This is a simple overview of what Virtual Worlds are (and are not), as well as what it takes to build and run one.

1. +
Virtual Worlds Mgmt 101
Joi Podgorny & Izzy Neis

2. +
Introductions
Joi Podgorny is Director of
Community Engagement for
Smart Bomb Interactive, where
she architects and oversees all
aspects of community
management and audience
research for National
Geographic Animal Jam, an
online virtual world for kids
where they can become the
Twitter: @joipod animals they love and learn
http://joipodgorny.com
about the natural world while
having fun.

3. +
Introductions
Izzy Neis is Vice President of
User Engagement for Everloop,
creators of a safe social media
platform for kids. Before
Everloop, Izzy was in charge of
user engagement at Gazillion
Entertainment, a virtual world/
MMORPG company that
produced games for licenses
including Marvel, DreamWorks,
Twitter: @izzyneis and Lego.
http://izzyneis.com

4. +
What is a Virtual World?

5. +
What is a Virtual World?
 Definitions:
 Is a virtual chat room
with multiple
opportunities for
interaction and play
 Allow for customizable
and unique play that
allows identity and
social exploration
while engaging with
brands

6. +
What is a Virtual World?
9 Successful Points
Social
Questing Leveling
Interactivity
Casual
Combat Exploration
gaming
Guilds Customization Story

7. +
Virtual Worlds…
ARE: ARE NOT:
 Great engagement for kids  The “Field of Dreams”
 Still
strong industry buzz  Easy to build and operate
words
 Quickand/or cheap to
 Very
popular with kids make revenue
under 13 years old
 Guaranteed to succeed
 Funto design and
conceptualize  100% certifiably safe

8. +
Game Play & Engagement:
‘Tween Play Patterns
 Justlike on the playground, children build up social story and
social purpose to help relate to the world around. Regardless
of the planned play, if the environment allows for interactive
play, youth will find ways to engage.
 Often the set up of the visual environment can help lead the
play - like a virtual "room" designed to looks like a restaurant
with tables covered in plates, a cash register, etc.
 The
following are play patterns typically seen in sandbox
experiences like virtual worlds or MMORPGs.

9. +
Game Play & Engagement:
Play Patterns – Group Play
 Family/ House (mommy, daddy, baby/babies, sister, brother,
dog, cat, etc)
 School (Teacher, class)
 War (one faction against either another or many, this rarely is
violent, it’s more about the excitement and drama leading up
to the idea of war and then running away and recouping)
 Restaurant (waiter, waitress, host, cash register)
 Store (owner, employees, customers, probably a robber)

10. +
Game Play & Engagement:
Play Patterns
Small Groups Individual
 Love Triangles  Impersonation of staff/celebrity
 Boyfriend/girlfriend  Boba Fett child
 Best friend drama  Emo/goth child
(no one loves me)
 Exclusive clubs (matching outfits
clubs, can’t-come-in-here clubs,  Bully/Troll (wants to be top dog)
exclusion-of-one-person clubs,
reg vs noob clubs)  “I’m Hiding” or “You can’t see
me”
 Wedding (solo “pay attention to me” play)
 Band (rock, etc)  Silent lurkers

11. +
Game Play & Engagement:
Play Patterns – Occupations
 Ninja  Secret Agent
 Robber  King/Queen
 Pirate  Bounty Hunter
 Cowboy  Super Hero
 fantastical or local –
 Wrestler Fireman, Police, Life Guard
 Monster  Village Idiot/Class Clown
 Vampire, Zombie, Werewolf  Silly/contrite, acts dumb on
purpose
 Witch/Wizard/Magician

12. +
Shall we play a bit?
(Always say yes to this question)

13. +
Game Play & Engagement:
Play Patterns – Danger Zones
Ok, Until it isn’t… Expected Behavior
 Doctor  Tattle tales / finger pointers
 Marriage  Romance
 Kidnapper  Bullies
 Impersonation causes havoc  Personally Identifiable
Information (PII) requesters
 Abuse (when aggressive talk
stops being about the role-  Random reporters
play drama, and starts getting
“real”)  Hyper sensitive

14. +
Game Play & Engagement:
Player Types
Gamer/
Puzzler
Explorer Customizer
Collector/
Learner
Consumer
Fighter Communicator

