In this section you will find the descriptions and links to some of the leading online virtual worlds and platforms present on the market.
ISN Virtual Worlds develops solutions for various platforms and using different technologies according to each project's specifications. We can also develop mass market cross-worlds marketing campaigns, to cover a vaste target audience which counts, at the end of 2009, over 600 million registered accounts.
Most of the virtual worlds listed here under do not represent what we define a virtual world platform, they are mainly 3d social networks or flash based 3d environments on web.
What we generally consider to be a virtual world is a fully immersive online 3D environment where we can interact with others and objects, through on Avatar.
Active Worlds has been around since the good old days of 1995. Since then the company has changed management several times and is currently operated by Activeworlds, Inc. Members help develop the world by building objects that visually enhance each world's setting but don't appear to do much else. Active Worlds is full of modern-day cities with a new age utopian twist. There is a distinct "international" theme in Active Worlds, with many worlds based on real-world countries. In addition to maintaining its publicly accessible virtual worlds, Activeworlds Inc. licenses its technology for private development of educational, e-commerce, entertainment, and promotional projects.
Cybertown is a virtual world with a futuristic sci-fi theme greatly influenced by the cyberpunk genre of literature and film. According to the Cybertown company web site, there are over half a million cyber-citizens in the world who are encouraged to build homes, hold in-world jobs, and participate in Cybertown's elaborate political system. When that gets to be too much, they can let off some steam by going clubbing or visiting in-world concerts and movie theaters.
This brightly colored cartoon environment offers kids (and their parents) the chance to play games, outfit their toon avatars, own a toon house, and battle the "Evil Cog Robots" trying to take over Toontown and turn it into a bland, black and white, skyscraper-filled, fun-deprived place. Like its offline inspiration (Disney World), Toontown is designed to make kids feel that this is a space where they are in charge. Things like squirt guns and pies in the face are not only encouraged but specifically incorporated into the game as official battle tactics to be used against the Cogs. A kid-centered world does have its limits, however. Communication is limited to a drop-down menu of phrases called "Speed Chat". The only way to converse freely with someone in Toontown is to make them a "secret friend" which requires both parties to enter a password exchanged outside the game. This may limit the world's development as a social space, but it does ensure a higher level of safety.
Un mondo virtuale interamente pensato per le ragazze, in cui creare il proprio personaggio, vestirlo, arredare la propria casa, fare shopping e chiaccherare con le amiche.
Dreamville's "Theme Park" is just one part of a larger Dreamville site which includes blogs, photo sharing, and customizable homepages known as "hompy" (slang for "home page"). The free registration provides a basic avatar and a home page, but additional clothing and accessory items must acquired with e-Games Points (eP), which can be purchased through the "Top-Up" feature with a credit card. In the Theme Park, users are given two pieces of property to customize: a room and a field. Rooms and fields can be decorated with furniture and other items with Game Money (GM), not to be confused with eP.
COKE STUDIOS
Coke Studios, part of the Coke Music site at Mycoke.com, is a promotional virtual world targeted to teens and young adults. Members can create their own customized music mixes in a virtual music studio, play them for other members, and receive ratings for each mix. Favorable ratings allow members to earn points called "decibels" which can be used to purchase virtual furnishings for their personalized studio areas. Members can also earn decibels by participating in a variety of promotional quizzes, games, and contests for Coca-Cola and its partners. Avatars in Coke Studios are called "V-egos" and can be customized in a variety of outfits. Your V-ego can hang out in one of the many public rooms based on international cities like London, New York, and Moscow or socialize in customized private studios. Coke Studios also offers an in-world messenger feature which allows communication with other V-egos no matter where you are in the Coke Studios world.
Dubit is a free online community for UK teenagers. Its virtual world, called "dubitisland 3D Chat," is just one of several social networking features including message boards, IM, blogs, and sponsored games and competitions. One thing you'll notice right away about Dubit is its heavy emphasis on corporate sponsorship. Advertisements for various movies, services, and products dominate the web site, the chat rooms, and even the instant messages used by members.
