SL a desert for commerce?
Wired magazine yesterday reported on the companies that are spending huge amounts of money to maintain an empty presence in Second Life. Their view is that companies are panicked into spending a lot of money on a presence in SL in order not to be left out, only to find their builds are empty of even the 50 or so residents that could be accommodated.
As I have been saying for some considerable time, the problem for me as a developer is that people come to SL with a set of preconceived ideas about what they would like to produce: usually a headquarters which reflects real life. Sibley Verbeck from Electric Sheep claims in the article that companies come with an open mind and open wallet to the Sheep, and maybe they do, but that isn’t my experience.
Many developers still seem to think that setting up a store and leaving it to look after itself will work. Agreed, it is the simplest solution and requires little in the way of maintenance for client and developer, but I think the empty sims of Reebok and Adidas speak of its ineffectiveness in terms of marketing or PR or branding.
Making something which enhances the reputation of the company and provides people with something worthwhile to do requires thought and requires something other than an invitation to come look at the company’s wares.
Numbakulla is the collaborative project sim that I worked on, which houses the Pot Healers Mystery, and after two years open, it still manages to achieve better traffic figures than many of the expensive commercial builds. We haven’t paid PR people to spread the word about it; it gains players by virtue of the fact that it is different, and has a quest built it which people find interesting to do. I reckon it would have cost about $50,000 to build if I had had to pay the collborators in real money. Fortunately, I didn’t, because I don’t have that sort of money.
The builds in SL which attempt a similar thing can be counted on the fingers of one hand, notwithstanding the millions that commercial companies have spent. The potential of the platform has barely been scratched by both the people who are drawn in by tales of untold wealth, and those who bring untold wealth to it; they are still thinking in a real life way about it.
Some builds have made a brave attempt and still missed by a mile: I think particularly of the Vodafone sim, which has a number of very badly executed things to do, but no integrity or coherence about it.
I hope someone with money to spend, wakes up to the real potential, and builds something that works soon, because the alternative I can see is that companies will move out of SL believing that it cannot be successful for them, which will bring a resultant collapse in the economy, and may jeopardise its future.
July 25th, 2007 • 
Caliandris Pendragon • 
pingback | July 25, 2007 at 07:09 | individual pingback-link
[...] 8:10am PST: Right after publishing this I see that Caliandris wrote about the same Wired article. Please be sure to check out her perspective too as she’s been in SL longer than any of our [...]
comment | July 25, 2007 at 08:23 | individual comment-link
I’ve enjoyed touring the corporate sims that I’ve been able to find, but finding them has been a process of reading blogs and the like. How many avatars actually do that? I believe these companies could gain a lot more traffic, just by having more of a presence in-world or being easier to find. I wish there was a central way to find them.
I really enjoy the Vodafone sim actually, disorganized it may be, but there are freebies and wacky things to actually do.
comment | September 11, 2007 at 14:28 | individual comment-link
Hi,
Keen observations. I think that a lot of the reason for the problems with the big builds in Second Life is that investors in the grid are not thinking about the reasons for doing it. What is the result of producing a magnificent campus or corporate presence? Why a multiplex when an email address will suffice? It seems to me that most of the problems of economy are due to unrealistic expectations of scaling (if an innovation can expand with demand). Clearly, most of the multi $ builds are for PR. These offer the user little, so why should they be populated? What is the appeal to the ‘consumer’? If an organisation wants to apply a business model to second life they will have to rethink their client base; the typical user of Second Life is not a passive consumer. They are an explorer, an adventurer, and an asset to think tanks. As early adopters of a new technology, we should not underestimate the user, because that user is us. At blame for this third-wave of doubt are those who seek to quantify this world; those who are looking to exploit virtual worlds for what they can yield – in units sold, in page hits, in visitors to a sim. For me, virtual environments are not a platform for exploitation, they are an extension of our homeland, and we should navigate that new world just like any other virgin territory, with respect for the land and those who occupy it. I believe when the time is right the people will come. The technology will not prevent this, then the market is led by demand, and the innovation that allows this will follow that demand, and yes that demand may be whipped-up by the ‘suits’ and the public relations teams but ultimately it’s because of the community of people who care enough engage with each other in a meaningful way. If it is not Second Life it’ll be another technology but the people are coming and the markets should be prepared for them. As Linden Lab claim in their ‘About Second Life’ screen “Viva la Liberación!”
Milton Broome – SL-Labs