“Who benefits from Blizzard’s controversial decision to use players’ real names in forum posts? War Rock publisher GamersFirst hopes it will, issuing an official press release to let gamers know it’s all still anonymous there. Kotaku (USA) – Blizzard’s Naming Policy Is Smaller MMO Publisher’s Marketing Opportunity. Standalone essentially hosts the entire virtual experience on one server which limits the number of users, whereas the grid option spreads the number of simulations across a number of different machines.”ĥ. “Opensim, the open source server platform used for hosting virtual worlds has reported growth of over 13% last month. Technorati (USA) – Virtual Worlds Continue To Make Real-World Gains. At the time, founder Raph Koster said the San Diego company was pursuing an exciting opportunity but declined to comment further on it.”Ĥ. Metaplace shut down its meta world, which consisted of 30,000 user-created virtual worlds, at the end of December. The outcome could be a good one for Metaplace, which did a two-step and shifted strategy earlier this year. Last month, Playdom said it raised $33 million to fuel its rapid acquisition pace. The move is the latest in a spree of acquisitions by Playdom, which is racing to catch up with social game rivals such as Zynga in one of the hottest markets in games. “Fast-growing social game company Playdom has acquired Metaplace, which failed in its attempt to create a site for user-generated virtual worlds. VentureBeat (USA) – Playdom buys Metaplace, which forsook virtual worlds for social games. “There was nothing online that was fun and safe, and that took advantage of the fact that children really want a social experience.” Just two years later, Disney bought the site, with its games, chat-rooms and virtual pets, for $350 million (£230 million).”ģ. But when Canadian Lane Merrifield founded the site in 2005, it wasn’t an attempt to cash in on pester power: “I really did start this for my kids,” he says.
“Club Penguin is an internet phenomenon like no other – this virtual world, inhabited by millions of four to 14-year-olds, is the most popular children’s website in Britain. The Telegraph (UK) – Club Penguin: parents and the power of the penguins. Far from being a flash in the pan, sites like Habbo Hotel can claim both longevity and profitability – both often elusive qualities for social web institutions.”Ģ. “Virtual worlds might have been an entertaining diversion for big media a couple of years back, but for a massive swathe of web users these are a powerful and important part of their online lives. The Guardian (UK) – Ten years of virtual worlds: Habbo hits a decade.
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