Millions of Us has been up to big things lately -- with large clients like Toyota and Intel, they've enjoyed an ever-growing profile in the virtual worlds space in recent months. So perhaps it's not surprising that mammoth ad agency holding firm Omnicom's diversified agency services unit has recently taken a stake in Millions of Us.

Dale Adams, president of DAS, said in the official press release, "Omnicom's mission has always been to provide a full suite of marketing and communications services for our agencies' clients, and we sought access to the new media technical and creative talent that is housed in Millions of Us. We anticipate seeing pioneering strategy and work from Millions of Us that will benefit all group companies."

Millions of Us CEO Reuben Steiger added, "We are entering an era known as the 'Avatar Age' in which people connect face to face online. Because people today trust the recommendations of friends much more than advertising, companies can now seize the opportunity to support online communities and connect more deeply with their customers through social networks rather than through traditional online advertising," added Reuben Steiger, CEO, Millions of Us. "This financing will allow us to make necessary investments and attract the talent to continue along our rapid growth curve."

Steiger continued, "We are excited about our new partnership with Omnicom, whose portfolio of companies clearly demonstrates how much it values creativity in all areas of the marketing process. We look forward to this opportunity to expand our resources and reach within the online world."

Little by little, we're getting a lot more snippets of substance to jaw about Areae's intriguing user-generated virtual worlds project, and we can add another, now -- it looks like the forums are live -- and well, with close to 250 forum posts already from users sharing their concepts and discussing what they want to build in Metaplace.

The site is becoming much more fleshed-out, too, with a developer blog and some surreal-looking characters popping up in the header image. I like the sort of elephant-looking guy with one eye!

If the enthusiasm with which users are exchanging ideas and making suggestions to one another is any indication -- from space exploration, to the wild West and cyberpunk ideas -- Raph Koster is definitely on to something when he envisioned the success of Web 2.0 virtual worlds.

While we were busy elbow-deep in the rich discussion and interesting revelations coming out of the Virtual Worlds Conference (Wagner James Au has a great "Top 5 Highlights" over at GigaOM), Korea was struggling with some RMT security issues.

Chosun.com, who reports the episode, values Korea’s digital money market at about 1 trillion won ($1.9 billion). The article says that some virtual item trades have begun to founder, stuck with connection problems, and worried Internet users suspect that hackers may be to blame.

From the article:

As of Tuesday afternoon, Korea’s main game item trading sites -- ItemBay, Item Mania and Item Play Forum ? were all experiencing log-in difficulties. The sites went through similar connection problems from Sept. 24 to 26. Users can post an item or “cyber money” on the sites or browse the site to pick up the item of their choice. Sought-after items can go for as much as W1 million. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that some W860 billion were traded on these sites last year with the number estimated to go up to W1 trillion this year.

But gamers are concerned about a hacker attack. In any week, some 100,000 users visit ItemBay, Item Mania and Item Play Forum. ItemBay, for instance, saw over W360 billion worth of transactions just from item sales last year. Each of the sites is being flooded with questions from customers demanding to know what is going on. But delays in restoring the sites are preventing them from even posting a notice to explain the situation. “We are in the process of expanding our memory storage to accommodate a sudden surge of users,” said an Item Mania spokesman. “As soon as things get back to normal, we will post a notice of explanation.”

[Via Chosun.com]

Steven Davis of PlayNoEvil gives us an update on the recent incidents plaguing RMT transactions in Korea. From a recent Korea Times article, it looks as if a coordinated denial of service attack was launched out of China. From the article:

Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target well-known sites or services. But while this week's attacks were focused on the item trading companies, they didn't hurt the online game service companies themselves. Firms said that the hackers targeted the trading firms because their security systems are relatively vulnerable compared with those of game operators.

``They know that they cannot easily damage us. `Look before you leap' is what they are doing,'' said an official of NCsoft, the largest online game company in South Korea, which runs popular games such as ``Lineage'' and ``Guild Wars.''

And interestingly, the Korea Times itself was also targeted by similar attacks.

As Davis notes:

By creating vibrant online industries, such as online gaming, Korea has created an economic powerhouse. This economic engine is much more vulnerable to attack. Instead of a manageable physical border, every server is a potential target and every link a potential avenue of attack. This creates a border that no country is prepared to defend.

What is particularly dangerous is that launching a national cyberattack does not require the resources of a government, but it could be coordinated by a criminal or terrorist group with or without the support of a nation's government.

[Via PlayNoEvil]

New developer Avatar Reality is working on a new multiplayer virtual world, Blue Mars, and plan to debut it at the upcoming E for All game expo in Los Angeles. Blue Mars won't launch in beta until late 2008, but Avatar Reality is already providing info about the world.

