Interactive avatar community WeeWorld has launched a beta for its new virtual world, tentatively titled World, inviting all registered users to chat and make friends with their WeeMee avatars in real time for free.

Previously, users were only able to create customizable and portable avatars through WeeWorld, attaching them to their personal accounts with AOL Instant Messenger, Skype, and other partnering services. According to WeeWorld, over 21 million WeeMees have been created to date, making them the most widely used portable avatars in the world.

World currently allows users and their WeeMees to explore its diverse environments, such as the Chillax Station hang-out and the undersea-inspired Nautilus Club, while chatting with and meeting new friends. As development continues, WeeWorld intends to add more cities, chat area, gaming elements, and mini-queusts which users can complete for exclusive assets or prizes.

Said WeeWorld's general manager and senior vice president of marketing: "Our users are passionate about their WeeMees and provide very detailed feedback about what they want. Each day we share that feedback with every member of the company so we can respond to their needs. We don't code for months or years and then release a fully baked experience. Our users wanted a synchronous virtual world where they could meet each other in real time and have more gaming abilities. World was the natural next phase of our business; now we can continue to tweak it based directly on user feedback."

In response to a mandate by the State Council of the People's Republic of China ordering all online entertainment and game pages to redirect visitors to web sites commemorating last week's earthquake victims, several China-based MMO operators have announced that they will be suspending services for their games during the country's three days of mourning, May 19 to May 21.

The mourning period comes one week after an 8.0-magnitude earthquake devastated China's Sichuan Province, leaving an estimated 50,000 dead and over 245,000 injured. China's government has pulled all entertainment programs off television for the three-day period, ordering cinemas and other public entertainment venues to close their doors to customers until Wednesday. Additionally, national flags are flying half-mast across the country and the Beijing Olympic torch relay will be temporarily suspended.

World of Warcraft operator The9 Limited has announced that it is suspending operations of all its games for the three days to honor the tragedy's victims, as have several other China-based MMO operators, such as Giant Interactive (ZT Online), Sohu.com (Tian Long Ba Bu), and Perfect World (Legend of Martial Arts). All aforementioned services will resume on May 22nd.

The period marks the first time China has undertaken a national period of grieving other than for a national leader. The last time the country observed a mourning period of this length was in 1976 with the death of former Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong.

Virtual worlds agency Millions of Us has appointed Brian Dunbar, formerly group account director and an associate partner at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, as its new executive vice president of client services. He will be overseeing business development, strategic planning, and account management for the company.

Dunbar brings to Millions of Us over two decades of g advertising and marketing experience across a variety of industries working with high-profile brands such as American Airlines, eBay, Adobe, and Budweiser. Prior to Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Dunbar served as director of business development and group director at advertising agency DDB Dallas where he worked for 10 years.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Millions of Us specializes in the design and implementation of advertisements in virtual worlds and social media platforms. The company's clients include HBO, Cisco, Warner Bros., and Comcast.

Said Millions of Us CEO Reuben Steiger: "Virtual worlds and social media are starting to affect our clients' bottom line. As we deepen our relationships with the world's largest and most visionary brands, we need senior leadership that can imagine and deliver world-class work. Brian's depth of experience and creative sophistication make him the perfect choice for the role."

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape.]

This week, our Online World Atlas looks at Mabinogi from Nexon. We previously covered Nexon's 2D MMO platformer Maple Story as part of our Atlas, and they've now brought their hugely successful "fantasy life" MMORPG Mabinogi to North America. Mabinogi originated in Korea in 2004, and is one of the key titles in the free-to-play marketplace -- we'll be taking a look at it over the coming days to see if its capable of competing with not only massively multiplayer games but social worlds, too.

Name: Mabinogi

Company: Nexon

Established: June 2004 (Korea); March 2008 (North America)

How it Works: Mabinogi requires download and installation of its own client, plus Direct X, and runs as an application. Navigation and gameplay are accomplished via mouse and keyboard input.

Overview: Mabinogi is (for the most part) a classic MMORPG, with players exploring dungeons, defeating monsters and purchasing weapons and armor. However, the title is also advertised as a way to "live your fantasy life" and diverges from many other MMORPGs by not featuring a class system. Players can level up in any skills, which include "life skills" such as fishing, cooking and playing instruments, and also age. Players are encouraged to go to school/take jobs, and to socialize by hanging out with other players around campfires.

