Headlines about virtual worlds just from the past week.
Lots of video this week, some interesting statistics, and hype like you wouldn’t believe. I didn’t bother pointing it out most of the time, I’ll just let you play “spot the hype” on your own.
UPDATE: I’ve added direct download links for the videos.
Disclaimer: As with everything on my blog, the opinions expressed here are mine and do not reflect on Clever Zebra, the vBusiness Expo, my friends, my family, turtles, dogs, cats, etc etc etc… k here we go:
Business
Video: Disney Online’s Steve Parkis’ Keynote at VW Expo
Steve Parkis is Disney Online’s Senior Vice President. If you’ve been following the weekly headlines I don’t have to tell you that Disney does this stuff right. Download here (128Mb). Sadly it’s on Veoh which requires a software download to watch the entire thing streamed live, but you can still see a preview:
[UPDATE] – I had to remove these videos as they automatically play and the Veoh player doesn’t give you the option NOT to have that happen. Sorry.
Real Life will Trump Second Life, Microsoft Says
Microsoft made a good flight sim in the 90′s and make a neat photo-stitching tool now, but past that their expertise in this arena is largely unproven. Grain of salt.
An Unreal Financial Crisis
An examination of economic forces in the real world influencing virtual economics. Quick stats:
The average spent per square meter to acquire virtual land in Second Life has declined from 1.9809 in August to 1.8378 month-to-date in September. (As expressed in the virtual Linden Dollar, Second Life’s virtual currency.)
User-to-user transactions fell year-over-year in both the first and second quarters of 2008.
The average exchange rate for the Linden dollar fell from 267.4 in July to 266.8 in August. Not exactly the sort of freefall we’ve witnessed with the U.S. dollar, but not great, either.
A Whole New Dimension In Shopping
More of a speculative piece about the future of shopping, but it does give quick overviews of v-world efforts from Nissan, Sony BMG, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Amazon.com and IBM. They packed a lot into this little one-page article!
HHIH student do business in a virtual world
Hilton Head Island High School offers a class called Virtual Enterprise, teaching students to open and run businesses. Very practical.
Second Life at Labour conference
Labour Party meets in Second Life. The event was hosted by Microsoft and the Social Market Foundation.
Armed Services Train in Virtual World
A really good look at some of the efforts at using simulators for military training in a variety of applications.
NPD: Girls Move from Toys to Games and Virtual Worlds as They Grow
Implying trends here seems a little too ambitious. V-worlds for young girls are a relatively new thing, so there’s little to no historical data to work with. Regardless, some interesting stats on the way things are at the moment.
Gaming
Over 50% of PayByCash Payments from Ultimate Game Card
Well now, there’s a statistic. Over half of PayByCash’s business (a Paypal competitor) is the result of a gaming card. Think maybe it’s time to take a serious look at games now?
Changing The Way Second Life Works
A new device is launched that makes it possible to sell files (delivered via email) from a vendor inside Second Life.
Video: Sibley Verbeck’s VW Expo Opening State of the Industry Address
Sibley Verbeck is CEO of one of my favorite virtual world companies: The Electric Sheep Company. “State of the Industry” addresses, however, are nerds only. Download here (39Mb). Sadly it’s on Veoh which requires a software download to watch the entire thing streamed live, but you can still see a preview:
[UPDATE] – I had to remove these videos as they automatically play and the Veoh player doesn’t give you the option NOT to have that happen. Sorry.
An Avatar’s Bill of Rights
Legal and techno geeks will love this one. Intellectual property rights, interoperability as a fundamental need, privacy, and authentication – a virtual smorgasborg of nerdy debatable topics.
Philip Rosedale: Interview and Expert Reactions
Interviews with Philip Rosedale are for fanboys and nerds only. It’s typically v-world design philosophy that could be so endlessly debated and only really applies to the instance it refers to: Second Life. Metanomics’ infomercial format doesn’t really lend itself to hard answers for tough questions, but if you’re looking for micro-celebs to gawk at or want a very general idea of what’s going on at Linden Lab, tomorrow’s interview might be for you.
An ‘Unmarried’ guy, circa 1988
Sitcom about a guy who can only talk to girls via Second Life, but whose plotlines are stolen from the 80s. Like every other sitcom.
I had mentioned before how I had been doing some work in the lab of late. Specifically, I asked:
Can I design new tools that enable new ways for small business to work?
Working with a scripter by the name of ab Vanmoer, we’ve designed a possible answer to the question.
Since the first day I entered Second Life I wondered why I couldn’t just hand someone a file. Be it an Excel spreadsheet, a PDF, a PSD, or some software, it just seemed so very strange that Second Life should be completely isolated from my hard drive.
The File Courier bridges the gap. You rez it, tweak the settings, upload the PHP file to your server (just once for all your files), and you’re ready to go. If you’d like a copy, there are two ways you can get it:
I’m effectively working three jobs at the moment, which as you can imagine leaves very little time for blogging. Lots of projects, no time!
Even so, I find I’m contributing a massive amount of content to Blip.fm. There are two reasons for this:
It requires tiny amounts of effort for a massive return (listening to almost any song I think of).
The interface is dead simple.
This is a good example of the “having becomes doing” scenario. While I’ve known about Blip.tv forever and was impressed with them, I didn’t spend any time with their brand at all. Sure they were pioneers and had some really brilliant ideas about interface, but I didn’t feel I was participating, collaborating or experiencing anything.