It's set on terraformed Mars, features customizable avatars, and will feature high-end graphics using CryTek's CryEngine 2 middleware. Based on the hardware specs the company gives, this isn't a casual world -- it'll require some advanced machinery to support it.

Honolulu-based Avatar Reality consists of game industry vets, including Henk Rogers, founder of Blue Planet Software, Blue Lava Wireless and The Tetris Company, and Kazuyuki Hashimoto, former vice president of technology, New Platforms at Electronic Arts and chief technical officer of Square USA.

With the sometimes instantaneous, almost sure-fire popularity of many of today's virtual worlds for kids, many marketers are, quite reasonably, seeing a lot of advertising and branding opportunities. When we talked to eMarketer's Debra Aho Williamson, she theorized that while adults seem to use virtual worlds to experience, to some extent, a fantasy life, kids are far more likely to use them to be themselves, to express their own interests -- and that includes the brands they want to consume. Recall one of the highlights of the Ypulse Tween Mashup, where representatives from Stardoll and Cartoon Doll Emporium said that their users were practically begging for name-branded clothing for their virtual dolls.

Which does beg the question that CNET asks in their latest article on the subject: Are kids ready for ads in virtual worlds? From the article:

"This kind of marketing is designed to operate at a subconscious level. And kids don't know how to think critically about how someone's trying to get them to be loyal to a brand or buy their products," said Kathryn Montgomery, a professor in the School of Communication at American University and author of Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce and Childhood in the Age of the Internet.

Montgomery said the purpose of ads in 3D worlds is often to blur the lines between content and product marketing, and that that's not a new concept. Product companies creating branded content to appeal to kids is as old as the first days of television. But Montgomery and others say virtual worlds and related games change the equation for brand marketers because a child's interaction and emotional engagement is so high.

It's true that virtual world play is often built on, or inspired by real-world environments; avatar technology is progressing and environments are developing in such a way that realism, or at least the approximate impression of a living, breathing world is currently desirable -- even fantasy, such as a futuristic planet, should appear and behave in a lifelike, physically consistent way. Could it be then, that users want brands to be a real part of their virtual lives, just as they are unavoidable in our real lives?

Kids are exposed to branding from the point of entry into this world, from their first McDonald's toy to their favorite cartoon properties. It's tough to imagine that a virtual playspace for kids could be any more damaging than a real one, especially if the trend continues of forming ad properties that contribute to a virtual world and mesh well with it, rather than simply bombarding users with banners.

[Via CNet]

A new NPD survey titled "Kids & Gaming" found that kids of all ages in the United States are spending more time playing video games today than they did one year ago. According to the NPD Group, this trend is particularly pronounced for online game play.

According to the report, PCs are the dominant platform for kids playing games in all age groups. The survey also found that the average child starts to use a PC for gaming by the age of 6 and continuing on to age 17, making it the platform used for kids' gaming for the most years.

The survey found that half of all kid gamers are "light users," clocking five hours a week or less, with the other half of the respondents comprised of medium, heavy or "super" users, at 6 to 16 more hours per week. The survey also found that more boys play video game consoles, while girls are more likely to play on PCs, cell phones and kid-oriented gaming products. Additionally, the report indicates that girls seem to "fall off the gaming wagon" later in life, while more boys move on from kid-focused gaming into console use.

Other statistics in the report focused on online games; kids ages 2 to 17 play games online 39 percent of the time, with the average time spent playing online statistically higher among females, kids 15 to 17, and the "super users", at least until the girls get older and their rate of play begins to decline.

Moreover, the survey found that 91 percent of online gaming among kids ages 2 to 17 is free; of the 9 percent that pay to play, these kids are more likely to hail from higher income households. In addition, the likelihood of a child to pay for games increases along with the child's age and time spent on gaming.

Urbaniacs, a social avatar site which lets users build, play with and share virtual heroes, has announced it has partnered with new in-game commerce network PlaySpan for online transactions. Through the partnership, PlaySpan will be the network by which Urbaniac's users can trade virtual items and "Urbos," the virtual currency of the Urbaniac community.

PlaySpan announced a $6.5 million VC investment earlier this year, and is hoping to grab an advantageous spot in the virtual goods and RMT market. The company says its microtransactions and in-game exchange network is designed to team with publishers looking to integrate commerce into their games. When it made the investment announcement, PlaySpan said it had already signed up 7 MMOs; it's unclear if Urbaniacs (which isn't an MMO) is one of those seven partnerships.

