More Virtual Worlds: Yes, Really

Big companies are piling into virtual reality with their own, branded online worlds that could be as much enterprise tool as marketing ploy

by Paul Hyman

No, virtual worlds aren't exactly video games. But they appeal to the very same gaming demographic. And, for that reason, media companies—like Warner Bros. and Disney—are enthusiastically creating these explorable online lands faster than you can say "Christopher Columbus."

Which is why, this past week, high-profile TV producer Anthony Zuiker—creator of the "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" trio—presented a keynote at the Virtual Worlds Conference & Expo in San Jose, Calif., a gathering for media folks who have just recently woken up to the potential of virtual worlds and what they have to offer.

For instance, last month, Warner Bros. Entertainment announced it would launch T-Works in the second quarter of 2008, a virtual destination that would bring together all the key characters from its core animated brands, including Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics. It's been in development for over a year.

As in most virtual worlds, visitors to T-Works will choose an avatar—in this case, a Warner Bros. character such as a personalized version of Tweety Bird—which they can then use to participate in various activities and to communicate with other visitors' avatars.

"T-Works—which really doesn't stand for anything other than bringing to mind the word 'tunes,' as in 'Looney Tunes'—will be a single place online where we can promote and create interest in all of our animated properties and new ventures," says Lisa Judson, president of Warner Bros. Animation. Historically, she says, the company's characters have been segmented, but T-Works "is an opportunity for them to all live together, ScoobyDoo with Batman, George Jetson with Fred Flintstone."

Plans are for T-Works to house screenable classic animations as well as original content, 120-plus online video games, plus a "grab and go" area where visitors can pull their favorite characters, personalize them, and then remove them and post them on other social networking Web sites such as MySpace or Facebook.

"This is a cross-divisional project that is a huge priority for Warner Bros.," notes Judson. "There have been outside vendors helping us, but the planning and development is all being done internally." She wouldn't discuss what the project is costing other than to say that it is a "significant investment but well worth it because T-Works will be a great marketing platform for all the company's businesses."

T-Works will be entirely ad-supported by "a small number of strategic partners," according to Judson, who notes that there will be no cost to consumers to participate. On the contrary, visitors will receive virtual rewards for all their actions on the site for which they can, say, personalize their avatar, swap for game power-ups, or bring them to retail in the form of coupons generated by advertisers. There will be no e-commerce on the site.

"We believe that virtual worlds and online social networking have become mainstream behaviors," she notes. "And if that's where consumers are going to be, we certainly want to be there too. Warner Bros. is a company that creates great content and we're excited to put that content wherever consumers are going to want it."

That growing excitement about virtual worlds led Chris Sherman—founder of the Austin Game Conference in 2003—to launch the first Virtual Worlds Conference in New York this past March.

"It was difficult not to recognize all the attention that [virtual world] Second Life was receiving," recalls Sherman. "As we dug deeper, we realized that Second Life was just the tip of the iceberg, that there were all sorts of other virtual worlds out there. So we created the show, attracted 600 registrants when we had only expected 400 or so, and now we're doing the second show, a five-track event with about 20,000 square feet of exhibits. Clearly there's a lot of interest in the virtual world space."