TechScape

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.

Can virtual mobile phones give your avatar brain cancer? Just a thought (albeit a silly one). It was provoked by the news that Vodafone is launching a mobile network within Second Life, with virtual handsets that will let users call each other within the world, and send texts.

Vodafone is launching a 'Vodafone Island' next month in Second Life, so presumably users will be able to head there to pick up the handsets, although there's no details on how much (if anything) users will pay to use the virtual phones. Is it too cynical to predict enormous roaming charges if you want to 'roam' and call someone in the real world?

Posters? They're old hat. Promotional Happy Meals in McDonalds? That's so last-century, Grandad. Gravelly-voiced trailers? Pur-lease! Everyone knows that the cutting-edge way to promote a new film is by persuading Second Life users to bump each other off. Virtually, of course.

That's the thinking behind a new campaign for Smokin' Aces ("crass, pointless" - This Is London) anyway. Universal Pictures has launched an event called 'Smokin' Aces: Second Life Assassin' within SL, which offers up to $1 million Linden dollars in prize money.