Casual game upstart Rebel Monkey has announced that Jeff Kesselman, former head of MMO technology initiative Project Darkstar, has joined the company as its CTO, where he will oversee development of its yet unrevealed "gaming environment."

Founded in February of 2007, Rebel Monkey is headed by former Skunk Studios CEO Margaret Wallace and Nicholas Fortugno, one of the creators of hit casual title Diner Dash. While the company still has not formally announced any forthcoming products, it has announced a focus on "connected, community-focused casual games," and recently secured a million dollar investment.

As previously reported, Kesselman's Project Darkstar was a research effort undertaken by Java developer Sun Labs, aimed at simplifying the process of developing multi-player online games that can be deployed on a massive scale and made available to players using virtually any client device.

Prior to his work at Sun, Rebel Monkey notes that Kesselman has held senior engineering positions at former PC online technology company Total Entertainment Network and game developer Crystal Dynamics.

Said Wallace on the appointment, "We’re delighted to have Jeff join our management team. As CTO, Jeff brings unparalleled experience and technical know-how to the company, allowing Rebel Monkey to deploy its forthcoming web-based gaming environment on a massive worldwide scale.

[The preceding article by Brandon Boyer originally appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

Hellgate: London developer Flagship Studios has announced that it has shut down its servers for MMORPG Mythos, which was undergoing private beta testing. The company did not disclose any details on when this "hiatus" might end.

Mythos' closing comes only two weeks after reports that Flagship had cut a significant portion of its development team. The studio had also reportedly laid off its staff at online services subsidiary and Mythos publisher Ping0.

A Korean news report translated by fan site Hellgate Guru later added that Hellgate: London's publisher in the region, HanbitSoft, "...is taking full control over the Hellgate: London intellectual property from Flagship Studios," and intends to continue the game using in-house staff.

Flagship responded to the news report with an official statement: "This story is an outright lie. We have no idea where they are getting their information from and have asked legal counsel to pursue the issue... We are mystified by Hanbitsoft’s conclusions and any attempt to take over the IP will be met with a strong and swift response."

There.com creator Makena Technologies has announced that Scion will expand on its marketing campaign in the virtual world, introducing its concept cars - the FUSE, t2B and Hako Coupe - as drivable, customizable vehicles for There.com members to own and drive in-world. Scion is also offering "user enhancements" to its Club Scion virtual nightclub and an expanded line of virtual Scion clothing.

The two companies originally partnered in August 2007, when the Toyota subsidiary opened a "a large-scale, interconnected 'tower'" of the Scion xA, xB and tC car models transformed into nightclubs. Scion then expanded its campaign in November 2007, allowing users to create and submit their own decorative designs for Club Scion's exterior.

According to Makena, 20,000 There.com members have spent almost 3,000 hours inside Club Scion, and 21,000 Scion-branded virtual items have been sold. Interactive Scion kiosks in the virtual world were reportedly accessed 93,000 times, with each interaction lasting an average of nine minutes.

Said Scion Interactive marketing manager Adrian Si: "The marketing potential that virtual worlds offer Scion is truly unique. Virtual worlds fit our target customer perfectly. Makena is a great partner that helps us visualize the possibilities."

Online child protection services provider Crisp Thinking has announced that it has added Myril Shaw to its executive team as its new vice president of business development in the U.S. Working alongside sales vice president Campbell Ferrier, Myril will be charged with expanding Crisp's partners, customer development, and partnership programs.

Previous to Crisp, Shaw worked at Adtron as managing director of international sales. He has also held management and executive level positions at RLX Technologies (acquired by HP), Sequent (acquired by IBM), Cap Gemini, and Tandem Computers.

Headquartered in Leeds, UK, Crisp Thinking offers a variety of child protection solutions for virtual worlds and social networks designed to fend off abusers, predators, and bullies. The company recently announced partnerships to incorporate its safeguards into Xivio and Cartoon Network New Media's FusionFall.

Said Crisp Thinking CEO Andrew Lintell: "The last six months have been tremendously busy for Crisp and we are expanding very rapidly to meet the huge demand, Myril will play a crucial role in helping us to deliver exciting opportunities quickly and effectively."

London-based technology company Qube has announced the first point release of its middleware package Q, adding enhanced scripting and a new, multi-threaded script debugger, as well as new shader and scene redering plugins.

