virtual workspace represents some strides for "serious" virtual worlds. The company's Qwaq Forums uses Open Croquet mainly as a back-end, adding its own tools and features. Now Intel is getting involved, as the announcement comes that Qwaq will bring Miramar, Intel's 3-D information space technology, to market.

The agreement, announced at the Intel Developer Forum, will enable a new desktop visualization edition of Qwaq Forums that will integrate 2-D desktop applications and shared 3-D information workspaces so that large numbers of users can be served by enterprise information. Qwaq and Intel say they'll be working together to integrate Miramar technology into a new cross-platform edition of Qwaq Forums, which is expected be available next year.

“Early adopters at Intel are currently using the Qwaq Forums to improve their teamwork," explained Justin Rattner, senior fellow and director or Intel's Corporate Technology Group in his keynote on the future of virtual worlds. "The combination of Miramar and Qwaq Forums will enable information, which is now only available to individual departments or divisions, to be easily accessed and shared across the enterprise, in dynamic unified views,”

Rattner added that Intel envisions the desktop visualization edition of Qwaq Forums could be used to coordinate and enhance productivity among the company's global workforce.

Qwaq Forums is designed to allow users to establish workflow steps, create or review information in software applications, and evaluate designs in 2-D and 3-D collectively; at the same time, they can discuss topics using built-in text and voice chat. Moreover, the Qwaq Forums virtual workspaces are persistent, allowing users to view changes or modifications to forums that might have occurred since their last visit to the virtual space.

“Virtual workspaces have already proven their value for enterprise collaboration,” said Greg Nuyens, Qwaq chief executive officer. “The desktop visualization edition of Qwaq Forums provides distributed enterprises with a powerful new way to visualize and share information globally. Intel’s selection of Qwaq Forums to be the delivery platform for its Miramar technology is further recognition of the strength of our architecture and our approach to enterprise collaboration.”

When we reviewed Gene Endrody's Sherwood Dungeon for our Online Worlds Atlas, we were impressed by the solid simplicity of Endrody's completely free, Google ad-supported MMO. Nonetheless, it's a game for those who like stat management, combat and level-grinding. Now, though, it looks like Endrody's Maid Marian has launched a more temperate solution: Club Marian, a "massive multiplayer social hangout where users from around the world can chat, dance, drive and create music in a fun 3d environment," as the site says.

There are apparently three islands to explore, a music maker, emotes, customizable avatars and even a sports car to drive -- and everyone gets one!

The interface resembles Sherwood Dungeon a bit, only with a hipper look to the avatars and a few stylish updates (guess the medieval look isn't in fashion in Club Marian), and instead of inventory management and armaments, users can chat, dance, or take their car for a spin. Though the range of customization isn't particularly wide, it's broader than Sherwood Dungeon's, and users can choose from an entire color palette for each clothing and hair option, and for the car, too.

It's still completely free and runs in the browser on Shockwave. Neat work, Gene.

MindArk's Entropia Universe is featured in the new 2008 Guinness Book of World Records for having sold the most valuable virtual items and real estate among virtual worlds. Its Club NEVERDIE, an asteroid space resort bought for $100,000 by gamer Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs, is listed as "The Most Expensive Virtual Object."

The virtual resort boasts a nightclub, shopping mall, 1000 apartment complexes, commercial space ship docking, mega sports stadium, and hunting and mining biodomes, and is said to be the highest-grossing privately owned virtual event venue online; in its press release, MindArk guesses it'd go for $1 million if it were ever placed back on the market.

The $100,000 record was almost broken this year when a virtual bank license was sold in Entropia Universe in May for $99,900 USD. MindArk estimates Entropia's daily turnover to be around $1.25 million.

"The inclusion of the space resort and Entropia Universe in the Guinness World Records book confirms the viability of our real cash economy," says Marco Behrmann, Chief Information Officer at MindArk PE AB, the development company behind Entropia Universe. "Participants realized early on the enormous potential in Entropia Universe for real commerce. In fact, the space resort had recouped its initial acquisition cost and was operating at a profit after only 8 months, and remains one of the primary event locations in the Entropia Universe."

San Francisco-based developer Perpetual Entertainment has pushed back the release of its PC MMORPG Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising, due to the need for further beta testing.

This is the second time the target launch has been delayed; the prior incident coincided with layoffs at Perpetual in December 2006.

However, in an exclusive interview with Gamasutra, Perpetual CEO Chris McKibbin maintained that a formal ship date has never been solidified. "We have been targeting a fall launch and we are extending the time in beta to focus on quality and polish," he explained. "From our standpoint we want to give our game more time to get to [that level] of polish, rather than rush to a ship date."

McKibbin stressed that Gods and Heroes is a content-complete closed beta, whereas prior testing as of early 2007 had involved only an art-complete build.

Additionally, McKibbin told Gamasutra that Perpetual would be laying off another 30-40 employees. "The size and bar of content creation is very high and requires a pretty sizable team," he said, "The process of really play-tuning and balancing takes a much smaller, more focused and agile team, and so that is the transition right now."

He added that Perpetual would be assisting its former employees in finding new positions, either as part of the team of Perpetual's Star Trek Online or with other developers.

Asked about reports that Sony Online had shifted from co-publisher to solely a marketing role with Gods and Heroes, representing a backing-off the project by Sony, McKibbin called it a "non-story that people spun a little." He clarified: "There was no change in our relationship with Sony... part of the confusion comes from the difference between online games and packaged goods games. Perpetual has always been the financer and creator of Gods and Heroes. What [Sony was] doing initially versus what they are doing now is the same; marketing and distribution, and that's it. We have a great relationship with them, and there hasn't been any change with that."

Though McKibbin said that his team is "pretty happy" with the current progress of beta testing, he was hesitant to set a ship date. He allowed, however, that Perpetual is hoping for an early 2008 release.

"We put a high value on listening to our beta community and then reacting and making those changes, and we want to continue and give ourselves more time to do that, and give the community more time to play the game," McKibbin said.

[The preceding article originally ran on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]