We reported yesterday that Trilogy Studios had secured $3.2 million in Series B funding with Chichen Itza Ventures, the group behind Makena and There, leading the way. The announcement mentioned that the funding would help Trilogy expand its development of casual MMOs and virtual worlds. We spoke with Trilogy CEO Michael Pole about the distinction. He considers the platforms they build, for Virtual MTV for example, a hybrid of the two. "They're basically one and the same in some respects," said Pole. "The terminology used by brand companies and media companies are a little different. We're bringing a lot of the functionality that you'd see in an MMO into a casual MMO. Questing systems, skill trees, the ability to buy and sell, a whole host of things."

According to Pole, it's important to go beyond just providing a platform for socializing and creativity.

"We have to drive the player to stay long and longer time periods," he said. "You can't expect them to just chat and stay, chat and stay, chat and stay. We expect we'll be putting a number of casual games into these worlds so they can come and play and then have the virtual worlds experience of chatting and socializing."

For Trilogy, which has a leadership background from EA and VU games, the combination makes sense.

"It's very similar to what we did back in our days of creating console games," said Pole. "The same sort of functionality and addictive mechanics. We call them electronic gumball machines, where everything is up for sale."

We spoke to Christopher Klaus of Kaneva yesterday, who sees a similar trend in virtual worlds. Kaneva is implementing casual games to draw users to its platform, but it seems like the tactic is especially applicable for the white label worlds that Trilogy has been developing.

"We think it works for both," said Pole. "We really think that if you create activities for people in the non-white label environments that creates drive for them and aspirations, we'll see inspiration there. I think you're right, though. With these white label worlds there are activities we can build around the content that's more applicable. But all the ideas are being shared across all the worlds we're developing. One will help us improve the next one."

Pole said that Trilogy is being asked to present to IP holders about developing these worlds and will soon be announcing "an extraordinary content partner." Trilogy also plans to update its website in late September with extensive blogging and communication functionality to "cross-pollinate the research from all the projects" and foster development.

"I haven't been personally as excited about what I do for a living since back in the day when the Playstation debuted," said Pole. "We're breaking new models. We're no longer dependent on third-party publishers to pay for these $40 million experiences. The creatives are in control."