Heads UP: Zwinky Cuties VW from the Zwinktopia folks

IAC boss Barry Diller plans to go head-to-head with Disney’s Club Penguin in the kids virtual world business.
In one of its first moves since IAC’s split into five different companies earlier this month, flagship IAC on Sept. 16 will launch its own virtual world aimed at tweens called ZwinkyCuties.com.
IAC is no stranger to the virtual-world [...]

Creative Ways to Deal Virtually

Okay, granted – something like this should never fly with a youth virtual world.  But there’s some genius there – regarding ulterior methods of dealing with social situations in a virtual world WITHOUT leaning heavily on the Moderators:

Bravo, Sociotown for being kookie enough to get me to laugh at cartoony violence [...]

Brewing Brouhaha: 90210

So, everyone seems to be murmuring about 90210 lately.  From Perez, to old college sorority sisters (who, back in the day, used to start saving their seats on the house couch at 7 am the day of a new episode), to buses and billboards, to marketers, to TV theorists, and so on…
I wasn’t a huge [...]

Tweens Thriving in the Web and What does that Mean?

For children ages 10 to 14 who use the Internet, the computer is a bigger draw than the TV set, according to a study recently released by DoubleClick Performics, a search marketing company. The study found that 83 percent of Internet users in that age bracket spent an hour or more online a day, but [...]

Post VW Expo: Come Play?

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’d like to get a wee pint & greet happening for anyone interested, and with the Expo just around the water’s bend, I’ve got to get my rear into action.
So here’s the dealio:
Wednesday the 3rd, 7:30 pm at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in the “official” bar of the conference [...]

New Youth VW Report and Insights

As those younger users continue to grow, I’d guess that one of two things will happen. We’ll either see a boom of interest in developing virtual worlds for the teen and older sets as we already have for the younger generation, or we’ll see more worlds go through the same process as Gaia and age [...]

Heads Up Again: Elf Island

Here’s your chance to be one of the Founders of Elf Island, the new virtual world where kids play games to make the real world a better place!
Elf Island is launching soon, and you can be one of the first to live the island life! Play amazing games that help real people, animals and the [...]

Cartoon Networks LUVS UGC Multiplayer Action!

Cartoon Network Debuts Eight-Person Multiplayer Gaming
with Ben 10: Alien Force Bounty Hunters
 
First CartoonNetwork.com Game to Allow Four-Player Team Battles or up to Eight-Person Free-for-All
 
Cartoon Network New Media today launches Ben 10 Alien Force: Bounty  Hunters, a free real-time multiplayer battle game that lets online Ben 10 fans square off as rival alien bounty hunters seeking [...]

Heads up: Emerald Island

San Francisco, California-based Fluid Entertainment is readying its new original kids MMOG Emerald Island for release this fall.
The eco-friendly game challenges players to become online heroes working to save their imaginary virtual world from environmental destruction.
A pre-launch look at the game can be found at www.emeraldisland.com. Fluid Entertainment has partnered with Trees for the Future [...]

Star Wars + McDonald’s VW = A Whole New Concept?

When McDonald’s launched its virtual world last month, the site’s description already promised to bring more interactive characters from movies, comic books, and TV shows. Characters from “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” are the first to get the treatment. Today McDonald’s announced that the movie would be featured in its physical Happy Meals, which feature [...]