FreetoPlay.biz, one of our favorite blogs, has an interesting "devil's advocate" analysis that lines up the 10 reasons why the free to play business model that is the de facto standard in Asia might face obstacles in widespread adoption in the West. Among the factors cited -- legal issues surrounding virtual property ownership, a "huge disparity" between broadband speeds in Korea and in North America, oversaturation in the MMO market and a surge in what Adrian Crook calls "watered-down adverworlds."

Crook also proposes some solutions that might offer diversions around these very pragmatic roadblocks -- for example, advertisers can evolve the way they target their userbases in virtual worlds to combat the rise of environments that are essentially elaborate, interactive ads that might, as their prevalence steadily increases, encounter consumer resistance.

Since multiplayer online games and abundant social worlds are the primary driver of free to play thanks to their inclusive gameplay, Crook is concerned that this general homogeny in the business model might turn users off to the broader trend. This one is tougher to solve -- Crook points out "pay to kill" FPS Kwari as an example of an alternate option, but as he says, it's too soon to tell what sort of effect it will have.

But hope might come in what Crook lists next. Though the fact that big-budget developers like EA are entering the arena with free to play games like Battlefield Heroes might mean that rising development costs could pose an additional roadblock, it also means that these veteran gaming companies have the opportunity to offer innovation on the Far East MMO stereotype.

Check out Crook's interesting run-down in full at FreetoPlay.biz. He'll also be speaking about the issues surrounding the free to play model at our upcoming Worlds in Motion Summit, taking place February 18th and 19th in San Francisco -- don't forget to register!

InterFUEL, which has created virtual worlds and interactive online content for the likes of Shining Stars, Nickelodeon, MTV and Sesame Street, has released a new report identifying and detailing seven features it says are must-haves for virtual worlds targeted at kids.

InterFUEL estimates that about 1 in 4 of about 35 million online kids in the US go to virtual worlds "often," citing eMarketer stats that anticipate the number will be 1 in 3 by 2008 and 1 in 2 by 2008. The company's goal in creating the report is to help marketers who want to tap this market

So what are the seven key features, according to InterFUEL?

-Mom's approval, since the ultimate decision to admit a child rests with the parents.
-Safety, under the law, and in the eyes of parents and children.
-Fun, fun, fun!
-Fresh content, so that visiting the world becomes part of a child's routine.
-Ways to connect and socialize with other kids.
-A feeling of control over the child's appearance, personal space, and resources.
-Means to encourage self-expression.

"Fun, fun, fun!" Seems a bit obvious, doesn't it? The full report apparently details the key features in-depth, but I wonder if they've got "fun" for kids down to a formula so easily!

Chinese virtual world HiPiHi has partnered with IBM for what Massively reports is an "essentially twofold" collaboration -- IBM will provide scalable architecture, with hardware, services and consultation, and the two companies will additionally collaborate on interoperability standards. From Massively:

Secondly, there's collaboration on virtual world interoperability standards, which started out as a broad set of agreements last year, and some collaborative coding on CHTTP-and-escrow conducted by Linden Lab and IBM. Information-tech industry standards of any size or complexity generally take over a decade to formalize, and quite some more years to gain useful levels of adoption - so that's a much longer game to play.

A Singapore company called Virtual Worlds has announced a platform for virtual tourism to the industry in its home country. The environment, which it calls Mirror World, claims to reproduce key tourism destinations and historical sites in full-scale 3D, geared for the tourism and hospitality industries to allow them to show their facilities to global markets.

Currently the software is in beta, and the company says it's already able to show certain parts of the world. According to Virtual Worlds, its technology can support up to a million objects per view area as well as sound, music and weather effects. It's also able to import existing 3D drawings of infrastructure and buildings.

The company adds it's discussing projects with tourism authorities and facilities operators to ultimately build virtual replicas of their sites. The long-term goal is to "completely map the globe in phases." It will launch worldwide at some point during 2008.

Targeted for a world wide launch in end 2008, consumers will be able to explore parts of the world in 3D, meet and chat with friends from all over the world all from their desktop over a internet connection and most importantly win prizes to travel around the world.

