one of the things i see around the New Web Revivaltm are website towns, basically a collection of links to other websites, but organized in a fictional town.
this is the first example i saw. for 16 euros and if you supply an image/gif, you get a plot of land to show off your website.
this one instead is a web host. you apply and get a whole subdomain on the site. amusingly, i found this because it was linked on Melon Town above, so it's technically also a town within a town. every website here obeys the theme and pretends to be places you visit. there's even a community bulletin board (chat box).
it's an interesting evolution of webrings to me. a way to semi-arbitrarily group websites together to encourage people to check them out. can foster community too.