October 31st, 2007
It may have taken the recent Virtual Worlds event in London and some interesting announcements from the German company Metaversum, but we finally started to see some more news about non-Asian/non-American virtual worlds emerge recently (Habbo Hotel excepted, of course). While Metaversed offered its early take on Metaversum’s Twinity -
“…The feature that instantly sets Twinity apart from the crowd of hopeful new worlds in this space is its city model,” wrote Wilson. “… Twinity also aims to establish an escrow agent for in- and out of world transactions. Depending on how this looks, this could create interesting trial opportunities for brands seeking to bridge the gap between the physical and the virtual…”
- James Wagner Au, over at GigaOM, noted three other European entrants worth watching:
“…- MoiPal: Tamagotchi-esque MMO for cellphones
There’s been a relative dearth of virtual worlds centered around mobile phone networks, surprisingly enough, but MoiPal from Finland’s Iron Star Helsinki is looking to fill that opening. Founder Joakim Achren gave a quick tour of MoiPal on one of my panels: basically, you create and foster an avatar who exists in your phone, and you send it out to accomplish tasks and interact with other avatars while you’re offline, then check updates at the game’s website– a clever integration of mobile functionality with asynchronous play.
- Papermint: MMO for hip girls
From Austrian-based Avaloop, Papermint is now being localized to English, offering a social world that’s been visualized with a quirky, hip flair. (Think Zwinky for cool kids and thanks to its look, perhaps an even larger fanbase of older players.) It was presented at VWF by lead artist Dr. Barbara Lippe, who with her cerebral background, pixie looks, and blue hair, I’m hereby dubbing the Bjork of the virtual world industry.
- Moshi Monsters: The next Webkinz-ish breakout?
I was also impressed by Moshi Monsters, from the London studio behind last year’s innovative alternative reality game Perplex City. Like Webkinz, the kid-focused MMO that counts nearly 4 million active users, you own a physical analog of a virtual pet, but Moshi Monsters seems to come with more customized controls and functionality, and the ugly-cute creatures will probably attract a larger and slightly older crossover market of boys and girls.”
 Of course, there are most certainly others and – as with all emerging industries – some of those that are “most known” at the beginning are not always there at the end of the race. However, it is great to read more about the European space; next up, South America or India/Vietnam projects, perhaps?
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