Payment Method: Mabinogi is free to play, and earns revenue through microtransactions (prepaid Nexon Game Cards are available at retailers such as Target) and licensing.

Key Features:
- "Fantasy life" allows players to play Mabinogi non-violently
- Classless leveling system; characters age
- Large play area with multiple areas; continually updated through patches (referred to as "Generations" and "Chapters")

Useful Links:
Mabinogi World (fan site)
Mabinogi Player (fan site)

IAC Consumer Applications & Portals, creators of the Zwinky social avatars, have acquired Israeli-based StarNet Interactive, the producers of GirlSense.com, a virtual community which blends social networking with a virtual fashion world, targeting at young girls.

Claiming almost 13 million registered users, GirlSense allows tween and teen girls to design their own fashions, sell them in their own virtual boutique that they have created, advertise them throughout the site, and schedule them for live auctions where other members can buy and chat about them.

An IAC/InterActiveCorp division, IAC CAP's teen-targeted properties include Zwinky, SmileyCentral, and Webfetti, a social network profile customized which reportedly attracted over 5.2 million users in March. IAC CAP hopes to expand its focus on the teen girl market around the world with its acquisition of StarNet Interactive and GirlSense.

Said IAC Consumer Applications & Portals CEO and president John Park: "Part of our growth strategy includes acquisition of products and companies that complement our core competencies. Adding Girlsense.com to our existing teen targeted product portfolio provides us with broader teen mindshare, and access to the coveted tween demographic."

Unversal avatar solution provider Weblin has launched Weblin lite, an online version of its downloadable weblin tool for Windows, now available for all platforms and browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.

The downloadable version of Weblin allows users to create customizable weblin avatars which can then be taken to any website. The weblin will appear at the bottom of the browser where the user can move and emote the avatar, as well as chat with any other users visiting the site with a weblin avatar.

With Weblin lite, users are assigned a random avatar which can be used to chat and interact with other weblins at different sites. Unlike the Weblin application, no download or registration is required to use Weblin lite.

Said Weblin CEO Jan Andresen: “Weblin adds a social element to Web surfing that encourages people to meet new friends with similar interests. With Weblin lite, we wanted to give new users a simple way to try out weblin and use an avatar as they explore the Web, while giving our existing fans an outlet for accessing weblin from anywhere.”

The Apply Group will be hosting the Visual Web Convention, a two-day conference encompassing four industry and entertainment-related events, on July 9-10 in London.

The four events planned for the convention are Apply Virtual Worlds & MMOs, Apply Serious Games, Academic & Research Summit, and Monetise Web 2.0 & Social Networks. Apply Virtual Worlds & MMOs will be a 1-day plenary event building on the successful adoption of virtual worlds across games, entertainment, and corporate communications.

Speakers scheduled for the convention include Lord David Puttnam and representatives from developers such as Avaloop (Papermint), and CCP Games (Eve Online). Apply Virtual Worlds & MMOs will feature panels on "Learning about Community-Building from MMOs" and "What's the future for the Visual Web & Virtual Worlds?"

At the Games For Health conference in Baltimore, epidemiologist Nina H. Fefferman, Ph.D of Tufts University and Rutgers University spoke on the difficulties in modeling disease origins and control, and how examining MMO populations could solve some of the problems inherent with more traditional models, joking that that she was going to "use gamers as my 'guinea pigs.'"

She started off by listing the three general models currently used to study disease control: compartmental models, network models, and agent-based models. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, but the principle problem is that all three make significant behavioral assumption - and people are hard to predict. As Fefferman pointed out, they may stay home from work during an epidemic, or they may not; they may self-quarantine for fear of exposing health workers.

"During the anthrax scare, people acted irrationally, asking for smallpox vaccines," she pointed out. "You can't convince people on these things."

An Outbreak Of Corrupted Blood

A fascinating - and completely accidental - case study occurred in 2005 within Blizzard's World of Warcraft, which at the time hosted some 6.5 million players of diverse age and background. Issues of race, gender, and seniority issues are built in, since the players are real people, and the world is highly social, with real-world factors such as transportation, working together, and friendships arising as a result of game mechanics and player groupings such as guilds.

