I decided to look at Irelands involvement within Second Life to discover more about how it could be affecting us. The city of Dublin (within SL) is perhaps one of the most fascinating creations online, and always is visited by many newbies from around the world. In saying that, like most of Second Life, meeting people is sparse.
The first person I spoke with was Mark Henry, the marketing director of Tourism Ireland who recently set up within Second Life:
Mark: Tourism Ireland has started 6 months of sponsorship of the virtual city of Dublin in SL. This will encourage visitors to the virtual city to come and experience the real thing. It will also allow potential visitors to click direct to Tourism Ireland’s website (www.discoverireland.com) from within SL. Tourism Ireland’s in-world activity began in October and will continue to at least St Patrick’s day.We are committed to using e-marketing to the best possible effect in promoting the island of Ireland as a holiday destination and our involvement in Second Life is about finding new ways to connect to today's web-savvy consumer
Steven: What is your target audience? Are you trying to attract people already in SL, or are you trying to attract non-SL users to join?
Mark: 60% of SL users come from the US, the UK, France and Germany – the major source markets for the Island’s tourism. More than half of SL users are also aged 30 plus. In that respect there is a good overlap between SL users and Tourism Ireland’s target audience for our marketing activities.
Steven: I've read Tourism Ireland plans to spend close to a quarter of its entire marketing budget online in 2008. Is this true and how to you plan to use this money online?
Mark: Yes this is true. The investment will be spent on website development, database development, ezine distribution, online gaming, podcasts, vodcasts and a range of other innovative techniques which are designed to engage potential visitors to think of holidaying here.
Steven: Finally, do you believe Second Life will continue to grow in the future, and will other companies and marketing campaigners follow your innovative idea?
Mark: SL has been growing exponentially in the recent past. It remains to be seen whether this growth curve will continue. However we can be certain that even if SL proves not to be the future of the internet, other virtual worlds will prove to be a success and these represent unique opportunities to promote real world Ireland.
After speaking with Mark, I decided to visit the destination myself….
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Nicholas Yee
Nicholas Yee website, about MMO Social interaction and Addiciton:
http://www.nickyee.com/index-daedalus.html
+
‘The familiar will always remain the likely starting point
for the rendering of the unfamiliar […].’
—— E. H. Gombrich
+
Overview of some themes and articles:
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/communities_00.htm
http://www.nickyee.com/index-daedalus.html
+
‘The familiar will always remain the likely starting point
for the rendering of the unfamiliar […].’
—— E. H. Gombrich
+
Overview of some themes and articles:
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/communities_00.htm
Saturday, January 5, 2008
More information
Cybersickness: http://www.cybersickness.org/web_index.htm
Mark Poster: http://www.humanities.uci.edu/mposter/writings/internet.html
Fear over being too technogolised: http://www.technorealism.org/
The virtual community online Rheingold: http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/
Mark Poster: http://www.humanities.uci.edu/mposter/writings/internet.html
Fear over being too technogolised: http://www.technorealism.org/
The virtual community online Rheingold: http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/
Friday, December 21, 2007
Further Description of Second Life
http://quizzicalcharms.blogspot.com/2007/04/bonus-mission-2-second-life-semi.html
Developed by Linden Lab, Second Life is the latest craze that is making waves amongst netizens. Armed with the tagline,” Your World. Your Imagination”, Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world built entirely by its users, called "Residents", it allows them to interact with each other through personalized avatars. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another. (“Second Life”, 2007)Just Another Game?Many call it a game but there are no losers or winners in Second life, it does not involve collecting gold rings and nuggets to add points and moving on to the next level or shooting aliens and weird creatures that comes your path, but yet it is highly entertaining and addictive like most best selling games. “Second Life is beyond a game,” says Foxy Xevious, a Second Life Resident, “it is a tool for artistic freedom that brings people together.” Indeed, you get to meet resident from all walks of life, you get to discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. There is also a high level of interaction going on in there, as you get to socialise and join in these activities. Similar to the idea of living in a fantasy world of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), what sets Second Life apart is that “Second Life is intended to be a canvas, rather than a world that constrains residents to a specific theme or style,” says Linden Lab vice-president of product development, Cory Ondrejka. (Cook, 2007)Paint My World, Paint My LifeSecond Life residents build anything they want; they own it and can share it with other residents any way they want. Giving players ownership of whatever they create — from digital vehicles to “skins” that characters can wear to change their appearance— is a critical way “to truly maximize growth and innovation,” according to Ondrejka.