Independent MMO developer Three Rings (Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, Bang! Howdy) launched Whirled, a browser-based, "player-created virtual world" that serves as a platform for developers to create and sell custom multiplayer games and virtual goods.

Whirled is open to player creations and customizations, inviting developers to upload a variety of content, from image furniture to mini-MMO games. The platform's Flash ActionScript APIs allow for avatars, pets, and toys, supporting multiplayer games with arbitrary numbers of players driven by client or server-side code.

"Three Rings is taking a 'ridiculously open' approach to Whirled by publishing metrics, transparent business terms and a large part of the code-base as open-source," says Three Rings CTO and co-founder Michael Bayne.

"To kick-start creativity, Three Rings offers the source code and assets for all Three Rings' original games and other content as examples for developers to explore and modify to their own nefarious ends."

Whirled's library so far provides over 12 complete, multiplayer example games, including Corpse Craft and Brawler Whirled.

Creators can sell their games and virtual goods to users for two different type of virtual currency, Coins and Bars. Gamers earn coins by playing Whirled games, while Bars are purchased using credit cards, PayPal, SMS, Target pre-paid cards and other payment methods.

When selling their wares, creators accumulate a third currency, Bling, which can be cashed out for real-world money. "Not only can you make money selling virtual goods, but also Whirled offers a lifetime revenue share on new players referred to the game -- you can simply embed a game or Whirled room into your blog or website, or tell a friend, and we'll take care of the rest," adds Three Rings CEO Daniel James.

With Whirled's launch, the company announced its Flash Game Developer challenge and the Whirled Game Developer Bonus Bling Pool, offering various cash prizes to developers who create titles using the Whirled APIs.

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

Thirsty? Well then you should get yourself down to your local 7-Eleven, because Nexon has launched a "Where You Play for Free” Slurpee drink promotion in the U.S., with Slurpee cups to feature imagery from Nexon's MapleStory, Mabinogi, Combat Arms and the yet to be released Sugar Rush.

7-Eleven customers also receive a collectible Nexon game DVD with the purchase of a 22-oz. or larger-size Slurpee beverage (while supplies last.) The DVD includes the four Nexon games on the branded cups.

In addition, each Nexon-themed Slurpee cup has an exclusive game code that is redeemable for customized 7-Eleven and Slurpee-branded in-game virtual items in the four games. Particularly notable: the game code also provides 7-Eleven customers access to participate in the closed beta of the Sugar Rush, scheduled to launch in early 2009.

“We’ve seen great success with the Nexon pre-paid cash cards and this partnership further solidifies 7-Eleven as a premier gaming destination,” said Brad Haga, 7-Eleven’s senior product director of services. “Free-to-play games are more popular than ever in North America, and with Nexon, we can deliver a dynamic experience for our customers looking for great entertainment.”

Online PC game publisher YNK Interactive (Seal Online) has announced 500,000 registered players for their MMORPG, Rohan: Blood Feud.

In open beta phase since May, Rohan: Blood Feud is free-to-play, and very much a traditional Korean MMORPG, though does feature some interesting twists, such as an emphasis on player vs. player combat, including a "hit list" for each player to remind them who killed them last and which allows them to warp to their location for revenge.

The developers place the growth in registration down to the features added to the game during the beta, including the game parlour (browser-based games which allow players to gain items for within the main game) and the exchange market, which allows players to buy and sell items to each other.

“I’m thrilled to have hit the half million mark, and still counting”, said Jun Lee, CEO of YNK Interactive. “As we continue to expand the game, so are we expanding our community base. We look forward to continuing to announce milestones like this in the months and years ahead.”

Some of you may remember 10VOX's recent announcement—that they'd be entering the virtual world market with a pair of new toy/virtual world combos, KooKeys and Tracksters.

KooKeys are to be plush animals while Tracksters are to be die-cast vehicles, and both are to feature in quite disparate virtual worlds; with Tracksters in particular to be a MMO racing title that includes trading card aspects.

Entering such a crowded market with wildly differing properties sounds like a challenge to us, so we talked to Dean Cheshire, Head of Production at 10VOX to find out why they decided to enter the market and more.

Why enter the combined toy/virtual world market?

Dean Cheshire: Simply put, this market is ripe for innovation. Young players are tired of seeing the same old, tired concepts of yesteryear. 10VOX Entertainment t is deeply committed to introducing products that not only redefine this segment, but also provide a benchmark of quality. With Tracksters and KooKeys, we aim to do exactly that.

Isn't it kind of risky? It's the kind of market I kind of thing of as sewn up by things like Webkinz.

