VIRTUAL WORLDS – Map of the Space

This is Liz's map of the virtual world space. Done to prep for the upcoming book:

VIRTUAL WORLDS – Map of the Space:
*Some information comes from “Online Virtual Worlds: A Mini-Guide”:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/virtual_reality/virtual-worlds/virtual-immersive-3D-worlds-guide-20071004.htm

· Active Worlds:
http://www.activeworlds.com
General Description: The Active Worlds Universe is a community of hundreds of thousands of users that chat and build 3D virtual reality environments in millions of square kilometers of virtual territory. Users can shop online in a 3D virtual reality mall and chat with store clerks while playing interactive 2D and 3D games. The most popular world is AlphaWorld, which consists of virtual real estate on which users can create virtual structures using objects from the Active Worlds library of over 6,000 objects and textures. Membership is free and requires a download of software. Users may elect to become an Active Worlds “citizen” by paying a monthly citizenship fee ($6.95) which includes: unlimited access to hundreds of virtual worlds, a protected citizen name, secured property privileges, instant messaging service, and access to the expanded avatar gallery. There is an "international" theme in Active Worlds, with many worlds based on real-world countries. Active Worlds was founded in 1997 and operates out of Newburyport, Massachusetts.
Audience: The site is target to general users, but also specifically targets educators through its Active Worlds Educational Programs (http://www.activeworlds.com/edu/index.asp) and businesses who can license Active Worlds technology separate from the main Active Worlds Universe (http://www.activeworlds.com/products/galaxervers.asp) to “sell products, support customers (CRM), perform interactive product demos, and conduct on-line corporate training and other e-learning initiatives.” The company says it offers clients the ability to create worlds on the UniServer which it maintains, and sells UniServers and Galaxervers to others and licenses the Active Worlds technology to them to allow them to establish their own three-dimensional world independent of the Active Worlds universe. The Uniserver licensees include many fortune 500 organizations and over 250 schools and Universities across the world.
Features: 3D Avatars, Property Ownership, Environment Building, Text Capability, Integrated e-Commerce, Games, Modern-day cities with a utopian twist

· Habbo Hotel:
http://www.habbohotel.com

General Description: Habbo Hotel is a virtual world that uses a hotel metaphor as its theme complete with a "lobby" gateway and private "guest rooms." Guest rooms can be decorated with furniture purchased with "Habbo credits." Habbo credits can be purchased with several types of real currency in a wide variety of ways (credit card, mobile phone, prepaid stored value cards). Habbo is a colorful, multi-dimensional virtual community and game environment which users join by creating a fully customized online character called a Habbo. Access to the world itself is free and relatively easy to navigate. Guest room furniture and Habbo Club membership must be purchased. Habbo Hotel is owned by Sulake – an online entertainment company focused on virtual worlds and social networking for teenagers – which operates out of Helsinki, Finland. Sulake offers tailored online entertainment and business services for third parties.

Audience: Habbo Hotel is a teen community (users must be 13 years or older), a massively multiplayer online game where teenagers create their own virtual character and interact with other characters in the hotel. The Habbo online community is currently localized in 29 countries on five continents and over 7 million teenagers visit the different communities every month. Age distribution is between 13 and 18 years-old.

Features: 2D Avatars, Property Ownership, Environment Building, Text Capability, Integrated e-Commerce, Games, Pet Ownership, Room Decoration, Habbo Club upgrade (“exclusive room layouts, furni – what you use to decorate your room, priority access, cool clothes and commands”), eCards, User Articles, Celebrity Visits, Habbo Tunes

· Cybertown:
http://www.cybertown.com

General Description: Cybertown is a virtual world that allows you to get a private 3D home with your own personal chat, inbox, message board and free e-mail. You can invite your friends over to hang out, chat and party. The Cybertown shopping malls and Flea Markets allow you to buy, sell or trade 3D objects for your virtual home. In Cybertown members must find jobs in order to earn the 'cyber cash' necessary to buy and furnish homes for themselves. Free basic membership. No registration required. Cybertown has partnered with Intel, Hallmark Entertainment Network, Centropolis Interactive, Mothership.com and Vidnet. Created in 1995 by co-founders Tony Rockliff and Pascal Baudar, now owned by Integrated Virtual Networks.
Audience: A futuristic sci-fi theme greatly influenced by the cyberpunk genre of literature and film. According to Cybertown: 2/3 of Cybertown members are male. More than half of Cybertown's members are under the age of 25. 75% are under the age of 35. And nearly half are students. Cybertown members are computer savvy using high end computer systems. Nearly three-quarters of members connect to the internet at 56K or greater. 78% spend more than 6 hours per week on the Internet while 56% spend more than 16 hours per week on the internet. Cybertown comes the closest to attempting to recreate the Metaverse as it described in the novel, Snow Crash, complete with a Black Sun club.
Features: 3D Avatars, Property Ownership, Environment Building, Text Capability, Integrated e-Commerce, Games, Virtual Pets, Role-Playing Games, Movie Theaters, Music Concerts, Celebrity Chats, Virtual Jobs, In-World Political System

