Amid all that talk about brands getting involved with Second Life, nobody mentioned the idea of brands cutting out the middleman and creating their own virtual worlds. But MTV has gone and done it, albeit for a single show, The Hills, and in partnership with Makena Technologies.
Virtual Hills is a virtual online extension of the show, and follows the same pairing's experiment last year with Virtual Laguna Beach, based on another MTV show. Virtual Hills replicates the show's locations, and will apparently run a series of special events, including fashion challenges, concerts and dance challenges, and a nightclub.
Key to the success of the virtual world will be whether it has the full buy-in of the stars and production company behind the show, and also if it builds a critical mass of fans quickly enough, so that people don't log in, see nobody hanging out, and so abandon it.
But for anyone who's felt a bit cynical about the Second Life hype in recent months, it's tempting to wonder why, if that world is so appealing to brands, MTV has chosen to create its own world.