3pointD.com

If you’ve visited the Virtual Laguna Beach Web site recently, as I just did as I was composing the last post, you might have noticed a new link there (as I just did), to a trailer for something called Virtual Hills. The trailer, which is very slow to load so I haven’t actually watched the whole thing, appears to be not for anything virtual but for the second season of Laguna Beach spinoff show The Hills. But the site itself seems to advertise a virtual version of The Hills featuring “Hot Hollywood locations,” “Fashion shows with Lauren and Whitney,” and “Partying with Heidi.” I’d heard vague plans to expand VLB into The Hills, but this is the first I’ve seen that it’s actually imminent. Look for MTV to add Hollywood locations from the show not as a separate world but as an extension of VLB. And because it’s about an aspiring fashion designer, there are huge opportunities here to incorporate user-generated content and perhaps even skill ladders for popular designers and similar game mechanics. It’s a good indication, too, that MTV is still serious about its experiment and is only pushing forward with expanding its offerings. That implies that they consider VLB a success so far, and lends yet more credence to the assertion that 3D online worlds could well be the next phase of social networking and media convergence.