Qube says the scripting comes in the form of a C++ or Java-like language with a multi-threaded script runtime, offering access to the complete Q API and to developers’ own objects and native code from script, and allows script to be embedded within native code.

The accompanying integrated debugger also offers a full-featured debugging environment with breakpoints, step-in/out, threads and watches.

The cross-platform middleware includes capabilities such as background data streaming, arbitrary scene rendering algorithms and n-dimensional animation blending, and features such as a cross-platform data format and a background work queue.

Q also supports special hardware features including custom shaders and platform specific APIs, having been designed to allow its databases and core APIs work on “all platforms,” allowing developers to build, test and debug their game on any one platform before deploying on any other.

As previously reported, the middleware “has been designed to liberate developers by allowing them complete freedom to adapt and add to the middleware in order to make it completely their own,” by acting as a series of modules built around a framework, allowing developers to customize any of the supplied modules, or by adding their own plug-in tools.

Said Q Program Manager Jamie Fowlston, “Not all developers have the time or the inclination to get deep into native code. Scripting and debugging, as well as the additional shaders, are all tools that make Q a better off-the-shelf solution as well as one that studios can customise to their hearts’ content.”

[The preceding article by Brandon Boyer originally appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

First announced in May, KingsIsle's forthcoming Wizard101 MMO is a fantasy-based 3D virtual world targeted at teens and 'tweens, where players take on the roles of wizard apprentices at the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts.

In it, players can customize their wizard character's outfits and accessories, play arcade-game inspired puzzles and mini-games, adopt magical pets, and learn from seven different schools of magic, with a heavy PVP focus on collectible cards used for card duels alongside and against other players.

Interestingly, the core of KingsIsle staff has roots not in traditional children's entertainment, but in the much darker 2003 Ubisoft MMO Shadowbane, something which development head Todd Coleman told Gamasutra could be explained by the team's more family-oriented mindset, so many years from their first post-college roles.

In this interview, Coleman takes us through inception of the game as a true card-game MMO, rather than an MMO with a card game attached, its Yu-Gi-Oh! and Final Fantasy inspiration, and how designing for teens differs from designing for an older, more hardcore set of gamers.

So KingsIsle has people with a lot of experience on MMOs in the past, particularly Shadowbane.

TC: Yeah, I was on Shadowbane.

Is [Id and Ion Storm co-founder] Tom Hall still there?

TC: Tom runs the other project, so we have two MMOs in development. I run one, and Tom runs the other. Mine just happens to be first, so I'm sure at some point you'll get to talk to Tom about his.

Right now, Tom is also helping me by playing Wizard. His wife and him are a little bit addicted to it. I think he might be a little mad at me right now, because I think I nerfed his character last week.

KingsIsle is a really different and unique culture, because we have the sensibilities of a startup but the resources of a much larger company. A lot of that is because our founder, Elie Akilian, had such a strong and dynamic background in the telecom software space. It's a very different startup story than you'll hear from a traditional game publisher.

MTV UK has announced the beta launch of MTV House, a new flash-based virtual world targeted at younger users. In addition to offering exclusive MTV content, such as videos, reviews, and news stories, the "prefab establishment" will feature competitions, offers, and promotions.

MTV House invites users to create avatars, explore different rooms, listen to music, interact with channel-based characters, and play games. Developer Yomego intends to eventually allow users to produce short videos with their personalized avatars, audio files, background, and text.

Unlike vMTV's network of virtual worlds, which include Virtual Laguna Beach and Virtual Pimp My Ride, MTV House is not based on any single brand or program. MTV UK intends to offer companies "bespoke and generic advertising opportunities," such as house branding, themed rooms, and sponsorship.

vMTV offered similar opportunities to advertisers, and a recent case study showed that a significant amount of users had developed positive opinions towards advertised brands as a result of the promotions.

Said MTV UK vice president of digital media Philip O'Ferral: "Mtv.co.uk is about building a community for online audiences that are passionate about entertainment and music, as well as being socially conscious, and therefore our digital activity is evolving and adapting to allow the audience to express themselves more. By carrying out continuous research to find out what our audiences really want, and by introducing an enhanced user experience where the audience can interact with each other and the brand whether that be advice on sensitive issues or sharing great MTV content - we are in turn responding to their needs."