Virtual Worlds Asia director Terence Mak said, “This is an important and necessary step in the development of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds [have] always been depicted [as] a fantasy - it's about time we changed that thinking and use of the same technology to make the world a smaller place. Air travel and tourism is booming with the availability of budget airlines, consumers are beginning to be more world conscious. What is missing is a technology and a platform to showcase the world in 3D to a global audience. We hope to partner with many of the world's interesting places and help them showcase what they are doing to make the world a more interesting place.”

Upstart New York-based casual game developer-publisher Rebel Monkey has announced it has raised $1 million in a first round of financing from Redpoint Ventures.

Founded by Diner Dash lead designer Nick Fortugno and Skunk Studios vet Margaret Wallace in 2007, Rebel Monkey is focused particularly on connected, community-focused casual games.

The company says it will use the funding to further its stated goal of "taking casual gaming to its next level by focusing new kinds of community-centric casual game experiences to attract and connect players."

Gamasutra recently spoke to co-founder Wallace, and asked her all about the new venture.

How did you come to create Rebel Monkey?

From its inception, the company was formed to take the casual games industry in all sorts of new directions – whether in terms of finding new audiences, creating popular and enduring casual game genres, or exploring new and emerging business models around the creation of casual game content.

Could you talk a bit about the company's design philosophy?

To innovate, but not to the point of absurdity. Our goal is to push boundaries, but never to render ourselves obsolete or to alienate our players. A lot of press has come out lately that people who play casual games are passive and uneducated about the genre.

We couldn't disagree more; casual game audiences aren't undiscerning masses, but rather a vibrant community of players with a wide range of knowledge, interests and abilities. Part of our design philosophy is that our players are smart and engaged.

We set out to design games that show a healthy respect for the intelligence of our players. A lot of attention is paid to pacing and flow and the unfolding of the experience over time.

You said you want to focus on "connected" casual experiences -- can you define that a little?

Connected gaming and social experiences stand to transform our very society. The idea that an in-game currency can trade against any of the real-world currencies and the way communities of friends and family can connect to each other via social media is mind-blowing.

What market will Rebel Monkey be reaching out to, and how do you plan to go about it?

While we plan to continue to serve what has become known as the "core casual" game audience – predominantly female players in their 30s and 40s – a complementary focus will be on attracting players from all age groups, including the millions of people in their teens or twenties who are collectively forging new ground in terms of how online communities are formed and how content is consumed.

We just raised a Series A round with Redpoint Ventures and plan to put that to good use exploring and expanding these boundaries.

How is development coming along so far, and when might you be ready to announce the first Rebel Monkey game?

The first Rebel Monkey products are coming to market in early 2008. We are keeping an incredibly tight lid on all of our creative and development activities, mostly so that we can focus on the work at-hand and not succumb to any distractions.

Our motto is "focus like a laser beam." There are eleven of us working full-time to fulfill these goals. It's a wonderfully collaborative environment and everyone is sworn to absolute secrecy, but we are frankly bursting at the seams to release these first titles.

Are there any industry, gameplay, or market trends that you would like to see more of in the future?

I would like to see more of a dialogue between the social/virtual world scene and casual game industry types. I am surprised at how little these two segments of the games industry seem to interact. I expect to see the innovation, the "next big thing," coming from the edges of the mainstream game industry. It's heartening to be in a place where we can realize our vision of building original IP for hopefully ever-growing audiences.

This week's issue of game culture and industry web mag The Escapist is devoted entirely to virtual worlds, with four feature articles devoted to the emergent industry. As editor Julianne Greer says in her opening note:

"From land speculation to creating goods for sale to "farming" resources for sale, virtual worlds took on a semblance of reality when people's worldly needs were paid for by their activities in virtual spaces. And people spent more time, relationships grew and died, entire social hierarchies were formed.

People are beginning to live the entirety of their lives in a virtual space. Some scoff at them for doing so, but let's take a look at many people's daily, real life. The larger our cities grow, the more spread out they become, making commutes longer. We have less time to make contact with people - the after work cocktail scene has all but died for the majority of the population.

