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It's certainly taking time for people, organizations and businesses to learn how to obtain benefits from virtual environments, and it will take quite some time yet to figure out how to optimize those results. On the plus side, there are many hundreds of thousands of people working on that.

Working out how to effectively operate and manage virtual environments for large numbers of people, well, that's actually taking a lot longer. There are far fewer people actually involved in the process, and the same wheels are being reinvented over and over – and quite often, they seem to be square ones.

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Much like when MMOs go offline, when a virtual world goes offline, we also see a number of displaced residents wondering what to do next. Thankfully, in this case, our contributor had his next destination all mapped out ahead of time.

This image comes to us from Alan C., and was taken in the final hours of There.com, which recently shut down after being in service for seven years. He writes in to explain this flight: It was the last couple hours before There.com closed. Using my last ThereBucks I purchased a gold and black Trek outfit and a Tiki Trek flying shuttle. I met a fellow trekker and we flew for the last time in There. Just like the bumper sticker says, I am "Boldly Going Forward". I am now playing Star Trek Online and not looking back.

Do you have a screenshot from a game that shut down -- gone, but not forgotten? We'd love to see it, if you'd like to share. Of course, if your favorite MMO is alive and well, those are welcome too! Just email those in to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here on Massively for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit!

This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're going to take a selection of reader questions that we've received in comments and in the virtual mailbag and do our best to offer up some useful answers. Join us as we whirl through the mail. Not surprisingly, the two most frequently asked questions involve the demise of virtual environment, There.com.

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With the pending closure of virtual environment, There.com, it's only natural for a number of other virtual environments to make themselves attractive to the outgoing Thereians, as many of them are going to be selecting another virtual environment to participate in anyway.

Simon Newstead, co-founder and CEO of fashion environment Frenzoo contacted us today to let us know of a surprisingly generous offer that he's extending to the displaced Thereians.

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Virtual worlds have had a rocky time in the marketplace. Focusing on user-generated content, it takes a while for enough users to become active and enough market traction to be established for them to start becoming financially viable. Earlier this year marked the shutdown of Metaplace, Raph Koster's entry into the field of virtual worlds. Now another long-running part of the field is closing down, as There.com has just announced the service will be closing on March 9th.

A retrospective on the game's history is available on CNET, discussing the world's status as being a competitor for Second Life without ever quite gaining the traction that its bigger cousin managed. While the environment was seen as slightly more kid-and-media friendly due to restrictions on adult-only content, the project had a difficult time turning a profit. After seven years, it's finally overwhelmed the company.

The official announcement includes a number of resources for those who have invested money in There.com to regain it prior to the shutdown, with extensive buyback programs and refunds available for all participants. Our condolences to the team on this sad turn of events.

Welcome to The Virtual Whirl, a new weekly Massively column covering virtual environments generally. The term 'virtual world' is slowly seeing less use, being supplanted by the more general 'virtual environment', but the world term still has a fair bit of life left in it.

Virtual environments covers a whole lot of ground. From William Crowther's original efforts in 1976 that based a game in a virtual version of the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, virtual environments have been a part of gaming, artificial intelligence and behavioral research, modeling, telemetry and process control and more.

Nowadays we're seeing Second Life, Blue Mars, There.com, IMVU and others trying to find places in non-game contexts, like content-development and prototyping, publishing and performance, entertainment and social, education and business; efforts that are met with varying amounts of success.

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MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family ... From tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate niches for every family member, MMO Family offers you advice on MMO gaming of the family, by the family and for the family.

Nestling somewhere in between MMOs and social networking, virtual worlds are a virtual sandlot for millions of kids worldwide. Think avatar-based chat and mini-games alongside other kids of the same age range and interests, and you'll catch the appeal of these kid-friendly destinations. While a gaming parent might consider virtual worlds mere training wheels for games still to come, kid-friendly virtual worlds seem to fit the attention spans, chatty nature and niche-y interests of kids to a T.

The sheer variety of worlds appealing to children makes it easy for kids to find a spot where they'll want to hang out. As of early 2009, kids could choose from 112 virtual worlds designed for children and teens, according to Engage Digital Media, with more than 80 new worlds under development. The numbers of kids who've found a virtual home in these worlds rivals even the fat figures of MMO big dog World of Warcraft. Research firm eMarketer estimates that in the United States alone, 8 million kids hung out in virtual worlds regularly during 2008; that number is projected to swell to more than 15 million by 2013.

