Second Life becomes a marketing case study

Yup. I've already said it in SL, direct to the lindens. the Furries are the only thing that's holding SL together recently! Sure, there's the goths with their 10 linden AVs and their giant Sillouhette disco balls (Gods, I hate those things) and their ICBMs that they shoot at eople in the middle of sandboxes when you're trying to build a King of all cosmos AV and launch you across 4 sims.. -sigh-

but yeah. the two big moguls of SL in the current system of government (not to mention the current state of the codebase) are Anshe chung,. and Nexxus Ambassador, both of which i'd had the pleasure to meet ingame, and ony one of them is able to keep ahead of the game with a profit.. guess who that is.. n.n

Muskie McGettigan (usually found in Furnation Alpha)

www.there.com is SOOO much better. Better economy and gameplay.

I am sorry, but "There" is boring when compared to SL. The main reason is that it gets old after a while, where as with SL and the world of user content which is constantly changing, never seems to get stale.

Don't belive me? Do research on the number of Second Life subscribers then compare them to There and see who has higher numbers. One more thing don't think that by posting about "There" in a Second Life post will get people to convert over.

Eh I wouldn't know about Furnation being this huge economical thing for SL. There dozens of businesses, including the non furry ones that I feel contribute to the economy there. And the furrise are not what keep the game alive. They're a population there as is everyone else. I am happy to be someone who wears a fur there but, I spend most my time out and about.

Course I hadn't heard about Furnation until just a week or so ago, and I'd been here since last september. :) So there is life beyond that and the furries. And the goths etc crew are all good people with different niches. Their avatars aren't as cheap when you get into the various detailed clothing and hair that is sold.

Second life is an awesome online experience. I dont consider is so much a game, as a large graphical Mu* :)

I'd encourage anyone looking for an interesting diversion whose willing to try something new, to give SL a shot. Theres alot of nice people who'd gladly take you on a tour of anything your interested in :)

Unfortunatly, the idiom always runs true... Sex sells. It is actually a challenge to find places NOT centered around sex. 90% (made up number) of SL is prostitution, clubs, and other places designed to find sex for whatever point of time. nearly all games and chats without a forcefully overwhelming baseline turn that way. (you CAN find WoW and Everquest porn fan fics and movie clips sadly..)

I just joined SL last night. Not sure what it's all about or what to even do! I like flying though. I guess it'll come to me as I mess around with it.

SL has ALOT going for it. However, it would help if they upgraded their rendering engine/framerate. Comparatively, they dont hold a candle to any of the other MMOs out there (yes, I know - its not a game, but a close relative). Still, graphics will bring in the folks, community will keep them there (furries or no).

As a previous landowner/seller in Second Life (Goodwrench Grayson : The Mushroom Kingdom), I did more than just violate copyrights. ;) I sure got a sense of the marketing potential within that virtual world. It's a flawed and imperfect little system that has loads in common with our real-world, flawed and imperfect system.

I am sad to say that I had to bail Second Life what with my having a family now (one insanely busy family life is enough, thank you), but I look forward to returning after more iterations of the software and after more (hopefully) creative destruction occurs. I think that, as a *model*, Second Life is about the only thing in MMO's going on. The sheer depth of options and inherent potential of such an open structure makes WoW gold farming seem downright tame (if not, of course, for the MASSIVE dough in it).

I look forward to more news-bits about marketing experiments in Second Life.

SL is a horribly buggy mess, IMO. But I will admit the one thing that keeps people playing is the amount of customization. People love to create their own content, and there's not really any other title that can give them that on this scale yet. I'd like to see more games that allow full scale content creation, but make it much more accessible.

So, let me get this straight. You have to put in the time and mental exertion of a second life, so that an avatar gets to experience sex with furries and flight? That sounds about as fulfilling as an evening at a strip club with your great aunt.

As much as I respect MarketingSherpa, this is so much hype based upon a new content delivery system that a bunch of over-educated misanthropes, loners and, god-only-knows-what-else are doing instead of playing EverQrack. The case study can't be worth much. What am I supposed to do, learn how to sell Lewis and Gilbert's avatars stuff that they can't associate with in real life?

Well...
There are only around 170,000 at Second Life and some people are making tons of real-world cash from it.

Whenever MySpace (which has 80 million) turns 3D, the world will change as we know it. Marketing and all.

One would be unwise to not ponder the aspects of it all such as what would that avatar want?

Facts are not always truth. Truth is, it's coming.