Procedural Inc., a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, has announced that it will exhibit its CityEngine software with a 3D recreation of ancient Rome at the Rome Reborn booth in computer graphics conference SIGGRAPH 2008 (August 11-15; Los Angeles, CA)

CityEngine is targeted for use by a wide range of markets -- interactive and filmed entertainment, architecture, simulation, archeology and the "3D internet." According to Procedural, the software allows developers to create buildings and city scenes ten times more efficiently than existing solutions, saving overhead costs and enabling 3D designers to focus on their creative creation process.

The Rome Reborn project seeks to bring together content providers, graphics technology vendors, and interactive display researchers to recreate a full-scale, high-detail, and historically accurate 3D model of the ancient city. The representation is meant to provide an engaging and educational tour of ancient Rome.

Said Rome Reborn director Bernard Frischer: “The CityEngine is a perfect match for the Rome Reborn project. Our project involves the complete virtual reconstruction of the city at its zenith under Emperor Constantine, when it had about one million residents. To build by hand the corresponding 7,000 apartment buildings, family houses, public buildings and temples would have taken us forever; but CityEngine's power and flexibility made the process amazingly quick without sacrificing detail or quality. This allowed us to concentrate on modeling the unique monuments. The CityEngine also helps to quickly change the model as new scholarship or discoveries warrant.”

Virtual worlds marketing firm TheSLAgency has announced that it will present a panel titled "A New Life for Online Government," discussing innovative ways governments are using virtual worlds at this week's 2008 National Conference of State Legislatures in New Orleans, Louisiana, which runs from July 22nd to July 26th.

Utah State Senate chief deputy Ric Cantrell and experts from the Alabama Department of Homeland Security will join the panel. Governing Magazine editor and deputy publisher Mark Stencel will moderate.

TheSLAgency's vice president of interactive marketing Leigh Rowan intends to focus on how governments are currently using virtual worlds to provide services for and to collaborate with citizens on health, education, public safety and civic life. The presentation will also cover the potential for virtual worlds for interactive job recruitment, emergency planning and scenario training, and virtual collaboration.

The marketing agency has previously worked with The World Bank and The Ontario Public Service to reach new audiences through interactive events and presences in Second Life. Rowan's presentation will cover case studies of their work with both clients and its future plans. TheSLAgency is also launching an associated government-focused microsite for government entities.

U.S. MMORPG publishers may need to offer more free-to-play titles - not games with subscriptions models - to attract new players and grow the market, according to Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home II, a recent consumer study conducted by market research firm Parks Associates.

Of the 2,000+ online gamers polled, only hardcore gamers were found to be interested in subscribing to an MMORPG service, whereas "social, dormant, and leisure gamers all show significant interest in a free-to-play, microtransaction-based model."

The study's numbers show that 14% of gamers currently not playing MMORPGs would be interested in playing them if they could for free, while only 2% of gamers from the same group were interested in playing an MMORPG requiring subscriptions.

According to Parks Associate's director of broadband and gaming, Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, the barriers to entry with subscription-based MMORPGs, such as time and money, are too high for potential customers. Free-to-play models, however, offer flexibility and enable players to choose how much they want to invest based on interest level and play patterns. Thus, the firm believes that microtransaction models have the best potential to grow the U.S. MMORPG audience.

Said Cai, "World of Warcraft, with over 10 million players, exceeded expectations for subscription-based MMORPGs, but it's unlikely any other publishers will achieve the same in the near term using a subscription model."

For the past ten years, Colorado-based developer NetDevil has focused almost exclusively on MMOs.

Its first project, Jumpgate: The Reconstruction Initiative, a space flight combat MMO, is still in operation. Its second, auto combat MMO Auto Assault, which saw a troubled release with publisher NCsoft, is not.

In addition to the fairly high-profile LEGO Universe MMO it is developing, NetDevil is now also working on a more personal project, a successor to the game its company was first founded to develop.

Jumpgate Evolution, remarkably being produced by a staff of about thirteen, is a sequel to the original Jumpgate and is planned for release in early 2009. We sat down with co-founder Scott Brown to discuss the company's goals for the game, the importance of keeping focus in game design, and what NetDevil learned from Auto Assault.

One thing you talked about is the balance between having a story in the game and having a freely open game. How are you tackling that balance?

Scott Brown: Sure. So, we want people to feel that they're part of a story, so we tried to do some things, like various in-game cutscenes to give you a sense of the flavor of the sector, without leading you too much. We also try to keep the number of missions available to you smaller, so that way at any one time, there's only a few choices, and you can pick the path, and the game will adapt the missions it's giving you based on what you've done.

