More Halloween announcements, this time from MMO community Aeria Games, which includes Dream of Mirror Online and Stone Age 2. " What's frightening is the amount of Aeria titles offering goodies for playing during the last week of October," quips the release, in a kind of nonsensical fashion.

Prizes include Aeria Points, gaming keyboards, mice, mouse pads and in-game items, with, for example, players of Last Chaos in with a chance to win a keyboard just for playing, players of Chronous can craft a "pumpkin head, robe, or party dress," and Dreamlords will feature the "Feast of Ghouls" event, amongst other events being held in each of the community's games.

In addition, Aeria Games has "devised yet another method to give back to their community" by establishing the "Spenders Reward Club."

Until October 31st players who spend at least $100 (!) in Last Chaos, Shaiya, Twelve Sky, Dream of Mirror Online or Project Torque have the chance to win "incredible prizes", with the overall top spender of the week winning an HDTV.

We imagine the overall top spender of the week will have to have spent quite close to the cost of an HDTV (if not more?) though…

We last mentioned Gaia Online's new MMO, zOMG! when it entered closed beta, and the development team has announced that they are to begin rolling out access to Gaia community members.

8,500 "Golden Ticket" holders are to be the first entrants – players who took part in booth promotions at NY Comic Con and Anime Expo, or purchased zOMG! "Rumble Boxes" in Gaia Online's virtual goods marketplace.

After Golden Ticket holders, community members with the longest active accounts (4+ years on Gaia Online) will be given access. The complete roll-out schedule will be announced shortly, and general public access will be established "once the Gaia community is safely in-game."

“We received over 120,000 applications for the Closed Beta from our virtual world community, but obviously couldn’t let them all in,” said Craig Sherman, CEO of Gaia Online. “Members complete hundreds of thousands of micro-transactions per day in the marketplace, and we think the Golden Tickets are a great way to choose which loyal users win this very cool opportunity.”

Casual games developer Playfish secured $17 million in a Series B round of funding led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The studio also announced that Accel Partners' Kevin Comolli and Index Ventures' Ben Holmes will both join its board of directors.

Based in London and founded in October 2007, Playfish releases "social games," such as Who Has The Biggest Brain? and Bowling Buddies, on social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

The company intends to use the new financing to further establish itself in the social gaming sector. So far, the studio's games have picked up over 10 million monthly active users, with players spending two billion monthly minutes on its titles.

Playfish's funding comes not long after rival Social Gaming Network (Warbook) raised $15 million for its own social network games, which was followed by Zynga (YoVille) picking up $29 million in VC funding for the same shortly afterwards.

"This has proven to be an outstanding year for the Playfish team," says Playfish CEO Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Playfish. "We've opened offices in San Francisco, Beijing and Norway and have now closed a round of funding with two great investors, Accel Partners and Index Ventures. We look forward to expanding our studios, growing our user base and continuing to develop new ways for people to play games together."

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

The International Academy of Visual Arts has announced WeeWorld has been selected as a Gold Winner in the W3 Awards, which honor “outstanding web sites, web marketing and web video.”

WeeWorld was selected from a field of over 3000 entrants.

The announcement comes in a good month for WeeWorld, as it recently announced the fastest growth among any virtual world/social network, with a global userbase of more than 24 million WeeMees worldwide.

"As WeeWorld continues its evolution, it is an honor to be recognized for our leadership in website innovation as a W3 Gold Award winner," said Lauren Bigelow, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Marketing of WeeWorld. "At WeeWorld, we take great pride in continually providing our users with a fun and fresh experience -- constantly adding new functionality, assets and activities to keep them engaged."

Are you bored of virtual worlds announcing their Halloween content yet? We are, but for some reason we keep printing it! Maybe next year we’ll be able to round it up in a single post, but this year it’s been coming out in dribs and drabs.

Still -- it’ll all be over in a couple of days, but before that we should let you know that virtual world publisher Outspark are announcing that their titles Fiesta and Secret of the Solstice allow players to customize their avatars with holiday-themed items and take part in in-game events.

Eight holiday items are available in the Fiesta store while five are available in the Secret of the Solstice store, including masks that allow players to dress up as witches, ghosts and skeletons, and events include costume contests and non-copyright infringing “Ghoul Buster” events in Fiesta, while Secret of the Solstice will include a haunted pirate ship and piñatas which offer candy (a reference to the Day of the Dead, we guess).

Outspark are running some fairly amusing promotions in their games otherwise, though – for example their “economic stimulus sale” in Fiesta. “Worried about the economy? Y’re not the only one,” the site quips, and they’re offering 25% off certain in-game items as a result.

