Every tree, building and piece of clothing is approved by MTV, though the underlying technology for 'Virtual Hills/Laguna Beach' comes from another virtual world, 'There,' which was created by San Mateo, Calif.-based Makena Technologies Inc. MTV's endeavors are 'closed' virtual worlds, entirely controlled by the company. MTV's 'Nicktropolis' is growing even faster, with 2.4 million registered users who have logged 7.5 million visits since its launch two months ago, according to Nickelodeon's executive vice president of digital media, Steve Youngwood.

The buyers can't drink them, since they exist only on the screen, but they act as a form of decoration for their avatars. 'When you get people deep and passionate in a community, money just comes out of it in so many ways,' said Matt Bostwick, senior vice president of franchise development at MTV Music Group, which is part of New York-based Viacom Inc.Īs an example of the branding opportunities, Bostwick said MTV has sold more than 11,402 virtual cans of Pepsi. These avatars can interact with each other via text chats and commerce, providing a social element that virtual-world pioneers see as more realistic and engaging than chat rooms and MySpace pages. Almost like the real Southern California, these 3-D online spaces have perfect weather, but in an improvement on real life, its users are all represented by attractive, slim and young online embodiments known as avatars.

MTV executives touted their TV-show spinoffs 'Virtual Laguna Beach' and 'Virtual Hills,' which have attracted 600,000 registered users since they were launched six months ago.

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