MTV: One Avatar, Their World

I caught an entry over on Virtual World News (Link) calling attention to a clip on C|Net (Link) that smacked of public relations bull. From the short write-up on VWN:

MTV announced its dedication to the idea of One Avatar, One World in Jeff Yapp’s presentation at the Under the Radar Conference.

As Yapp said, “We have fairly ambitious plans. We believe in one avatar, one world, the ability to take your avatar, your personality, that three-dimensional representation of who you are any where you want to go.”


Funny to read this considering that when I tried vLES, not only was it (expectedly) distinct from VLB, but a separate registration from Doppelganger’s other virtual efforts; even though The Lounge and Tyra Banks’ worlds shared registration. Some of you might have caught my calling attention to this disconnect in a comment on Raph Koster’s blog (Link) since I had hoped that vLES would use my Lounge registration and actually incorporate the concept of avatar portability… something I’ve been discussing more and more (reLink).

Consequently, when Yapp says “anywhere you want to go”, I believe that actually means “anywhere within the MTV range of offerings”. That’s hardly what’s implied when claiming One Avatar, One World… unless MTV expects to rule the online virtual universe.