Social worlds are a global phenomemon. But not only do players from across the world and from different cultures meet each other within the largest and most well known worlds -- there are also many worlds out there that are not obvious to the worldwide audience for their willingness to serve specific countries needs, such as use of local languages or other important cultural features.

Timik.pl, developed by virtuMedia, is one such world -- a social world, broadly similar to the globally successful Habbo Hotel, that serves Polish teenagers in the Polish language. Only recently launched and still in a public beta, we talked to virtu Media's CEO & Founder, Jaroslaw Jankowski, about development, the Polish market, and future plans for the world.

Introduce us to Timik!

Jaroslaw Jankowski: The main goal of Timik.pl is to integrate a multiplayer environment with chat systems, contests, and multimedia. The platform offers many types of user activities. They can perform their own quizzes and contests by using special applications, organizefashion shows, use a database and share uploaded movies with friends; there's even a fortune teller application. Users can explore public and private spaces, arrange their own rooms, and use currency.

In private rooms they can organize own photo galleries, create events and invite friends. They are represented by an avatar called a Timik, which can be created in different forms, from typical human beings to ghosts, animals, even dragons.

Now, a lot of regular Worlds In Motion readers will have spotted that we've had a feed across from our industry-leading Gamasutra Jobs board for some time now - there's a great deal of interesting online world-related jobs popping up there.

Well, now we're launching the Worlds In Motion Job Board as a standalone board - with its own RSS feed and unique URL. This allows readers to learn about the latest industry positions that our job posters thought might be of interest to the MMO/online/virtual world jobseeker.

What's more, if you go and pay to post your job on Gamasutra, it's absolutely free to cross-post that job to any of Gamasutra's sister sites - including WorldsInMotion.biz!

We're already seeing notable listings from online world companies such as Millions Of Us and Vivaty - and are expecting plenty more as word spreads.

So again - go check the Worlds In Motion Jobs page and bookmark the RSS - we'll be doing regular blog post updates highlighting the most intriguing jobs posted there.

New York City-based mobile games developer Cellufun has expanded its offerings and community of mobile gamers with a new Facebook application that allows users to play all of its titles and take advantages of their social features from within the social network.

Cellufun specializes in providing free-to-play, ad-supported mobile products, claiming over four million downloads to consumers in 160 countries. Its 40+ games include Call of the Pharoah, winner of the GSMA Award for best Mobile Game, and The Mobile Ring, a political boxing game attracting over 2.2 million mobile game plays in the last 160 days.

Cellufun's online and social features for its mobile games, including scoreboards, leader recognition, and multiplayer support, will be integrated into the Facebook application. Friends of Cellufun users can receive invitations to the applications, and game status notifications, such as game moves and wins, will be updated on users' Friends Feeds.

Said Cellufun COO and co-founder Steve Dacek: “The Cellufun community leverages social networking for its games, so Facebook offers a perfect platform for extending the community outward. We are incredibly excited about reaching a whole new audience via this platform.”

Online video game developer and digital media products distributor Joytoto USA, a subsidiary of Korea-based Joytoto Co., Ltd, has announced its plans to exclusively distribute titles from developer Joyon Entertainment library of 24 online games, including casual games, first-person shooter games, and MMORPGs.

Joyon's online games, which include Gersang, a free-to-play MMORPG, have generated approximately $100 million USD in the Asian markets. Joytoto USA's North American Master License Agreement with Joyon grants the distributor exclusive rights to not only Joyon's game titles, but also server software, client software, and additional program and trademarks related to each game for 10 years, with the option for two additional five year periods thereafter.

Said Joytoto USA CEO Michael Cho, "We believe our games will enjoy similar or better success here in the United States, and, as the majority of development costs have already been incurred bringing the games to market in Asia, the cost savings will undoubtedly give us a significant competitive advantage."

After operating the free MMO service for nearly three years, Disney will be closing the Virtual Magic Kingdom, a free-to-play virtual world mimicking the Disneyland's theme parks online and originally launched to coincide with Disney's 50th Anniversary Celebration in 2005.

