IBM’s Branded Tips for Community Moderators

IBM released its employee guidelines for virtual worlds today. The seven-page PDF outlines basic principles governing how to represent IBM in the virtual arena.

Engage. IBM encourages its employees to explore responsibly – indeed, to further the development of – new spaces of relationship-building, learning and collaboration.
Use your good judgment. As in physical communities, [...]

Noteworthy: Gamine Expeditions & Kid-Targeted MMOGs

I’ve been studying these early versions of kid-targeted “MMOGs” for a couple of years now, starting with Toontown, Neopets and Habbo Hotel in 2003, and more recently adding newcomers BarbieGirls.com, TheBigRip/GalaXseeds, Foster’s Big Fat Awesome House Party and Nicktropolis to my research schedule (I’ll get around to Club Penguin and Webkinz eventually…I’m doing television-themed games [...]

Noteworthy: WebbliWorld

Update: Aardman Animations Creates WebbliWorld, Potential Virtual World?
Aardman Animations, the creators of Wallace and Grommit, has teamed with Enable Interactive to create WebbliWorld, a new Web portal for children. An article in ToyNews and the developer blog describe the site as “a new virtual world,” though right now it doesn’t look like there’s much [...]

Update: Cartoon Network’s FUSIONFALL

The Cartoon Network announced that it will unveil its virtual world platform, Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall, tomorrow at the San Diego Comic-Con. FusionFall, produced in partnership with Grigon, is a mix of a “3-D console platform game and all the customization, character development and open-ended world exploration of an MMORPG.” A previous release pegged [...]

Barbiegirls Vs the *COMING SOON* Virtual world Be-Bratz

On Aug. 1, MGA Entertainment will release Be-Bratz.com, a virtual world based on the Bratz dolls, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The site is targeted at girls 8 to 12. Barbiegirls.com, which has been online since April, has over three million registered users, though there are reports that it may not be able to sustain growth. [...]

Dear JK Rowling…

Dear JK Rowling,
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Izzy Neis
p.s. It should be noted: a seed of unexpected inspiration can spread far and wild– building forests far from any place you’ve ever seen.  Hadn’t been for Ms. Rowling and her book, I would not have read about Harry in the time that I needed him most… and therefore, wouldn’t have [...]

Stop… POTTER TIME!

I’ll be at the Naperville, IL event tomorrow night with some budz celebrating.  It is supposed to be the largest HP event in the nation (or at least has been in the past).  20,000+ people expected.  Wow.  I’ll update on the insanity that I see while I’m there.  So…excited… yay.
Check out the INSANITY: http://www.naperville.net/downtown/HP/activities.html 
When adults [...]

GoPets + Windows Live Messanger = good?

Microsoft Casual Games announced today that it had integrated Windows Live Messenger with GoPets, a Korean-based virtual world that lets users adopt a pet, customize it to their liking and interact with other pet owners in the virtual world. The partnership will give GoPets, currently in open beta, access to the much larger user [...]

Viacom’s 1 Meeeellion Dollar gift to its Virtual Worlds

MTV/Nickelodeon to Invest $100M in Casual Gaming, Changes for Nicktropolis, AddictingGames, Neopets
NMTV Networks’ Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group today announced that it would invest $100 million over the next two years in casual gaming titles, sites and platforms. Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group President Cyma Zarghami said that “with more than 86% of kids [...]

Virtual Worlds Vs Social Networking Platforms

Richard Bartle: Virtual Worlds Will Lose to Social Netorking
In an interview with the Guardian, 1st MUD designer Richard Bartle says that virtual worlds will eventually be consumed by social networking site or wind up operating only as extensions of Facebook. “That’s my glum assessment of the future, yes. There WILL be the glorious [...]