Our newly launched, Game Developer Research-run online worlds blog WorldsInMotion.biz is exploring some interesting ground with its interview with Trion World's Lars Buttler, as the firm raises $30 million from investors including Time Warner, Universal, and Bertelsmann.

Buttler's working with Jon Van Caneghem of Might & Magic fame on this, and one mystery has been exactly what Trion World's products will be - online world, game, in between? He spills the beans some more, though, explaining: "Every channel is a large-scale gameworld. Some of the channels we built completely in-house, and others, we just publish what third parties have built. It's the classic Electronic Arts or Activision model applied to a completely different experience."

In addition, it's noted: "Buttler says the product on the very first channel-- what he likens to a television pilot-- is already built, will be announced by the end of this year, and available to the consumer by next year. He's hesitant to provide too many early details, but allows that, "at its core, it will be a large-scale game. But it will be a large-scale game that has a tremendous amount of elements of social networks, and it will be a game that will evolve almost like a TV show evolves."" Sounds... still a little vague, but interesting?

[In addition, the site has been expanding its Online World Atlas by looking at Entropia Universe (pictured), a distinctly in-depth world with some pretty hardcore users: "When I got ready to leave, my mentor asked where I was living. I replied and asked in kind for the same info, wondering if my focused knight custodian was interested in making friends at last. Turns out he needed to know my time zone, so that he could know when to expect me back. I gave him my best estimate; "I'll be here another 7 or 8 hours," he told me."]