Thursday, November 27, 2008

VIRTUAL WORLDS : Whyviille from Subs to Microtransactions

Whywille the free-to-play virtual world is primarily sponsorship- and advertising-supported, but it also offered a subscription for premium options. Now the subscription has been substituted for a virtual currency called Pearls. Parents can set a virtual allowance for their children, choosing to give them various amounts in Pearls one time or on an ongoing monthly basis, which users can then spend on exclusive items or to access new activities."

I Love the concept of Whyville and the ideas behind the features are great but Personally I'm not a fan of Whyville overall, Mainly because I don't like the art and direction and the one recycle game I played was clunky and sucked. I think the site looks amateurish but they claim to have a population of 4,132,096. My guess is they are getting around 50 - 70,000 UVPM who probably spend around 30 mins on the site which is good compared to others.

However I just think that if only they gave the site and brand an overhaul it could be awesome, they could get many more customers by investing, otherwise over time the core players will grow up and they can not be sure to attract new ones as the competition grows.

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