The Entropia Universe is more than a game: it's a massive online universe with real activities and a Real Cash Economy (PED). Entropia is continuously improved and enriched in its contents by they Entropia Universe Support Department.
Habbo Hotel is a virtual world for teens, created by a company in Finland called Sulake Labs. This busy site uses a hotel metaphor as its theme complete with a "lobby" gateway and private "guest rooms." The hotels are often so busy it can take a few tries to get into the main rooms, but there are always a plenty of guest rooms to choose from as well. Guest rooms can be decorated with furniture (or "furni" as Habbos call it) purchased with "Habbo credits." Habbo credits can be purchased with several types of RL currency (UK Pounds sterling, euros, US dollars, Canadian dollars, and Australian dollars) in a wide variety of ways (credit card, mobile phone, prepaid stored value cards). Furni may set you back a few credits, but access to the world itself is free and relatively easy to navigate.
The Manor is a graphical chat, with an interface similar to The Palace but an updated 2D chat technology with ongoing development of the product. Many Manor regulars were once Palace users and they love the improvements to the Manor's client and server software, such the ability to make and wear props that are 132 X 132 pixels in full color, with up to 15 animated frames allowed. Since images can be used from any source imaginable, this allows for a wide variety of creative expression when creating an avatar. The Manor is a great option for dial-up customers and Mac users, two increasingly underserved groups in the area of virtual worlds. If you visit, look for a friendly tiger avatar named "Scotsman" - he'll be glad to help you find your way around.
Mokitown is a cartoon-like world built for children ages 8-12. Sponsored by DaimlerChrysler, Mokitown's goal is to educate its young members (called "mokis" - short for "mobile kids") about road and traffic safety through this shared social experience. Mokis encounter virtual urban settings like street crossings and transportation venues that require them to make judgment calls about how to safely move about in the virtual space. A "quizbot" roams around Mokitown testing kids with traffic safety questions. Correct answers are rewarded with "mobility points" which can be redeemed for virtual items like avatar clothing, hairstyles, and other accessories. Unsafe or careless actions result in the deduction of points from a moki's account. Although mokis can chat freely with each other in the world, basic pre-formatted chat phrases like "how are you?" and "I like your outfit" are available for those at a loss for words. To obtain private chat functionality (ie. instant messaging) mokis must purchase a "cell phone" with the points they've earned.
Moove is a 3D virtual world that offers English and German versions of its product called "Roomancer." Roomancer is a play on words that reflects the room-building focus of moove as well as the "romance" angle of the world. Indeed, moove's home page highlights room-building and online romantic encounters as the primary activities available to visitors. Moove's avatars are called "actors" (perhaps another play on words with "moove/movie"?) and the choices range from human avatars to animals and robots. While the default selection of body types is minimal, there are many outfits to choose from in moove's online store and it is relatively easy to establish a virtual home in moove. New visitors are given their own collection of rooms and are encouraged to immediately begin decorating their online home with a selection of furniture. Each member hosts and manages their own space, which allows a great variety of individual expression. 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.
Muse specializes in building customized virtual worlds for media companies, ad agencies, corporations looking to extend their brand and products, and broadband service providers. According a company press release, one of Muse's primary goals is "combining the sensory impact of television with the interactive and networking capabilities of the Internet". Muse worlds incorporate audio and video which can be used for both entertainment and promotional purposes. Muse also offers smaller web site owners the ability to build and customize their own Muse worlds to enhance web content offerings. Muse offers incredibly seamless integration of 2D web content into a 3D space. Visitors can view and navigate any web site from within the world, allowing them to interact with current web offerings like online shopping, message boards, blogs, and streaming audio or video while chatting with others in the 3D environment.
THE PALACE
Originally developed by Jim Bumgardner for Time Warner Interactive in 1995, The Palace software has since been owned and developed by several failed companies, the latest of which (Communities.com) disappeared in 2001. In spite of this, hundreds of palaces happily live on, maintained by dedicated palace citizens across a network of palace servers. (The task of developing The Palace's successor has been attempted several times, but most notably by The Manor.). The Palace software provides a visual 2D chat space with ambience created by photos and original artworks that serve more as scenic backdrops than any realistic illusion of space. The Palace's greatest feature is its ability to allow users to create avatars out of any image imaginable, creating endless opportunities for self-expression. A palace exists for just about every theme, topic, and demographic imaginable.
