Marketing Monday #2: If Everybody Looked The Same
Okay here we go again. A new world is invented. (Literally this time) As a well established designer/marketer you may not have missed upon this chance. Oh no, not another smart-ass trying to convince us about the opportunities of this virtual world you might think. Although I can not disagree upon the fact that Second Life offers you a lot of opportunities, this time Second Life will not be praised as the next best thing.
When you google on Second Life you will find definitions like: “A virtual reality community in which you create an identity, meet people, buy land and build your own objects. It is a “massively multiplayer online role playing game” (MMORPG), but one that offers users total freedom to create and interact as if they were living another life.†(www.pcmag.com) Despite this nice descriptive definition I would like to define it as: “A virtual reality community in which you can create dubious identity, meet sick people, pay for something non-existing and build rubbish. It is a “massively multiplayer online role playing game†(MMORPG), but one that offers users total freedom to create and interact in a way the can’t/won’t/try to do in real life.â€
– Edit: Here used to be the part that explained all the good things about Second Life; however I think most of you have already been overexposed to this information. For all you who missed the ‘hype’ just click here. –
Second Life, or SL as it is called by its beloved-ones, allows you to be who ever you want to be and act like you ever wanted to act. Ever wondered how it’s like to be the opposite sex? No problem, just sign in to Second Life and within 15 minutes you can save a $50.000 plastic surgical operation. Okay sex-change might be an extreme, but a $3.000 boob-job can also be done at no cost within the same 15 minutes and because they like you, you’ll get free liposuction and botox. Yes within these 15 minutes you can transform into who/whatever you want to be and start making your first steps into your new ‘life’.
And that’s just what happened to me 2 months ago. Within 15 minutes I walked straight into my new life. (have to admit I actually did make some adjustments to look better on screen) Well there ‘I’ was, at the gates of the ‘Promised Land’, looking quite happy with my second ‘me’. (For those of you who tuned in later… I’m not schizophrenic, there really is a second ‘me’, for 15 minutes) And at this playground just before the gates to the ‘promised land’ I had my first moment of doubt. Walking there I could only think of one song: “If everybody looked the same†by Groove Armada. We’d get tired of looking at each other, is how the song continues, and that’s just how I felt. I have never felt like this in my whole life, and now in my new, so called, second life it only took me 20 minutes. (15 minutes plastic surgery included) However all first steps are difficult, so I continued and I teleported (yeah Jan, I already made it so far ;)) myself to the ‘real (second) world’ aka ‘the Promised Land’.
Here I was, in the world I have heard so many talk about. A world where everything is possible, but no room left for rationality. Be honest, who needs rationality when everything is possible. Where rationality doesn’t even exist in the dictionary.
It is this lack of rationality that should keep rational companies out of this world. Of course there have been some first-mover advantages, and therefore really innovative companies could have entered when it emerged, but by now, every self-respective company hopefully better stay out. Second Life is nothing more than a hype. It’s the same like tammogotchi; however people get stuck longer, because it is more complex and time consuming to get the hang of it. For some users this time consummation is really high, a behaviour that also could be referred to as addiction. Second Life is their drug to escape from their real lives. It is pure emotion that drives Second Life and it is this emotion that makes it a hype instead of a respectable new world.
This leaves me with the following conclusion
Second Life is a world with only one source of regulation: money (Linden $). Because of this, Second Life lacks morality, rationality and natural authority.* Therefore it should be your purpose to bring these factors in to Second Life, as it is the only way to create value to your customers in the real and virtual world. If you can’t….. Get a life!!!
So designers, tell me, what do you think? Should virtual worlds like Second Life run on pure emotion? Do you think this will last? Or do we need a sprank of rationality/morality/authority to make it ‘the Promised Land’? Why could we live our virtual lifes without these factors and would our real world be screwed without it? What should be the the balance between rationality vs. emotion…. 5% vs 95% or 25% vs 75% or 80% vs 20%? To give you some inspiration I ask you to keep in mind Marketing Monday #1 and watch this over-rational movie.
* This actually proves God created the ‘real’ world
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December 19th, 2006 at 6:57
I’m actually afraid of virtual communities like these, and seeing your conclusion it remembers me of a youtube movie I once saw.
A young world of warcraft player died in real life, and after that there was an online ceremony. People all came to one place to pay respect to this real person. Then there was this ’smart’ group of people that assembled many weapons, and slaughtered all the virtual players at the ceremony in one quick blow…
This to me is scary because it shows the lack of respect people can have for each other. And then second life takes it a little further by re-creating life instead of a fantasy world like world of warcraft.