Talking at Microsoft's GameFest event in Seattle, the company's Cameron Egbert and Dan Kroymann have been discussing the creator of avatars for the Xbox 360, revealing lots of new details on the practicality of developers implementing avatars within their games.

Egbert, a software development engineer for XNA Developer Connection, started by showing his existing GamerCard for Xbox 360 and saying: "It doesn't say much about me".

The he showed a 3D avatar, as being implemented on Xbox 360 later this year, and noted: "This is me. I made him earlier in the week", going onto explain: "Avatars are a new identity for gamers. Somewhat like a gamercard, these can be used to replace the gamer picture if the user chooses."

"It gives them an online presence they did not have before without Xbox Live. It is ubiquitous across the system. Also, you can use them in your games as a replacement for your characters, or in your UI, or whatnot."

Egbert further explained: "You build them from a predefined set of geometry and textures and customize them as you want... to suit your tastes."

[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.]

Whew! We got distracted by E3 and forgot to keep updating our Online World Atlas -- a mistake indeed, especially when we're covering something as interesting as ForumWarz, a polished and popular browser-based RPG that satirizes internet culture while including community features such as leaderboards, clans, forums and player vs. player challenges.

As demonstrated at Microsoft's recent E3 conference, one of the key features of its forthcoming dashboard refresh is the expansion of current group chat into a full 'Xbox Live Party,' allowing users to form groups that expand seamlessly across all aspects of the new dash -- from chatting to photo and video sharing to games.

At Microsoft's ongoing GameFest, Xbox platform engineer Eric Heutchy gave more insight into the Xbox 360's forthcoming Xbox Live Party features, explaining how it would function both in and out of games.

"What is Xbox Live Party?" Heutchy explained, "At its core the feature is eight way group voice chat. It works over all Xbox 360 experiences - all existing games, all new games, the dashboard, movies, media center, everything you can do on the console. The members of your party can each be in a different experience."

"The party members are always connected by voice, and voice chat persists over any experience," he continued, "and it persists over title switches."

Heutchy further explained that "it also has features to help players get together in multiplayer games. There's one button in the guide that allows a player to send game invites to everyone in his live party."

"It is not a replacement for in-game parties that a number of triple-A titles have," he admitted. "Live party is about having a social connection prior to entering that game's party."

Social gaming service Zynga has announced that it has completed a $29 million Series B round of financing lead by venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Institutional Venture Partners. In addition, the San Francisco-based company has acquired virtual world and Facebook application YoVille.

Founded in October 2007, Zynga provides a variety of casual online games with social and multiplayer features, such as Texas Hold'em Poker and Word Twist. The games are available on social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5 and Friendster.

KPCB partner and former chief creative officer and founder of Electronic Arts, Bing Gordon, will join Zynga's board of directors, which also includes LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman, Foundry Group managing director and co-founder Brad Feld, and Zynga CEO Mark Pincus.

Said Pincus: "We are excited that Kleiner Perkins and IVP are joining our terrific investor group. With this new investment, we are doubling down on social gaming, raising the production quality and scaling the infrastructure. We're also excited to have Bing, who has been an amazing contributor even before becoming formally involved, join in an even more significant way."

The YMCA of San Francisco has chosen Dizzzywood, a virtual world designed for children between ages 8-12, to enhance its youth program technology curriculum.

In Dizzywood, players can create, customize, and name a character to explore an enchanted wood. Players can co-operate with others to solve the mysteries of the wood, and can earn rewards, such as items, achievement badges, e-motes, and powers for successful completion of events, or they can just relax and chat with friends, take part in games and explore.

The YMCA is using Dizzywood's virtual environment to reinforce its program emphasis on activities promoting values such as caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility. Children also learn about issues relating to virtual worlds through Dizzywood, such as digital citizenship and online safety. Storytelling and team-building exercises are provided to emphasize creativity, writing, and reading skills, as well as working together to achieve goals.

The program is similar to an elementary school program that Dizzywood completed with the Reed Union School district, in which an interactive workshop used activities to reinforce the school's character pillars and core values.

Said YMCA San Francisco's senior director of community environment Troy O'Leary: “Our goal at the YMCA is to provide children with educational activities that challenge them to learn new skills, develop self-confidence and to ultimately help them be successful in the world. Dizzywood’s unique virtual environment offers our kids a wonderful environment in which they can learn important lessons through activities that require thoughtful decision-making. We hope the success of this program offers a model for other youth programs to follow.”