The internet has so sped up and increased the efficiency of work, most of us sit in front of a monitor all day - emailing, IMing, reading - many of us going long stretches without hearing a human voice. Is that work more real than a guild officer corralling a 200-person guild? Or how about someone who makes a six-figure income in a virtual world selling virtual land - is that less real?

What's the next step for virtual worlds - we're already socializing, entertaining/being entertained, even working there. What's left?"

What, indeed? Check out Issue 135 for some perspectives.

TechCrunch discovered a new take on the multiplayer online experience -- GameLayers' "PMOG," which stands for "Passively Multiplayer Online Game." It's a Firefox add-on, apparently, and it allows users to interact with one another on websites they have both visited.

For example, they can group websites under a single theme to create "missions" for their friends to check out upon their visit -- controls pop up to allow users to navigate among the sites included in a mission.

It gets a bit more complicated, too; you earn points by visiting unique domains, and can use the points to buy mines to trip up your friends and armor to protect yourself. TechCrunch found that users can leave mines on websites for their friends to trigger, and tripping a mine causes loss of points and damage to protective armor. The item shown in the picture is a "St. Nick" -- attaching it to another player will spell damage for them if they try to use a mine. Finally, you can level up by completing missions, and pick a character class for yourself -- play the punk who leaves tons of mines, or be the good guy who helps maintain order.

There are background storylines, too -- here's an explanation of the overall idea from GameLayers' site:

"This unconventional massively multiplayer online game merges your web life with an alternate, hidden reality. The mundane takes on a layer of fantastic achievement. Player behavior generates characters and alliances, triggers interactions in the environment, and earns the player points to spend online beefing up their inventory. Suddenly the internet is not a series of untouchable exhibits, but a hackable, rewarding environment."

[Via TechCrunch -- Thanks to LevelUp for the tip!]

Speech technology company Cepstral has partnered with IMVU developer Cassiopeian to release a text-to-speech widget for the IMVU environment that will give the avatars character voices.

Called imVoice, the widget uses VoiceForge technology to convert instant messages into personality audio that the avatar speaks. Users can pick from a menu of over 30 different voices in a variety of accents, ages, and genders, based on feedback Cepstral says indicated users really wanted individualized voice personalities for their characters.

Using the widget lets IMVU users access the audio directly without downloading a TTS engine or individual voice databases. The companies say users can access all the voices and switch between them for a "small fee."

Cassiopeian managing director Liz Strevens said, "We're excited to bring the first 'personality' voices to a virtual world. The key is giving the user interesting voices. No one wants their bank's computerized voice."

Consumer game site GameSpot recently spoke to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata for his perspectives on the video game industry and Nintendo's present and future role in the console market, but also asked him about virtual worlds.

Sony is promising to unveil its PlayStation Home virtual world this year, and Nintendo recently added more interaction and sharing for the Mii user-generated avatars, letting users aggregate and vote on them. So it's a logical next step to wonder whether Nintendo is considering evolving those avatars and its network one step further.

Though he avoided a direct yes-or-no outright, Iwata first stressed that accessibility's one of Nintendo's primary values, and that they wouldn't build in anything that was especially complex:

Take the Miis, for example. Sure, we could go crazy with the interface until it was so customizable that you could make an avatar that looked like anyone you could imagine. But it's because the interface is the way that it is now that the average person can pick it up and create a family member's portrait and feel a personal connection to games unlike anything available in the past. Mii is the answer we came up with after a long process of questioning just how low we could keep that entrance threshold.

Iwata essentially feels like it's not the right time for Nintendo to go in that direction:

In that respect, the virtual world services out there now still aren't at a place where we'd like to join in--and certainly not to the point that we'd want to jump into competition with everybody else. We'd rather focus on doing things that nobody else would do.

