The AOL Games umbrella, whose network includes the gaming sites Joystiq and WoW Insider, to name just a few, has a new member in its family -- it's called Massively, and it's dedicated to the MMO gaming space. Recently, a post aggregated all of the evidence floating around out there of the virtual world that Google is, as the article says, "almost certainly" building:

Way back in January major media outlets speculated that Google would use its then-newly-acquired SketchUp asset to turn Google Earth into some sort of Second Life-type experience. Then The Wall Street Journal reported that Google was to acquire Adscape Media Inc., a company that specializes in creatively integrating advertising into games. In September, ASU students began testing a mysterious application very likely connected to Google, and observers speculated that the application could be a 3D virtual environment.

Google made a deal with Multiverse (the company connected to the possibly problematic Firefly MMO) to sync Multiverse's flexible virtual reality engine with Google's assets and tools. The Reuters blog MediaFile points out that au courant industry figures are taking the existence of a Google virtual world for granted at this point.

Good roundup, folks! Welcome.

[Via Massively]

Over at Dusan Writer's Metaverse, there's an interesting taxonomy discussion going on, about what Prokofy Neva quotes as "a business need to quantify and measure the spaces.” There's the useful Metaversed definitions, but Dusan also tipped us off to a taxonomy made by Lag-O-Rama, excerpted here:

MMP (Massively Multi-Player) - a mostly non-instanced online game, with only a few instanced areas (such as raid zones, etc). Examples: World of Warcraft, Everquest II
IMP (Instanced Multi-Player) - a mostly instanced online game with central non-instanced social hubs, where players can restock, meet up, form groups and socialize. Examples: Guild Wars, Hellgate:London.
Lifesim - a virtual world with no real “game” incorporated into it. Examples: Second Life, There, the upcoming Twinity.
Gamehub - a collection of casual games held together with a social setting hub. Examples: Zwinky, Neopets.
Dueler - primarily a head-to-head online multiplayer game, where the online presence is there, but practically no social setting exists…it’s all about the combat, baby! Examples: Gunbound, Yu-Gi-Oh Online.

As you can see, Lag-O-Rama's list seems, largely, most useful for MMORPG players, which takes us right back to the beginning of the issue -- how different are MMORPGs from virtual worlds? Some can be quite different, like Hellgate, and some are not very, like Entropia.

Dusan has made a very interesting content map (shown, full version here) which is useful -- at showing how many different categories and classifications there could possibly be! Unfortunately, this quest for taxonomy will probably persist for a while yet, because of the role of enterprise and investors in the space. And Dusan provides a great translation of investor-speak:

Here’s how I imagine a pitch to a group of bankers or investors who know nothing about virtual worlds:

“We’re going to create branded entertainment products and aggregate social communities by creating a Web 3.0 space that leverages best in class talent incentivized with virtual currency. Investment in this opportunity is high risk but the risk:ratio return is high because we will establish best practices and aggregate eyeballs within the social/entertainment Web 3.0 space towards creating a portfolio of opportunities for future monetization.”

Here’s what it really means:
“3D stuff is really cool. We really have no idea where this is all headed. We want to take a gamble on creativity, passion, collaboration. We’re going to work with some Neko who hangs out at the Missing Mile and a Gorean Master who also runs an erotic strip club for furries. We figure we’ll throw a bunch of prims together, hope we don’t get griefed, make some cool stuff, and have some fun - and if we can do all that, a whole bunch of people will probably hang out, become friends, and our passion will spread, and some day that whole thing might make us some money or it might not, but we’ll probably survive, we’ll learn a thing or two, we’ll for sure end up with some possibly worthless real estate, a bunch of code, and some objects that we’re just as likely to give away as sell, and hey, maybe we’ll become better human beings by learning to work with each other in a different way, and to help people experience emotional, immersive evnironments in new ways.

Yes, it's funny, but salient! Writer's full piece on the issue is here.

Trion World Network has announced the opening of a new studio in San Diego, the acquisition of some key staff members, and has confirmed with Gamasutra in an interview that it has a server-based MMO game title in development in its Redwood City studio.

