Are Marketers Abandoning Second Life? 252
Vary writes "The LA Times is running a story today saying that marketers are pulling out of Second Life, primarily because — surprise, surprise — the 'more than 8 million residents' figure on the game's Web site is grossly inflated. Also, as it turns out, the virtual world's regular visitors — at most 40,000 of them online at any time — are not only disinterested in in-world marketing, but actively hostile to it, staging attacks on corporate presences such as the Reebok and American Apparel stores. The companies aren't giving up on virtual worlds altogether, though, but moving on to games like There, Gaia Online and Entropia Universe. The article also contains some commentary from a marketing executive who conducted an informal survey of the game and discovered that 'One of the most frequently purchased items in Second Life is genitalia.' What company wouldn't want to be in on that action?"
Oh look, marketing realizes what we knew years ago (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, it makes a lot more sense to do such a survey now, rather than before you wasted a bunch of money putting your company presence on this POS "game."
I swear, if the average corporate marketing division was a person, he'd have an IQ roughly between that of a flying penis and that of the jizz on a furry's suit, both of which are common themes in Second Life.
Rob
DON'T GIVE UP ON second LIFE (Score:4, Interesting)
So to me the question to ask is why does the model not work, and why do people attack the brands. Perhaps because second life is supposed to free to develop it own 'economy', and people do not want established brands interfering with their enterprise. Perhaps this is yet another artifact of a world in which the conventional rules and consequences do not exist, and if a major brand wants to exist, it must truly compete, and not depend on the vagaries of regulation to make it succesful.
LA Times Confirms It: Second Life isn't Popular (Score:2, Interesting)
The fact that its few members have nothing better to do than to flood the Slashdot story queue about it, grasping for some small, twisted glimpse of relevance, indicates just that: Second Life is popular with a small group of 40,000 people who have nothing better to do with their time than to flood the Slashdot story queue.
Seriously. Small websites have more visitors a day than that.
In fact, if you want to post stories that accurately reflect its accomplishments, try headlines like: "Second Life: Publisher Creates Sexually Explicit Virtual Meeting Place for Furries and Other Fetishists."
Re:They are moving to FirstLive (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Second Life? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a sculptor in Second Life, one of some note actually. In Real Life, I'm not. Why? Hard to say. The difference in the media is one thing, but what I found most freeing is that anonminity. Since nobody knows who I am, I was free to make mistakes.
I've wanted to paint in RL but "the terror of the blank canvas" is real. My paints, brushes etc all sit unused.
For me at least, it is far more than a chat room.
PleaseWakeMeUp Idler in Second Life
Re:What exactly is SL, There, et al? (Score:5, Interesting)
For me it is sculpture. A friend of mine used to race sailboats. He was bed ridden with a neurological disorder, but in Second Life few knew this. He is dead now, from the disease, but for his last few years he was able bodied as you and I.
PleaseWakeMeUp Idler in Second Life
Re:Defacing virtual commercial presenses? (Score:3, Interesting)
Although the sad part of this, in relation to what you said, is that people now are so entrenched in needing to keep in 'normal' society that they'll settle for this virtual reality. The possibility of using this virtual world to meet and get to know other people who would want to live in a NeoVictorian/Steampunk town and plan creating a real one by working together is lost on people. It makes me kind of sad, settling for fake ideals and a real life you don't like just because you don't want to take the risk of breaking the mould.
Re:They are moving to FirstLive (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Surprise surprise! (Score:3, Interesting)
Certainly you're correct. But Second Life is an excellent way to reach all kinds of demographics. For example, if I were selling a gorean roleplay/vampire roleplaying tabletop game, I can't think of a better place to get super cost-effective targeted advertising that goes directly to my target demographic. Same thing with lots of other subcultures that are active in Second Life. A few that come to mind are pirates, sailing enthusiasts, music lovers, stay-at-home moms... cruise around in there for a couple of weeks and see who's there. There are a lot of active communities there who you can reach pretty easily. A few thousand USD can go a very long way towards reaching certain kinds of people in Second Life. Not all demographics in the world are well represented there, but certain demographics are represented better in SL than just about anywhere else.
The most frequently purchased items: (Score:5, Interesting)
In First Life: clothes, food, shelter, cosmetics, drugs, jewelry, weapons, transportation, and entertainment (including stories and movies about people who can change their skins, hair, clothes, gender, species, etc...)
In Star Trek: clothes, food, shelter, cosmetics, drugs, jewelry, weapons, sensors, shields, teleporters, and holodeck privileges (where they can pretend to change their skins, hair, clothes, gender, species, etc...)
Re:And... what was the point originally, anyway? (Score:5, Interesting)
The first thing I did in world was stutter around at aprx. 4FPS. Even though the world was lagging like crazy, and everyone I saw was wearing the uniform purple/blue shirt, I was intrigued by the possibilities. I finished the tutorial and started messing around with LSL.
After a few minutes, I had a hello world program up and working. A few hours later, I made 10 bucks by writing a blackjack program for my first in-world friend, the owner of a small casino. I hung out with him for awhile, and invented a few new gambling devices, and then I decided to become a premium member.
At this point I was earning enough money to pay for the subscription cost, and I also purchased my first plot of land.. a 512. I built a small house on my land and started modding it... for instance I could change the alpha value of the windows, lock doors and such.
I became a scripting teacher at TUI, a school for the basics/advanced parts of Second Life.
I still have many friends in Second Life that I would never have met otherwise, and came out of Second Life much better at writing finished scripts and the confidence of having run a small scripting business.
Once you get past the sometimes ugly graphics of Second Life (not as ugly once your upgrade your graphics card), you can understand why 40,000 people spend hours and hours a day in their Second Lives. It is a welcome escape from the monotonous first life. Where else can you decide to be a bunny one moment, and a 10 foot robot the next?
Re:Second Life? (Score:3, Interesting)
Compared to a game, it's a chat room. What I'm saying is that SL's distant ancestor is a BBS, not Pong. Games are about the destination—winning or losing. SL is about the trip.
As you've discovered, VR worlds allow a great deal of creativity, not least because you can do things that would violate the laws of physics in RL. But if someone wants an adrenalin rush, they should join WoW—that's a game.