Speaking with newspaper Los Angeles Times, Walt Disney Internet Group president Steve Wadsworth explained, "It never achieved scale. It was promotional. There was no business model attached to it. It had a small but passionate audience."

Since Disney announced that it would be closing its Virtual Magic Kingdom, that passionate audience has gathered nearly 20,000 signatures for an online petition protesting the service's termination. Other fans of the MMO have gone so far as to write letters to Disney chief executive Robert Iger imploring him to cancel the closing. Disney has so far not announced any plants to extend the service past today.

Disney Internet Group spokesman John Spelich hopes that Virtual Magic Kingdom's users will move on to Disney's other virtual world offerings, including Club Penguin, which supports free and subscription-based memberships, and Disney Fairies, a forthcoming virtual world built around Tinker Bell and her friends: "At Disney, we'd rather do anything in the world than disappoint a guest. But we hope our VMK players will choose to sample some of the other ways to engage with Disney online through disney.com or through virtual worlds."

Browser-based 3D virtual world SmallWorlds has announced its plans make itself available to the public with a public beta launch on June 2nd. Starting today, SmallWorlds is accepting registrations for the beta at its official site.

Billed as "the first web-accessible, casual virtual world designed for mass market appeal," SmallWorlds is a free-to-play MMO targeted at the 13-year-old plus demographic. SmallWorlds aims to reach a broad demographic by doing away with application installs, intimidating user interfaces, and limited customization options.

Users will be able to access SmallWorlds' 3D spaces using just a URL, thanks to Adobe Flash Player. Friends can be invited to play a multiplayer game, watch a video, or just socialize with that URL. SmallWorlds incorporates elements from popular sites, allowing users to put up Flickr posters and picture frames, watch YouTube televisions, and listen to Last.fm stereos.

Though SmallWorlds won't require paid subscriptions, premium accounts are planned for the MMO's official launch. The premium accounts will give players access to new features, such as virtual pets and a voice chat client, for a monthly fee.

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape.]

Mabinogi is Nexon's "Fantasy Life" MMORPG: promising users the chance to not only hit monsters in the face until they die but also enjoy a social world including fishing, cooking, trading -- even just hanging out round a campfire chatting and playing instruments.

That all sounds well and good, but how successful is it? We go in depth with Mabinogi after the jump.

Using Nielsen's report on Club Penguin's possible stalled growth as a jump-off point, Areae co-founder and noted industry figure Raph Koster pointed out the prevalence of virtual worlds by sharing a photo of a rack of game cards currently displayed at Target.

In addition to cards for large MMOs, such as Club Penguin and WoW, the retail chain also carries game cards for gPotato titles, Gaia Online, and a wide variety of other virtual worlds, especially Korean games. With the market becoming saturated with kids worlds, Koster questioned how many of them can actually survive.

He then answered, “Just about all of them. If online continues to chew through the gaming market, this rack could be the size of a GameStop someday — one stack of cards per game, in a world where all the games try to drive alternate revenue streams regardless of platform."

KingsIsle Entertainment has announced its plans to launch Wizard101, a fantasy-based 3D virtual world targeted at teens and 'tweens, in Q3 2008. In the game, players take on the roles of wizard apprentices at the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts.

Wizard101 allows users to customize outfits and accessories for their wizard characters, play puzzles and mini-games, adopt magical pets, and learn from seven different schools of magic. Players will also be able to engage in collect cards and engage in card duels alongside and against other players.

Formed in 2005, KingIsle Entertainment specializes in developing MMO projects. The company boasts a team of over 100 Austin and Dallas-based employees, including development head Todd Coleman. Coleman previously served as president of Wolfpack Studios, creators of MMO Shadowbane, until its sale to Ubisoft in 2004.

Said KingIsle CEO Elie Akilian: "While the fantasy adventure storyline and collectible card elements of Wizard101 have broad appeal, as a parent, I take the responsibility of creating a positive online environment for younger players very seriously. Wizard101 is a destination for tweens and teens that’s creative and witty, but still safe. We’ve set the bar high for this game.”

Developer and publisher Codemasters has announced that its subscription-free MMORPG, ArchLord, has attracted over 500,000 subscribers. The game became free-to-play with the launch of its second expansion, Season of Siege, in August 2007.