Following the announcement, Gamasutra had a chance to speak to Lars Buttler, CEO and co-founder of the company about the company's expansion. Buttler was formerly Vice President for Global Online at Electronic Arts, and leads the companies with Jon Van Caneghem, Founder and CEO of New World Computing and creator of the Might & Magic series.

Specifically, the company has announced the opening of its San Diego studio with a number of key developers from EverQuest creator Sony Online Entertainment, including SOE's head of development. Nicholas Beliaeff. Beliaeff is joined by lead game designer Bill Trost, senior producer Robert Hill and principal engineer Brandon Bogle, all formerly of SOE.

Trion has hired away talent from EA, Activision, and NCSoft in the past. According to Buttler, "It's not because we go aggressively after big companies, but because we believe great talent makes great games both from a content and technology perspective. You continue to build out -- I don't think you're ever done. We have about a dozen of the top people down here in San Diego and of course we continue to hire."

Buttler was somewhat coy on both further hires and, of course, the company's projects. On the former front, he promised "a number of other people we haven't announced."

As for upcoming content, the CEO demurred comment but pointed to the company's IP partners, such as Warner Bros. According to Buttler, the Redwood City and Austin studios are complete and functional, though still hiring. Trion's Redwood City studio is currently at work on a game title, while the Austin studio focuses on back-end technology.

When asked about the new San Diego studio, Buttler said, "I'm here with about a dozen or so of the best talent in the game space today. What we are announcing and have built are all of the pieces to become a publisher and developer of next-generation server-based games."

Buttler refers here to the previously-announced Trion Platform and the company's ability to distribute its products, being complemented by building out its ability to develop the games it intends to sell and service. Buttler said, "We have an incredible network of IP partners and distribution and marketing partners."

Trion is funded by venture capital, including a most recent $30 million dollar round of funding led by Rustic Canyon Partners, and bills itself as a "premium publisher and developer of innovative server-based games".

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

We're pleased to announce an expansion of the February 2008 pre-GDC summit to two days, and reveal initial speakers including Areae's Raph Koster, Nicktropolis co-creator Chris Romero, Conduit Labs' Nabeel Hyatt and Relic Labs studio head Adrian Crook.

The Summit, to be held Monday and Tuesday, February 18-19th 2008, as part of the 2008 Game Developers Conference, will focus on the intersection of online worlds and games, and the official description of the event is as follows:

"The Worlds in Motion Summit is a definitive event tailored for the growing number of industry professionals and Fortune 500 companies developing interactive online spaces for both entertainment and commercial purposes. Discussion forums will delve into online worlds, social gaming and media and player created activity.

These will provide insight for developers of all backgrounds into how the game industry is collectively building socialization into games and integrating personalization and player-generated content into gameplay — while widely accessible Web and networking tools are looking to the game industry for their way forward."

In addition, the inaugural Worlds In Motion Summit has announced its first four speakers, and is expected to debut many more over the next few weeks. The initially revealed speakers are as follows:

- Areae's Raph Koster
(SOE veteran, Areae co-founder and noted industry figure Koster will discuss the ways virtual worlds are increasingly relevant to the ways we play and the evolution of the medium, as the worlds of online spaces, social networking and gaming converge.)

- Worldwide Biggies' Chris Romero
(Interactive entertainment development veteran Romero, CTO of Worldwide Biggies, who did the original prototyping and led the full team for the design and development of Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis, discusses the building of a successful online play space that has garnered users by the millions.)

- Conduit Labs' Nabeel Hyatt
(Web entrepeneur Hyatt, whose new online world firm has recently been VC funded, will present a lecture on social gaming with a discussion of games for Facebook.)

-Relic Labs' Adrian Crook
(Senior producer and head of Relic Labs, an internal group at THQ developer Relic Entertainment, will present a discussion of the free-to-play business model and how it's helped evolve the face of online play.)

