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Three services we brought you recently that mash up the virtual world of Second Life and the (also virtual, in its way) World Wide Web, have had new versions released in the last few days. Sloog, TwitterBox, and SLateIt, (originally blogged here, here, and here), are three instances of one of my favorite things: they’re real 3pointD apps that make the 3D world of SL interoperable (to a small extent) with the 2D world of the Web, and in a social, Web 2.0 way. Their initial release was very rough and beta, but now all three have new versions out that have made them easier to use and/or increased their functionality. Excellent news. Full descriptions below. (more…)

Glitchy points out a short article in the new Business Week about Maple Story, the free side-scrolling MMOG from Korean company Nexon. Two things of interest here: the mag reports that North American players spent $1.6 million in February to buy 600,000 virtual products within MapleStory, so it’s looking like that kind of microtransaction as a revenue stream could work. Also note, however, that in Korea, KartRider, another hugely popular game from Nexon, is seeing concurrency rates that are half what they were two years ago. There’s no English version of KartRider at the moment (though one is coming), so I can’t tell you what that’s down to, but I’d wager it’s an indication Nexon hasn’t kept up with refreshing KartRider’s content as well as it might have. Considering that more and more such casual virtual worlds are soon to hit the market, the indication here is that while there’s certainly an American market for these new revenue models, there will be similar pitfalls to be aware of as well.

FlowPlay is an upcoming virtual world being developed by Derrick Morton, an alum of RealNetworks, which also produced Second Life founder Philip Rosedale. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a good piece on the new world from venture capital reporter John Cook. Pitched at older teenagers, FlowPlay plans to hook people by giving them casual games to play that will earn them virtual currency, much in the manner of Club Penguin. The service will launch this summer, according to the bare-bones FlowPlay Web site, after what sounds like a private alpha that opens in April, according to the article. Morton’s idea to hook members with games is similar to the ideas of Raph Koster, who often speaks about virtual worlds needing more engaging introductions (though little is known about just how his new Areae platform will work. Sounds like things are still in flux at FlowPlay, with decisions as to subscription fees yet to be made, but we look forward to seeing what develops. So add one to the growing list of virtual spaces. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out, and how all these places differentiate themselves. (A 3pointD aside: The only thing that will save most of these places from going bust is some kind of interoperable identity system. And even that might not be enough.)