Software creator Robert Savage has just developed an email program called 3D Mailbox, which turns the standard email experience into a cross between a video game and a movie, according to Smart Money.

"For the person in the program, it's meant to be an entertaining, cinematic experience instead of an otherwise sterile computer experience," said Savage.

The "email metaverse" created by Savage turns email into a multi-level game loaded with metaphor. The first level, for example, takes place on Miami Beach. Inspired by the James Bond film Goldfinger, the inbox is poolside and the outbox can be found along a hotel bar. New emails arrive in the form of new guests to the Fontainbleau Hotel, and the outbox is represented by people in swimming gear, leisurely sipping drinks.

Email trash is represented by a graffiti-ridden alley, and spam - that persistent pest - appears in the form of hungry sharks offshore.

Savage employed approximately 40 people to help him develop the software. In 2004, he created a metrics package called Visitorville, a Sims-style world for viewing site analytics.