MMO & Television Convergence: The Sequel

After my last post, I received an e-mail newsletter from Entropia Universe, the MMO with the real cash economy. I was surprised by two things:

1. Project Entropia is still around? I tried it quite some time ago (to be fair it was years ago) and I never thought it would last. It just seemed like a game built around a business model rather then the other way around. But it's still kicking so what do I know. Apparently they changed the name from Project Entropia to Entropia Universe at some point.

2. I saw this strangely worded headline in the newsletter: "Entropia Universe is First Virtual World Ever to Contribute to Emmy Award." What now?

It turns out Entropia participated in just the kind of television/MMO convergence discussed in my previous post. So it seems the Sci-Fi project is not as novel an idea as I thought. Obviously, this endeavor was much smaller-scale then the Sci-Fi project hopes to be but it was apparently a success.

You can check out the full press release here. Here's a quote:

"Last week in Cannes, France, the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the winners of the International Interactive Emmy® Awards, recognizing the drama "The Truth About Marika," produced by Swedish Television and The Company P, for the best Interactive TV Service. The program successfully integrated television and the Internet, yielding an exemplary crossover experience for viewers that showcases the potential of future projects between the two mediums.

As part of "The Truth About Marika," viewers could participate in the show by helping to solve the mystery of a missing person. Clues were planted in the virtual realm of Entropia Universe, where viewers could collect the separate clues to solve a larger puzzle, leading them one step closer to solving the overarching mystery. Viewers could also interact with the avatars of the main characters of the show inside Entropia. "