Our job is to constantly look into what people find fun and interesting. I mean, nobody else wants to develop a video game where you get on the scale and see how much you weigh. [Laughs] That's how we're able to keep offering people surprises and entertainment, so even if we were to make a virtual world-like product, we'd be sure to make it something that nobody would call it a product similar to another company's offering.

It's a safe bet, then, that if Nintendo were ever to show any interest in the online worlds space, it would have to be when that particular sector was established enough for the company to weigh its wisest options. That's not surprising, given Nintendo's reputational history of innovating in its own direction even when trends seem to be moving elsewhere.

[Q&A - Nintendo's Satoru Iwata | GameSpot]

Multiverse has unveiled a 3D virtual recreation of New York's famous Times Square on its Multiverse Network proprietary platform, navigable through the company's free downloadable Multiverse World Browser.

The company says it built the virtual Times Square (shown here is the real one) in just over two months, aiming to create a new demo to highlight the capabilities of its development platform, which has newly integrated support for Flash and YouTube video, web integration and next-gen lighting techniques.

The company plans to demo the virtual Times Square at the upcoming Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, where Multiverse will be giving attendees of the Worlds in Motion Summit (don't forget to register!) a peek at its technology.

Earlier this year, Multiverse released Platform 1.1, the latest version of its virtual world and MMOG development technology, including what the company says are major updates to its client and server technology and development tools. The company also highlights its current capability to accommodate over 1500 concurrent client logins on each server -- multiple servers can be deployed simultaneously.

Multiverse says more than 17,000 teams have registered to use its platform to build a range of virtual worlds, multiplayer online games and social, educational and business environments.

Officials from Australian Middleware creator BigWorld have announced that former Spectrum HoloByte co-founder Phil Adam is to join the company as its new president, to head up a new distribution and operator division focusing on operating online games in South Asia.

Adam’s twenty-five years of industry experience also includes a stint as Interplay president, as well as serving as chairman of the board for the Software Publishers Association (SPA) and as the Government Affairs Committee of the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA).

The BigWorld technology suite is billed as a complete solution for developing massively multiplayer online (MMO) games and comprises server software, a content creation pipeline, 3D client engine package and live management tools and instrumentation.

BigWorld CEO John De Margheriti commented, “It’s very exciting to welcome Phil to our already robust team. He brings a solid track record in establishing and running successful distribution organizations and this is an instrumental step in establishing our company as one of the premier distributors and operators of content in the MMO space. I’m confident that Phil will help us to make a real splash in these markets, initially in South Asia, then into North America.”

“This is an incredible opportunity and it’s going to be a lot of fun adding this extra dimension to our existing business model," said Adam. "The current technology division and the new division go hand in hand, so it’s a really positive thing for BigWorld’s existing clients, particularly those whose games are nearing completion and ready for the next step – distribution to help them maximize revenue and market share."

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

Bella Sara parent Hidden City Games has announced it has named Phil Trumbo in the newly created position of art director. Trumbo, an Emmy award winner, has held art direction roles on video games including The Sims, Lord of the Rings and Spider Man, and in his role with Hidden City he'll be responsible for shaping the look and feel of the Bella Sara online horse-themed world.

Hidden City claims 1.6 million registered users to date for the online component of the horse-themed brand, which also is comprised of trading cards and other merchandise for young girls aged 5-12. The company recently announced it had hired Microsoft casual games vet Josh Howard as senior VP of Bella Sara Online.

Hidden City CEO Peter D. Adkison, who previously launched the Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering trading carda as the founder of Wizards of the Coast, commented, “The continued development and growth of the Bella Sara brand and online world has attracted some of the industry’s best talent. Phil Trumbo, with his wealth of experience in translating top entertainment properties into compelling games, is a tremendous addition to the Bella Sara team.”

Linden Lab announced it has appointed Cyn Skyberg to the role of vice president of customer relations -- Skyberg was formerly director of the same group. In an expansion of her previous role, Skyberg will supervise Second Life support teams, including billing, risk-management, in-world support and all external sales and management.

