meez
Latest
MySpace launches Games Lab, aims to tackle social gaming
Like a pokey little puppy, social network MySpace has announced that it's starting up a Games Lab to try and beef up the gaming space on the site. A pilot program has been underway for a while now with TheBroth and Meez, and MySpace has now announced Playdom as a partner in building the platform. Rival network Facebook has been growing in leaps and bounds, especially in the gaming space, but now MySpace wants to leapfrog its success on the music side into social games. Will it work? There's a lot of money still to be made in social games, and there's no reason why MySpace couldn't grab its own piece of the pie. But MySpace is certainly coming late to the game, so if it can garner an audience, it'll likely be a fraction of what Facebook already has running.
Meez launches Meeznation virtual world
In online socialising applications, the obvious next step after avatar-building is extension into a virtual world. Making a cartoon version of yourself is fun in its own right, but users want to see their avatars interact with others in exciting environments. We've seen this step taken with the WeeMees and the world of, erm, World; now it's the turn of Meez to bring its customers into a persistent online environment, this one called Meeznation. Meez had already begun experimenting with virtual spaces with its venture into Roomz, 3d spaces which users could customize and use to play games in. MeezNation will offer games, too, along with user emotes, the ability to watch YouTube videos jointly with friends, and exposure to suitably tailored corporate advertising. The marketing possibilities of Meeznation have clearly not been neglected; the example provided by VP of Marketing Michael Lehman was a room set up specifically for listening to the new 50 Cent album, offering the option to buy other albums by clicking on interactive posters. Like the existing Roomz application and the WeeMee World, MeezNation will be integrated with Facebook.
Miis vs. Meez vs. WeeMees: most disturbing conflict ever
A whole lot of people want to get a piece of the lucrative "bobble-headed cartoonish humanlike thing with a totally emasculating name" industry. Clickable Culture brings us the saga of Miis, WeeMees, and Meez, three almost-identical takes on almost-identical things with almost-identical names. Back in November, WeeWorld even sued Nintendo over their Miis, but has unsuccessfully tried to bail on the suit when it looked like Nintendo would win. Can't we/Wii/WeeMee/Meez all just get along?More importantly, why would anyone want to create a WeeMee -- which begins life as a creepy, hairless alien with a "fig leaf" covering its crotch?
