Nicktropolis

Yet another "virtual world" is scheduled to launch today... Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis.com. I say "scheduled to launch today" because as of right now I'm still getting a "coming soon!" message.

However, if you go through the back door to their Beta site, you can get a feel for Nicktropolis. To me, it feels no different from other "virtual realm" sites (consider Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom), but maybe kids consider that a good thing. It also reminds me very much of the Gushers "Re-Do Your Room" promotion. The end goal of Nicktropolis seems to be to personalize your room-- there is no other way (that I could find) to spend points.

One interesting thing that I came across was that when you enter different Nicktoon worlds (Avatar Nations, Retroville, Amity Park), you get a new avatar to fit the world's theme. Kids go nuts for a chance to personalize elements like avatars-- which is why sites like this are already so popular.

Nicktropolis is definitely a safe place for kids, too. As a user you can either chat using pre-supplied messages, or you can write your own-- with parental permission. And of course, no personal information is supplied-- there isn't even a "profile" to fill out.

All in all, the site isn't astoundingly new-- it's basically another VMK reskinned with Nickelodeon properties. I'll be curious to see what changes are made as Nicktropolis comes out of Beta.