Playdo is a graphical chat world built by Swedish developer Andreas Rehnberg. It is available in English and Swedish versions and is geared toward a younger audience (ages 12-20). Playdo's chat environment contains a mix of urban, outdoor, and seasonal settings. Members create tiny customized avatars and communicate through text bubbles. The chat interface is simple, usable, and standard fare for a Flash-based world. But Playdo distinguishes itself from other virtual worlds with a variety of supplemental community-building features, including a nifty point-and-click web page editor that allows members to easily create personalized home pages without having to learn HTML. Playdo does not have an in-world economy in the form of points, merchandise, or virtual dollars, which means socializing is the central focus of this community. Playdo includes a WAP interface that enables social connections to grow on the go.
The Sims Online, a networked version of The Sims PC game, received a lot of buzz surrounding its launch. Unlike the PC game, where the sims basically function as virtual pets, online sims are ostensibly a virtual version of each visitor - in other words, avatars. Interestingly, online sims are still required to have the naps, food, and social interaction their offline prototypes do. For those who simply want to chat and hang out with other people online, this can be annoying. On the other hand, these tasks do offer endless fodder for small talk when meeting other sims. The Sims Online has been heavily marketed to teens, and the majority of TSO residents seem to be in their teens and twenties. Although it incorporates standard conversational features of social chat environments, The Sims Online is still constricted by "gaming" rules and the requisite achievement of skills and money. The object of the game is to earn as many "simoleans" (TSO's in-world currency) as possible in order to furnish one's well appointed virtual home with beautifully rendered household objects. In fact, the world of The Sims Online is full of eye candy and part of the fun is seeing the creative ways property owners have decorated their virtual abodes.
SORA CITY
Sora City is a fun, casual virtual world that lets you create a unique character who can wear custom outfits, make friends online, join groups called "crews" and post daily messages to a blog. This might sounds like plenty of other social virtual worlds, but there's something very different about Sora City - it can only be visited with a mobile phone. Because Sora is a completely mobile experience, it's a great way to pass short periods of downtime. Content is constantly being updated which means you'll want to check in often throughout the day. While each player can take an active part in establishing a character's look and personality, characters also have minds of their own, posting blog messages and interacting with other characters listed as friends. Ultimately friendship is what Sora City is all about, and the more friends a character has the higher his or her "popularity" score will become.
THERE
Positioning itself as an "everyday getaway", There has several exotic virtual locales for visitors to explore, including a tropical island setting for virtual surfers, the goth island Tyr and a simulated Egypt complete with Sphinx and pyramids. 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. 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 in-world currency called "Therebucks." Therebucks can be purchased with a credit card or earned by creating and selling original clothing designs, vehicles and other objects.
TowerChat is a UK-based 2D chat service. Public environments are divided into eight subject "towers" including Politics, Music, and Love. The avatar choices are attractive males or attractive females (but no non-human avatars). Based on this and the "singles nightclub" feel of the world, the main focus of TowerChat activity seems to be flirting with the opposite sex. This theme is reinforced by the fact that three of the eight towers are labelled "Love Chat," "Flirting Chat," and "Romantic Chat" and the rooms within each tower have names like "Penthouse," "London Boozer," "Carefree Bar," and simply "Bar." The birds-eye perspective of the rooms is an interesting and original way to give a 3D feel to a 2D space, which is enhanced by the photorealistic avatatars and room graphics. TowerChat caters to UK teens, who are its most frequent visitors. The company has also designed a customized TowerChat application for fans of the Chelsea UK football team: (http://chelsea.towerchat.com/).