Founder and CEO Philip Rosedale said,“Cyn is an integral part of the Linden Lab team, and her promotion to VP of customer relations reflects her dedication and importance to the Second Life community. Cyn’s knowledge, drive and diverse experience are invaluable and the Residents are in great hands with her at the helm.”

Live Gamer has announced an agreement with Sony Online Entertainment to incorporate the technology from SOE's Station Exchange platform for the purchase and sale of virtual items used with EverQuest II, forming a new independent service called Live Gamer Exchange.

The company recently launched with the aim of creating a publisher supported, secure platform for real-money purchase and sale of virtual goods, joined by a slate of MMO and virtual world operators including Funcom GMBH, Sony Online Entertainment, 10Tacle Studios, Acclaim, GoPets and Ping0 Interactive, all of whom work with Live Gamer to provide the transaction platform to their users.

Now, the newly formed Live Gamer Exchange platform will replace SOE's Station Exchange on EverQuest II servers, with the two companies pledging to work together to migrate Station Exchange users to the web-based Live Gamer Exchange service.

When Worlds in Motion spoke to SOE president John Smedley, he says the concept of a publisher-sanctioned trading platform is something his company has embraced since the launch of Station Exchange in 2005 -- hit the jump to read our in-depth discussion with SOE's John Smedley about credit card fraud issues, and with Live Gamer's Andy Schneider about the more universal solution.

In the second of a pair of Fight Club-inspired debates at the 2008 DICE Summit in Las Vegas, Sony and THQ vet Kelly Flock went up against Min Kim, director of operations for Nexon America (MapleStory, KartRider) to exchange views on the issue of traditional publishing models versus free distribution.

Kim pointed out that the Korea market began with subscription models -- then moved almost entirely to free to play. "I think there'll be a place for that, but retail will still be the dominant model," said Flock.

Kim replied with one of the benefits for free to play MMO development. "We don't have to meet deadlines as much," he said, arguing that it's less expensive and on a smaller scale.

"Does anyone think we can get around deadlines here?" retorted Flock, joking, "Anyone from Take-Two in here?" Flock pointed out that Korea quickly moved away from the retail model primarily because of rampant piracy. "We still have that in certain sectors," he said, "but we still have strong retail."

Hit the jump for the full debate!

New kids' online world Dizzywood has been rounding up Series A funds, and announced that it has secured a total of $1 million, with recent further financing from Shelby Bonnie, de facto virtual world patron Charles River Ventures, and individual investors.

The company was founded by former CNet exec Scott Arpajian, who built and launched Download.com, along with Wallop co-founder Sean Kelly and Ken Marden, a game designer and children's book author.

CRV's Susan Wu explained the potential she sees in Dizzywood: "While there has been a flurry of new virtual worlds for kids, Dizzywood is building a meaningful property by developing online environments that extend beyond coinage and consumption, with a strong focus on merit and achievement. This meaningful content has universal appeal to both parents and kids."

Contextualizing The Minigame Format

The free to play Dizzywood's stated goal is to add real life values and skills learning to the kids' online play space. Given that there does appear to be a glut of new online products for kids, all of which claim to be unique from one another but are more difficult to differentiate in a wider-lens view, Worlds in Motion asked Scott Arpajian what's different about Dizzywood.

"We looked at what's out there; most of the sites in the space take an approach of menu-driven game environments. You'll have the homepage of the site, and you the basic model is that you accumulate coins by picking from a menu of one-off games -- little Flash minigames." Arpajian says Dizzywood's objectives are different: "We've taken an approach with more of a deeply engaging, activity-driven experience. We've wrapped world in a deep backstory, so there's a bigger sense of place with a lot going on behind it."

Creating a sense of place is an intriguing goal when dealing with this market, and speaks to a very specific motivation for creating a virtual world, as opposed to the type of community site that Arpajian describes. He says, "Kids, particularly in the age range we're targeting, have tremendous amounts of imagination. And we live in a world now where they're very comfortable interacting online and using computers, so there's not the same sort of barriers in place when talking about older age ranges, in terms of comfort level with the medium. Kids in particular are naturally curious and imaginative, so creating a virtual world in a game for them is really a natural fit."