DC: I think the greatest risk is to the owners of these more established companies that are failing to change the way they see things. Children are changing—players are changing—and it’s our goal to be the epicenter of the solution. Anyone remember AltaVista? Probably not—the “originators” are rarely the innovators; through a combination of fresh ideas and thoughtful execution, 10VOX will re-cast a market that is clamoring for change.

It's been a while since we've heard from IMVU, the company behind the "virtual spaces destination" of the same name, but that's apparently because they've been hard at work on IMVU Music, a just-launched addition which allows members to buy songs, create playlists and share music in a 3D environment with other IMVU members.

IMVU Music offers members access to music from the major music labels EMI, Sony BMG, Warner and Universal, as well as a selection of independen music distributors such as IODA, Redeye, GetUPlayed, Tunecore, Iris, Song and artists from CDBaby. In total, IMVU Music has launched with over one million songs in its catalog.

IMVU members can also purchase DRM-free downloads of songs from the catalog, so they can listen to the songs on a wide range of devices, including iPod and MP3 players.

“IMVU Music makes the 3D experience even more compelling,” said Cary Rosenzweig, CEO of IMVU. “People can have their avatars dance to the music or talk about the music. Music helps people be more expressive and emotionally engaged.”

Free Realms was the only of Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming titles which was in a playable form at E3, and we had some time with it and found it interesting enough that we're excited to tell you that registration for the company's first foray into free-to-play is now open.

Free Realms is thematically a mixture of traditional fantasy and real world design, and it includes a variety of play possibilities including everything from playing mini-games to MMORPG-esque adventuring.

The game promises weekly and monthly content updates, regular special events and a great deal of player-led activities and customization.

"Free Realms allows you to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, in a lush, living, 3D world, filled with rich landscapes and fun wildlife," said a Sony representative. "From pet raising to mini-games like soccer and racing, or battling giant spiders and adventuring with friends – there’s always something new to see and do in the world of Free Realms."

SceneCaster, developer of 3D web applications for social networks has announced that in partnership with marketing agency Millions of Us, it has launched of an online 3D casual game, The Quest for Eternal Life as a free-to-play Facebook application.

The game's premise is a hunt for an elixir that provides the secret to immortality within a "spooky mansion"; players must complete a series of themed challenges on the way towards the goal.

The Quest for Eternal Life is the first casual game developed with the SceneCaster platform.

"Working closely with Millions of Us we believe we have created a fun, engaging and challenging game that showcases SceneCaster'ss unique 3D capabilities, brings users plenty of spooky fun through Halloween and beyond and offers brands and advertisers an extremely engaging and effective sponsorship and in-game advertising platform, "said Mark Zohar, CEO, SceneCaster.

Pirates of the Burning Sea is going through a somewhat tumultuous time; after recently offering free 14 day trials to any and all (usually the, dare we say it, sign of a MMO that isn't as popular as they hoped) Flying Lab Software CEO Russell Williams has now announced on the company's blog that they are to end their relationship with Australian distribution partner Big{ond, closing the current Australian server (Invincible) and replacing it with a new server, Defiant.

As a result of this change requiring a server transfer, all Australian players have been given a free transfer to any server of their choosing.

Our strategy overseas is to work with enthusiastic partners who are knowledgeable about their market and committed to the game and its community," opened Williams in his posting, "However, launching and supporting an MMO is a very different beast than a single player game, and some companies underestimate the kind of engagement they have to have with the players."

Though apparently referring to BigPond with this statement, he continued, "I enjoyed meeting and working with the people of BigPond, and I wish them and the company well in all its future endeavors."

In general, Wiliams went on to say they "intend to provide a more open transfer service in the future," but that as" the company’s resources [are] focused on the new avatar combat system, it’s not yet on the schedule."

"We’re excited about this change, and the opportunity to provide the Australian players with the quality of service that they deserve."

Though we're often a little cross-post happy on this site when it comes to virtual world related news from Gamasutra, there have been a clutch of posts recently that don't seem quite worthy of the full cross-post, so we'll link them in shorter form—as they're still worth knowing!

Report: Red Eagle Forms Studio For Wheel Of Time Games
"Former IBM executive and Red Eagle Entertainment producer Rick Selvage says that the company will launch the games alongside similar film adaptations. Red Eagle Games intends to release the titles for all major platforms -- consoles, PC, handhelds, and mobile devices -- and is also planning a massively multiplayer online game based on the Wheel of Time universe."

Richard Garriott Departs NCsoft Following Return To Earth
"The veteran designer, best known for the influential Ultima series of RPGs, gave no indication as to how his departure will affect the fate of Tabula Rasa. He acknowledged the rocky path the game has taken, making reference to 'what I think we can all honestly say was a rough launch' but applauding the development team for 'pushing hard to get...new content out every month.'"