NASA has announced that after "extensive review by internal and external experts," the Learning Technologies and the Innovative Partnership Program Office has invited three proposal teams to Goddard Space Flight Center to give presentations to essentially "pitch" for the opportunity to make a massively multiplayer educational game to " enhance real world education of teens in high school and college, in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields."

The selected proposal teams are Mindark; Saber Astronautics, Nocturnal Entertainment, and Big World; and Virtual Heroes and Project Whitecard.

Full details of the project can be found at the NASA website – we particularly recommend downloading the linked PDF, which includes a great deal of pertinent information.

"We are thrilled and honored to present Entropia Universe to NASA and to have been selected from over 100 interested parties which were present at the NASA MMO Workshop in April. It is an acknowledgement of our concept and progress, and shows the versatility of the platform we have spent a decade developing," says MindArk CEO Jan Welter Timkrans.

Developer Tilted Mill Entertainment has announced that their originally offline city-building title Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile has been adapted as the free-to-play browser-based massively multiplayer Immortal Cities: Nile Online.

The game is now accepting players for the currently running beta server.

Nile Online features an ancient Egyptian setting where players begin by building a single city, harvesting local resources and turning them into goods and structures, so they can conduct trade with their neighbors along the Nile. Players can expand their empire to include several cities, and build monuments to become the Pharaoh.

“We really saw an opportunity to bring life on the Nile in ancient Egypt to gamers in a colorful new format.” said Chris Beatrice, president of Tilted Mill Entertainment. “At the same time, we saw that we could really enhance and invigorate the browser gaming space by bringing some more traditional gaming mechanics and graphics to the genre.”

The online free-to-play FPS market is emerging somewhat, as following Nexon America's launch of Combat Arms, Toronto-based publisher G4Box has announced Cross Fire.

Early access to the upcoming closed beta is to be offered first to community members at the Cross Fire website.

Cross Fire was developed in South Korea by SmileGate and Neowiz, and was previously released in China and Vietnam. The title is best described as, at best, "similar" to Counter Strike, something which has in fact led to controversy, with an official Counter Strike map having been unofficially included in the Asian release of the game (which has since been removed for the North American release.)

"As we gear up for the closed beta in early November, we wanted to open up the official website and forums so that the Cross Fire community can start to gather together, discuss the game, and prepare for the big event," said Howard He, Chief Executive Officer of G4Box. "Due to the nature of the closed beta we can only allow a limited number of people to participate, so this is a great way to ensure your spot."

Vivaty have launched Vivaty Everywhere, a new addition to the web-based virtual world platform Vivaty Scenes. It allows Vivaty Scenes to be embedded into any blog or website, over and above the previously-available capability to be embedded on Facebook and AOL's Instant Messenger.

Thanks to the new addition, Vivaty scenes are being embedded by Universal Music Group -- to advertise the new album release by Queen + Paul Rogers -- and by political satirists Barely Political.

We last mentioned Vivaty in mid-August, when they announced Vivaty Create and more functionality including virtual pets and avatar customization features.

"Our vision is to make virtual experiences as accessible, engaging and easy to use as a Web page," said Keith McCurdy, Vivaty CEO and co-founder. "Vivaty Everywhere gives brands, fan sites and bloggers a rich, engaging way to inject their sites with social experiences that reflect their media and style choices."

You may remember an earlier post in which we discussed new online world developer Mindfuse raising $1 million, and the fact that though the press release announcing the investment claimed that their first game has yet to be announced, but that with literally seconds of nosing around (by which we mean "visiting Mindfuse's website") you could find that their first title was to be the deeply intriguing Victorian-themed casual game Gatheryn.

Well, less than a month later they've decided to go the whole hog and announce it officially, with a release set for some time in 2009. The release details Gatheryn is "set in a fantasy world where steam powers everything from vehicles and mechanical monkeys to dirigibles meandering through the clouds," though it never specifically drops the "s-bomb" ("steampunk") in its description, instead intending to concentrate on the concept that the title "embodies the detailed Victorian aesthetic depicted by classic writers such as Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle."

Players are to be able to personalize the experience with everything from character creation to decoration of in-game apartments, and will be able to play "some of the most beloved casual titles of all time" to advance the story and raise gold to purchase accessories, pets, vehicles and more. Whether that means more "re-skinned Bejeweled" we don’t know.