· Doppelganger:
http://www.doppelganger.com/
General Description: Doppelganger provides avatar-based instant message environments for music fans in conjunction with entertainment and media companies. The first property from Doppelganger is, The Lounge, which lets teens chat and interact with their friends in a virtual club while listening to their favorite music. Doppelganger is based in San Francisco, California. Doppelganger builds custom venues for partners to showcase their content. Partners include: The Tyra Banks Show, DJ AM, and Interscope Records. Instead of charging for a monthly subscription, Doppelganger allows free entry, but users will have ample chance to buy virtual clothing and other goods to customize their online life.
Audience: Targeted to a teen audience. Doppelganger envisions itself as the foundation of a safe and profitable virtual world, specifically for teens.

Features: Teenagers can listen to music, dance, and hang out at clubs. Real-world DJs spin records live in the virtual world. Avatars are customizable. Users do not create a virtual world, but rather participate in one. Virtual world is integrated with AOL and synched up to users’ instant-messenger accounts.

· Kaneva:
http://www.kaneva.com
General Description: Kaneva is a virtual world that allows users to interact through 3D avatars. Aside from enabling them to build custom environments, Kaneva provides the user with the ability to share, comment, rave, tag and search a wide range of media including videos, blogs, photos, music/audio and games. Kaneva is the only place where Profiles, Media and Communities are teleported from the 2D web into a modern-day 3D Virtual World with their own virtual spaces. On the web, members can create and customize their own Profile, join or start online Communities, make new friends as well as browse thousands of other Profiles, Communities and Media. They can also interact with the community through blogs, forums, search, shared media, tags, comments, friend requests, private messaging and raves. In-world members can teleport from the Kaneva web into the 3D World of Kaneva. In-world, a member’s Profile, online friends, Media and Communities translate to their 3D avatar, avatar friends, videos playing on their virtual TV, and 3D hang-outs where they can connect and interact in 3D with their favorite Communities. When in-world, they can go back to the 2D Kaneva web to use a browser-interface or to browse for people or media or manage their Kaneva experience in 2D. Membership is free, but for Windows only. Kaneva is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Audience: The site boasts 11,829 Communities, 436,319 People, 333,221 Uploads. Users must be 14-years or older. Aimed not at tech-savvy teens, but at a mainstream audience (due, in part, to its MySpace/Second Life mashup style). Kaneva founders are seeking to attract a “large, mainstream audience via easy-to-use, avatar- and environment-design tools, graphics that load quickly, and safety features to keep out cybercriminals who lurk in Second Life, such as stalkers and vandals.” (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070416_936979.htm?chan=technology_special+report+--+virtual+life_virtual+life). Their idea is to create a virtual world that mirrors the real world for a “more cautious, upscale crowd.” Currently, Kaneva gives away its software to companies that want to build customized virtual worlds. To date there have been 40,000 downloads of the software.

Features: 3D Avatars; Property Ownership; Text Capability; Integrated e-Commerce; Games; Watch and Upload new media; Fully Customizable 3D Home; Users cannot design their own buildings, clothing, or vehicles from scratch; Built-in Anti-Hacking features

· Moove:
http://www.moove.com

General Description: Moove's home page highlights room-building and online romantic encounters as the primary activities available to visitors. Moove's avatars are called "actors" and the choices range from human avatars to animals and robots. Actors can laugh, kiss, hug, walk around, jump, and pull faces. New visitors are given their own collection of rooms and can decorate their online home with a selection of furniture. Each member hosts and manages his own space, which allows a great variety of individual expression. Free basic membership with option to upgrade to premium plans (which start at $9.90/month). For Windows only and requires a download of software.

