I've been mucking about a bit in Second Life recently, been exploring all the expected places. It's not been a duck to water experience, seems too hard and slightly pointless, but I think maybe I'm starting to get it.
And I was about to write a post about the Leo Burnett/BBH shenanigans and how so much of this feels like agencies early forays at interactive TV, agencies just posturing and dabbling, when I remembered this bit from Convergence Culture: "Play is one of the ways we learn, and during a period of reskilling reorientation, such play may be more important than it seems at first glance." And I decided not to be such an arse. Full marks to everyone who's playing in Second Life. Because playing is one of the ways we learn, and the more agencies that learn new stuff the better.
I too have been mucking about in Second Life.
Had digital sex with an 'escort' who, let's face it, was probably a bloke.
And I bought a pair of trainers in the adidas store. Though I later lost the left one.
Still, as you say, it's all a learning experience...
Posted by: Scamp | October 16, 2006 at 02:02 PM
I've been wandering around in SL too, and still don't get it. I have created the ugliest avatar possible and nobody wants to talk to me.
Funny how everyone else looks just perfect.
Posted by: FishNChimps | October 17, 2006 at 12:07 PM
Are there any Second Life residents that don't work as planners/creatives/agency/marketing folk?
I'm trying to get people in the agency to give World of Warcraft a go, just to be able to see how a lot of real people react and live in gameworlds. But the dungeons&dragons exterior stuff is pretty scary, even for an occasional gamer like me.
Posted by: ief | October 17, 2006 at 03:07 PM
I've been playing a lot in second life as well, and I think I am starting to get it. I've bought land, built a weird looking house and done a lot of exploring. I find it surprising that this has become the next big thing in the marketing/advertising circles as it is still relatively small.
A book that helped me get it is "Snow Crash" by Neil Stephenson - it describes a world in which people live in the "metaverse" and is credited with inspiring linden labs to develop second life.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Snow-Crash-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0140232923/sr=8-1/qid=1161114861/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/202-5569784-5360626?ie=UTF8
Posted by: rob jenkins | October 17, 2006 at 09:06 PM
I am a big fan of "play" ... it is one of the most intuitive forms of learning, but has the danger of also being addictive and without focus -- which is fine if you are in it for the entertainment value.
Agencies, however, can learn a great deal from the modes of engagement that occur from within the game environment. It may not tell a lot about how we engage in the virtual world now, but it will prove valuable as we seek to understand the generations that have already-always been online.
Posted by: Gavin Heaton | October 18, 2006 at 02:03 PM
I totally agree about play - well, even blogging IS play for most. I recommend Pat Kane's blog, theplayethic.typepad.com for anything related to play.
Posted by: vas | October 18, 2006 at 02:06 PM
Has anyone organised an SL flashmob yet? We could all go ugly/weird and turn up somewhere. Or something.
Once I've managed to get off Induction Island, that is.
Posted by: patrick syms | October 18, 2006 at 02:37 PM
Patrick - check out these guys
http://slla.blogspot.com/
Posted by: rob jenkins | October 18, 2006 at 11:18 PM
Hi All, got a strangely pedestrian question. I've been designing a promotion in SL for a Cadbury new product launch and was wondering if you had any thoughts on the relative value of capturing ingame profile data as opposed to real-world data.
For instance, I'm known as Dumplings in the metaverse but just plain Dug out here. Is it equally useful for Cadbury to know that Dumplings has opted-in for free SL chocolate in exchange of say, filling in a survey or should we be trying to get Dumplings to reveal his real-world ident?
Oh, and I've just discovered you can buy genitals in SL :-)
Posted by: Dug Falby | October 24, 2006 at 06:17 PM
Very encouraged to see this, as I've been trying to get the hang of Second Life as well. The learning curve seems to be steep, not unlike snowboarding.
But I'm determined to hang in, and inspired by the brave agencies and planners that have innovated in this space. They will be way ahead because of this learning.
I've been wondering what the possibilities are for marketing research inside SL. (As I are one).
Meanwhile, I'm still banging into things with my alter ego, Trif Sixgallery.
Posted by: Susan Abbott | October 27, 2006 at 11:24 PM
y'know, there's another thing I find amazing about SL - the software is updated so frequently :-)
Posted by: Dug Falby | October 28, 2006 at 01:44 PM