Coverage of news, issues and events occurring in virtual worlds or those who create those worlds
Australian machinima producer and virtual worlds observer, Skribe Forti, has created a very interesting review of mirror world Twinity. It seems a balanced piece that covers both the strengths and weaknesses of Twinity, which is currently in beta:
What are your thoughts? Do you agree with Skribe’s summary of Twinity?
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It’s with great pleasure we feature a guest post from Tateru Nino. We’ve profiled Tateru previously for good reason – there are few people who would understand Second Life more fully.
That’s a simple enough fact. Without communities, there can be no commerce. Even the simplest of communities suffices, but in the absence of it, you’re not going to make sales or effectively market your products.
In the offline, atomic world, communities are largely a matter of geography and infrastructure. Communities form because people are, willingly or unwillingly, in proximity. That’s why the corner store does alright. They’re right there, in your community, and they provide the sorts of things you want.
In the online world, however, matters of geography and mobility infrastructure are largely erased. Community becomes entirely a matter of choice. There’s no captive audience online. There are only interested audiences, and if you don’t have their interest, then someone or something else does.
So, we have two rules.
One, you need a community before you can attempt to sell. Two, you need to be providing something that community wants before they will buy.
Both rules are commonly ignored online, and in particular by businesses operating in virtual worlds.
There are basically only two ways to deal with rule one. Either you have to move into an established community, or you have to build one. The latter means you have to get people interested, and keep them interested. Even when they’re not paying you for product. That’s hard, and expensive and pays off big in the long run. It’s not a strategy for those who are into short-term gains or who are undercapitalised or undercommitted.
The alternative, of course, is to cuddle up with an established community. In the offline world, that’s newspaper advertising, billboards, sponsorship and so on. Online this is often done with banner-ads, but banner-advertisers tend to be quite a bit more scattershot. In the offline world, even a poorly-placed advertisement will be seen by many potentially interested people. In the online world, a poorly-placed advertisement may be seen by almost nobody who is interested.
A million impressions in the wrong place may be worth far, far less than a hundred impressions in the right place.
And that brings us to rule two. You’ve got to be selling something that the community wants, otherwise you may as well just be setting fire to your marketing budget. A kiosk promoting mobile phone plans isn’t going to work in a medieval role-playing environment or a historical recreation. It’s so out-of-place that you’ll get negative impressions, regardless of how many eyeballs and apparent engagement you’re deriving.
This is one of the few times that I actually counsel marketers to behave differently online than offline. You need to keep the same offline core fundamentals of marketing: Know your market, do your research, and refine your approach through empirical trials — but out in the virtual environments, you need to stop assuming you have a ready-made community. You’ll have to find an appropriate one, or make one — or go back to print ads and billboards.
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As announced on the official blog, the new design developed over recent weeks has gone live, initially for those not already registered as Second Life residents. The new version loaded for me this afternoon:
The re-design has attracted a lot of comment, a significant proportion of which has been criticism. For what it’s worth, I like the new design. Is it derivative? I believe so, but pretty much everything on the 2D web is. The new site does provide a real showcase of what Second Life has to offer, which must count for something. What are you thoughts – do you like it, hate it, or couldn’t care less?
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In more than two years of daily involvement in Second Life, one of the highlights has been the community approach of ABC Island since its launch in 2007. This year has posed some challenges for the island but things appear to be back on track if the latest addition to the island is any indication.
Arguably the key meeting spot on ABC Island is its sandbox, and that’s where the latest build has appeared. It’s an interactive Aussie Xmas display, all created by the small group of ABC island regulars. Quite rightly, the BBQ is the centrepiece:
Stalwart ABC Island admin, Wolfie Rankin, suggested the original concept but the end product is a result of some great group input. I’ve repeatedly lauded both the ABC and Telstra presences in Second Life, in both cases primarily for their communities and the passion with which they maintain them. Within the broader Winterfaire festivities currently underway in Second Life, the Aussie Christmas rightly stands out.
Do take the time to spend an Aussie Christmas on ABC Island if you can – it certainly beats the shopping queues in RL.
Check out the real thing in-world
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Torley Linden has returned to the official Second Life blog with a detailed roundup of Second Life’s annual Winterfaire event.