ArchLord challenges it players with raising an army to compete to become an all-ruling ArchLord on their servers. Addressing the increased popularity of its game since the MMORPG switched to a free-to-play model, Codemasters Online plants to open a new game world in anticipation of its Episode 3 free content update.

Though users are not required to pay any monthly fees to play ArchLord, the MMORPG has in place a microtransaction system with which players can purchase in-game consumable enhancements from ArchLord's in-game "Chantra store."

Said Codemasters Online director of marketing Ed Reif: “This is a key milestone in the growth of ArchLord. ArchLord is a premier free-to-play MMORPG offering significantly more depth and quality than most other free-to-play games and this recent achievement solidifies our commitment to the ongoing development and success of ArchLord.”

Free-to-play virtual world There.com, created by Makena Technologies, and teen magazine CosmoGIRL! have teamed up for a "Get Ready for Summer" event starting today. The event is a collaboration with Gillette Venus, Cover Girl, and Tampax Pearl.

There.com is a 3D online virtual world in which members can customize and create their own 3D character, meet and hang out with friends in real-time using voice and text chat, build virtual homes, and even create and sell their own virtual items.

There will be a number of different activities for There.com players to get involved in with the "Get Ready for Summer" event, including a dance-off contest sponsored by Tampax Pearl, a "smooth moves" competition sponsored by Gillette Venus, and a photo hut sponsored by Cover Girl in the CosmoGIRL! Village.

Said CosmoGIRL! publisher Vicki Wellington: "Dance parties, fashion shows, and photo booths have been elements of the CosmoGIRL! Village from the beginning. The popularity we've seen with the parties we've hosted so far has attracted other big brands, including Gillette Venus, Cover Girl, and Tampax, to help take these events to the next level."

Billed as the first green children's social network, WebbliWorld provides a child-safe site in which its users can create unique Webbli avatars, play games, and learn about the environment, all within a world designed by Aardman Animations, the creators behind Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, and Flushed Away.

Nine months since its launch, the social network is gearing up to expand and add new features with a second phase of development. We spoke with WebbliWorld CEO Camilla Whitby about the community's plans for the future and current features.

What has been changed and added since WebbliWorld's "soft launch" in July 2007?

Since the "soft launch" we’ve been continually adding new features, releasing them on a regular basis. These have included a cinema page (WebbliDrome), a buddy system, a safe chat system, WebbliZones to showcase particular projects, rating systems, commenting systems, a navigational toolbar, and an interactive ticker bar. This is in addition to regularly updating both our news pages and character’s home pages.

More and more virtual worlds targeted at children seem to be announced every week -- many with colorful avatars, educational elements, and child-safe environments. What else beyond the standard "feature list" does WebbliWorld offer?

WebbliWorld has a wonderful look and feel with great design, strong brand personality, vibrant colours and unique features such as quirky characters and our bespoke avatar builder which allows kids to create an avatar that is truly individual to them. However, what you see now is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s on the way -- we aim for WebbliWorld to be around for the long term, and so we are keen to develop both breadth and depth by continually adding more content, features, and interactivity. Our concerns on caring for the planet (One Planet – Everything to Play For!) sets us apart from other offerings.

Disney Interactive Studios, has announced Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell, a new Nintendo DS game based on the world of Peter Pan fairy Tinker Bell and featuring Disney's DGamer service, scheduled to ship in the 2008 holiday season following the DVD release of the the first Disney Fairies film

Set in the world of Pixie Hollow, players take on the role of Tinker Bell herself, choosing from hundreds of outfits and accessories to customize their fairy's appearance. In addition to providing quest and adventures for players to embark on, the game uses the DS's real-time clock to reflect the time of day and season in-game -- snow falls in the wintertime and fireflies come out at night.

As with the DS release of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell includes DGamer, an online community developed exclusively for Disney gamers and accessible through the Nintendo DS.

The DGamer service allows users to log into their DS and online accounts to create and customize a unique 3D avatar and persistent profile. Kids can chat, view user profiles of their DGamer friends, post high scores to leaderboards, and unlock exclusive content.

