Best Of WorldsInMotion: From Neopets to Perfect World

Regularly, we'll be featuring the top stories from the surging online/virtual world space from Gamasutra sister site WorldsInMotion.biz. Recent notables in the space include an Online World Atlas entry for NeoPets Inc.'s Neopets, several interviews including Dean Cheshire from 10VOX and Jonathan Belliss from Perfect World International. Worlds In Motion's Online World Atlas: Neopets "I can absolutely respect the work put into Neopets across the years, but what they've chosen to engineer is (to an adult, at least) absolutely and transparently a timesink... It's an interesting world, one worth looking at, but has as many glaring problems to see as positive aspects." Interview: Dean Cheshire, Head of Production, 10VOX "This market is ripe for innovation. Young players are tired of seeing the same old, tired concepts of yesteryear. 10VOX Entertainment is deeply committed to introducing products that not only redefine this segment, but also provide a benchmark of quality. With Tracksters and KooKeys, we aim to do exactly that." Interview: Jonathan Belliss, Product Manager For Perfect World International "I believe that having a game that stems from Chinese mythos is an easier sell to our audience. The whole dragons, minotaurs, fairies, orcs and elves has been hashed and rehashed over and over. How about something fresh? How about something new?" Sony Online Entertainment's Free Realms Opens for Beta Registration "Free Realms was the only of Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming titles which was in a playable form at E3, and we had some time with it and found it interesting enough that we're excited to tell you that registration for the company's first foray into free-to-play is now open.'" Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online Closed Beta Now Accepting Applications "Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online has now began accepting applications for its closed beta for North American and Europeans, which will run until December 1st when successful applicants will be granted access." Tilted Mill Opens Beta For Immortal Cities: Nile Online "Developer Tilted Mill Entertainment has announced that their originally offline city-building title Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile has been adapted as the free-to-play browser-based massively multiplayer Immortal Cities: Nile Online." MindFuse Officially Announces Steampunk Casual MMO Gatheryn "The release details Gatheryn is 'set in a fantasy world where steam powers everything from vehicles and mechanical monkeys to dirigibles meandering through the clouds,' though it never specifically drops the "s-bomb" ('steampunk') in its description, instead intending to concentrate on the concept that the title 'embodies the detailed Victorian aesthetic depicted by classic writers such as Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle.'." Interested parties can read daily news on the online/virtual worlds space at the WorldsInMotion.biz weblog, with the next Worlds In Motion Summit planned for GDC 2009.