The Summit is available to attend via several different Game Developers Conference 2008 passes, and more information is available on the Worlds In Motion Summit webpage.

Possibly in the hopes of gaining some positive press after its recent legal wrangling, CDC Games released performance metrics for a few of its commercially-available titles that operate on the free-to-play business model. The company says that average concurrent users across its portfolio was about 200,000 in October 2007, a growth of 12 percent over the previous month, and CDC now claims 119 million registered users among all of its games.

CDC also offered some numbers for Yulgang, the game over which CDC has recently settled its conflicts with Mgame. Yulgang is in its third year of commercial availability, and CDC says its average daily revenue grew by 2 percent in October compared to the prior month, and that peak concurrent users grew by 10 percent, while average concurrent users grew 20 percent. The company attributes the improving metrics to the release of the v180 version of the game in August 2007, and to its active efforts to shut down pirate servers hosting the game.

CDC believes that two-thirds of the pirate servers were successfully shut down during August and September, due to its work with the Chinese government authorities, law enforcement agencies and internet operators. CDC says the pirate shutdown is continuing, and that less than 10 percent of the pirate servers remain currently active. CDC is one of the founding companies of the OGAAP (Online Games Alliance Against Piracy), which aims to protect the industry from such pirate servers and unlawful operation.

The company also provided stats on Special Force, launched in June 2007 as what CDC claims is China's first free-to-play, pay for merchandise FPS game in China. According to the company, compared to September 2007, revenue for Special Force grew 37 percent in the month of October, while registered users grew 34 percent to 7.7 million in total. Special Force also saw October growth of 23 percent in peak concurrent users, and 27 percent growth in average concurrent users.

CDC president Xiaowei Chen said, "We are very happy to see Special Force growing so well and gaining momentum after just four months since we launched the game. This early momentum and the establishment of a loyal base of players is critical to the long-term success of any free-to-play game. We are also happy to see the return to growth for Yulgang... Clearly our efforts to combat pirate servers are having a positive effect. We will continue to shut down pirate servers, and although recovery will take time, the trend is encouraging."

He also provided an update on the legal proceedings with Mgame: "Additionally, we are making good progress in our negotiations with Mgame and feel confident we can reach an amicable settlement on Yulgang with our next step scheduled for this coming Tuesday with a meeting in Hong Kong."

An extensive writeup in MIT Technology review takes a look at the upgraded search function in Second Life. As it points out, the importance of virtual goods in particular is what makes the ability to narrow results by relevance and in finer detail so essential -- with Second Life's much-touted IP marketplace, where anyone can craft and sell goods, it's a boon to both consumers and sellers that it's apparently now easier to find things.

It's also a sign, perhaps, that the online goods market is expanding in Second Life. Look at it this way -- there are now so many shops, locations, items and events that the search tool needed refinement to aid users in zeroing in on what they want, Google-style. Jeska Dwizalski told the Review that she hopes the specificity in search will also support socialization in Second Life, by helping users to find other people with more specific traits in common, like hobbies or other info.

With some controversy lately about the relatively uncontrolled "wild West" of Second Life, the ability to filter searches to avoid mature content might also be valuable to users and therefore to the platform, which as it expands may suffer a bit of identity crisis as it aims to be many things to many people. From the article:

The algorithm behind the new Second Life search tool will resemble Google's: found objects will be ranked according to how well the data used to describe them match the search terms entered, how close multiple words are to each other, and how popular the objects seem to be, based on the frequency of references to their locations. Like the existing search tool, the new one will allow people to select whether or not they want to include mature content in their searches. The current release, Dzwigalski says, lets Second Life subscribers decide which of their elements they want the search engine to index, so that they will have a chance to determine their desired level of privacy. "The new search tool allows people to search more things and better describe them," she says.

Still, as the article explains, this is not a cure-all for the virtual worlds search idea, which is still far from a perfect science. Michael Rowe, manager of 3-D internet and intraverse research at IBM comments in the article, "Search is important, but I personally don't know of any answer in that space yet. I would say search [in virtual worlds] is going to be pretty exciting as it matures, since you're not only looking for a link: you're looking for a thing within a context of space and time."