Being a DJ on Blip.fm, however, has burned their brand into my mind. It also motivated me to excitedly pester my friends to check them out.
Apparently it also motivated me to use what little time I have for blogging to write about them and link them three times in a post. Marketers, are you paying attention? Powerful stuff, this!
Headlines about virtual worlds just from the past week.
Week after week I’m blown away at how much fresh news there is out there relating to the practical applications of virtual spaces. Things are moving fast!
This is the sixth week I’ve done this and it’s becoming an essential part of my life. There’s pretty much no other way to keep these things organized without losing them in a tag cloud somewhere or tucking them in a folder where I’ll never see them again. Here’s hoping you get as much value out of the experience as I do!
Disclaimer: As with everything on my blog, the opinions expressed here are mine and do not reflect on Clever Zebra, the vBusiness Expo, my friends, my family, the power of positive thinking, the force of gravity, etc etc etc… k here we go:
Business
Second Life Tries For A Second Act
This article, while not the first to make these statements by any means, will probably be cited in another couple of years as the birth of the new hype cycle. Just remember: Hype does not equal ROI, nor does it equal opportunity. It’s just hype.
Here Come the Millennials! Are You Ready?
Yep, it’s that time again: you’ve lost track of pop culture. It’s ok, it’s not your fault, it just keeps changing. Tune back in now…
Second Life sets techies on stability
I’ve deleted many page-length sarcastic tirades here, but bottom line: many businesses have left the platform due to horrendous stability issues that could easily, easily be addressed even through better communication. *delete,delete,pontificate,delete*
7 Days Brand Launches Bakery Theme Park
Big builds miss more often than hit, but you never know. Might be worth checking out. If successful, it lends hope to all would-be marketers of visceral experiences in virtual spaces.
Mudvayne enters Meez
Oh, guys, no. If you’re trying to bill yourselves as a metal band, please join a world whose demographic isn’t 18 year old girls. Try a shooter video game sponsorship, or vSide, or even There.com… here, check out a Mudvayne video and you tell me if this was a good move:
Gaming
Lego Universe: From the child on the floor to the user online
Kind of a no-brainer really. This will be a great promotion for the Lego brand… imagine kids building something there and then realizing they could build it for real! Moooom! I need more LEGOs!
Google to acquire Valve?
Whoa, wait, what? Valve makes one of the greatest 3D engines ever created, they create some of the best content for 3D ever devised, and have one of the largest subscription-based video game distribution platforms anywhere. Add Google to that mix and everything could change for everyone.
Virtual worlds provide real interaction
Ok, so there are these things called “virtual worlds” where people make “avatars” and they “interact” in a very “real” way. “etc”.
So How Many People Actually PLAY Second Life?
This is one of the OLDEST questions about Second Life, and it’s answered here, poorly. Not his fault really: statisticians and specialists of all kinds have really given this topic a strong work-over already, so he’s coming into this little debate pretty unprepared. What’s more interesting I think is how many stories Kotaku suddenly seems to be posting about Second Life. Used to be nothing, now this is the third in a week. Something’s up…
Virtual space, real love?
Wow, it turns out people do things that people do when they use the Internet! I’d have thought they’d just do things that computers do! (Sorry, this is only the billionth article like this I’ve seen.)
Click the above picture for full-size, think about what it says to you, and then read this blog post and look again. Does it say the same thing, or something new?
As the anti-capitalists love to crow: marketing these days is focused on having things. When radio was king it was about “being” things, but with film and television its been about “having”.
We’re talking about having the flashy car, the hot clothes, the new music, the fastest computer. It’s not a question of whether or not you’re living the life you want or can get by with what you have, but whether what you’ve got is good enough.
Well, that’s the way we’ve kept the machine running for a few decades now. It’s a buying frenzy. People would rather buy a book than get it out of the library, for instance. Isn’t that odd? Still, many attribute this phenomenon to all that is good and holy and healthy about capitalism, and that anything else is unwashed-hippie-communism that will lead us all to poverty and death and destruction… or something.
STOP: Just in case you were considering skipping down to the comments to tell me now unlike other consumers you are, and how you look for specific things in your advertising to make your buying decisions, and that everything you have is perfect and you need nothing else and you’re a wonderful exceptional person and so I must suck etc etc etc…. please accept that I’m intentionally making sweeping generalities here about the current focus of marketing. Is that ok? Yes? Good… now where was I…
Marketing. We’re about to see a big shift, largely due to what works in the new mediums of our age. While possession-envy marketing isn’t really leaving (just as “being cool” never stopped being a marketing ploy), we’re discovering a new way to reach people now: the experience.
Think about amusement parks. People will drive for hours and hours and dedicate their entire vacations to visit these places. Often people make similar sacrifices to visit monuments, go to concerts, the theater, the zoo, skiing, camping, or to see the giant ball of twine. If it were possible and financially viable, every brand on the planet would dot the landscape with fascinating things to do – because experiences are far more potent than teasing someone with something flashy.
Now the rules have changed. You can create an incredible, memorable experience for people at a reasonable cost and make them available in people’s homes through virtual spaces. People will not only remember the experience, but drag their friends over to it and say: “check this out! Isn’t this cool?” while standing next to your logo.
In the future, the message won’t just be “you could have this”, but also “you could be doing this… right now!”
