Mattel have started to offer a subscription option for its Barbie Girls virtual world. There are literally millions of active users now so Mattel will be hoping a decent percentage of those will beg their parents to fork out US $5.99 per month to be able to customise their avatars more and spend the 'B Bucks' their free account has earned. (Image from barbiegirls.com) If you … [Read more...] about ‘B Bucks’ – buy virtual Barbie Girls gear
Alternatives
Bitfilm’s virtual art city in Twinity
Metaversum's virtual cum mirror world, Twinity, is hosting the German digital media festival Bitfilm in an underground city called Bitropolis. It houses a cinema to view Bitfilm entries as well as an art gallery and bar. Digital media artists can rent their own cube close to the cinema to use for their screenings or other exploits. The Bitfilm promo gives a snapshot of the … [Read more...] about Bitfilm’s virtual art city in Twinity
OpenSim discussion panel: podcast available
Zatzai Asturius from Second Convention held a discussion panel last week about the future of the Second Life grids (both the Linden Lab and OpenSim grids). The panel consisted of Australian Adam Zaius and Teravus Ousley from the OpenSim project and it's now available as a podcast. Zatzai describes the podcast: "The discussion is about an hour long and it covers why there are … [Read more...] about OpenSim discussion panel: podcast available
The Sims Online dies
On the 26th February we mentioned that transition of The Sims Online to a free offering called EA-Land. Just over two months later and the announcement has been made of it's demise as of the 1st August. The Sims Online was a real ground-breaker in virtual worlds and it's a further illustration of how difficult it is to find the formula that works best for large numbers of … [Read more...] about The Sims Online dies
Interview – Dr Mirko Caspar, Twinity co-founder
Twinity is one of the growing swathe of mirror worlds in development. We took the opportunity this week to fire some questions at Dr Mirko Caspar, who's the CMO and co-founder of Metaversum, the company behind Twinity. Lowell: Can you outline the history of how Twinity came about? Mirko: Connecting the real with the virtual world will be one of the major Internet trends in … [Read more...] about Interview – Dr Mirko Caspar, Twinity co-founder