CCP To Use Enlighten In Upcoming Eve Expansion
"Enlighten is a radiosity lighting solution for cross-platform game development, offering 'dynamic radiosity in a runtime environment.'"

Atari Signs EVE Online Retail Deal
"The boxed version of EVE Online will include the game client, 60 days of subscription time, all nine previously released expansions and unspecified 'exclusive extras'. A series of additional free expansions are intended to be released for the game throughout 2009."

Linden Lab has announced "The Linden Prize", which is to award one Second Life user or team with $10,000 for an "innovative in-world project that improves the way people work, learn and communicate in their daily lives outside of the virtual world."

According to the release, the award is "intended to align with Linden Lab’s company mission, which is to connect all people to an online world that advances the human condition," which a cynical reader could consider somewhat self-aggrandizing.

Applications must be competed and submitted no later than January 15, 2009, and the finalists and eventual winner will be announced by April 30, 2009.

The winners are to be judged on the principles that it "achieves tangible, compelling results outside of Second Life", is a "distinctive, original work" and can "inspire and influence future development, knowledge, creativity, and collaboration."

With the existence of all sorts of ways to circumvent online game security—everything from aim-bots to more insidious hacks, game developers might often feel that they're fighting a losing battle to protect IP and gameplay integrity on multiple fronts.

Arxan are just one company that works in this field, offering anti-hacking and anti-tampering solutions. We talked to Avni Rambhia, technological evangelist at Arxan, to discuss the treats that face developers, Arxan's technology, and the future arms race between developers and cheaters.

What kind of security threats do MMO/Virtual World operators face?

Avni Rambhia: There are primarily two classes of threats: cheating through tampering or modification of the game client, and DoS and other internet-based attacks on the MMO servers. Cheating lowers the overall value and appeal of the MMO community, while attacks on servers result in expensive outages and incident management overhead.

How does Arxan help in these situations?

AR: Arxan's technology works to prevent the first class of threats—tampering of the clients. By preventing reverse engineering of the software, we harden the process of finding exploitable vulnerabilities; by implementing anti-tamper measures, we prevents modifications, and by providing forensics reporting capability, we helps the game owner identify potential cheaters as well as analyze attack patterns.

Application hardening is the generic term for anti-tamper/hacking technology. The hardening solution is built using a variety of individual techniques, including obfuscation, encryption, anti-debug, patch and repair, authentication and forensics reporting.

Additionally, since Arxan's technology works at the binary level in very small, lightweight units, it protects without affecting user experience or gaming performance.

Korean online game portal Hangame will publish Mythic Entertainment's Warhammer Online in Korea, signing a multi-year agreement with Electronic Arts that will bring WAR to the NHN-owned company's stable of Korean-distributed titles such as Monster Hunter Frontier and Archlord.

Based on Games Workshop's Warhammer fantasy tabletop war game, WAR has attracted over 800,000 users since launching simultaneously in North America, Europe, and Oceania on September 18 .

Mythic previously said that the game was EA's most pre-ordered PC title, and claimed that WAR was also the fastest-selling new MMO of all time, with 1.5 million units sold to retailers in launch territories.

Hangame, which is operated by South Korea's NHN Corporation, will be introducing WAR to over 30 million registered members, 3 million daily visitors, and 280,000 concurrent users on its site. The company offers a variety of titles, including free, in-house developed casual games and pay-to-pay MMORPGs like Archlord and Ragnarok 2.

"It is an honor to publish Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in Korea," says Hangame director Wook Jung. "With the addition of WAR to the NHN game platform and global network, we continue to expand our services in order to provide gamers in Korea with high quality games through various channels."

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

City Of Heroes and Lineage MMO publisher NCsoft saw third quarter profits fall by exactly 50 percent in its third quarter; overall revenues also declined, as the publisher had to fall back on sales of older titles, after Tabula Rasa failed to gian significant traction.

In the three months ending September 30th, the South Korean company’s profit was down from 10 billion won ($7.2m) in 2007 to just 5 billion ($3.6m) in this year’s third quarter.

Overall revenue was down by only 2 percent on the same period last year, though, falling from 81.2 billion won ($59.6m) to 78.3 billion won ($57.6m) for the quarter.

The disappointing results come in the same week that market pioneer and Ultima/Tabula Rasa creator Richard Garriott left the company after he returned from a space trip, commenting that the "unforgettable experience has sparked some new interests that I would like to devote my time and resources to."

Korea still continues to account for 59 percent of the company’s sales by region, with North America and Japan both on 13 percent, Europe on 6 percent, and Taiwan on 5 percent.