UK virtual community VizWoz has signed content content deals with movie studios 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney, and Universal Studios, according to a report from interactive media news site New Media Age.

Under the agreements, VizWoz will offer preview clips, trailers, and interviews for movie releases in its virtual cinema. The community is already screening content for Disney-Pixar film Wall-E and a treasure hunt promotion for 20th Century Fox film Meet Dave.

Launched in March, VizWoz added its cinema in April and has been showing content from TV shows such as Pat & Stan. The virtual world has reportedly attracted over 60,000 registered users so far.

Said VizWoz co-founder and CEO Dan Laurence: "Our aim is to offer a one-stop portal where kids can enjoy spending time in a safe and engaging environment that they can rely on to keep them ahead of the game."

Seattle-based developer FlowPlay has announced that it has partnered with casual game developers PlayFirst and Sandlot Games to incorporate their brand properties and games, such as Diner Dash and Cake Mania, into Flash-based virtual world ourWorld.

Launched in April 2008, ourWorld integrates casual games through virtual areas built around the property. For example, with Sandlot's Cake Mania, players can be employed at an in-world bakery, act as customers, and purchase virtual cakes. Integrating PlayFirst's Diner Dash into ourWorld, FlowPlay had added Flo's Diner, an in-world restaurant where players can order burgers or work as servers.

The company believes that in addition to driving a new source of revenue for these casual game developers, ourWorld will expose partner titles to a new segment of casual gamers. FlowPlay CEO Derrick Morton and Sandlot CEO Daniel Bernstein will present a case study on Cake Mania's integration in OurWorld at the Casual Connect Conference in Seattle on July 24th.

Said Morton: "The casual games industry has previously been defined by the downloadable PC game business. This year marks a turning point toward more social gaming with new revenue models and a broader demographic than the middle-aged woman. FlowPlay is on the forefront of this new frontier providing some of the most recognizable casual games in a social environment where players actually interact with the brand, not simply play the game. In addition, we provide access to a more youthful demographic and a microtransaction infrastructure that combines to drive untapped revenue for casual game developers."

Educational software developer Knowledge Adventure has formally announced its appointment of David Lord as president and CEO, who has been brought in to help evolve the company towards a "multi-faceted kids entertainment company with both retail and online virtual world components."

Lord previously served for four years as CEO and president of RazorGator Interactive Group, an event ticket services provider. Prior to that, he worked as CEO and board chairman for Toysmart.com, a venture-backed catalog company for educational, e-commerce, and retail products.

Knowledge Adventure recently released JumpStart Advanced Preschool World, software for teaching 3-to-5 year olds pre-reading, early math, social studies, art, music, computer skills, and critical thinking skills.

The company plans to launch an online component this month with subscriptions allowing users to interact with one another in JumpStart's 3D virtual world, going on adventures, completing missions, and earning rewards while learning.

Lord previously expressed that the developer is interested in bringing its JumpStart brand and other properties to the Nintendo DS, Wii, and the iPhone. Knowledge Adventure is also looking to bring its MathBlaster brand to the 3D virtual world market.

Said Lord: “The virtual world/online gaming market is exploding and we believe there is a tremendous opportunity to bring adventure-based learning into this marketplace. JumpStart has a rich history as the leading brand in delivering learning games to kids over the last 20 years. We will leverage that trusted brand with parents to deliver a rich, safe, and fun virtual world experience while we innovate next-generation games and content for kids 3 to 10.”

With the recent launch of our new Worlds In Motion Job Board as a standalone board complete, complete with its own RSS feed and unique URL, every week, we will be highlighting the latest posted jobs relevant to our readership of professionals creating online worlds.

The listings cover a wide range of companies and open positions, so everyone seeking jobs in the MMO/online/virtual world industry should find the board useful.

- BioWare Austin (Redwood Shores, CA)
Sr. Publishing Manager
("The Senior Manager of Publishing, Online will hold responsibility for developing strategy & overseeing execution of marketing, distribution & consumer adoption efforts for online initiatives within the Hasbro Business Unit. Primarily, this individual will be responsible for driving subscriptions & revenue growth for “light persistent state world” online entertainment services for children age 6-13.")

- Cyworld, Inc. (San Francisco, CA)
3D Artist, Senior Technical Artist, and 3D Software Engineer
("Cyworld is a global social network that helps people communicate with their friends, family and coworkers more efficiently worldwide. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information, individual expression and promotes diversity through the social graph and vivid animated and interactive use of graphics.")