[Via MIT Technology Review]

Wired draws our attention to a new Czech-based publication, "Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on the Internet." The journal appears to study social, moral and psychological issues of online interaction -- interesting! Sort of a sociological journal for virtual worlds, it would seem.

The current issue, which appears to be the first, includes studies on internet use by teens in Estonia, a piece on mobile communication, and an article titled "Reflections of RL in the Virtual World." There's also one called "Simulation in cyberspace and touch of the flesh: Kissing, the blush, the hickey and the caress," which while sensationally headlined, addresses a topic we tend to step around -- the fact that many users of virtual worlds, especially ones like Second Life that do little to censor content, use them for a very specific social purpose.

[Via Wired]

The Center For Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California has announced a panel titled "What Are Kids Learning In Virtual Worlds?" It's being presented in conjunction with MacArthur Foundation and Common Sense Media, and appears to be a bit basic in nature; from the event site:

Club Penguin, Whyville, The Sims, Second Life.
You've heard these names, what do they mean for kids?
Hear from a panel of experts as they discuss:

* What are kids really doing in virtual worlds?

* How are they learning?

* What does this mean for parents and educators?

This conference is specifically being held to create a balanced conversation between parents, educators, researchers and media. People with an interest in child development, virtual worlds, and the effect media is having on children, will benefit from the information provided in the panel discussion.

Similar events have been cropping up all over the place; it seems like an encouraging sign, in a nascent industry, that early on the use by children as separate from the use of adults is being discussed regularly; perhaps it may allow the online worlds industry to cope effectively and avoid some of the controversy that often plagues the worlds of film, television and video games.

Hidden City Games, whose online world based on the Bella Sara trading cards we recently discovered, has raised $15 million in strategic venture capital from Rustic Canyon Partners and Trinity Ventures. Hidden City says it'll use the funds to expand the Bella Sara website and for marketing and new product development -- but judging by the investors, who also paired up to support Trion and PlayFirst, it's likely that we can look for more expansions to the horse-themed Bella Sara online presence, possibly even in the virtual world or microtransactions arena.

“With more than 30 million trading cards sold worldwide and more than 1 million registered website users, Bella Sara is the first trading card game to capture the hearts and minds of girls,” said Michael Song, a partner at Rustic Canyon Partners who's also joined the Hidden City board of directors.

Gus Tai, general partner at Trinity Ventures who also joins Hidden City's board, added “[Hidden City CEO] Peter Adkison understands how to build a global retail footprint, and we are bullish on his plans to leverage Bella Sara’s in-store presence to grow its registered-user base." Tai also noted that Hidden City has some 65,000 retail points that drive traffic to the Bella Sara site.

Adkison is also the founder of Wizards of the Coast (Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering), which was sold to Hasbro in 1999.

Worlds In Motion is pleased to present a new weekly 'Worlds In Motion Jobs' post, highlighting the top jobs related to online worlds posted on our sister Gamasutra Jobs website.

We'll be updating every week with the latest jobs posted on the site which are relevant to our readership of professionals creating online worlds, as follows:

Gaia Online (San Jose, CA)
QA Engineer
("Gaia Online is a web community centered around the teen demographic (13-17). It has millions of users already and is expanding rapidly to meet the needs of those users. Currently, the number one requested feature of our customers is an MMO offering and the company is creating that game for them now.")

- Gravity Interactive (Marina Del Rey, CA)
Head Game Master, Community Manager
("Gravity Interactive Inc. [is] a leader of the online gaming industry and the publisher of one of the most successful online game titles, "Ragnarok Online".)

- Millions of Us, Inc. (Sausalito, CA)
Producer: Building Virtual Worlds
("Millions of Us, a leading social media agency is dedicated to helping businesses understand and harness the power of online communities and virtual worlds.")