Anyone on the east coast of Australia may actually feel a greater bond to the event given the near absence of summer to date. If you’re running an Australian Winterfaire event, post a link in the comments. I know the ABC Island admin team are working on some great stuff, not necessarily for WInterfaire but it’s the time of the year for celebrating new things.
It’s also a great opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Xmas and New Year’s – thank you for taking the time to read our stories over the past year and we’re looking forward to doing the same again in 2009.
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A year ago we made some predictions on virtual worlds from an Australian perspective, and it’s time to review them:
2008 – how did we go?
Prediction 1: Australia will see its first legal action in regards to a virtual world – Second Life is likely to be the battlefield and it’s likely to involve an intellectual property dispute or financial regulation issues.
Fail – there was no shortage of legal action internationally but Australia wasn’t front and centre in any of it.
Prediction 2: Second Life viability will remain under question – there’s not likely to be a sudden improvement in the technical issues confronting the platform. The reality for Australian users of Second Life is at least another 6 months of laggy virtual world experience. There’s been rumours of a deal between Linden Lab and Telstra to locate Second Life servers locally – we can only hope. Expect lots of negative mainstream and Second Life blogosphere press if the status quo remains.
Pass – things have remained pretty much unchanged in this regard, with no local servers likely.
Prediction 3: VastPark will flourish – we’ve covered the VastPark virtual world platform a few times and its evolution has been promising. If the platform delivers what it promises during 2008, much interest should be garnered. I wouldn’t be surprised to see VastPark acquired by one of the bigger players. Vastpark’s Australian operations make this one we’ll be watching closely.
Pass – VastPark is still in beta but has continued to flourish development-wise. It remains one of the stronger prospects in the market.
Prediction 4: Google will not launch a virtual world – they may have launched OpenSocial and continued to develop Google Earth but 2008 will not be the year of Google truly entering the virtual world domain.
Fail – Google Lively well and truly killed this prediction but didn’t survive long.
Prediction 5: There’ll be failures aplenty – World of Warcraft will remain the dominant gaming MMO and of the swathe of launches touted, some will obviously fail. Claims are being made about the Conan and Warhammer franchises making some serious inroads. I’m not convinced that either will be enormously successful although neither lack significant backing and associated marketing power. And it’s not as if Blizzard will be sitting on their hands – the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft is on its way.
Pass – World of Warcraft maintained its dominance in gaming worlds. Age of Conan and Warhammer Online performed under expectations and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion sold very well.
Prediction 6: Australian business will remain conservative – 2007 saw the entrance of corporations like Telstra, the ABC and the REA Group into Second Life. I doubt there’ll be as many large presences launched in 2008. There’s still major skepticism out there about virtual worlds as a business tool – it remains only a research and development option in the eyes of business and 2008 is unlikely to change that. One disclaimer – if Google do launch a virtual world product, then all bets are off. On a related note – I predict Telstra’s SydSim development in Second Life will not cut the mustard for larger businesses and for those that do set up in that location, there’ll be consternation of how little traffic is generated.
Pass – no large business launches amongst ongoing conservatism. Telstra’s momentum continued, with fresh content and activities, although SydSim still struggles compared to other aspects of Telstra’s presence. The REA Group’s presence didn’t manage to gain significant traction and ABC Island has had some challenges but a dedicated, community-driven group continues to look at keeping things fresh.
Prediction 7: Mainstream media will continue to get it wrong – aside from some of the more savvy technology journalists, mainstream media reporting on virtual world developments will remain hit and miss. 2007 had some real clangers and you can expect that to continue.
Pass – this was always an easy prediction. Thankfully there weren’t stories as bad as the 2007 clanger from News Limited but there was still no shortage of misinformed reporting.
Five out of seven isn’t too bad. As always we’re keen to hear if you disagree on any of the points. Our 2009 predictions are on the way in the coming days.
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Below is a great end-user tour of Sony’s Home virtual world for Playstation 3. There’s a lot to like about the graphics and parts of the user interface with Home. It’s certainly thrown down the gauntlet to Microsoft and Nintendo who have some catching up to do with their consoles. The most obvious question to me when seeing worlds like Home and Twinity, is why would you bother with Second Life unless you were passionate about creating your own content or engaging in adult activities not available on the consoles?
On to the tour:
A big thanks to Skribe Forti for the heads-up.
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