MTV and Oddcast have announced that Virtual MTV users can now create speaking avatars that interact with each other inside and outside of vMTV's online environments based on popular shows The Hills, Pimp My Ride, and The Real World.

The various playgrounds allow users to interact in different ways, such as exchanging gossip about The Hills, sharing secrets in the Real World Confessional Booth, or even auditioning for a real episode of Pimp My Ride. Previously, MTV created a vMTV virtual world specifically to celebrate its 2007 Video Music Awards.

The avatars are created and supported with Oddcast’s Voki platform, which specializes in speaking, embeddable avatars. Users can furnish their avatars with their own voices and have them speak via email or online posts, They can also embed them into their Facebook pages, blogs, or other social media sites.

MTV is banking on users doing so because after embedding an avatar is embedded on a page, that avatar can then deliver spoken messages about an upcoming episode for an MTV show or direct users to a sponsor's web site.

“Virtual MTV is built on the premise that we offer the latest in technology to our fans in an organic way that deeply engages them on an individual level, and brings them together with other like-minded people,” said Jeff Yapp, EVP of program enterprises for MTV Networks Music & Logo Group. “Voki's technology is helping us take that experience one step further with an innovative approach that allows fans to take personalization to an entirely new level.”