- NCSoft (Austin, TX)
Multiple positions
("Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, NCsoft Corporation is the world’s leading developer and publisher of online games. Founded in 1997, NCsoft is home to Lineage, the world’s most successful online role playing game and also to Lineage II, City of Heroes and City of Villains, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall and Auto Assault.")

- Pileated Pictures (MA, USA)
Lead Network Software Engineer
("Pileated Pictures is a leading studio creating multiplayer gaming experiences and virtual worlds for Fortune 500 clients since 1999. (www.planetcazmo.com / www.littlestpetshop.com) We are seeking expert level network and gaming software engineers to play key roles in developing titles for the exploding "casual MMO" market.")

- Quest Online (Chandler, AZ)
MMOG Game Client Developer
("Quest Online, LLC (QOL) is a MMOG development company currently building the upcoming MMORPG ALGANON.")

Sierra Online, Seattle Studio (Issaquah, WA)
Senior Tools Programmer - Sierra Online
("Sierra Online is looking for a Senior Tools Engineer to design, develop and maintain internal leading-edge tools for our innovative massively-multiplayer online titles currently in development.")

Worlds In Motion will endeavor to round up all the online worlds-related jobs posted at Gamasutra Jobs every week and re-post them here. If you have posted a job at Gamasutra in the last week that you feel would be directly relevant to our audience, and do not see it posted here, please contact the Worlds In Motion editors and we will add it.

NCsoft has announced the acquisition of the City of Heroes IP and the opening of a new development studio in Mountain View, California -- a city approximately 37 miles south of San Francisco.

The studio will be "built around key members of the City of Heroes team from NCsoft and Cryptic Studios including the art, programming and design team leads," according to the NCsoft press release.

This studio will be in charge in expanding on the City of Heroes property, which NCsoft had shared with Cryptic Studios. As of today, the property is 100% owned by NCsoft. Cryptic Studios will presumably continue to work on Marvel Universe Online, a game announced a little over a year ago by Microsoft.

“We’re happy to announce that NCsoft has acquired full ownership of the City of Heroes IP,” said Brian Clayton, NCsoft executive producer and manager of the new studio. “Our plans are clear. We are now in a position to make a major reinvestment in the City of Heroes product line." Clayton served as the executive producer on City of Heroes and its companion game, City of Villains.

In a FAQ posting on its site, Cryptic Studios justified the decision to sell by stating that "CoH/CoV will be in good hands at NCsoft, and the transition will be as seamless as possible. With this move, we now have complete creative freedom and the resources we need to develop new games." The company promises "no change" and a "smooth transition" to the game's players, noting that "every member of the team has been offered employment at NCsoft."

No plans about the future of the franchise in NCsoft's hands are being revealed at this time.

Wizards of the Coast has debuted its MapleStory iTrading Card Game (iTCG) today, creating real-world playing cards based on Nexon's MapleStory online world. As a tie-in to the online component, the MapleStory cards feature codes that unlock exclusive content, rewards and accessories in the online MapleStory.

The partnership between Nexon and Wizards of the coast was announced earlier this year; Wizards of the Coast did the a similar thing with the Neopets trading card game in 2003, with some differences. Notably, beyond simple vanity accessories, the MapleStory cards unlock extra quests and more involved and persistent tie-in experiences. One example is the exclusive "black bunny" virtual pet, also announced today -- it can only be unlocked with an iTGC code.

The MapleStory iTCG Starter Set and Booster Packs will be available at hobby and game shops; major retailers including Wal-Mart, Target, GameStop, Toys 'R' Us and KMart will also carry the cards.

Abandon Interactive Entertainment, has announced Freaky Creatures, an interactive gaming platform and collectible toy line designed to appeal to players of all ages. Scheduled to launch in spring 2008, Freaky Creatures incorporates collectible toys and customizable characters in an online community and virtual battle system.

