Play’s Republic

MTV is striking into digital geography with its new plans to build three virtual worlds from the ground up. As we know, many big companies have been drifting into virtual realms like Second Life, but apparently MTV will be the first to truly build its own synthetic worlds. They’ve announced three:

- Virtual Laguna Beach (including an in-world broadcast of the Laguna Beach show season premiere)
- MusicWorld, which presumably will offer a plethora of opportunities to attend concerts virtually
- LogoWorld, targeted at the gay and lesbian audience

If MTV’s track record is at all indicative, these new worlds should be quite popular among the target audiences. But will they take the place of worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft? Is that even their goal?

In terms of frameworks, Second Life is truly free-form, with almost no official rules or guidelines on “what to do” in-world. We’ve discussed in class how this can be daunting, even displeasing to some users. World of Warcraft is the polar opposite, with heavily formatted questing systems that carry you linearly through the levels with little true “user freedom.” (In the comments section of Katie’s interesting “I’m Just Leveling with You” post, I discuss the possibility of enjoying a game like WoW without focusing on the leveling and instead simply enjoying it experientally.) Perhaps MTV’s worlds can sit neatly between the wholly amorphous and the wholly structured realms.

At any rate, Virtual Laguna Beach is already open and you can join the fun at http://content.vlb.mtv.com/laguna_central/, where you can even check out “Virtual Pimp My Ride.”