"We're really excited about our partnership with PlaySpan and its technology platform. Gamers love to trade, and we’re thrilled that the Urbaniacs Community will have the PlaySpan commerce network,” said Josh Fisher, Co-founder of Urbaniacs.

“Urbaniacs is a constantly evolving virtual world with a unique blend of interactive entertainment and online gaming,” said Karl Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO, PlaySpan Inc. “Our technology will enable Urbaniacs users to experience an in-game community and commerce network integrated within their Urbanville world.”

The IGS organizers are continuing to put online key video lectures from this year's Independent Games Summit, which took place at Game Developers Conference 2007 last March as part of the yearly Independent Games Festival - and which will again appear as part of GDC 2008 next February.

The eighth lecture is from Three Rings co-founder Daniel James, noted for his role in creating successful PC casual online title Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates. His San Francisco-based company has also released Independent Games Festival prize-winner Bang! Howdy and is working on the user-created online game experience Whirled.

This talk features James' caustic, battle-tested opinions on a variety of topics around online games and being an independent operator in the game business - and goes into notable detail regarding Three Rings' monthly revenues and splits between products, as well as methods of growth and mistakes not to be made.

Here's a direct Google Video link for the lecture, plus a higher-res downloadable .MP4 version and an embedded version:

Here's the original session description for the session, which was run by the CMP Game Group (also owners of Gamasutra and Worlds in Motion): "The business and creative mind behind games such as Puzzle Pirates and Bang! Howdy discusses the practical logistics of handling heavily invested online game players as an independent developer, discussing elements such as when and how to update content, community management and keeping players interested, how to approach Beta tests, technical support, and much more - a key hands-on lecture for all those considering making an indie online game."

(Other IGS 2007 videos posted so far - mirrored on CMP's weblog site GameSetWatch.com - are the indie innovation panel w/Mak, Blow, Chen, Gabler, Swink, and Matt Wegner on physics, alongside the Gastronaut founders on 'Small Arms' for XBLA, the Telltale folks on Sam & Max/episodic gaming, Gamelab's Eric Zimmerman on 'The Casual Cash Cow', and Braid's Jon Blow on indie prototyping, as well as Russell Carroll on 'indie marketing'.)

[The preceding originally appeared at Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

Chinese MMO developer-publisher CDC Games has announced it has filed a lawsuit in the courts of Hong Kong against Mgame over Yulgang (Scions of Fate in the U.S.), for breach of contract, alleging that Mgame has not been providing adequate technical support for Yulgang, and that Mgame has failed to support CDC Games in their efforts to combat pirate servers. The two companies have been in an agreement to publish the game in China.

The contract between CDC Games and Mgame stipulates that Mgame must protect Yulgang from illegal intrusions, and collaborate with CDC should security breaches occur. The contract also requires Mgame to deal with technical issues and security defects to ensure quality of service. CDC is now claiming that Mgame has been unresponsive to its requests to collaborate in good faith on both these issues.

Mgame's alleged failure to provide security for Yulgang is a particular sticking point, because CDC has spearheaded the MMO security effort, founding the Online Game Alliance Against Piracy (OGAAP) along with CCP Games (EVE Online), Ons On Soft (Shine) Sonokong (Shaiya) T3 Entertainment, developers of Audition, and Wemade (Mir II) to fight the piracy of online games in China.

Judging by CDC's official statement, it appears that CDC stopped payments to Mgame, resulting in Mgame's termination of the contract. Said CDC's statement: "The management of CDC Games strongly believes that these accusations and actions are baseless and hold the potential to harm the loyal players of Yulgang, one of the top-10 most popular online games in China, as well as damage the overall online game industry in China."

“We regret that our many attempts to work with Mgame constructively and in good faith have not been successful,” said CDC Games president Xiaowei Xhen. “We have even been working directly with the Chinese government and they too, have reached out to Mgame to encourage them to work with us constructively to settle this dispute and avoid any potential harm to the Yulgang players or overall games industry in China. Although we finally had no choice but to file the lawsuit, we still hope this dispute can be settled amicably.”

OnNetUSA has announced the opening of its final beta for Manga Fighter, a third-person shooter and customizable avatar combat MMO. The beta and its associated events will run from October 17th to October 24th, and it's open to all players.

In the first event, each player who submits a qualified bug report will be eligible to win 50,000 in Manga Fighter Don, the in-game currency, or 1,000 GamesCampus cash (equivalent to $10), The second event invites users to submit suggestions, and one entrant will be randomly chosen to receive an exclusive set of Manga Fighter figures.