Lineage II remains the company’s most successful game in terms of revenues, generating 48 percent of all sales, with its predecessor still at 36 percent. City of Heroes/Villains accounted for 8 percent, Guild Wars 5 percent, and Tabula Rasa just 2 percent.

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

This Monday, Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates publisher and developer Three Rings officially launched its online service Whirled, a virtual realm-cum-flash game portal -- which James has compared to a YouTube for games.

Gamasutra sat down with the company's CEO and designer Daniel James to discuss the meaning, future, and implications of Whirled, which allows beginners to enjoy a friendly virtual world.

The free web-based service allows players to create avatars, chat in share groups and rooms, and play online games that have achievements and online high scores, as well as multiplayer functionality.

But it also goes so far as to provide open-source tools which allow professional developers to create Flash games that can be plugged into the service's social features, and which can be enjoyed both in and out of the Whirled game space.

In this in-depth chat, James, whose firm also created steampunk strategy online game Bang Howdy, discussed why he's "probably crazy" to make something this wide-ranging, using community competition to make better games, and much more.

Discussing Ubisoft's plans for entering the massively multiplayer online game space, CEO and president Yves Guillemot talked about the company's recent acquisition of World in Conflict developer Massive Entertainment and outlined the company's strategy to create "light" massively multiplayer online games.

"Our goal there is to go first with light MMOs," he said, speaking at the BMO Capital Markets Interactive Entertainment Conference. "They have been extremely popular for a long time in China, but are also coming to the U.S. and Europe, generating lots of good revenue."

Based in Malmö, Sweden with 120 developers, Massive Entertainment was divested from previous owner Activision after the publisher's merger with Blizzard Entertainment. Neither Ubisoft or Activision disclosed the terms or value of the exchange.

"We bought [Massive Entertainment] from them because those guys are Blizzard, so they don't need that studio as much as we do," said Guillemot, referring to Blizzard's already strong presence in the MMO field with World of Warcraft.

He went on to note that Massive is "extremely strong" with real-time strategy titles, such as the studio's critically acclaimed World in Conflict PC game released in 2007. "They are going to help us to also get closer to the MMO space," he adds.

Light MMOs will only be the beginning for Ubisoft. Said Guillemot, "In the future, we will come with RPGs and RTSes also in the MMO space." The company already has an Avatar MMO planned for late 2009 based on James Cameron's upcoming 3D science fiction film of the same name.

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

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in Gamasutra and its subsites' industry-leading game jobs section, including positions from EA Tiburon, Insomniac Games, Nokia, Sony Online Entertainment, and more.

Each job posted will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include:

"Virtual worlds and MMO games production company" Virtual Fairground has announced it has acquired all assets and personnel of Flash development studio Flashclub and has renamed BigWheel Studio. The studio is now to serve as Virtual Fairgrounds main development outfit.

Flashclub had been an independent studio for eight years and has developed projects for clients such as Heineken and ING; BigWheel is to continue work for existing clients as well as working on Virtual Fairgrounds game projects.

Tim Hudson, founder of Flashclub, has assumed the role of technical director at Virtual Fairground, while William Richards has become managing director at BigWheel Studio.

"We are delighted to welcome the talented team of BigWheel within Virtual Fairground," says Ilja Goossens, co-founder and director of Virtual Fairground. “We are growing at an intense pace. Our browser-based MMO games are pushing technologies like Flash to its limit, so we are always on the lookout for the most talented online developers. In the last couple of years Tim Hudson put together some of the best Flash creators in the region and this team will help Virtual Fairground to further excel.”

[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.]

If you're an MMO player then you'll know that the latest expansion for World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King was released this week, and we expect that many of you—even those with more of an interest in virtual worlds—are probably eagerly devouring it to make your way to level 80.

So as you're probably not paying attention, we thought we'd look at one of the strangest browser-based MMO titles we've seen yet—Trukz, a persistent browser-based trucking simulation (really).

Name: Trukz

Developer: Trukz

Established: May 2007

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

Overview: Trukz is a largely text based game where players create a driver, buy a truck and earn money by hauling loads from real-life cities around the world. Cities have distinct supplies and demands, and with cash earned players can buy upgrade and new trucks. Players have to deal with issues such as fatigue, gas prices and weather, and players can cooperate with other drivers by joining "companies" and talk to other players via "CB Radio."

Payment Method: Trukz is free to play; players can make a donation (starting at $5.00) to receive in-game cash bonuses.

Key Features:
- Real-world set trucking simulation
- Active community with player-run "companies"

Useful Links:
Official Forum
New Player Guide