“With Gatheryn we’re creating a very accessible world appropriate for gamers looking for a mature and enjoyable pastime,” said Joseph Walters, CEO of MindFuse and Lead Designer on Gatheryn. “We’re very interested in the detailed aesthetics of the steam-powered genre, and our aim is to draw players into a romantic, vibrant world where story, community and puzzle-solving are the focus. Gatheryn provides an alternative to gamers who crave immersion and social interaction, but not the violence associated with similar games currently available.”

We've mentioned avatar staffing provider Metaverse Mod Squad multiple times on the site, as they've been very visible in the virtual world space, but one thing readers might have queried is exactly what an "avatar staffing provider" does.

To clear up this mystery, we've talked to Amy Pritchard, CEO of Metaverse Mod Squad, and she discusses her company's beginnings, their work in the field and the importance of child protection in MMOs.

Explain Metaverse Mod Squad.

Amy Pritchard: We're a moderation and customer support company for virtual worlds, MMOs, and traditional online communities. We work with companies to manage and moderate their online spaces, host virtual events, support their customers, protect their image, and keep kids safe.

Why did the company come into being?

AP: We founded the company in August 2007 as attorneys with a rock star team of community professionals. We were already moderating the traditional message boards, and we saw an opportunity to do the same thing in the 3D space. We quickly learned that working in this space requires folks that are especially fun and clever, and lucky for us, that fits with our skill sets.

Seoul-based developer and publisher NeoWiz (FIFA Online, NBA Street) signed a licensing deal with middleware company Trinigy to license Vision Engine 7 for a new project.

With the agreement, Neowiz intends to use Vision 7 for the development of an unnamed "multi-million, multi-user online shooting game." The studio is currently working with Electronic Arts, which invested $105 million in Neowiz last year, on a Battlefield game specifically targeting the Korean market.

Released in June 2008, Vision Engine 7 has been licensed by a variety of developers, such as Xibalba Studios for casual PC title Icebreakers, as well as Settlers developer Blue Byte for unannounced forthcoming titles.

"We are delighted to continue our successful business relationship with Neowiz," says Trinigy's International Sales director Richard Radmacher.

He continues, "They have been working with the Vision Engine since 2004, and we are sure that they will once again create an amazing game. We are truly honoured to be able to support their ambitious plans with our latest technology."

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

Developer and publisher NCsoft announced a partnership with software portability company TransGaming to release a Mac version of City of Heroes before the holiday season.

A public beta test for the upcoming Mac version will be available with the game's thirteenth expansion, Issue 13: Power and Responsibility, due later this fall.

City of Heroes for Mac will see its official launch before the holiday season with a digital-only Mac edition through the PlayNC store and TransGaming portal Gametree Online.

The MMORPG, which originally launched for PC in April 2004, allows players to create hero and villain identities, complete missions, and fight against gangs and organizations in Paragon City.

The port is made possible with TransGaming's Cider Portability Engine, which acts as a wrapper around the game software to enable City of Heroes to run on Intel-based Macs. Previous Cider-powered games include Spore, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, EVE Online, and Madden NFL 08.

"Given Mac’s fame as a platform for creative people and City of Heroes’ unprecedented character customization options, I think City of Heroes is a perfect fit for the Mac gaming community, "says NCsoft West's Brian Clayton, executive producer for the game.

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

Game Developers Conference organizer Think Services has opened registration for next year's GDC event, to be held in San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 23 to 27, 2009.

Also announced was the addition of new summits and the continuation of existing ones -- including the Worlds In Motion Summit, relevant to this site -- falling under the GDC umbrella. These summits, which take place on the Monday and Tuesday of GDC week, are aimed at providing specialized coverage for various crucial development categories and practices.

In addition, the traditional Wednesday to Friday main conference, including major keynotes and existing Audio, Business, Game Design, Production, Programming, and Visual Arts tracks will continue for 2009.

Newly established Monday-Tuesday summits include the AI Summit and Localization Summit, bringing the total summit count to nine, as follows:

- AI Summit
- Casual Games Summit
- Game Outsourcing Summit
- GDC Mobile
- Independent Games Summit
- IGDA Education Summit
- Localization Summit
- Serious Games Summit
- Worlds in Motion Summit

Longstanding GDC initiatives such as the GDC Career Pavilion, the Independent Games Festival, the Game Developers Choice Awards, and the Game Career Seminar will also continue.

"You can expect more specialized content through our new and existing summits in conjunction with compelling talks in our main conference," said event director Meggan Scavio, a 10-year veteran of the conference.