Beta testers can also win the figures by participating in the “Final Boot Camp” survey, which will allow gamers to give the Manga Fighter design team important feedback that will be used to enhance game play for future releases. All players with Manga Fighter accounts are eligible, and the winner will be chosen via random drawing.

MMO and virtual world developer Avatar Reality has announced that they have selected StreamBase Systems’ Complex Event Processing (CEP) technology as an infrastructural component for the building of their upcoming multiplayer virtual world Blue Mars.

Lexington, MA-based StreamBase’s Event Processing Platform combines an application development environment, a low-latency high-throughput event server, and broad connectivity to real-time and historical data. The engine will allow Avatar Reality to build server applications such as behavior analysis and data-driven intelligence systems for Blue Mars.

Blue Mars, which will launch in beta version late 2008, is set in terraformed Mars, tasking players with exploring the environment using personalized avatars.

Avatar Reality president Kazuyuki Hashimoto said, “A prototype application built in just one week demonstrated processing rates of one million events per second, giving us confidence that StreamBase CEP will become a critical infrastructure for Blue Mars.”

If you needed any more evidence that the free-to-play MMO model is in, here's some more. Codemasters' ArchLord recently re-launched as a free-to-play, and now the developer is looking to drum up renewed interest for another Korean MMORPG it has published in the States, Rising Force Online, by offering it as a full free-to-play without subscription fees.

RF Online blends traditional fantasy and sci-fi elements. Players can choose one of three races to compete against the others for dominance in deep space. As an incentive to new players, a new expansion, Episode II: Pioneers of Novus will also be available for free.

Ed Relf, Codemasters director of marketing, said, “Moving RF Online to free-to-play game marks yet another milestone for Codemasters Online and the wider industry. We have proven with ArchLord that has been downloaded over 1 million times the potential success that can be experienced and we are pleased to be in a position to re-launch RF Online using a similar model. We invite players from around the world to download the game for free and join us in Novus."

Fashion's a big deal in the virtual worlds space, especially around youth-oriented worlds. It's become clear that the broader the array of fashion options for avatar personalization and self-expression just might correlate to a broader userbase. Now MapleStory Europe has an entire event staged around letting its population show off their fashions, called the Maple Star Style Contest.

The event, which runs for three weeks, will let players flaunt their style, vote on their favorite looks with compliments and put-downs, and participate in a Europe-wide contest to single out the best-dressed players in the MapleStory world. The competition launches October 18th, and will run in conjunction with the region's in-game Halloween events, challenging players to create the most attention-grabbing costumes and the most unique looks. All players level 10 or higher can participate -- not a very tall order, since on our visit to the Maple Story world, we learned that level 10 is the basic point of entry to the broader game experience, the stage at which you choose your character's job and can leave the introductory areas.

All players are eligible to vote, however, and can leave comments and votes on the Maple Europe homepage. The winner with the most "Love It" votes will get 70,000 Maple Points to spend in the Cash Shop, and, of course, the first Maple Star award, which is perhaps equally valuable in a world where reputation plays a strong role.

MapleStory Europe's international business development director Calvin Yoo said, “MapleStory Europe’s Maple Star event is yet another example of how Nexon continues to innovate and deliver great new content in the field of free-to-play MMORPGs. MapleStory Europe is committed to bringing unique and fun massively multiplayer gaming to as wide an audience as possible, and we’re confident that’s exactly what players will get from this event. We hope as many players take part and vote as possible - although players won’t be able to vote for themselves, obviously!”

Entropia Universe's Club NEVERDIE, which recently made the Guinness Book of World Records for the most expensive virtual item bought ($100,000) is set to host the 2008 Massive Multiplayer Online World Championships, beginning Friday, November 23, 2008 with the finals closing the tournament on Sunday, December 16, 2008 in Miami, Florida.

The event is a first person shooting tournament that involves hunting monsters in the asteroid biodomes of Entropia's Calypso world, and players will compete for a two-part prize package: first, an optional all-expenses paid trip to the Florida competition, where the winner will be filmed for -- get this -- a reality TV show hosted by Club NEVERDIE owner Jon Jacobs (a reality show about a virtual entrepreneur? How's that for crossover?). Second, the winner will get $20,000 worth of Entropia land, for which the owner can charge other players mining fees and taxes, so theoretically the winner can continue to earn monthly cash for their prize. Highlights of the event will be broadcast on Spike TV’s Game Head.

Said Jacobs, "The 2007 MMOWC was a tremendous success and we hope that the second time around is just as successful, if not even better. What makes the MMOWC truly unique and different from others is that gamers can compete without ever having to leave their home, whereas traditional video game tournaments involve competing in arenas. We give finalists the option of being flown to Miami to compete.”