Ten different toys are sold, packaged with an accompanying USB key which gives players access to download the game either to their PC or a mobile device. Players can buy multiple creatures, too -- each key adds a new creature to the player's "lair", and also adds random parts, powers and decor items to that player's account. Winning battles with a creature earns new abilities, "creature credits" and the opportunity to advance to new levels and unlock new abilities and features

Freaky Creatures positions players as trainers battling each other for control of the galaxy’s natural resources. Gamers raise, train and befriend their Freaky Creatures by decorating their lair and buying them food, pets and toys. To succeed, trainers embark on their journey to dominance by battling their creatures against others via PC to PC, PC to mobile, and mobile to mobile game play.

Freaky Creatures also has an online social community, featuring comics, blogs, chat rooms, mini-games and group tournaments. Players can also trade powers and compete in member contests.

Abandon Interactive president and COO Jamie Ottilie says, “Online social gaming communities are booming, especially among the 8-to-13 year old tween audience. There’s no question they’re a powerful demographic and we want to provide them with the next level of interactive game play by offering a more complex, in-depth experience. Freaky Creatures is not about cute, cuddly characters; instead it’s about players creating their own unique creature using more than a billion combinations of creature parts and powers and taking them online to kick some tail.”

NCsoft has announced an agreement with Chinese game company Shanda Interactive Entertainment, through which Shanda has obtained a license to operate NCsoft's upcoming 3D multiplayer online game AION: The Tower of Eternity, currently in closed beta in Korea since October 27th, in mainland China. Closed beta testing for AION in China is expected to begin in the second half of 2008.

The two companies also announced a strategic alliance that would make Shanda a strategic investor of NCsoft's Chinese subsidiary, NCsoft China, as part of what NCsoft says is a joint effort to "enhance their collaboration" in China.

AION pits two oppositional races, the Angelic and Demonic, against one another in a world threatened by the emergic Draconic race. NCsoft says that actions taken by players in the AION universe actually cause the game environment to evolve, in addition to affecting the storylines.

NCsoft corporation Tack-jin Kim said, "We are very excited to bring our highly anticipated title AION to the China market. Shanda is our most ideal partner in China, given its proven track record in operating MMORPGs, its nationwide distribution platform as well as its strong marketing capabilities. We believe our partnership with Shanda represents an alliance between leading game companies in Korea and China, and we are very optimistic about our collaboration going forward."

Korean-headquartered MMO publisher NCsoft has reported its quarterly results, revealing revenues of $88.3 million, and a profit of $11.2 million, with sales up 5% thanks to Guild Wars: Eye of the North's launch, but profits edging down 5%, due to declines in Lineage and City Of Heroes.

Specifically, the company reported third quarter 2007 sales of KRW 80.0 billion (US$88.3 million), operating income of KRW 9.7 billion (US$10.7 million), and net income of KRW 10.1 billion (US$11.2 million), all on a consolidated basis.

The percentage breakdown of sales for the third quarter shows 55% in Korea (US$47.9 million), and 45% from overseas entities and royalty income: US$15.1 million in North America, US$9.0 million in Europe, US$8.6 million in Japan, US$2.9 million in Taiwan, and royalty income of US$4.8 million.

A successful release of Guild Wars: Eye of the North was a primary reason for 81% growth in sales over the previous quarter for Europe. Net sales in Taiwan rose by 15% over the previous quarter, thanks to the increase in Lineage II sales. Royalty sales increased by 20%, thanks to the strong Lineage sales in Taiwan.

By game title, sales in the quarter for Lineage recorded KRW 23.7 billion (US$26.2 million), Lineage II KRW 32.4 billion (US$35.8 million), City of Heroes/City of Villains KRW 5.7 billion (US$6.3 million), and Guild Wars KRW 13.0 billion (US$14.4 million). Lineage and City of Heroes/City of Villains sales dropped 7% and 10%, respectively, and Lineage II and Guild Wars increased by 1% and 57%, respectively.

NCsoft CFO JaeHo Lee said, “During the third quarter, sales in North America and Europe rose with the successful launch of the Guild Wars’ expansion pack. We expect to see an increase in fourth quarter sales with the newly launched Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa. Aion is in a closed beta testing process, and user responses are very positive.”

