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Doing Business in Second Life by Skribe Forti

May 28, 2007 By

Aussie SL resident Skribe Forti has directed a machinima video entitled ‘Doing Business in Second Life’. Skribe is part of virtual marketing firm Inside This World and the video provides their perspective on Second Life and its business opportunities.

insidethisworld.jpg

A figure of $40 000 figure for development costs on an island is quoted as a ballpark for business. That amount of money could certainly be spent (and more) but I’m also aware of a number of islands under development for nearly half that – more on those in coming weeks. I’m also not sure that the ability to get people in a room in Second Life for a group hug is necessarily a selling point ;) Major kudos though for an overview of both the upside and downsides of SL for business and brands.

Overall, well worth a view.

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Filed Under: Australian News, Business Tagged With: ,
  • http://skribeforti.wordpress.com/ skribe Forti

    Actually the figure quoted is $20k to $40k all up. And you really need to have a group hug. It’s a major selling point in the real world. I hear that places like Google have GroupHug lessons and that if you fail them you can’t work there =).

    Ta for the kudos.

  • http://www.insidethisworld.com bret treasure

    Congrats to Skribe on very slick work.

    I’m the voice on the machinima. Re the $40,000; it represents what we would charge, not the cheapest possible cost. We recently quoted someone US$50,000 for a build and they found someone else to do it for $1,000! Was it a quality build? Erm, it’s not finished and the builder has walked off following disputes.

    I can do a web page for no cost. Is that what a reputable business will want? Probably they would like experienced advice, quality graphics and a solid back end. The same price/quality matrix exists in Second Life as in other areas.

    We are at the quality end and use top talent. We also work on the strategic side; if your approach is “I know what I want”, you might just want a range of builders to quote. If you want some quality input on how to proceed, that’s another story and we do charge money for that.

    In world I can be contacted as Biscuit Carroll.

  • http://ww.sloz.info Lowell

    Hi Skribe and Bret,

    Thanks to you both for your follow-up comments. The anecdote about the $50 000 to $1000 comparison is a good one from viewpoint of naivete on part of the customer i.e. why would you think you’d get a good product at such an enormous reduction.

    Good luck with it all.

  • http://skribeforti.wordpress.com/ skribe Forti

    Actually the figure quoted is $20k to $40k all up. And you really need to have a group hug. It’s a major selling point in the real world. I hear that places like Google have GroupHug lessons and that if you fail them you can’t work there =).

    Ta for the kudos.

  • http://www.insidethisworld.com bret treasure

    Congrats to Skribe on very slick work.

    I’m the voice on the machinima. Re the $40,000; it represents what we would charge, not the cheapest possible cost. We recently quoted someone US$50,000 for a build and they found someone else to do it for $1,000! Was it a quality build? Erm, it’s not finished and the builder has walked off following disputes.

    I can do a web page for no cost. Is that what a reputable business will want? Probably they would like experienced advice, quality graphics and a solid back end. The same price/quality matrix exists in Second Life as in other areas.

    We are at the quality end and use top talent. We also work on the strategic side; if your approach is “I know what I want”, you might just want a range of builders to quote. If you want some quality input on how to proceed, that’s another story and we do charge money for that.

    In world I can be contacted as Biscuit Carroll.

  • http://ww.sloz.info Lowell

    Hi Skribe and Bret,

    Thanks to you both for your follow-up comments. The anecdote about the $50 000 to $1000 comparison is a good one from viewpoint of naivete on part of the customer i.e. why would you think you’d get a good product at such an enormous reduction.

    Good luck with it all.

  • http://skribeforti.wordpress.com/ skribe Forti

    Actually the builder is quite talented, but lacks a portfolio. It’s the old chicken and egg thing.

    In the video industry it’s common to see backyard operators doing jobs for ridiculously low prices. One guy I know does rl weddings for $A200. Given the amount of time he takes that’s well below the minimum hourly rate. But he gets work because most of his clients don’t care about the quality. For some customers price is the only thing that counts. They just want a video.

    Same thing can apply in sl. Some people just want a building…any building…as long as it doesn’t look bad it’s fine.

    Of course in the case that Bret mentioned I know the people involved and the clients wanted more than they could afford. They have pretentions and very little else.

  • http://skribeforti.wordpress.com/ skribe Forti

    Actually the builder is quite talented, but lacks a portfolio. It’s the old chicken and egg thing.

    In the video industry it’s common to see backyard operators doing jobs for ridiculously low prices. One guy I know does rl weddings for $A200. Given the amount of time he takes that’s well below the minimum hourly rate. But he gets work because most of his clients don’t care about the quality. For some customers price is the only thing that counts. They just want a video.

    Same thing can apply in sl. Some people just want a building…any building…as long as it doesn’t look bad it’s fine.

    Of course in the case that Bret mentioned I know the people involved and the clients wanted more than they could afford. They have pretentions and very little else.

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