Free To Play currently has an interesting interview with NCsoft's Dallas Snell all about the business model of Dungeon Runners. Of particular interest is the following excerpt, wherein Snell explains to Free To Play's McElroy Flavelle about the decision to make Dungeon Runners free:

The decision to resurrect Dungeon Runners and make it a free to play game (versus a full retail MMO) came from NCsoft CEO Robert Garriott and Chris Jung, the former ArenaNet General Manager, who operated out of Korea at the time and therefore had early expose to the free to play model. Chris is back in Austin now and looking to push NCsoft further into casual MMO development, replicating the success of Korean companies like Nexon.

There’s been speculation that NCsoft chose subscriptions as the primary revenue model in Dungeon Runners due to a belief that North American players preferred that model to microtransactions. However, that was not the rationale for the subscription decision. Instead, Dungeon Runners’ optional subscription fee was chosen simply because a microtransactional model wasn’t yet set up in the Dungeon Runners code base. To remedy that, the team is currently working on getting microtransactions running within Dungeon Runners before the game is launched in Korea.

Another key highlight from the interview? Looks like NCsoft will begin unveiling in-game ads soon too, perhaps even as an alternative altogether to subscriptions.

[Via F2P.biz]

We first heard about VastPark several weeks ago, and now there's an update. The forums are ready for users, and will be public, the company says, once open beta begins for the Web 2.0 virtual worlds, which sound like they'll allow you to create virtual spaces in a similar fashion to Areae's Metaplace -- though not having seen either, we can only speculate.

VastPark says it's added support for 3D audio, which means sound volume will fluctuate depending on the player's distance from the source; the 3D audio can also be scripted to occur on certain events. Other new updates include the ability for objects to chase other objects, including a third person camera, adding flexibility to interactive scenes, as well as normal mapping -- which allows objects to be shaded in detail without adding polygons.

Still, looks like things are still in the works as concerns rolling out the service to new users. "We know there's a need for more documentation, even though as you get your head into the tool it is pretty easy," said a VastPark statement. "But, we're not satisfied, we think it can be much easier and are working on a more intuitive user interface with a customizable keyboard system."

At this year's E for All Expo in Los Angeles, MindArk announced that its Entropia Universe has opened its platform to partners and affiliates interested in obtaining their own planet in the Universe. It's already partnered with China's Cyber Recreation District for the venture.

From the looks of things, MindArk's been looking to network with new potential partners at the Expo, in the hopes of enabling companies to form brand extensions in Entropia. Though Entropia's setting involves the futuristic space colonies on planet Calypso (not the best place, for, say, a Pepsi tie-in), they've been hyping up the platform's entertainment, e-commerce and social networking attributes. The sci-fi, monster-sweating elements of Entropia were downplayed, for example, in a recent announcement about some events and competitions surrounding the Guinness Book of World Records-listed Club NEVERDIE.

Could it be that Entropia is trying to reshape its brand identity a little, showcasing a broader array of applications and potential audiences than its fantasy MMO roots would afford it?

CDC Games has apparently filed a second lawsuit in the courts of Korea against MGame, with which it's collaborating to publish Yulgang in China. It seems it's the same breach of contract issue that it's suing for in Hong Kong, as recently announced.

CDC alleges that Mgame has not been providing adequate technical support for Yulgang nor supported them in their efforts to combat pirate servers. CDC Games says it will "continue to aggressively pursue all available legal options to protect its interests and the interests of its game players."

CDC signed an agreement to make a strategic investment in Mgame in March of 2007, making it the company's largest external shareholder at the same time it extended CDC's license of Yulgang to 2010. It has continued to make royalty payments to Mgame, as it has consecutively done over the last 3 years. According to CDC, it has paid $15 million in royalties and license fees since 2005.

“CDC Games believes it has been a strong partner to Mgame for the last three years,” said Xiaowei Chen, president of CDC Games. “We have sought to live up to our side of the bargain as demonstrated through our long, consistent payment history to Mgame. It is regrettable that we need to take these actions because Mgame has failed to live up to their side of the bargain.”

Online game publisher K2 Network has announced an expansion of the cash shop within its MMORPG Sword of the New World: Granado Espada. More than 30 new items have been added to the shop, and the company says they're geared at gameplay personalization and enhancement.

New items on offer include costumes and appearance enhancements, a book that can recoup statistics, and various quest items and battle enhancements. Players can buy any of the new items with in-game gold, which is purchased with real money.