Originally announcing a summer release for the free-to-play MMOG, London-based publisher Cybersports has revised its schedule to release PC soccer game Football SuperStars in late 2008.

Designed as an virtual world for football fans seeking to live a "top footballer's lifestyle," Football SuperStars enables players to recreate themselves as persistent footballer avatars and play matches in 3, 5, 7, and 11-man teams. All players on the pitch, with the exception of goalkeepers, are controlled by humans, giving both teams freedom to develop their own strategies and play styles.

With each match, players gain attributes and skills to specialize in their chosen playing positions. Players are also paid at the end of every game with Football Superstars' in-game currency, the payout determined by the level of play. An option to buy the game's "bonds" currency with real money is also available for purchasing special privileges and items.

Football Superstars provides two virtual towns, each with gyms, restaurants, bars, and clubs. Training in the gym improves your playing skills, while flirting with the paparazzi enhances your fame and gives you access to exclusive clubs. Players can also buy branded football equipment and designer clothes.

Reykjavík, Iceland-based developer CCP has announced the election results for MMORPG EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management, a democratically-elected committee of nine delegates chosen by EVE Online players to represent their interests and exchange ideas for the game's evolution with its developer.

Players voted for the Council of Stellar Management's candidates over a two-week voting period ending on May 16th. Dozens of EVE Online players campaigned for the honor with slogans, dedicated web sites, and specific platforms.

The elected councilors will travel from their homes in the United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands and Denmark to Iceland in June for its first face-to-face summit with CCP representatives at the developer's corporate headquarters. They will discuss EVE-related issues on behalf of the player community, offering suggestions for the game's direction.

Said CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson: "Since the earliest days of EVE's development, we have relied heavily on collaboration with our playerbase regarding world issues. CCP has followed and nurtured what governing and organizational structures emerge within EVE and also brought best practices from the real world into the virtual world."

He continued: "The formation of the Council of Stellar Management signifies to us that EVE has extended beyond the parameters of being 'just a game' into something more meaningful. As this first group of councilors works with us over the course of the next six months, we look forward to seeing how our combined efforts can further expand the potential for virtual worlds to entertain, educate, and inspire."

With the 2008 Austin Game Developers Conference coming this September 15-17 and registrations now open for the Austin, Texas event - which includes both 'Online Gaming' tracks and a special Worlds In Motion Summit for businesspeople and brands looking to get into virtual worlds, it's time to start highlighting a few of the already-announced lectures:

- Flying Lab's director of development Joe Ludwig will be presenting 'Pirates of the Burning Sea: A Post-Partum', with the cheery refrain: "Well, it took five years, but Flying Lab Software has finally launched its Age of Sail MMO! Come hear the ups and downs of the project and all the things the team learned along the way". The project has some interesting in-game lessons - will be interesting to hear Joe dissect them.

- Internet marketing research company comScore's Edward Hunter will be speaking on 'Measuring & Metrics: The Online Gaming Audience', one of our advanced Business & Marketing sessions, covering the shift in the online gaming audience demographic and where those audiences are headed - important stats within!

- Finally for now, Disney Interactive senior designer Patricia Pizer is debuting 'Everything I Need To Know About Virtual Worlds, I learned at Disneyland', in which one of the masterminds behind Disney's DGamer project (effectively a Nintendo DS-connected online world!) discusses a cute and relevant real-world comparison point: "Walt Disney and his team built Disneyland on a foundation of thoughtful, deep and careful design choices, each made to deliberately address issues such as quality of experience, narrative flow, party-dynamics, crowd control and user retention."

For more information, including a number of other key already debuted lectures that we'll be highlighting weekly here on WorldsInMotion.biz, alongside further new Worlds In Motion Summit/online keynote specifics as they happen, check out the official Austin GDC 2008 website.

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape. You can view Part 1 of our investigation here, and Part 2 here.]

Nexon's Mabinogi isn't the first MMORPG that's claimed to offer players the chance to live a "fantasy life" -- arguably this promise has existed almost as long as the MMO has, with one of the first mainstream MMORPGs, Ultima Online, promising a similar experience. However, that's a long time ago now, so how does Mabinogi stack up against its current competitors, not only RPGs but social worlds and other alternative experiences?