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"FlowPlay, the company which we reported as having raised $3.7 million in funding back in February, has launched the first of their planned virtual gaming worlds: ourWorld.\nTargeted at the \"tween\" demographic of 8 to 12-year-olds, ourWorld is a casual gaming platform where kids can build two-dimensional avatars to navigate around a Flash-based world.  Dean Takahashi  of Venture Beat reports that for $6 a month a user can engage in MMORPG-style quests to achieve goals, play simple games, or even get a \"job\" so they can earn \"flow\" (the energy that runs ourWorld) towards winning spins on the prize wheel, giving them more things in the virtual environment.\nThe market for virtual worlds is growing, and reports estimate that by 2011, people will be spending $13 billion annually on online gaming.  The question here is if parents of tweens are willing to shell out a monthly subscription cost when places such as Second Life, which does have a teen-friendly area, can be played for free at the basic level.  While advertising may annoy some people online, if it makes \"free\" ways to entertain you kids, parents are likely to take it.  Only time will tell if the subscription model is really a sustainable one.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/04/06/flowplay-ourworld/>