Audience: Estimated monthly unique visitors 17,803. The average age of moove visitors is higher than most virtual worlds, and it is not uncommon to see ages ranging in the 40's, 50's, and even 60's in moove profiles.

Features: 3D Avatars, Property Ownership, Environment Building, Text Capability, Integrated e-Commerce, Games, Paint and decorate rooms, Matchmaking service, Based on peer-to-peer technology

· MTV:
http://content.vmtv.com/mtv_central/index.html
Laguna Beach
The Hills

General Description: MTV will combine content from MTV Networks' television shows with fully 3D virtual worlds and then put it all through a feedback loop in which people can interact with TV personalities and create content that becomes part of the shared experience. Virtual Laguna Beach and Virtual Hills take the story lines of hit shows and weave them into a large, public 3D digital environment in which users can meet the shows' stars, or "live" the lifestyles of the programs. MTV has created a virtual "highway" that will make it possible for users of each virtual worlds (and now the new virtual world: Virtual Pimp My Ride) to visit the other. The environments were created using Makena Technologies' There.com platform.

Audience: According to MTV, more than 600,000 registered users signed up for Virtual Laguna Beach and Virtual Hills in the first six months. The company lists the website’s metrics as follows: 64 percent of users come back regularly, users visit 1.4 times per week for an average of 37 minutes each time, and users have so far logged more than 72 million minutes in-world. 99 percent of users of its virtual worlds are exposed to branded content. Users are teens (18-24) and tweens.

Features: MTV content is woven into the virtual world. Users interact with brands (like Pepsi) through games and challenges. Cast members from the shows go into the virtual world to interact with the avatars. Live performances and screenings are available in the virtual world. Virtual fashions – designed by The Hills’ Lauren Conrad – appear in the virtual world alongside other goods for sale. There is a community section for participating real world community events and an events section listing social happenings.

· Nicktropolis
http://www.nick.com/nicktropolis/game/index.jhtml?onair=1&_requestid=171528

General Description: An offshoot of Nickelodeon’s Nick.com. In Nicktropolis, kids can customize their own rooms, visit interactive common rooms, watch their favorite Nickelodeon shows, interact with Nick characters and play games. Kids can also chat with one another in real time.

Audience: Population of Nicktropolis is 4,398,967. Designed for kids.

Features: Kids have NickNames, NickPoints, NickMail and NickPages. They can chat, play games, and watch video. Nicktropolis news and virtual pets.

· Club Penguin
http://www.clubpenguin.com/

General Description: Club Penguin is a kid-friendly virtual world where children can play games, have fun and interact with each other. Each player starts by choosing a penguin, giving it an identity, and then exploring Club Penguin. They can interact with other penguins by chatting, playing games, sending greeting cards, or using emotes (emotion icons) and using a set of predefined actions. By helping other participants and playing games, players earn virtual coins. Earned coins can be eventually used to buy clothing and accessories for their penguin or furniture for their igloo. Club Penguin membership costs $5.95/month and cover site-operating costs because there is no advertising. No download required.

Audience: Club Penguin is designed for 8-14 year olds.

Features: Kid-friendly chat, games, a kids health and learning section, Global Citizenship component; designed to be fun, online world with virtual components that is safe for kids.

· Playdo:
http://www.playdo.com

General Description: Playdo is a virtual world with a variety of supplemental community-building features, including an intuitive web page editor that allows members to easily create personalized home pages. Playdo does not have an in-world economy in the form of points, merchandise, which means socializing is the central focus of this community. “All members create their own citizens and take up residence in a city full of friendly people and fun things to do. Playdo community is the meeting place of choice for youths from over 150 countries world wide.” Playdo includes a WAP interface that enables social connections from mobile phones. Membership is free and no special requirements are needed. Based out of Sweden.
Audience: Approximately 17,748 unique monthly visits. The site attracts a younger (ages 12-20), heavily female, audience. User interests include teen, television and entertainment.

