Ridemakerz Makes a Virtual Ridemakers

[ghost]

Some people or so damned smart it makes my head hurt. It seem Larry Andreini over at Ridemakerz makes custom cars for kids. The site is smick, took a bit to load but attractive and unique. That in itself means this guy deserves our respect. Maybe even a hit or two on his website here. It seem's Larry has seen the writing on the wall (Regarding e-stores and a need to be something more) and is innovating with a new MMO style appraoch.

There is a gap on the Web between Webkinz and Club Penguin and the more adult social networks of MySpace, Facebook and beyond, particularly for boys. Other than Pirates of the Carribean Online, there is not much out there yet. Andreini wants to parlay the loyalty of his customers into a virtual world where they can design and play with the exact same cars they can buy in his stores. Making that connection between the virtual and the real, even if it’s just a toy, is where he thinks he’ll have a leg up on the competition. The virtual world he is building is also pretty advanced and goes way beyond being a slick brochure for his products, although it is that as well. Kids don’t have to buy a car to play in the virtual world, but the experience is better if they do.

Ridemakerz offers online sales on its Website right now, but they are pretty minimal. Andrieni estimates the e-commerce business will bring in about $250,000 this year. But he plans to invest $3 million to $4 million a year in his new virtual world.

Once Ridemkarz launches this basic version, it can keep adding activities and destinations inside the virtual world. There are already plans for user-generated content, such as letting boys design their own race courses and then race their virtual cars on them. In the future, boys also may be able to create their own outlandish designs that won’t necessarily be buildable.

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Now if the nice people at Ridemakerz would like to offer me the chance to review this new 'expereince' I'll have it known I may be a Father of two but at heart im barely a day over 6.

I mean who ever grows out of toy cars. honestly !

[addition] Just a note, this project is being taken up by the team over at The Electric Sheep Compnay (A P. K. Dick referance or a more obscure D. Adams referance ?). I was thinking of dropping an e-mail in there direction with a short e-interview.

I was going to focus on there reason for concentrating in the corporate sector of virtual worlds rather than moving into the gameing market. Though I'm sure there are other questions people would like to throw in ?