A World of My Own has just announced the start of their beta test with over 20,000 users signed up.

GDI announces beginning of AWOMO Beta Test and hits the 20,000 registrant mark

More details announced on updated website for full Beta over 70 Free Games now signed for test phase

London, UK, 16th August 2007: Game Domain International Ltd (GDI), a company providing services to deliver games online using proprietary super-fast digital distribution technology, today announced it has now passed the 20,000 registrant mark for the AWOMO Beta Test program, coinciding with an extensive revamp of its website.

AWOMO is a game distribution system similar to Steam wrapped around a candy coated shell of virtual 3D world goodness that lets you meet and socialize with other players while downloading your latest game purchase.

We can only think of the possibilities of griefing and annoying people while waiting on your streamed game to finish, or listening to all avatars asking, “can u spare $2 Payal so I can buy Cocoto Kart Racer?! Plzzz!”.

Game vendors are organized in various themed districts named Downtown, Takana, Olympia, Deepwalker, and The Village. If you’re looking for the Red Light district you’re probably better off staying in Second Life, no naughty titles or titillation here, yet (just give the AWOMO community a bit of time to fill in the demand for those services).

A number of major gaming companies have already signed on such as 2K Sports, Atari, Codemasters, Eidos, Empire Interactive, THQ, Vivendi, Sega, Strategy First, and NCSoft.

Initial games available during the beta test include City of Heroes, City of Villains, Company of Heroes, Civilization III, Fear, Hitman, Jus Cause, and about 30 other shovelware titles that’ll truly test the idea of Long tail theory.

At best it’s just a PC version of the announced Sony PS3 HOME service with even poorer graphics. At worst it’s yet another layer of complexity and inefficiency added to buying a game online that’s already been solved so well by existing services with established track records.

The parent company has stated users will be able to purchase games without entering the 3D world of AWOMO, which we can only point out as further proof of how extraneous the 3D client is to the experience of buying a game. Will the service be a success? It’s this authors opinion that future services giving users a sense of ownership in the virtual world with their own properties vs. the virtual mall districts of AWOMO are much more likely to interest online gamers, yet could still suffer from trying to fill a niche where there’s no demand.

There’s only 10,000 beta slots remaining so if you want to check it out, hit their registration page. I’d also recommend using a non-Microsoft IE browser such as FireFox, their site seems to lack IE6 support. more >>>