Features: 3D Avatars, Property Ownership, Environment Building, Text Capability, Games, Mobile Imaging Studio, Mobile Homepage Editor, Mobile Logo Editor, Multiplayer Graffiti, Motion Detection Camera for Game playing

· Second Life:
http://www.secondlife.com

General Description: Second Life is a highly sophisticated, creative environment in 3D. The high-resolution avatars are fully customizable and users can buy new accessories. While many gamers visit Second Life, it is not a "gaming" world per se. The main in-world activity is the building of interactive objects using a scripting language that is theoretically designed to be simple enough for those with no previous programming experience. This fits in with Second Life's stated goal of encouraging widespread group participation and creativity. Objects can be either donated to the world or can be sold for "Linden Dollars." Second Life is described as having a “walking dream” atmosphere. The very name "Second Life" conveys the idea that this is more of a rich, complex online experience than a place to drop by every once in a while. Because residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents. The Second Life Marketplace supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. Access is free for 1 basic account. Additional basic accounts cost $9.95. Premium monthly, quarterly and annual membership options allowing land ownership are also available. Second Life boasts over 8 million residents and was created by Linden Labs (founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale) out of San Francisco, California.

Audience: Second Life claims residents from over 100 countries. 30 % of residents are from the US, followed by 10% from Germany and then by 8% from France. 38% are ages 25-34, 26% are 18-24, and 21% are 35-44. Currently, the gender split between residents is 43% female and 57% male.

Features: Users can build environments, edit 3D avatars, own property, text chat, use VoIP, participate in integrated e-Commerce, games and community events, they can fly, watch videos and movies, hold and participate in discussions, listen to music and much more

· Stardoll
http://www.stardoll.com/en/

General Description: Stardoll is a paper doll dress-up community site. At Stardoll you can create your own doll or choose from our always growing collection of celebrity dolls and dress them up in our virtual fashions. Every celebrity doll has a wardrobe full of unique clothes and outfits, each month there are new and there are new dolls released every week. Membership is free. Members can buy more Stardollars to purchase clothes and accessories after they use up the first 25 they receive with their initial membership. Stardoll's original name was Paperdollheaven.com, and started out as the hobby of the Scandinavian-born Liisa. Inspired by a childhood passion for paperdolls, Liisa started drawing dolls and accompanying wardrobes and taught herself web design. Her personal homepage rapidly became a popular destination for teens. In 2004, with the help of her son, she upgraded the site and called it Paperdoll Heaven.

Audience: Most members are between the ages of 7 and 17.

Features: Members can make their own “MeDoll” choosing from hundreds of hairstyles, skin tones, eye-colors, noses, mouths; they can decorate their personal suite; dress celebrity dolls online and send them to other members; have their own personalized page; stars such as Hillary Duff are set to perform at Stardoll.com

· There.com:
http://www.there.com
General Description: There has several exotic virtual locales for visitors to explore. All avatars are human and can be customized to have a wide variety of face and body shapes. A favorite activity of There members is the outfitting of their avatars with custom-made clothing items, which can be purchased with the local currency, “Therebucks”. Therebucks can be purchased with a credit card or earned by creating and selling original clothing designs, vehicles and other objects. Basic lifetime membership is free. An upgrade to Premium membership is available for a one-time payment of $9.95. Users need to download software, which is only available to Windows users. There is a product of Makena Technologies, Inc. is a privately held corporation, headquartered in Silicon Valley, California. Makena also created MTV’s virtual worlds (Laguna Beach and The Hills).
Audience: Catering to ages 13 and up, There has "PG-13" standards and is a very social world, with chatting and making friends as the main focus. Members are encouraged to explore There with buggies and "hoverboards" that carry avatars safely and swiftly around virtual terrain.

Features: Users can edit 3D avatars, build new environments, own property, text chat, use VoIP, participate in integrated e-Commerce, games and community events, buggy races, hoverboard races, in-world quests, and avatar paintball. Capitol Music Group struck a deal with There.com to bring their artists in-world and groups like MIMS, Yellowcard, Korn, the Beastie Boys and Lily Allen are going to perform in There.com this year.

· Weblo:
http://weblo.com

General Description: Weblo is a virtual world based on the real world. Members earn real money by owning online replicas of real cities, states, famous properties and internet domain names. Members create sites and get paid for their popularity via internet advertising. Owners of cities and states earn additional money from transaction fees in their territories and by selling their virtual investment properties for a profit. Membership is free and there are no special requirements. Montreal-based founder Rocky Mirza launched the site in September, with $2.5-million (U.S.) in startup capital from several investors, including Richard Rosenblatt, former chairman of MySpace.com, Matt Hill, founder of eForce Media, and William Woodward, founder and managing director of Anthem Venture Partners.