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The promise of what virtual spaces can bring us is significant -- erasing geographic limitations on interaction with others while fostering an exchange of cultures, beliefs, and languages. To this high-minded end, millions of dollars have been spent and many thousands of hours of work have been invested into creating rich graphical settings coupled with immersive environmental soundscapes. Crisp digital communication at its finest, right?

Much like the promise of the the eradication of artificial barriers to meaningful communication through the Internet, virtual worlds and online spaces in general have fallen short of expectations. It's generally not the fault of the companies or the service providers though. The fault lies with us, the users.

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Toyota-owned car manufacturer Scion has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with virtual world There. The company operates a virtual nightclub shaped like existing Scion car models. According to virtual worlds blog Worlds in Motion, the company has now decided it likes this kind of marketing so much that it is introducing three concept cars -- the Hako Coupe, the FUSE, and t2b -- into the game as drivable player vehicles. There has always placed a fair amount of emphasis on vehicles, so this seems to fit.

At GDC earlier this year, we performed in-depth analysis of Scion's There campaign (and hosted some images depicting its plans) and came to the conclusion that it was pretty novel. At the time, we reported that There users had spent a total of 1,915 hours in Club Scion. Since then, that number has risen to 3,000. Whatever your feelings on in-game advertising are, it seems be working in this case.

VirtualVikki made this video, Lost in There Quest Commercial, for ThereCon last year. Taking place in July 2007, it was a week of science fiction events and activities in the virtual world, There. In order to motivate the viewers, she created this parody of Lost in Space.

There is an interesting platform for machinima. They have a limited range of motions and customization, but they do have lip-synching ability built in to their voice system. The result is a bit more cartoony than Second Life, so it appeals more to the teen demographic. Many companies are doing interesting things in the platform, though, so we'll keeping our eye on it!

If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.

Global Kids has been quite busy with their activities this year! They recently streamed Kofi Annan receiving the MacArthur Foundation's first International Justice Award. Not only was this event special and meaningful in the first place, but it was also fairly unique in how far it reached.

The award ceremony was broadcast to the web, Second Life on both the main grid and the teen grid, There, and Whyville! Could this be a glimpse of the future of event outreach? For more information, check out their site, Holy Meatballs!

If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.

This coming Wednesday, 19 March, the USC Network Culture Project will feature the work of thirteen talented virtual world artists on the theme of justice, all specifically created for this event to celebrate the International Criminal Court.

The artists involved are a talented set indeed from visual, audio and performance fields: Tuna Oddfellow, AM Radio, Pavig Lok, Tooter Claxton, Juria Yoshikawa, Dancoyote Antonelli, Filthy Fluno, elros Tuominen, Chance Abattoir, Adam Ramona, Josina Burgess, Velazquez Bonetto, and Junivers Stockholm.

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Over at the games blog Game|Life they pointed out a somewhat rare event: a sudden outbreak of common sense. Well-known psychologist for the masses 'Dr. Phil' recently stuck up for virtual worlds on national television. More specifically, he pointed out that there was nothing inherently wrong with them. On a episode devoted to teen behavior, Dr. Phil confronted a young woman who apparently spent too much time in the There virtual space.

While Phil apparently couldn't understand the appeal of online friendships, he did take pains to clarify there was nothing wrong with the service or the activity - just her choice to over-indulge.

Addressing Michael Wilson, CEO of There, the good doctor explained that there were "a tremendous number of safeguards" in place at There, saying "Your intention is not to consume kids from their real life. Like many MMOs, There is free to play but charges for in-game items like cars and furniture. According to Wilson, if someone is overspending, There will contact the account holder and ask them if they're aware of how much they've spent on the game. If a parent calls with concerns, There will shut off their kid's account. In other words, said Dr. Phil to his guests, "The problem is not the game, the problem is the use of it."

Now if only Phil could communicate that to most of America ...

For those of you who may not be completely familiar with Second Life, one of its biggest draws is that it's a haven for content creators, as opposed to virtual worlds like There.com, which doesn't let its users build anything of their own. Now, of course, what you get in exchange for the freedom to build anything you want is having to see what everyone else is building, and this includes the infamous flying penises and other Objects You'd Rather Not Have Seen, Thanks.

But, as my friend Eric Rice recently pointed out to me, there is something to be said for not having to create your world yourself. "I don't always wanna COOK dinner", he opined, and I know what he means. In my over 2 years as a SL resident, I've not created one thing; I have neither the knack nor the interest, frankly, though I do enjoy the fruits of the labors of other residents. Shopping is great fun in SL, and probably on the top of a great many lists of enjoyable activities. Exploring is equally as enjoyable, and it's this aspect of virtual worlds that deserves some scrutiny. More after the jump.

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