Habbo and Paramount sell virtual movie merchandise

Habbo, a global, teen-aimed virtual world where you can meet and make friends, has signed a deal with Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment to create virtual merchandise based on three of its recent movies. Now Habbo users will be able to buy accessories for their avatars, virtual furniture and other movie paraphernalia based on the upcoming “Spiderwick Chronicles,” “Beowulf” (this one’s for Angelina Jolie’s fans) and “Mean Girls” (for Lindsay Lohan’s). The partnership, which is limited to the U.S. and Canada, leaves open the opportunity to add more films as time goes on.

Habbo has already created virtual environments for brands such as Burger King and Target, and has featured guest appearances by various music artists, including Pink. As Teemu Huuhtanen, EVP, Habbo business and President, North America, said, the virtual world’s users demand that their community reflect today’s real world pop culture entertainment landscape. Which is great for Paramount, as the deal with Habbo allows them to “access Habbo’s exceptional virtual community and built-in audience base where users can extend and enhance the film experience with a suite of themed-virtual goods”.

The Finland-based Sulake, which has created Habbo worlds in 31 countries, claims to reach 1.8 million teenagers in the U.S. and 8 million globally. Most are teens aged 13 to 16. Habbo inhabitants’ avatars can gather in the Habbo Hotel, as well as their own virtual homes. In addition, a Web-based version of Habbo serves as a social networking/instant messaging platform for members.

Are virtual jams the future of rock?

Intel CEO Paul Otellini closed the first day of CES in Las Vegas on Monday with the first ever "virtual" performance by rock band Smash Mouth. The musicians, all in separate locations with only singer Steve Harwell on stage with Otellini, played a song together over the Internet. The physically separated rockers “met” in a virtual garage created using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. The result was their live-motion-captured video avatars jamming on one giant screen.

The performance used three separate technologies: e-Jamming, a social networking site which uses peer-to-peer technology to allow musicians to play along with each other in real time over the Internet, software called Big Stage to create avatars of the band members and a system called Organic Motion which was used to represent each musician. This new motion-capture technology eliminates the need for skintight suits and reflective balls, instead using a new camera system that registers volume within a motion-capture box. Computers record a subject's movements inside the box and translate them into data that realistically replicates motion.

So, looks like being called a “garage band” gained a new, posh – and commercial – meaning. Long live garage rock!

New content for Pirates of the Caribbean Online - starting in February 2008

As Disney has revealed, in February players of Pirates of the Caribbean Online will be given an opportunity to customize their current avatars and make them stand-out amongst others.

Game fans will soon be able to create and modify their pirate avatars – new character customization options will include, among other things, new clothing, new hairstyles, scars, jewelry and tattoos. The new version of the game will have over a million combinations including, apart from the options mentioned above, setting a character's name, gender, body type and facial features. Additional content will consist of expanding ship customization, extending quest story lines, and adding more enemies and challenges.

The game is available for download from www.piratesonline.com. Arrr!

Male SL hotties of 2007

Iris Ophelia published her Top 10 male Second Life avatars for '07, exclusive to New World News. The stimulus to this was the alleged “death of beautiful men of Second Life”. But, as Ophelia explains, the truth is they're only recently getting the same kind of attention female avatars have been enjoying from Second Life’s fashion community since the world's beginning. But despite this, there are gorgeous male avatars with great style out there, and it’s time to give them some recognition (and some credit) for the work they’ve put into themselves!

As you may see from her list, hot avatars in SL can be either:

Stylish

Cool
Or... well, interesting.
So what’s coming up next? Miss and Mister Second Life contests? Will we see SL avatars claiming that their dream is world peace and being crowned for their beauty? That’s probable...

Weblin - a Web 2.0 avatar that has it all

German company Zweitgeist has launched a service called Weblin, which allows to create an animated avatar (a Weblin), and then use it to interact with other Weblins when you're looking at the same website as them. So you can get to know people having the same interests as yours and for example comment on the latest Britney Spears video together – if that’s what you’re both watching on the Web at the moment.

Weblins are free to use, all you have to do is download the program and create a personal profile, where you can enter anything you want to tell the world about yourself. Everyone who meets you is able to see your profile. The more information you enter in your profile, the more interesting you are to like-minded people. If you don't like any of the 100 avatars on offer, you can create your own by uploading a photo. Other features include social bookmarking, translating the currently viewed website, a gifting system to give free things other Weblins, and many more. Zweitgeist is working to expand the set of functions.

Claiming to be female? Prove it!

Probably all online gamers have already heard the news about a Chinese MMORPG called “King of the World” freezing the accounts of male players who chose to play female in-game characters. The game's owner is Aurora Technology, a subsidiary of a Chinese media company Shanda Entertainment (SNDA). Reportedly users of female avatars are now required to prove that they are indeed female in real life via webcam. Females wanting to play males are still allowed though – or at least have not been banned yet. And what about human rights?

But is this really true? Shanda Entertainment's web site lists the MMORPG properties that the company currently owns and operates, and the register doesn't include “King of the World”. One IT company attempted to contact SNDA to either confirm or deny the news, but so far have received no response. So could the whole story be a joke or an Internet myth? If it turns out to be true, this will definitely heaten the ongoing debate.

Bots starring in videos

Have you met Anna, the bot? You can find her on IKEA's web site. Apparently, she already has many fans. Need evidence? Here.

According to some people's opinions, IKEA's chatbot Anna was named after another bot, the one from the song by Basshunter. Now that we have songs about bots and videos starring them, maybe one day we'll see bot or avatar movies? Maybe avatars will be given "the best actor"awards? But - would it actually be a prize for the avatar or its creator? Time will tell, probably.