Originally called "Onlive! Traveler", the Traveler technology has been adopted for the greater good by The Digital Space Commons and carefully maintained by a network of Traveler devotees. The ideal world for those who would rather speak than type, Traveler offers a virtual world with built-in real-time voice chat. Not only does this reduce strain on arms and hands, for some it also provides a more emotionally connected experience to the virtual world. Much like The Palace, there is no central Traveler world but rather a network of user-generated Traveler rooms and worlds with a wide variety of themes. A visitor's avatar in Traveler is a large, expressive head whose mouth moves to mimic the voices of its host. Unfortunately there is no text balloon or chat window alternative for those who prefer not to use the voice feature but communication can take place with other visitors through individual text messaging.
Virtual Ibiza takes online dating service features, blends them with virtual world technology and delivers the result as a trendy social hangout. Thematically based on a real Mediterranean resort island off the east coast of Spain, this world is for visitors ages 18 and older only. Virtual Ibiza's launch press release defines its goal as the recreation of "an online community for those people who love the Ibiza lifestyle." Specifically, this means the 18-35 international clubbing community. Virtual Ibiza's avatars appear to take the partying theme to heart as most hold virtual drinks while lounging at various beach, cafe, or night-club settings. This world is loaded with complementary features for its members, including email, instant messaging, games, message boards, mobile ringtones, and a searchable dating profile area for sharing personal photos and videos. While this is certainly an impressive array of options, the down side is that the inclusion of so many extras tends to divert the focus away from the virtual world itself, which ends up reading more like a subsidiary add-on to the dating profile area rather than the other way around.
Virtual Magic Kingdom is a virtual re-creation of Disney's theme parks. Registration is free and VMK visitors will find beautifully rendered rooms based on familiar Disney themes, such as "Snow White's Hide and Seek Forest" and "It's a Small World Imports." Each visitor can also create a personalized room which can be decorated with items earned by playing games, completing quests, and trading with other players. Virtual Magic Kingdom is the first virtual world that lets visitors supplement their online experience with a visit to a real world theme park. Each Disney resort in Florida and California has a "VMK Central" area that lets players visit VMK to earn rare items. Characters created in person at a VMK Central area will be able to display a special "Born in Park" icon. Disney fans of all ages will enjoy a visit to Virtual Magic Kingdom, however keep in mind this virtual world is meant for children ages 10 to 14. To help keep the conversation appropriate for this age group, VMK only allows visitors to chat with a selection of pre-approved words and all usernames must be approved before use (new users can still enter the world immediately with a "Guest" login).
Voodoo Chat is a free 2D graphical chat space similar in nature to The Palace. Like The Palace, it is now being administered by its community members on a collection of independent servers. Access is free to anyone willing to download and install the software. Voodoo Chat visitors can customize their avatars from any GIF, BMP, JPG, or PNG file they wish to use. Voodoo Chat visitors are generally friendly and welcoming, and the atmosphere in Voodoo Chat rooms is laid-back and casual. According to its web site, Voodoo Chat is "a collection of privately owned and operated servers, each of which has it's own set of rules, or no rules at all." As a result, many of the Voodoo Chat servers and rooms feature "adult" content, making many of these environments most suitable for those 18 years of age and older. However, each Voodoo Chat has its own distinct style and rules, with themes ranging from Anime to Poetry, so interested visitors may want to browse a bit before settling on one destination.
A 2D chat space that uses Virtual Places chat software, VPchat was founded in 2001 by two former Excite community developers, Tom Lang and Julie Gomoll. Their slogan is "no ads, no bull, just chat" and they strive to maintain a harassment-free space with the help of volunteer hosts. VPchat is comprised of a 2D network of widely varying virtual worlds. Each world contains a set of rooms with background images and 2D avatar-based communication via chat bubbles, gestures, and sounds. Most VPchat members came to the service via Virtual Places and represent a wide variety of interests and age ranges. Most of them are from the United States. A favorite activity in VPchat spaces is group participation in online versions of traditional board games like backgammon, checkers, and yahtzee. There are also nightly trivia contests and scavenger hunts as well as themed chats for just about every topic imaginable.
