Beyond Social Networking - The Metaverse
Tens of thousands of people gather in a fully 3D environment to buy and sell fanciful clothing, defy gravity by flying, make friends from all over the world, build residential communities, speculate on land prices, and create and license software.
Welcome to the Metaverse. Just as the term Cyberspace was coined in a science fiction novel (William Gibson’s 1984 novel Necromancer), the word Metaverse was created by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. In Snow Crash the Metaverse was Stephenson’s version of what a virtual reality-based Internet might be like. Second Life is one of those virtual reality worlds.
Metaverses grew naturally from role-playing games like World of Warcraft, EverQuest and Ultima Online. Each game has its own economy, and though the goods may be virtual, they have real value.
What enables real commerce in these virtual worlds? Trust. As Wagner James Au, Second Life’s embedded reporter, said in a cNet article, not long ago, [Second Life] residents began collecting money to be given to Red Cross Katrina funds. The key, he explained, was the trust between members and the users who organized the fund-raising, as all the funds went initially into his bank account.
Julian Dibbel, a writer for Wired, agreed. Dibbell, who had at one time been earning a significant amount of money trading the weapons, clothing and armor of the online game “Ultima Online,” agreed, relating how he had once allowed a fellow UO player he didn’t know very well to use his in-world house to store virtual goods with tangible value.
“There was real trust developed with the UO…guy,” Dibbell recalled. “There was bonding because he was entrusting stuff (to me) with real market value.”
Dibbel continues:
“Massively multiplayer online role-playing games with their huge size and their incredibly directed framework for activity seemed to almost naturally generate these rich economies (which then) spun out into the real world.”
So how does it work? Simple…you need some land, which you can rent from the folks at Linden Labs. The price will vary. You can get your own island for $195.00 per month. A smaller parcel costs $9.95 per month.
Then you need some Linden Dollars. They are the currency of Second Life. L1000 is about $3.25. This is the key, because this gives real value to virtual goods. Need a house for your lot? You can buy an 8 room Grecian Villa for L8000, or about $27. But in Second Life you can pretty much buy anything — a business, food, a dog, sex, even drugs and laughing gas.
You may be buying virtual goods, but the money is real. Real enough for lawsuits. A Pennsylvania lawyer named Marc Bragg has filed suit against Linden Lab, maker of the virtual world Second Life, for “a virtual land deal gone sour.” According to a press-release issued by Bragg, “The suit seeks financial damages in the thousands, in part for a breach of a virtual land auction contract.
Can all of this add up to real money? Ask Anshe Chung, who’s firm was featured in a Business Week article as having $250,000 in land and currency holdings in the virtual world. How about this little tidbit — One BILLION dollars will be spent online on these virtual goods and services this year. Wow.
Why should you care? Simple.
The British branding firm Rivers Run Red is working with real-world fashion firms and media companies inside Second Life, where they’re creating designs that can be viewed in all their 3D glory by colleagues anywhere in the world. A consortium of corporate training folks from Wal-Mart Stores (WMT ), American Express (AXP ), Intel (INTC ), and more than 200 other companies, organized by learning and technology think tank The MASIE Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is experimenting inside Second Life with ways for companies to foster more collaborative learning methods. Says Intel Corp. learning consultant Brent T. Schlenker: “We’re trying to get in on the front end of this new workforce that will be coming.”
At the very least, you need to go take a look at this. It’s wild.
So what about advertising? Well, there are banner ads available, both in the world and on world-related sites. And people with common interests get together in virtual worlds. There’s opportunity for virtual sales, leads for conventional sales, and for branding. That’s why Wells Fargo bought an island in Second Life to promote home finance, and Coke has also purchased land inside Second Life.
Check this out:
Other businesses have begun to use virtual worlds as marketing tools to reach young people who prefer logging on to games to switching on the TV. Bovington is working with media companies, a distillery that wants to set up a dance club inside Second Life, and the British fashion designer Mrs Jones, which offers virtual versions of its real-world apparel designs. “They’re all interested in creating their own branded Second Lifes,” says Bovington, whose avatar goes by the name “Fizik Baskerville.” “Allowing people to immerse themselves in your brand is the Holy Grail.”
Absolutely amazing.
Social Bookmarking icons - Share and enjoy.
Subscribe (RSS)