The world will also act as a gaming platform, in that it will host and run Java games in a window, or eventually thirdparty scripted instances using the sofware’s game engine, although there’s little likelihood of true 3D gaming within the live experience. But Fotoohi does have ideas for using the world as a tourist destination and enlivening news stories, by recreating realworld events or attaching RSS feeds to war zones.

Apart from a poker simulation and a few ports of Micazook’s existing mobile games, all that’s to come. Even Micazook’s business model is vague, though microtransactions will certainly be central; the company has experience from i-Citizen, which incorporated services like Moneybookers and PayPal. You’ll be able to claim any building for free, but after 30 days you must pay rent – something like 20 cents a month – or you’ll lose it. Rents may vary according to the area or volume claimed, and popular plots auctioned. Fotoohi isn’t yet sure what will happen if real-world owners show up and demand their property back.

Further down the line will be thirdparty tools for creating in-world applications. But everything rests on getting users involved. For budgetary reasons, the world will be opened in stages, with a 1,000-person closed beta featuring an area of New York due before Christmas. As interest – and income – grows, Micazook will add more servers. “It’s data storage versus income,” says Fotoohi. “I’d buy 100,000 servers if I had the income, but we’ll grow it organically.”



Fotoohi estimates that all of North America’s roads could fit on to one server – it’s the textures, audio and other user content that will push storage requirements into the realms of hundreds of terabytes. Even if the project is successful, then, it will be some time before the likes of Taiwan and Nigeria are brought online. Here, Micazook hits the buffers of being “a few guys in a bedroom”. With the pockets of Microsoft, Yahoo or Google, the rollout could be more ambitious. That said, Fotoohi believes those companies could come calling. “If we start gathering mass, I’m sure they’d be interested in locking this into some sort of social app,” he says.

Micazook’s world is currently a big, unproven idea wedded to a clever map; even delivering the beta before Christmas will be challenging. But with videogames – particularly MMOs – requiring ever more content, it already offers clues for other start-ups. Even the standard-bearing games for user-generated content feature it as a bolt-on. Could more developers make UGC part of the core DNA?

If Micazook can attract a huge userbase with its technology, and persuade it to stay, the results will go beyond anything a handful of developers could create alone. Videogame developers should watch the fate of this world with interest.