Sometimes a “poke” on Facebook just doesn’t do it. Once in a while, a punch in the face may be in order. This upgraded interaction is what Zao Yang and Joel Poloney offer with their new SimCity/Facebook hybrid, MyMiniLife.com.

“People post comments on people’s walls,” Poloney said. “And I’m getting tired of it. Why can’t I just go online and punch them in the face or give them a hug?”

The monotony of Facebook and MySpace brought these University computer science students, founders of MochaSoft, LLC, to develop something mixing the enormously successful massive multiplayer online gaming market with the social appeal of networking Web sites.

“You don’t just want to be another Facebook or MySpace knock off,” Yang said. “It’s this entire Sim City-like world online.”

The site may feel just like a day with a Sim family, but it goes much deeper.

Yang’s character, or “MiniMe”, walked across the white linoleum floor to his full size, leopard-print bed. His virtual apartment, nicknamed “Zamland,” is a perfect representation of his actual apartment on the corner of Sixth and Stoughton streets. MiniMe’s are fully customizable, from clothes to hair colors and styles.

Instead of simply surfing to a friend’s Facebook page to read some text, MiniMe’s explore their friends’ homes. Almost anything can become interactive with the click of a mouse through the embedded media. Users can integrate videos, slide shows, games, pictures and music into their virtual laps of luxury.

“The best part,” Yang said, “is you can embed all of these things (from MyMiniLife) into your MySpace.”

Yang clicks on a small computer-looking icon on the table and a slide show of Poloney’s vacation pops up. Multi-colored sticky notes left from friends are hung on the walls, chairs and tables. In Poloney’s “Arnold’s Pizza Shop,” a note reads “What a freaking mess! Where’s the pizza? Where’s the bullets?”.

“Massive multiplayer online games are most successful because of the social interaction, not the game,” Yang said. “What makes Xbox Live good? The people.”

But ushering in the new does not mean the team has gone out with the old. There is still a classic profile page with pictures and biography sections.

However, the real world of starting an innovative Web site is not all fun and games.

“There is much work to be done on new features, redesigning the aesthetics, and all sorts of small bugs that may be encountered,” Poloney said.

“One major (problem) is speed. Right now the site is kind of slow.”

So far, MochaSoft LLC has spent around $70,000 getting MyMiniLife off the ground.

“Compared to other Web sites, that is not a lot of money for something like this,” Yang said.

For the future, there are big plans beyond the first release on Sept. 25. Most everything will be user-generated – like developing one’s own clothing line — and more video game-like interaction is coming. They also hope to incorporate in-game product placement as advertising. You can finally have that Coke machine in the bathroom you always wanted.

Another feature will be celebrity upgrades based on how characters act.

“Enough roundhouse kicks, and you could turn into Chuck Norris for a day,” Yang said.

In a short time, students will be able to try out their own MiniLife. So far, only friends of the development team have been using and testing the virtual world. One of those people has been Rahul Malik, junior in Engineering.

“I think it has a lot of potential,” Malik said. “With the right development, it may be able to take a portion of the crowd away from Facebook.”