Game Developer Research Launches WorldsInMotion.biz Weblog

Author: by Staff

The CMP Game Group has debuted online worlds blog WorldsInMotion.biz, a Game Developer Research-related venture that looks at where games, interaction, and multiplayer worlds meet online. The weblog, which is being run by Gamasutra and GameSetWatch writer Leigh Alexander, has been set up because "...the staff at Game Developer Research will be launching multiple reports on the state and future of online worlds over the next few months." Thus, the new blog will report on virtual worlds as the staff compiles information on this increasingly important market. The importance of online worlds to the game industry is explained in a recent Gamasutra interview with Raph Koster, in which the MUD and MMO veteran notes: "Consider the statistics. Webkinz, 2.5 million uniques in December; you buy a plush toy. Runescape: we still don't think of Runescape as being part of our industry, but it's probably the most popular MMO in the world, more popular than WoW. Toontown is up to more than 2.5 million uniques now. We never talk about Toontown because it's web deployed. Then of course there’s was Club Penguin, with 4.5 million uniques in December alone...When you compare the numbers, all of those are larger than the number two MMO in the western world, every single one of them. So yeah, I think people are missing something." Game Developer Research will be covering the rapidly expanding area where games and online worlds interact, and has set up an Online World Atlas where it will be profiling many online world applications that game industry professionals may not be so familiar with. Elements covered so far include Club Penguin and the longstanding Habbo Hotel, and the overall site, which has set up a Feedburner-based RSS feed for easy access, will be covering two more worlds per week.