(Cook, 2007) Second Life is all about personal expression and your avatar is the most personal expression of all. After all, an avatar is what represents you are the virtual world. It is very simple to personalize your avatar and it allows you to change anything you like, from hairstyles to the color of your eyes, and at point of time. Second Life is a world of no boundaries; you get to explore beautiful landscapes and even an underwater kingdom! It is also all about experiencing things that you will never get in real life. In Second Life, you could dine at the fanciest restaurants or dance the night away in the trendiest clubs and hang out with the coolest people in town. Being a resident in Second Life is more than just being part of a virtual community, it is literally being a citizen of a virtual world. The beauty of the virtual world is that it is a combination of the real world and the fictional world, and residents have the all access pass to experience them.Life of the Rich and the FamousOndrejka says that Second Life is simply drawn from the real world, pointing out: “Economic and market forces work in digital worlds in the same way that they have always worked, from ancient Athens to the modern world.” Second Life has its own fully integrated economy and a currency referred to as Linden Dollars (L$). As residents create new goods and services, they also buy and sell them in the Second Life. Second Life's real estate market provides opportunities for Residents to establish their own communities and business locations. Towards the end of 2006, Anshe Chung, the avatar or Ailin Greaf, has become the first online personality to achieve a net worth exceeding one million US dollars from profits entirely earned inside a virtual world. Named as the "Rockefeller of Second Life" by a CNN journalist, she has built an online business that engages in development, brokerage, and arbitrage of virtual land, items and was recently featured on the cover of Business Week Magazine.(“Anshe Chung”, 2007)ConclusionSecond Life is not a game, it is a place you can go and be whoever you want and do what ever you want. That is where the future of the Net is heading to. So if the real world is getting you down, you can always turn to Second Life and lead a semi charmed kind of life. References:1. Cook, B.(2007) Second Life: Build Anything, Be Anyone, Set Your Own Agenda. Apple Hot News. Retrieved on 6 April, 2007 from http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2005/07/secondlife/2. Second Life. (2007,). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 6 April, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Second_Life&oldid=1206965733. Linden Research, Inc. (2007) What is Second Life? Retrieved on 7 April, 2007 from http://secondlife.com/whatis/4. Anshe Chung. (2007). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 7 April, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anshe_Chung&oldid=120060081
Developed by Linden Lab, Second Life is the latest craze that is making waves amongst netizens. Armed with the tagline,” Your World. Your Imagination”, Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world built entirely by its users, called "Residents", it allows them to interact with each other through personalized avatars. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another. (“Second Life”, 2007)Just Another Game?Many call it a game but there are no losers or winners in Second life, it does not involve collecting gold rings and nuggets to add points and moving on to the next level or shooting aliens and weird creatures that comes your path, but yet it is highly entertaining and addictive like most best selling games. “Second Life is beyond a game,” says Foxy Xevious, a Second Life Resident, “it is a tool for artistic freedom that brings people together.” Indeed, you get to meet resident from all walks of life, you get to discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. There is also a high level of interaction going on in there, as you get to socialise and join in these activities. Similar to the idea of living in a fantasy world of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), what sets Second Life apart is that “Second Life is intended to be a canvas, rather than a world that constrains residents to a specific theme or style,” says Linden Lab vice-president of product development, Cory Ondrejka. (Cook, 2007)Paint My World, Paint My LifeSecond Life residents build anything they want; they own it and can share it with other residents any way they want. Giving players ownership of whatever they create — from digital vehicles to “skins” that characters can wear to change their appearance— is a critical way “to truly maximize growth and innovation,” according to Ondrejka.