Creating a Sense of Community

How does Dizzywood balance its objectives of engaging kids through fun and having real-world values play a role in the game experience? "Activities are woven into the storyline so that it creates a more engaging environment where kids definitely feel that they are driving things along at their own pace -- but they also understand there's a lot going on, and a greater sense of community involved." Arpajian says. "We do have mini-games built in, but rather than being one-off games, they are games that vary with the storyline.They're designed in such a way that the playability or difficulty changes as a child becomes better at it."

Arpajian explains that the Dizzywood team is able to track how often children play, how well they do at various activities, and then respond accordingly. "The philosophy there, over time, is to create an experience where kids don't become easily bored," he says. "We want it to be that kind of engaging experience that lasts over time. Obviously, it's also important for business to keep them feeling higher levels of achievement."

Merit and Mutuality

He continues, "Quite a lot of worlds in this space sort of hit upon the notion that kids like to accumulate items. Most worlds focus on purchase -- it's a very commercial environment, where the idea is you acquire coins and spend them on things. We have that – that’s part of what we do. There’s a huge element on our side of growing through merit and achievement."

However, Arpajian says kids' most desired rewards in Dizzywood can't be gotten by simply grinding at arcade minigames for coins. "Half of the total items that you can accumulate can only be accumulated as rewards for achievement-based goals. Rather than accumulating coins and being able to buy anything, most of the really desirable stuff lies behind an achievement wall. You have to obtain certain scores in activities, or help non-player characters in the world to be able to get certain items. We’re changing it in such a way that kids really have to do a whole bunch of things and work together towards objectives."

Some missions require cooperation and others exploration -- the way Arpajian describes it makes it sound quite a lot like Warcraft for kids. So we asked him about the hard-to-draw line between virtual worlds and MMOs, with so many of the latter's game-based motivational elements beginning to slide into the former.

MMOs Versus Virtual Worlds

"I think we're waiting for someone to come up with a catchy phrase that describes a hybrid between a virtual world and an MMO," Arpajian said. We definitely borrow a lot of game mechanics from more classic MMO gameplay elements as we look to defining and building a steady gameplay rhythm, to have lots of different pathways for kids to follow. Certainly with the level of story involvement, it fits more classic MMO approaches. We borrow from what we like."

On the flip side, though, it is a children's audience. "You have to look at dynamics outside of MMOs to really get kids involved, and to work within a balance that the kids will enjoy," Arpajian said. "There are certainly aspects of virtual worlds as well. There's some similarities, but obviously there are enormous differences in terms of age range, tone and execution."

The big difference in a kids' world is that there's no combat -- kids progress by cooperating with each other on missions, and the superpowers they learn and share allow them to progress past obstacles together. That collaborative element, as well as merit-based gameplay, is what Arpajian hopes will differentiate Dizzywood from other play spaces targeting the same audience.

"The philosophy of our team is, we want to have kids see rewards from working together towards shared objectives," he concluded.

Edita Kaye, editor in chief of new virtual worlds news site iVinnie.com wants to found an Association For Virtual Worlds, with the goal of creating a unifying forum for virtual worlds. It aims to become a global trade association for the industry and those involved in them for business, academic, entertainment or branding purposes.

Kaye says the association plans to tackle issues including connecting clients and users, intellectual property and other legal issues, financial systems, taxation, regulation, safety, marketing and branding, new technologies and interoperability.

The official announcement doesn't include a web address, mention of any existing Association members, or administrative information for potential members, so it's unclear yet what the scope of the Association's efforts or membership will be. Visiting the Association section at the iVinnie news site reveals basic information on a project in its formative stages. But given the rapid growth within a nascent space that is still in the development phase in terms of best practices and common standards, a group forum is a constructive idea.

Said Kaye, "With millions of residents, major corporations pouring billions of dollars into virtual worlds, and the growing use of virtual worlds' technology as an enterprise tool, there needs to be a group dedicated to the advancement of the industry, a place for discussion and leadership. It is my hope that the Association will lead the virtual worlds conversation."