As for the remainder of 2007, Atrix, which is currently in open beta test will launch before the end of the year. In the first half of 2008, NCsoft plans to launch in Korea its highly anticipated MMORPG, Aion and for casual games; a first person shooter Point Blank will enter closed beta testing as will side-scroll action games, Punch Monster and Dragonica.

A new online magazine covers media moves, culture and other issues in virtual worlds, primarily Second Life, but there are a few interesting pieces in The Seventh Sun, which calls itself a "Virtual Worlds Rolling Stone."

Generally, cultural stories of people's experiences in Second Life, written by people who use their avatar portrait and in-world name as their real-world calling card, are of interest only to Second Life citizens, but one interesting article in the Seventh Sun talks about a pair of women who've developed an "avatar action center" to raise awareness about sustainability -- though this isn't the real-world environmental issue, as the article explains:

In SL, sustainability is often discussed in the context of maintaining traffic to a particular region or sim to keep it from becoming a “ghost sim.” Avatar Sitearm Madonna summarizes, “‘Good for the long haul’... that is what ‘sustainable design’ means in architecture, technology, arts and community.” The Avatar Action Center looks at sustainable design more from a real life global, ecological perspective. Check Merriam-Webster and you’ll find the word “sustain” comes from the Latin sustinere “to hold up” or “to nurture.” Says Sage, “Sustainability is the preservation and nurturance of diversity; the by-product of healthy, balanced (eco)systems.”

It's interesting that there are groups even within Second Life who are beginning to acknowlege that there may be near-term challenges to the sustainability of the space, at least in its current incarnation.

The Seventh Sun is largely well-written, and contains some very readable pieces, including one about Electric Sheep's OnRez viewer and other interesting headlines, some that have yet to lead to articles, but the site's still new!

[Via Earthtimes]

Latin-American social entertainment network VOYPlaza has launched a Latino culture-focused interactive entertainment offering, VOYPlaza.com, that includes a Latin-themed virtual world offered through Doppelganger's vSide that lets users chat, listen and dance to Latin music, watch video and participate in events.

"VOYPlaza.com serves Latinos' deep desire to connect with both our culture and each other. Based upon the feedback of our audience we've created innovative product additions to further deepen this connection among Latinos and our friends through the best tools, relevant content and organic Latin design that VOY Plaza embodies," said Fernando Espuelas, Chairman and CEO of VOY.

During this year’s Gstar game show in Seoul, South Korea, Nexon has revealed new details about Maple Story DS, as well as an Xbox 360 port of the company's Korea-only PC MMO Mabinogi, which was announced today.

The recent Mabinogi announcement, which came on the first day of the major Gstar show attended by Gamasutra in South Korea, was relatively unexpected. The game is a more traditional, cel-shaded MMORPG with an interesting class system, allowing players to level up in branching paths with individual attributes.

The game has already been out in Korea, but will be coming to the Xbox 360 soon – Nexon hoped to launch it this year in Korea, but is not certain it will meet the target.

“It’s been under development for about a year,” said Kang, who added that it’s a rather straight conversion of the original game. “It’s being developed internally – but there’s not much more we can say at this time,” he concluded.

Other details, such as possibility of Western release, are scarce, but common sense and anecdotal evidence suggests that the game will be released as a packaged product such as Final Fantasy XI or Phantasy Star Universe, with aims for release outside of Korea, given the complete unfeasibility of releasing an Xbox 360 game solely for the Korean market.

Secondly - Maple Story DS, we now learn, is planned for a release by the middle of next year in Korea, with a subsequent eye to western markets.

“We’re aggressively developing it,” said Jamie Kang, general manager of Nexon Korea’s international business division. “It’s under development currently, and it’s in very good shape.”

The game will be a departure from the original series, which focused on a casual MMO-lite experience. “It’s not an MMORPG type game,” says Kang, “it’s actually typical action RPG. It’ll have different gameplay from the original version, more adapted to the platform itself.”

The DS version won’t focus as heavily on the community aspect – “We have some features that support wifi, but the main focus will be on single player,” he said.