If you design the virtual world like the real one, at least have the same enforcement of law and or morals…
December 19th, 2006 at 9:37
I think its very interesting to have a virtual world with different rules, morals and rational, where people can escape our real world, mainly for entertainment purposes. Of course these different morals and rational need to make sense, and should not encourage people into irresponsible behaviour, as it is likely to cause trouble in the real world as well.
But lets think outside the little ’second life box’, what about running a company in virtual world.
Or actually have a virtual office for your employees to work in, while the clients are from the real world, and the work is too. What I mean is, the people that work in your office, don’t need to be in the same room to work in the same (virtual) workspace, they just log in everyday 9 to 5, from wherever they like.
Some of the advantages of this virtual workspace:
- the office design can be very unique
- the location can be anywhere
- all employees use computer to work, so software integration is easy
- for example sharing of files, co-op, multi-tasking is easier
- add webcams and voip to keep it real, your virtual phone is linked to your real desk one
Oke one more cool feature to this virtual world concept, you can have a store in the middle of a city, which allows people to enter your virtual office, but only true a computer screen interface, and Sims like character. Of course its possible to have client meetings, and presentations in the same manner trough the internet access of your company…
[just let me know what you think, anyone like to work in such a virtual/hybrid company]
December 19th, 2006 at 14:04
yes the virtual world definitely also offers you a lot of opportunities which are worth it!!! having your design agency online would surely benefit the company. however meeting ones in a while offline is also this advisable. however i dont say we should be blind to the opportunities, but brand exposure is not the right thing to do by now.
today i read an other article about second life, that compared it to a cafetaria, a place to go out and have some fun. only brands who fit in this image will be able to succeed here. not companies like abn-amro who recently entered second life.
but i’m really curious about what you designers think would be the best opportunities in virtual worlds? are future virtual worlds comparable to current or will there be a whole different view on use of virtual worlds?
December 21st, 2006 at 0:45
feeding time! [brian assumes i consume reading material...could be true]
i liked the idea at first, but remain skeptical. such a thing is a far-away link from you “real” situation. so how real are your emotions who you reflect inside of this world? the balance is hard to justify; the same as when a camera is pointed at you; you start behaving different. in such a world there are now limits to what you can do. so i wonder how serious people take their second personality.
it’s like escapism all over the place! people who are afraid, misunderstood or who can’t just be themselves in our “real” world can escape and act as they wish in this new world with their new identity. maybe it will eventually become a social gathering of people who are not social enough to roam the real world. [huge storage facilities where geeks are linked to sl and fed intravenously.
i don’t think it will be easy to enter the word of sl as a company and be efficient at it. but if you would ever make such a decision i would advice you to take it big and try to stick your existence into every corner! aggressive marketing i guess.
i also read that people are making a lot of money in sl. and i don’t mean the monopoly-kind; i’m talking about the “real” stuff. maybe we should exploit our skills in this, or any other, virtual world to spread our vision and material and gain some bucks while we’re at it.
eventually these virtual worlds will become increasingly real to us, especially with the developed of even more powerful computers. to me the scary part arrives when it becomes hard to define “virtual” from “real”. when the time has finally come to tap into our brains and experience everything that happens around is in such a virtual world and perceive it as “real†i wonder where we’ll end up.
i believe that when such a moment is arriving you should maintain a firm hand on your personality and brand position.
but that’s all for now. i’m off consuming the da vinci code. i heard it is quite good with some salt and pepper!
June 5th, 2007 at 3:10
Maybe you should have stayed on a little longer and maybe you should have done what designers are supposed to be doing; creating things. Being creative in a world without rules is what brings out the best in designers. Your compulsive need for rationality just shows your inability to deal with real freedom and your limited skills as a designer.
Second life is what you make it. If you don’t like the way everyone and everything looks the same then start building.
And yes, there is morality in Second life, as soon as you meet people that think you’re worth being friends with. And there is some rationality too, i hate to say. And as for ‘natural authority’ (come on); if you need that you should maybe retreat to the extremely virtual world of religion.
But please don’t act like you know everything about it when you obviously haven’t spent enough time in Second life to get past the infohub.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:02
Well I think we both have our points here, Second Life has reasonable opportunities for both designers as well as other people. However what I meant to state in this column was the fact if Second Life has the opportunity to be ‘the virtual world’. The fact that I hardly got beyond the infohub already shows a barrier that’s build to enter Second Life. Current growth rates also show this problem. Second Life is a valueable initiative, but I think there needs to be a new better designed virtual world, to be successful.
Don’t get me wrong I think Second Life is a very good initiative and I’m very curious how it will develop in the near future. Furthermore I would very much like it to meet you in Second Life, so you can show me the things I’ve missed.