Move over, Mario. Step aside, Sonic. Put down your firearms World of Warcraft warriors. Expo Online has arrived as the latest form of online infotainment.

With its cartoon-like avatars, cyber-gaming infrastructure and pop-quiz logic, Expo Online (www.expo.cn), the virtual component of the Shanghai World Expo, looks set to have the world at its portal by borrowing imaginatively from traditions old and new.

While the website is not addictive enough to have kids playing truant at their local cyber caf anytime soon, the programmers at Crystal CG have taken several leaves out of the hugely addictive book of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) to engage a global audience of all ages.