Audience: In the six months since its launch, Weblo.com has generated about 10,000 registered users and has recorded more than two million page views. Entrepreneurs and businesses, those looking to make money through the web, rather than participate in the typical social or gaming function of virtual worlds.
Features: Users can build environments and own property, but there are no avatars. They can text chat and participate in integrated e-Commerce. Weblo.com offers a replica of the real world - a virtual duplicate in our shared cyber universe - based on real-world properties, people, Internet domains and events. It relies on users to create logos, slogans and advertising through Open Source Branding. Open Source Branding is the process of applying the principle of Open Source - software that is intended to be freely shared, modified and redistributed by others - to branding and marketing strategies to encourage continual development and improvement of a company image or product.

· Whyville:
http://www.whyville.net
General Description: Whyville is an educational virtual world for children and teen-agers. Originally established to support an LA Times weekly science education article, Whyville actively engages its visitors and encourages them to participate in fun, educational events that give kids "hands-on" experience with science projects (in a virtual way). Membership is free and no special requirements are needed. Users can purchase a “Whyville Pass” for instant 24/7 access. Whyville is a product of Numedeon, Inc. out of Pasadena, California.
Audience: According to the "Whyville Times" newspaper on the Whyville.net site, this world was averaging 22,000 visitors a day in August 2003. Targeted to teen and pre-teen girls and boys. 1.7 million registered “citizens”. Targeted to teachers and educators as well.

Features: Users can build environments, own property, and edit 3D avatars. They can play games, chat, attend events, start their own business, write for the town newspaper or run for a seat in the Whyville Senate.

· Zwinky
http://home.zwinky.com/zwinkyhome/main.jhtml

General Description: The new virtual world, Zwinktopia, will provide Zwinkies a social community with 29 unique locations and dozens of games and activities. In Zwinktopia users can shop for the latest fashions, chat with friends, play games, participate in events, and hang out in their dorm. Each user will be able to earn Zbucks allowing his or her Zwinky to virtually shop at one of many boutiques for clothes, accessories, furniture and other products. Zwinky is part of the MyWebSearch Toolbar. The toolbar also provides users with other popular free products including Smiley Central(TM), Webfetti(TM), Popular Screensavers(TM), MyFunCards(TM), Cursor Mania(TM), and many more personalized content products.

Audience: 4.7 million active Zwinky users. 3.6 million users visit monthly. Appeals to a younger, more female audience.
Features: Customizable avatars who can shop, chat, play games and participate in events such as live music concerts.

***

· Google Earth
http://earth.google.com/

Google Earth is a virtual globe program. It maps the earth by superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography, and GIS 3D globe. It is available under three different licenses: Google Earth, a free version with limited functionality; Google Earth Plus, which includes a few more features; and Google Earth Pro, intended for commercial use. Because Google Earth has a digital elevation model (DEM), one can view features (like the Grand Canyon) or Mount Everest in 3D (something that has been attractive to organizations trying to get the message out about their cause be it genocide or environmental destruction). Google Earth is able to show all kinds of images overlaid on the surface of the earth.

The Google Earth Community is an online forum which is dedicated to producing placemarks of interesting or educational perspectives. For a $400 annual subscription fee, Google Earth Pro is a business-oriented upgrade to Google Earth that has more features than the "Plus" version. The Pro version includes add-on software such as: moving making, GIS data importer, advanced printing modules.

Google Earth Outreach allows non-profits or public benefit groups to use Google Earth, and gives away Earth Pro license grants.

· Google Street View
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/

Google’s Street View feature for Google Maps enables users to see certain parts of several big US cities through panoramic images that have been taken by cars outfitted with cameras, which have been sent through major cities. Through Street View one can view street level photographs, take virtual walks (pan, rotate, and zoom), explore cityscapes and landmarks, and find shops and restaurants.

Comments

[Big Brother]

Check out some real Google Street View stuff here:

http://streetviewgallery.corank.com

[Colin Trethewey]

Hi Liz, thanks for including Weblo.com in your Virtual Worlds map of Space. A lot has changed at Weblo, the member numbers listed above for Weblo are from February.

Weblo.com now has over 50,000 members and we recently received $3.2 million dollars in new financing.

Thanks, Colin

[danie]

how about Gaiaonline? people would want to know about that.oh and "maid marian" they need more premotion.