Since its opening in January of 2004 Popmundo has acquired 347,205 members. The site originally started out in English, but has since been translated into 26 other languages including Spanish, Bosnian, and Romanian. There are many new translations of the site to be released soon. Just for a little something fun, during my review I also played the site for a bit in Spanish. The translations are surprisingly accurate; the only translation error I noticed on the site was the use of the incorrect form of “ser,” but that was certainly a minor thing.

The location images are well-drawn and also of very high quality. The artists of the site appear to have a great attention to detail including shadowing and highlighting around the lighting in the pet shops. The images also show depth and distance, which almost makes each place appear to be 3-dimensional.

The art style of Popmundo puts a cartoon-like spin on everything. Certain features of the character are a bit exaggerated such as the eyes and mouths of both the characters and pets. Although they could have taken a more realistic approach to their art, I enjoy the art as it is.  The cartoonish variations give the site a more inviting feel.

The only problem I have with the art of Popmundo is that there are only two base characters of the site, one for male characters and one for female. You do have the option to upload your own picture in place of the base character image, but regardless, I would have preferred a bit of variety. You have the ability to buy additional clothing, tattoos, and jewelry for your character, but you cannot see the clothing on the character, so it is pretty much pointless.

The plot of Popmundo makes it feel like more of a tycoon than roleplaying game, but regardless of what you classify it as, the game has a fantastic plot. It is also not one of those where you meet a goal and then leave.  You must constantly work to stay on top. The whole point of Popmundo is to become the most successful musician in the entire world.You also have the option of taking a more political approach to the game by becoming the mayor of the town you live in. Popmundo is based on real time, which was decided on by the developers to make the site feel as if you really are the character. The site revolves around many things you would do in real life. You must pay rent, get a job, and also schedule your time wisely. You wouldn’t want to have a date and a concert at the same time, would you?

 If you are going to become a musician in the game, you must first start up your own band or join a band that already exists. Then you must write your own songs, or use those already written by others, practice these songs, and then perform them in concerts. Everything takes time in Popmundo, meaning it takes a few days to write your own songs, but the longer you take writing these songs the better quality they are. In your concerts you must choose which songs you want to sing and in which order. You can also choreograph the concert so that the people who attend enjoy the concert and also purchase more tickets. Your band can have multiple members with each member playing an individual instrument. In this case, they must learn more about playing the instrument through books or other people. It takes quite a while to get the hang of performing concerts and also what people like, but the game is still quite interesting.

If you would prefer to take the political side of the game, you must first get an education. You can do this by learning skills such as speech writing through books, or become an apprentice to someone who already knows the skill and learn from them. Once you are qualified to become Chief of Police, Mayor, or etc., you must run for the office. You can also take the position of someone who is resigning from their position, but that is pretty rare from what I have seen.

Whether you decide to be a musician or a politician, the goal of Popmundo is still the same, and that is to be successful. You can make money through jobs, concerts, taxes, and by running your own shop. There are many different directions you can take with Popmundo, all of which are time consuming.

Popmundo is certainly one of those sites that I would consider to have adult content, and I would not recommend it to anyone under the age of 15. A large part of the game revolvs around making relationships with other users. This could be as simple as a friendship, or turn into a romance, or even enmity. Once your “romance level” gets up to around 80% or so you are then given the option to have sex with other users. If one of the users does not use protection, in the form of condoms purchased from the store, then the female character runs the risk of getting pregnant. Also in the game if your enmity level gets to 80% or more you can fight other users. You can also buy alcohol from shops and also get drunk off the alcohol.

Popmundo also has forums, messaging, and a live chat feature.  It is not considered to be an “official"  part of Popmundo yet they have links to it in the community section. There are no filters anywhere in the game, so pretty much anything goes in the chat features of the game. On the live chat they do have moderators to help keep the chat boxes clean, but from what I have seen they never do anything, regardless of what is being talked about.

Popmundo does have a few safety features, but not anything huge. You have the option of either allowing other users from viewing your information (age, gender, name, email) or blocking that information from being seen by the public. You are not asked your age during registration, which means regardless of your age your information is shown, unless you choose otherwise. You have a “black list” in your mail system, which prevents certain users from sending you mail. Also in your mail you have options to report spam, or report another user for abuse.

As I said before, Popmundo resembles more of a tycoon game than anything else, which means they do not have flash games or anything like that. The site is more about making plans about your future, gaining skills, and making money than playing a game. The majority of what you do on the site is scheduling things to be done, which is just the click of a mouse, so I wouldn’t consider that to be much gameplay. I believe the site is more plot oriented than it is gameplay oriented.

There is also a great deal of exploring to be done on Popmundo with many different places you can go. You can find secret pathways throughout the game, one of them I found led me to a cabin in the woods where I found food for my character. There are different areas you can explore in each city, so I do not believe you could run out of places to visit.

During the game you get points for reaching certain milestones such as performing your first concert, traveling to multiple cities, and being elected for public offices. There is a total of 1970 points to be obtained throughout the game with anywhere from 10-40 points earned from each milestone you accomplish.

Making relationships is certainly an advantage to the community aspect of Popmundo. You can simply have friends, create romances, and also get married and have children on the game. Relationships in themselves take a great deal of time as you must interact with other users on a regular basis or the relationship you have with that person will dwindle into nothing.

The users of Popmundo are certainly some of the friendliest I have seen on an online site. The site is certainly hard to get the hang of when you first start out, but every question I had was quickly answered by other users on live chat. I found it easy to find everything I needed on the game either through the help of others or through the FAQ of the site. It was simple to find friends and people willing to help with gaining skills and making money.

The live chat is very well organized, you can talk other users in a global chat situation, or you can private chat to another user. The layout of the chat box greatly reminds me of ICQ online chat, which in my opinion is an organized chat system. The forums are mainly for getting help with things in the game, but you can also create boards just for chatting in general. The mail system is also a good feature to have, which makes it much easier to have friends on the site.