Vertical Metamogg

No, I don't know what it is either, but I spotted it here, at Kzero.co.uk, a virtual worlds consultancy and services biz (they've just done a Second Life thing for L'Oreal). According to Kzero, Football Superstars - a "vertical metamogg" - is coming in 2008.

So what on earth? Apparently it's a reaction to the very "generalist" environment of your average virtual world, where a person will turn up, create and avatar, then wonder what on earth to do next. Solution: have specialised virtual worlds, with very targeted Stuff To Do:

Football Superstars (FS) is a classic example of a vertical world. Set for launch in May 2008, FS will be part MMOG and part virtual world - a Metammog.

The gaming element provides an online football experience, playing games as a single player in a team, with other team mates online and playing at the same time. When you’re not playing you live the life of a footballer, training, learning skills and interacting with football-themed events and environments.

Obviously, it's a fine line now they're drawing here: after all, when you're not questing in WoW, you're mucking about in Org, or playing the Auction House, or collecting new pets, etc. You are not, however, constructing any of the environment, or particularly free to manipulate your avatar much.. I wonder if Football Superstars is planning on offering this end of virtual worldism?

I was just talking t'other day about football MMOs: guilds are, after all, teams with managers in a funny way, so you'd think it'd be fairly easy to do. You'd just need lots of leagues, from International right down to local 5-a-side. Plus superplayer managers. That could be really interesting!

Plus, as it's virtual, mixed-sex teams should be an option. Imagine that.

(via VWN)

Comments

[Mr Tom]

Oh my God, if you don't know what a vertical metamogg is, what chance does someone like me have?

Also, the immediate thought about a Football MMO that I have is "what about lag"? A game like WoW and all the other MMORPGs it's OK because a bit of lag now and then doesn't matter. However, lag would kill a football game, and they're finding it hard enough to get rid of lag in the likes of PES, which is only 2v2 - can you imagine how hard it would be to eliminate lag in a football game with data flying back and forth for 22 players?

[Paul]

Notice how fake the claimed in-game screenshots are. They are actually modified photographs.

[Alice]

You think they're modded pics?
I'm not sure..