15. +
Messaging Opportunities:
In- World
 Transition Screens (room to room, room to game)
 Entry Pop Up
 Community arenas/boards for clubs, guilds, and/or special rank
 Online broadcasts (pop up for all live players)
 Competitions (camp flag wars / etc)
 Newspapers (art, articles, ads)
 NPC Characters / Heralds (script)
 In Game Bulletin Boards, arrow signs, & Posters (environmental)

16. +
Messaging Opportunities:
In- World
 Casual gaming mid-game “commercial break” content
 Town crier (board, NPC, game master, location, etc)
 Friending processes
 Fan Galleries (Art, Prose)
 Canned Chat
 In-world Decorations
 Accessories/Home items
 Printables with viral info and branding

17. +
Messaging Opportunities:
In- World
 Uniqueenvironment elements (train tickets for trains, mail
boxes with clickable content, promotional rooms/games, etc)
 Postcards/canned email messages
 Quests (Themed, limited time, goal-driven)
 Polls
 Feedback points that ask open ended ?’s

18. +
Messaging Opportunities:
To Chat or not to Chat…
 Chat can be executed in three fashions:
 Unfiltered chat (allows for any text based word/phrase/etc to be
typed and shared within a public space, in real-time)
 Unfiltered chat is not recommended for a target demographic
under 18 years of age, and has legal ramifications if you allow
youth under 13 years of age to chat unfiltered (as part of COPPA
legislation).
 Filtered chat (restricts certain words and phrases based on a
black list of barred content and a white list of allowed content)
 Pre-written chat messages (sometimes referred to as canned
chat) that the user picks from a list of content approved by the site
and provided for the user's social benefit.

19. +
More Play!


20. +
Messaging Opportunities:
Website Communication
 Parent Center  Fiction / Fan Fiction
 Splash Page  Widgets of info (or info
tickers)
 Blog
 Character profiles / Group
 Forum pages
 Login News Feed  Sneak Peeks, Mystery content,
hidden content
 Downloadables/Printables
 Knowledge base
 Voting/elections/karma points
 Subscription/Payment pages
 Lore Pedia

21. +
Messaging Opportunities:
External Channels
 Adult Facing
(Twitter, Facebook)
 Video (Youtube, Vimeo)
 Child facing (Everloop, Kidzui)
 Digital Ads
 Auto-emails generated form
actions on the site
 Opt-in Newsletter
 Street Teams

22. +
Business Models
Micro-
Subscriptions
transactions
Freemium

23. + SOUNDS GREAT!
Sign us up!
Let us tell you about the fine print first…

24. +
Virtual Worlds are
Difficult to Begin
 Misconceptions and pipe dreams abound
 Marketplace is flooded – with mostly failures
 Technology is VERY early, buggy and constantly evolving
 Expertise is a commodity and costs accordingly
 Outsourcing is ideal for scaling ability
 But comes with it’s own headaches

25. +
Virtual Worlds are
Difficult to Maintain
 IF you start to gain traction in the marketplace,
then your costs start to compound quickly:
 Community Staffing
 IT/Facilities
 Software/Tools
 Sys Admins/Servers
 New content cycles
 Marketing
 Analytics
 You have to make sure your revenue goals match

26. +
Issues that need to be considered
COPPA/
FTC/ Safety
CARU
Public
Parents
Relations

27. +
Virtual World Staffing
 Online Community  Other Teams to consider:
Manager/Director  IT Team
 Customer Service (CS)
 Operations
Manager
 Quality Assurance
 Billing Lead
 Business Analytics
 CS Lead
 Moderation Manager  Content Teams
 Moderation Lead  Development
 Forum/Blog Lead  Production
 Facilitation/SocMed/  Program Content
Engagement Manager  Marketing Team

28. +
Community Team Staffing
Considerations
Before hiring After Hiring
 Discipline Guidelines  Privacy Training
 Interviews  Shadowing
 Scenarios  Guidelines review
 Writing Tests  Filter updates
 Background Checks  Software iterations
 Quality Assurance

29. +
Community Team Scaling
Launch Game,
Volumes Increase,
Workflows Articulated
Game Grows,
Volumes Increase,
Revenues Justify Hiring

30. +
Joi Podgorny
joipodgorny@gmail.com
@joipod
Izzy Neis
alwaysreaching@gmail.com
@izzyneis