- Disney VR Studio (North Hollywood, CA)
Technical Staff, Gameplay Programmer
("The VR Studio is Disney's Center of Excellence in real-time graphics and interactive entertainment. The studio is currently focused on the continued development of Toontown Online as well as development of their new MMP, Pirates of the Caribbean.")

- EA Redwood Shores (Redwood Shores, CA)
Sr. Game Designer
("Hasbro is looking for a passionate, dedicated, Online Senior Game Designer to lead the next generation of Online Worlds for Kids.")

[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.]

We've been trying to look at the most interesting "non-traditional" MMOs, and in our look at ForumWarz, one of the internet's most polished and popular browser-based RPGs, we have to ask -- is it an MMO at all? We debate after the jump.

MMO distributor and middleware developer BigWorld has announced that it will implement MMOG and virtual world learning resources and support services for 2009. The company has appointed Adam Shaw as its education program manager to lead the initiative.

The company argues that tertiary institutions and specialist educators have been teaching their game courses using traditional peer-to-peer game engines which are unsuited for demonstrating "how true MMOG’s and virtual worlds are created."

BigWorld's planned resources and services are designed to enable educators to work with their students on "world-class middleware technology" allowing hundreds of thousands of players to interact simultaneously, rather than on engines restricted by the number of players.

Based in Australia, the company recently announced that it had expanded its global presence to both Japan and South Korea with new offices, bringing in former Online Game Services Inc. (OGSi) founder and CEO James Hursthouse as its director of business development and Yoshikazu Furuhata as its new account executive.

Said CEO John De Margheriti: “We have many months of hard work ahead with educational partners to get this initiative off the ground. The industry as a whole needs to make it easier for motivated young talent to gain experience in using today’s industry standard middleware technology. These games are much more complex to develop for and this is a pro-active approach to prevent an industry shortage of experienced MMOG developers, particularly game programmers and game designers.”

Google's recently launched virtual world Lively isn't intended to compete with Second Life, but is instead seeking to attract social network users away from Facebook and MySpace, according to an analysis piece published by technology research and advisory firm Gartner.

The group described Lively as inhabiting the low end spectrum of virtual world offerings, in between social networking sites and social networking virtual worlds such as Habbo Hotel and Club Penguin. Like IMVU, which shares Lively's virtual rooms metaphor, Google's service offers social networking with a visual flavor, resembling graphical instant messaging clients more than it does a full-blown virtual worlds.

Gartner also brought up several criticisms for Lively, pointing out limited avatar customization options and lacking user-created content development. In addition, the virtual world does not offer any in-world currency or an economy, which could eventually "limit the opportunities for engagement. "

Said Gartner analyst and vice president Steve Prentice in his analysis: "We believe this could mark the start of a transition to a new kind of three-dimensional social Web. Nevertheless, it is too early to predict whether Lively will gain market traction. The ease of integration with social networks would appear to make access easy, but this sector focuses as much on people and communities as it does on technology."

He continued: "To succeed, Lively must build a substantial and loyal user base by enticing millions of users (and their friends) away from their current haunts. That will pose challenges even for a company with Google's reputation and resources."

Online game publisher Outspark has announced Blackshot, a new free-to-play title designed to appeal to players of all skill levels. Gamers can register for the title's upcoming closed beta and view a trailer at the official site.

Due for a worldwide release later this summer, Blackshot will be an MMO first-person shooter similar to Nexon's Combat Arms, which is also scheduled to debut stateside in the next couple of months. Players take on the roles of mercenaries hoping to make a name for themselves in the game's war-torn environments.

Said Outspark founder and CEO Susan Choe: “We’re thrilled to add an innovative, free-to-play FPS game to our lineup. Blackshot offers fast-paced action for casual gamers interested in a quick shootout, while hardcore players will love innovative features like the game’s player-versus-environment mode.”

Virtual item trading platform Live Gamer has announced that the company has added virtual economy authority Villi Lehdonvirta to its advisory board. As a member of the board, she will be tasked with helping Live Gamer leverage academic research on virtual economies, player motivations, and virtual item market dynamics to best meet this objective.

Formerly a game developer, Lehdonvirta currently serves as a researcher at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT), which studies future information technologies and has carried on a multi-disciplinary research effort into virtual economies since 2004. Lehdonvirta’s research focuses on what motivates virtual consumerism and to what extent it can substitute physical forms of consumption in the future.

