OK, so, I guess I have to admit it. Quite unintentionally I've seen practically every episode of The Hills. I haven't watched them, really just "been in the room while they were on", but I at least know enough to know who Lauren is and hate Spencer's stupid idiot face.

So of course, when offered a choice of six virtual "worlds" to inhabit, it's natural that I picked Virtual The Hills. It doesn't take long for this selection to reveal itself to be largely meaningless -- despite a general implication that these are interconnected virtual worlds, it's really just one large one -- but I was happier to select The Hills rather than something as even more moronic -- such as Pimp My Ride.

But then, I'm pretty much out of MTV's target demographic by now, so what do I know?

Anyway, the first thing that I noticed was that Virtual MTV is like There. Obviously, it's based on the same technology, but it's very, very like There. Almost indistinguishable, in fact, in terms of character animation, customization, interface... It almost feels like a bit of a cheat to write an Online World Atlas about this title so soon after covering There, but it does give me the chance to be a bit lazy, and point directly to the There atlas entry if you want to learn more about the basics of how Virtual MTV works too.

There are differences that are worth noting, of course, particularly considering the general experience of using Virtual MTV. After selecting one of the small selection of generic avatars on offer (none of which suited me, particularly) and selecting my character name -- Buff Drinklots, the kind of name I reckon the males featured on The Hills would aspire to have (and a sneaky Mystery Science Theater 3000 reference) -- I was surprised to find on logging into the world that people were instantly helpful and talkative! Thought I was already familiar with how to use the system from my time in There, I played along, and was taught how to change my appearance, purchase new items, and even advised where to go (I was told the club area was a great place to go and hang out).

Much like There, changing your appearance outside of reshaping your face requires you purchase clothes using MTV Bucks, which cannot be earned in game and you must purchase them using real cash. Also as in There, a significant portion of your time spent in the world will also involve navigating the in-game internet browser, which is where most of the shopping happens.

Something rather interesting is that as a result if you want to take part in some of the (ahem) "brand experiences" you're going to have to stump up some cash just to get started. Playing in the world of The Hills is genuinely as simple as turning up at a club and chatting to other players, but if you want to go for the whole Pimp My Ride experience, you're going to have to spend at least 1,800 MTV Bucks (which translates to $10!) on a vehicle and then countless more on "pimping it out".

This is an interesting barrier in the virtual world, and much like There (my apologies about continually referring to it, but it's a useful comparison) you can take time limited trials, but they're very time limited indeed -- I got only 2 minutes with a junky old Lowrider, which was barely enough time to drive it around.

As a result of the wide variety of MTV brands included, the world is very busy and really quite vibrant. After being introduced to the world, Buff Drinklots was practically beating off the women with a stick in The Hills' club area, and other players seemed to be having a good time.

So Virtual MTV is quite an interesting world -- it's busy, the community are active, and if you have money to spend in the world, there are certainly things to do. Of course, as always, I'm not entirely convinced, but I'll discuss more on the pros and cons of MTV's approach in the conclusion.