Originally called WorldsAway, VZones is the latest incarnation of a virtual world whose roots go all the way back to the very first visual virtual world, LucasFilm's Habitat (launched in 1985 for Commodore 64 machines). VZones maintains the original Dreamscape world developed by Fujitsu, plus two other worlds called newHorizone and Second Kingdom that must be accessed and paid for separately. The VZones worlds are colorful 2D environments made up of screen after screen of artistically rendered backdrops. Avatars can be customized with a variety of human body types. More creativity is allotted to the heads, which are interchangeable and infamously prone to being stolen and pawned by head thieves (a problem that can easily be avoided by putting your extra heads in your "pocket").
This avatar-centric 2D fashion world offers its target audience of 12-20 year olds the ability to play with avatars that function as virtual paper dolls. WRR taps into celebrity culture by offering pre-made avatars that resemble popular celebs, including Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, J-Lo, Orlando Bloom, and Paris Hilton. Members are also encouraged to create their own unique looks which can be individualized with a wide variety of trendy clothing and accessories. Dressed-to-the-nines avatars can interact in glamorous social settings like pool, beach, and lounge areas or the cityscape or country-themed rooms, which are a mix of graphic illustrations and photographic backgrounds.
Whyville is an educational virtual world for children and teens, ages 10-16. Originally established to support an LA Times weekly science education article, this world's motto is "learning by doing." True to its word, 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, of course). While Whyville is partially moderated with a language filter and a staff of "city workers," the chat is not monitored 24/7 and it is recommended that parents monitor their child's activity and review Whyville's online safety procedures and recommendations before chatting.
Formerly known as Worlds Chat, Worlds.com is a collection of entertainment-related virtual worlds featuring everything from rock bands to sports teams. Other than a press release from March 2003 announcing free VIP accounts for US military members and families, the web site and related worlds seem to be frozen in time somewhere in the year 2001. While the worlds are up and running, they appear to be continually empty and the commercial links to related e-commerce sites no longer work. The Worlds.com heyday may be over now, but it's worth a visit for those interested in the history of virtual worlds. In many ways, this entertainment-related collection of worlds perfectly encapsulates focus of the first wave of virtual worlds in the mid-1990's, with its merging of dotcom boom hype and giddy utopianism. Moving through these worlds now is like visiting a museum.
Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates is a themed world chock-full of puzzles and games. This virtual world is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) which means participants are encouraged to play "in character" rather than engaging in off topic chatter about real-world topics. One of the fun things about Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates is seeing how standard virtual world features are translated into the pirate-speak, for example "buddies" are called "hearties" and "inventory" is called "booty." Indeed, the folks at Three Rings seem to be able to turn anything and everything into a clever pirate metaphor. In addition to several core games like team puzzle challenges (called "brawls") and parlor games like spades, the Puzzle Pirates world allows for a variety of member-created activities like scavenger hunts, paintball, and murder mysteries along with creative endeavors like poetry and song parody contests. A dynamic in-world economy allows players to buy, sell, or trade everything from cloth and grog to whole ships.
Football Superstar is a football virtual world. Users either play singularly, or create and manage their own teams, playing soccer virtually, but living real competition.
Gaia Online is an English-language, anime-themed social networking and forums-based website. It was founded in 2003 as Go-Gaia.com, but the name was changed to GaiaOnline.com in 2004 by its owner, Gaia Interactive. Gaia originally began as an anime linklist and eventually developed a small community, but, following a statement by founder Derek Liu (username "Lanzer"), the website moved towards social gaming. It eventually became the forum-based website it is now. Today, over a million posts are made daily and it is visited by 7 millionunique users each month.Gaia also won the 2007 Webware 100 award in the Community category.
Users of the site, known as Gaians, create a customizable avatar and a customizable virtual home for which they can purchase items using what is called gold. This is given to users after playing games or posting inside the forums; the site also rewards users every day with random gold or items with the Daily Chance. In July 2007, Gaia released Gaia Cash that can be bought at Rite Aid, Wal-Mart, Target stores, 7-11,Speedway SuperAmerica, or directly from Gaia itself.