Live Gamer provides a turnkey solution for MMOG and virtual world operators to enable real money trading of virtual assets. Backed by $24 million in venture funding, the company recently secured an agreement with Sony Online Entertainment to replace SOE's Station Exchange on EverQuest II servers with its web-based Live Gamer Exchange Service. The company's partners also include Acclaim Games and True Games.

Said Live Gamer co-founder and president Andrew Schneider: “We’re honored to have Vili Lehdonvirta, a pioneering thought leader in virtual economics contribute to Live Gamer’s efforts in developing a safe and secure marketplace for the real money trading of virtual assets. Vili’s experience in virtual consumerism adds a new dimension to our knowledge and skill in this area to the benefit of our publisher partners and gamers.”

Cartoon Network New Media, the online publishing division of cable television channel Cartoon Network, recently pulled the curtain Mini Match, a free-to-play, browser-based 3D virtual world focused on delivering multiplayer match-ups and social gaming to kids.

Players create miniature avatars and are sent to a microscopic island, where they explore environments based on adventure themes in Cartoon Network shows, such as Ben 10 and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. They also play multiplayer games featuring characters and content from the channel's programs, all while trying to learn more about the mysterious island.

Creative Director Art Roche spoke with Worlds In Motion about Mini Match's kid-targeted social gaming features and the company's future plans for the brand.

Worlds In Motion: How long has Mini Match been under development?

Art Roche: We have been working on Mini Match for about a year, probably concepting and planning for a little longer than that.

Was this developed in-house or by an external studio, as is the case with FusionFall?

AR: We're using an external studio as a development partner with it. We sort of designed the game and got with an external vendor to build the game.

[Note: Roche later revealed its development partner to be Dubit, stating that the studio has done "an outstanding job of tackling this project and sharing our passion for making it the best it can be."]

What significant points do you see separating Mini Match from FusionFall or other kid-targeted virtual worlds?

AR: We consider Mini Match a light virtual world, as it's basically just an environment to walk around in and create your own avatar. We also consider the play sessions to be of a shorter nature than Fusion Fall or any other MMOG.

Talking to Gamasutra as part of an in-depth Gamasutra interview, Indigo Prophecy creator David Cage has been discussing MMOs as sandbox games, saying that leveling is great for those who want to "build self esteem", but asking: "What's the real narrative or emotional value?"

Cage is currently working on PlayStation 3 exclusive Heavy Rain, which was shown behind closed doors at last week's E3 event, and was musing on how you keep players involved in your game.

When questioned on how the wide-open 'sandbox' gameplay ethos, where you can go anywhere you like in the game world, helps immerse players, the Quantic Dream founder commented:

"Sandbox gameplay... yeah, it's true that in this industry, we have a real position between people talking about sandbox, and people doing rollercoasters. A rollercoaster is an experience that is entirely defined by some to be optimal.

From the time you're in the line, you go in the back of the rollercoaster and through the tunnel and everything is defined. We knew while you were waiting how to make the stress grow, how to make you feel something, get you scared, make you feel better, et cetera. This rollercoaster is being conceived by someone to optimize the experience.

Sandbox is not that. It's saying, 'Look, there are tools. There are things. Maybe there will be friends. Maybe not. Do what you want.' There's one possibility that these sandbox experiences are so fantastic because you've been extremely lucky. You know how to use the tool. You met people that were truly great, and you had something incredible to do.

Unity Technologies, developer of the multi-platform 3D game development tool Unity (used to develop games including the Flashbang's web-based Off-Road Velociraptor Safari) has announced that Funcom and Cartoon Network have chosen the engine to create new MMOs.

Cartoon Network will be using the engine to create FusionFall, its forthcoming 3D children's MMO in development by Seoul-based Grigon Entertainment. Age of Conan and Anarchy Online developer Funcom have selected the engine to create a yet-unannounced "casual market MMO."

The Unity engine is Unity’s core technology, and allows the development of 3D game play in both downloadable and web formats, as seen on gaming sites including shockwave.com.

The latest version of the engine supports multiple terrain to "immerse gamers in an endless landscape, based on streamed data," expanded streaming resources, a full scripting API, and procedural characters to support fully customizable avatars.