Nexon also revealed that they are working jointly with developers in Nintendo’s Kyoto headquarters to make sure the game has the highest level of quality, stating that Nintendo has been “extremely helpful.”

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

Kids participate in events and play minigames that earn their characters "super powers" and other rewards. They can chat, too, though the company says, "All interaction between players is strictly automated through safeguard technology filters and live moderators, which helps prevent personal identity and inappropriate content/language from being shared. Dizzywood is also COPPA compliant and free of advertising and external links to the Web."

"There are so many websites for kids, but we felt young people today deserved better," said Scott Arpajian, Dizzywood co-founder. "We wanted to create an environment that would open up kids' imaginations and inspire them to create. As a parent of young children myself, safety was also a concern, so we have integrated advanced filtering technology with live moderators that provide for a safe online environment."

Dizzywood is currently free, but says it will offer paid subscriptions in the future as an option to access premium content.

There.com creator Makena Technologies has announced that Scion has extended the marketing campaign it began in There earlier this year with Club Scion by several months. This time, the campaign is focusing on user-generated content by allowing There users to create and submit their own decorative designs for Club Scion's exterior. The submitted displays will be rotated regularly, allowing an opportunity to showcase many different member designs.

Makena partner Trilogy Studios, who originally designed the drivable Scion cars that also appear in There, is also on board for the next leg of Scion's campaign, and the company says that the ability to customize the in-world Scions and compete will also be integrated. Trilogy also worked with MTV's Virtual Pimp My Ride world based on the network's car-customizing TV property.

Makena CEO Michael Wilson commented, “This initiative provides any of our members with the ability to paint a huge Scion car, and really let their creativity shine. Club Scion is about 100 feet high -- we can’t wait to see what our members do with that large of a canvas. Our virtual world is largely built around user-generated content, and this campaign allows our members to create unique items and contribute to Scion’s brand with their own personalized creations. At the same time, Scion gets consumers closely engaging with their brand in a much more hands-on manner than they could through any other marketing channel.”

GyPSii, a mobile social networking platform, has announced the availability of its webtop client in ten different languages -- it now recognizes U.S. English, UK English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

The company says the extended language support was a result of increasing demand from different countries' users who were interested in expanding the platform's use to encompass social networking, sharing user-generated content, friend-finding and accessing location-based content, services and points of interest in their own language. Currently, the Windows Mobile client is in public beta, with English and Simplified Chinese as the initial languages, with the others to roll out over the coming quarter.

The GyPSii platform isn't simply a social networking utility -- it's composed of several integrated web apps, which in addition to communicating, sharing video and pictures, allows users to tag points of interest and track friends in their area. It can be accessed via internet, mobile phone or any internet-connected mobile device.

The O'Reilly Radar got hold of some presentation slides from NASA's Daniel Laughlin, intended to have been part of the Digital Library Federation's Fall Forum (Laughlin didn't make it to the event). But some interesting ideas are revealed on NASA's vision for virtual worlds -- and their existing use of them for education, outreach and immersive experiences.

NASA, which started two Second Life islands earlier this year, uses it regularly for its online collaboration internally -- it refers to it, and other 3D online spaces as "immersive synthetic environments," or ISEs. A video entitled "NASA's CoLab Second Life Mission" shows an intriguing use of online worlds, a vision that imagines those on Earth able to converse and share perspectives with astronauts while they are on their space mission:

Laughlin tells the Radar's Peter Brantley:

When NASA returns to the moon in 2020, the people of Earth will be able to share that experience. Not just through the passive medium of television like the last time we went to the moon, but through the virtual experience of a persistent immersive synthetic environment. Kids are starting to use PISE at a very early age already. Nickelodeon and Disney each run their own online worlds. The children who play in those worlds are going to expect more from both their work and play as adult than 2D interactivity. They will expect 3D the same way people today expect cable television and those in the 1970s expected color television.

Virtual worlds and space travel? Futuristic visions collide!
[Via O'Reilly Radar]