"The Game Developers Conference prides itself on continually improving the conference experience based on the needs of our attendees and the industry. With the help of feedback from the community, our advisory board, and editorial staff, we've crafted a conference this year that speaks to the changing landscape of the games industry."

More information on next year's GDC line-up, hotel details and registration specifics are available on the official Game Developers Conference 2009 website.

As the U.S. Presidential election gets closer and closer, much like Halloween (finally here today, phew!) virtual worlds have been getting in touch with us to rave excitedly about what they're doing in preparation, including WeeWorld.

Okay, so it isn't especially massive news that you can add the candidate's WeeMees, a sign or wear a supporting t-shirt in the social network, but we thought we'd mention it because, frankly, who doesn't want to see Barak Obama and John McCain's cute little WeeMees?

In addition, according to their statistics, Obama is easily beating McCain in downloads, though perhaps not by as much as you might think. Though that's possibly because some users are adding him to their spooky Halloween rooms--

Solid State Networks develop software behind digital content delivery, and they've announced that Digital Media Exchange have selected their Solid Axis game delivery solution to deliver Korean MMO Dekaron.

Dekaron has been adapted by Acclaim for the US market as 2Moons – which to date has not received a firm release date, despite being in open beta since July of last year.

This agreement extends to the distribution across specifically across Southeast Asia, in countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

“We are excited to have Solid State Networks delivering the digital downloads of Dekaron to the Asian gaming market,” said Scott Countryman, founder and CEO of DME. “Gamers in Southeast Asia are now experiencing new levels of speed and convenience when downloading Dekaron through our custom downloader. As a publisher, we get the benefits of highly efficient and cost-effective digital delivery, which allows us to leverage the investment we made in our existing CDN infrastructure while offloading some of the traffic to P2P. We feel this is a win for us and for our gamers.”

More hot and heavy pre-paid card news! Must be preparation for the holiday sales rush, banking on parents and grandparents liking the look of them as gift items. Outspark has announced that its pre-paid cards are to be available in Best Buy stores across the United States as of November 2nd.

The cards are being published in partnership with GMG entertainment -- who we interviewed fairly recently on the subject -- and are redeemed online for SparkCash, Outspark's virtual currency used to purchase items in all of Outspark games.

Prepaid cards purchased at Best Buy also come with an exclusive in-game item, and those who purchase and redeem SparkCash prepaid cards during the month of November will receive a special costume in both Fiesta and Secret of the Solstice.

"As the holiday season approaches, we're excited be working with a top retailer like Best Buy," said Outspark CEO and founder Susan Choe. "SparkCash Cards make a perfect gift for family and friends."

In other pre-paid card news, PayByCash (subsidiary of PlaySpan) has added OneCard, through its relationship with Smart2Pay, to provide more payment choices to online multiplayer game customers in the Middle East.

OneCard is a pre-paid card that allows non-credit card customers to make speedy transactions, that's vailable in over 4,500 retail outlets in Saudi Arabia alone, and is also available in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Egypt.

“PayByCash gives online merchants the ability to tap the global customer base that wants to pay without a credit card,” said Kevin Higgins, PayByCash’s president. “Pre-paid cards are rapidly becoming the payment method of choice for online gamers. Our partnership with OneCard expands the payment options for customers in this region of the world.”

[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 we're covering a virtual world (of sorts) that you may consider surprising that we've never covered before -- NeoPets. A highly successful tween-orientated browser-based experience that's existed for nearly a decade(!) the game has a huge following that is almost unparalleled in the market, so it's absolutely time we gave it an in-depth look as part of our Online World Atlas.

Name: NeoPets

Developer: NeoPets, Inc.

Established: November 1999

How it Works: NeoPets is entirely browser-based and runs in HTML and Flash. Navigation and gameplay are accomplished via mouse and keyboard input.

Overview: NeoPets is, essentially, an online "virtual pet" simulation, where players take care of pets by buying them food, toys, clothes, and other accessories using a virtual currency called Neopoints, which can be raised by playing games and other methods. Players can interact with each other through in-game mail, discussion boards and groups.

Payment Method: NeoPets is free to play and ad-supported, but also offers a subscription, starting at $7.99 for one month's access, which removes (some) adverts and allows access to more areas and features. In addition, there is also the NC Mall, which is a cash shop for virtual items.

Key Features:

- Virtual pet simulation
- Customizable pet/home
- Safe environment with moderated interaction between players (for example, across discussion boards)
- Combination of revenue streams (ad-supported, item sales, subscriptions)

Useful Links:
The Daily Neopets (fan site)
Neopets Fanatic (fan site)