In addition to PC, Mac and Wii formats, the company announced in March that it would be bringing the engine to the iPhone, and is currently in use by commercial developers like Codemasters and Freeverse, as well as in the serious games community for games like Global Conflicts: Palestine.

Said Funcom lead developer Lucas Meijer, "Unity 3D enables us to create game content for the Web, with higher production values than we've ever been able to do before."

Funded by a MacArthur Foundation grant and seeking to analyze the merits of virtual worlds for research applications and controlled experiments, researchers with the Synthetic Worlds Initiative (SWI) at Indiana University Bloomington conducted a study which found that gamers in fantasy-based online worlds conformed to the Law of Demand, which states that increasing the price of a good, all else equal, will reduce the quantity demanded.

For the experiment, two identical virtual worlds (Arden) were created with players randomly assigned to one or the other. The only difference in the two environments was the price of a single good, a health potion, which was priced twice as high in the experimental world than in the control.

Players in the experimental condition purchased 43.1% fewer of the potions, well within the range one expects for normal economic agents. According to SWI, this can be taken as evidence that the Law of Demand holds in fantasy environments, suggesting in turn that fantasy gamers could potentially be economically normal despite skepticism due to abnormal fantasy-themed environment.

According to the paper in which these results were published, A Test of the Law of Demand in a Virtual World: Exploring the Petri Dish Approach to Social Science, this testing in general behavior theory could lead towards further explorations on virtual worlds' viability as social science Petri dihes: "It may be worthwhile to conduct controlled economic and social experiments in virtual worlds at greater scales of both population (thousands of users) and time (many months)."

Please take care to note that early bird registration for the September 15-17 2008 Game Developers Conference in Austin, Texas ends on July 31st. Registrations for all-access conference passes, which include the Worlds in Motion Summit, submitted before the deadline will receive a 20 percent discount.

The Worlds in Motion Summit has previously announced participation from Sulake president Teemu Huuhtanen, Neopets SVP/General Manager Kyra Reppen, Double Fusion CEO Jonathan Epstein, Area/Code co-founder and creative director Frank Lantz, Zwinky development manager Charles Wetmore, Social Gaming Network CEO Shervin Pishevar, Areae president and co-founder Raph Koster, Multiverse co-founder and executive producer Core Bridges, Three Rings CEO Daniel James, IBM 3D Internet manager Michael Rowe, Whyville/Numedeon founder James Bower, NBC.com SVP of digital development Stephen Andrade, Bunchball CO and founder Rajat Paharia, and Electric Sheep Company CEO Sibley Verbeck.

The Summit will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday on September 16 and September 17 as part of the 2008 Game Developers Conference. The Summit 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 at Austin GDC, is geared for those looking to bring their content and brands into interactive worlds. This summit is presented by WorldsinMotion.biz and made its overwhelmingly successful debut this past spring at GDC 2008 . Now back by popular demand, the Worlds in Motion Summit will provide new insight to the next steps in virtual worlds. This movement is powered by game technology and development, and offers a broadening of the worldwide business market through the wildly popular interface of social game networks.

The Worlds in Motion Summit features candid sessions detailing the state of the art in leading virtual spaces, and the results that businesses – from small start-ups to Fortune 500 companies – have derived from them. The goal is to provide a realistic and in-focus snapshot of the intersection of games, business, and entertainment today, and where it's trending for the future. Topics include the viability of promoting your brand in Second Life and other immersive environments, the business of kids' virtual worlds, and the future of the Metaverse.

It takes place alongside Austin GDC itself, which includes an Online track packed with high quality technical and other talks from MMO and online companies such as BioWare, Sony Online, NCSoft and many more.

Please visit the official Austin Game Developer Conference site for more information on sessions, speakers, and registration details.

Nickelodeon has announced that it is developing a browser-based online game adaptation of its popular Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon. Titled Avatar: Legends of the Arena, the game will serve as a prequel story to the series and will be Nick.com's first 3D MMORPG.

The company intends to launch Avatar on September 15 with ten different language options and in over 77 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, Mexico, Japan, Argentina, and many others.

In Avatar: Legends of the Arena, players create their own Avatar characters and challenge others to battle in several arenas. As players level up, they can unlock new content, challenges, custom character outfits, and exclusive equipment.

Said Nick.com SVP Jason Root: "The launch of this multiplayer online game gives Avatar fans the opportunity to immerse themselves in the storylines during and beyond its tenure on-air. This property has always had a deep online connection with its audience and the game offers a natural extension of the franchise