Speaking about casual games at a recent Facebook Developers Garage, Andrew Mayer mentioned that users aren’t innately curious. Seems odd but Mayer mentioned that he’s seen more than his fair share of great content go unseen because users never stumbled upon it. Users need to be lead, more then that they need to be entertained.
Disney Imagineers probably know this better than anyone. The book Designing Disney – Imagineering and the Art of the Show, explains that they use what they call The Wienie.
Walt observed that people moved toward things that are inviting, and he coined the term wienie to refer to such things (Walt had a lifelong love of hot dogs). Imagineers have found that people respond to a wienie at the end of a corridor because it beckons them to continue further in their journey. We often use archetypal forms in designing a wienie, forms that have centuries-old associations that express some kind of action. Certain sharp-edged, pointed forms suggest danger, adventure, a struggle for survival. Rounded forms tend to be reassuring, suggesting shelter, safety, and fun. In telling a story in three-dimensional visual terms, both kinds of forms can be used to say, “Something is happening down this way, and you’re going to like it.” The wienie promises that you will be rewarded for the time and effort it takes to walk down the corridor. A well-designed wienie can brighten and energize an entire area. The Matterhorn at Disneyland, the Tree of Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Big Tillie, the stranded ship at Typhoon Lagoon, area all effective wienies: they set teh stage, establish a mood, and draw the eye.
Virtual world designers could learn a lot from Disney Imagineers and the wienie.
For a wienie to be effective, we have to set the scene for it, using staging techniques derived from film, such as an establishing “long shot”, and special effects and lighting.
The techniques is not as heavy handed as others used in virtual worlds today. WoW uses quests and floating explanation points. Jeffrey Kaplan, gameplay director at WoW, calls it directed gameplay and probably takes it just as seriously as Disney Imagineers.
“Directed gameplay is a phrase we use at Blizzard to represent the idea of leading a player to a fun experience. [It's] an underlying tool to help a player become immersed in your game,” says Kaplan.
Though you tell me, which is more inviting? Or is it more dependent on they type of audience?
Not all virtual worlds failed to answer the newbie questions however and became some wildly successful – Club Penguin, WoW, Pirates of the Caribbean. These virtual worlds had either strong context (story) or goal architecture, or both. Many people have studied the goal architectures but I haven’t seen as many focus on the integration of the story. And integrating it is no easy feat, 
Although Google Lively has been 
It seems we’re entering the later stages of virtual worlds 1.0. Google Lively was 
Ease of use and installation certainly broadened the market but the addition of games probably did little. How could these primitive games compete with other games already online? Tie-ins with social networks also added little and self expression seemed almost unwanted. Of course the latter point was already well known. When I worked at Yahoo! one of the mythical projects was to give users customizable avatars. Granted the first examples were 2D, but what shocked us was how little users seemed to care. Some liked customizing their outfits and such, but soon became bored. There was a market, but it was much smaller than any of us had predicted.
When you think about it, context is one thing the majority of 1.0 virtual worlds never had. They pitched themselves as a tie-ins to Facebook or AIM, places of virtual economies, where you can dress up an avatar. It simply didn’t click with users. I know cause whenever I ask friends what virtual worlds are they go blank or mention seeing Second Life on 