(Cook, 2007) Second Life is all about personal expression and your avatar is the most personal expression of all. After all, an avatar is what represents you are the virtual world. It is very simple to personalize your avatar and it allows you to change anything you like, from hairstyles to the color of your eyes, and at point of time. Second Life is a world of no boundaries; you get to explore beautiful landscapes and even an underwater kingdom! It is also all about experiencing things that you will never get in real life. In Second Life, you could dine at the fanciest restaurants or dance the night away in the trendiest clubs and hang out with the coolest people in town. Being a resident in Second Life is more than just being part of a virtual community, it is literally being a citizen of a virtual world. The beauty of the virtual world is that it is a combination of the real world and the fictional world, and residents have the all access pass to experience them.Life of the Rich and the FamousOndrejka says that Second Life is simply drawn from the real world, pointing out: “Economic and market forces work in digital worlds in the same way that they have always worked, from ancient Athens to the modern world.” Second Life has its own fully integrated economy and a currency referred to as Linden Dollars (L$). As residents create new goods and services, they also buy and sell them in the Second Life. Second Life's real estate market provides opportunities for Residents to establish their own communities and business locations. Towards the end of 2006, Anshe Chung, the avatar or Ailin Greaf, has become the first online personality to achieve a net worth exceeding one million US dollars from profits entirely earned inside a virtual world. Named as the "Rockefeller of Second Life" by a CNN journalist, she has built an online business that engages in development, brokerage, and arbitrage of virtual land, items and was recently featured on the cover of Business Week Magazine.(“Anshe Chung”, 2007)ConclusionSecond Life is not a game, it is a place you can go and be whoever you want and do what ever you want. That is where the future of the Net is heading to. So if the real world is getting you down, you can always turn to Second Life and lead a semi charmed kind of life. References:1. Cook, B.(2007) Second Life: Build Anything, Be Anyone, Set Your Own Agenda. Apple Hot News. Retrieved on 6 April, 2007 from http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2005/07/secondlife/2. Second Life. (2007,). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 6 April, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Second_Life&oldid=1206965733. Linden Research, Inc. (2007) What is Second Life? Retrieved on 7 April, 2007 from http://secondlife.com/whatis/4. Anshe Chung. (2007). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 7 April, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anshe_Chung&oldid=120060081
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Second Life: Fears of a parallel life
http://www.lowfatbrains.com/tag/marshall-mcluhan/
I had an interesting conversation on the weekend with some friends, talking about Second Life, what it was, what it meant and so on. I held the view that Second Life fulfilled the requirements of being a type of drug, maybe even an hallucinogen, a highly addictive virtual substance that affected your senses and altered perception and reality. Having become addicted to old-school MUD’s in the mid-1990’s, I generally avoid online gaming as my addictive personality tends to not know when to quit, except perhaps too late (failing university was one consequence). So, when I hear of people dying from playing online games too much, or committing suicide, this strengthens my overall view that these things should be treated with extreme caution.
But something my one friend mentioned got me thinking. He asked, paraphrasing: “What’s the difference between what you do in Second Life, and what you do on, say, eBay? Or Amazon? Or any other internet activity?” And that’s, strictly speaking, true. A quick look at Second Life’s homepage shows 1.4 million users, and just over half a million dollars (US) spent in the last 24 hours (as of 16:51 GMT). But that’s not all. People have real-world business conferences in Second Life’s virtual setting, there’s traditional advertising and marketing and a virtual world representation of real world stores, musicians perform concerts, people buy, sell and rent virtual land, run businesses, and have legal disputes. People even play games within Second Life, as well as have traditional developers and coders within the game itself. There’s even porn.
What does it all mean? Is it just a game as many characterise it? Is it an OS or application platform as some people have suggested? Perhaps they’re both right. Myself, I view it as simply providing spatial references to the concept of “cyberspace”. (Perhaps we can call it “cybatial” if we want to get geeky). In Roger Clarke’s excellent work, Paradise Gained, Paradise Re-lost, he points out that “various experiences of using the Internet have” a “common” them, namely that “participants indulge in a ’shared hallucination’ that there is a virtual place or space within which they are interacting”. This is, incidently, where I thought that Second Life was a hallucinogen, but obviously the idea of Second Life being a drug applies to the internet as a whole.
The real significance of Second Life is that it has carried out what McLuhan termed the narcissus effect, named after the mythical story of Narcissus who saw his reflection in a pool of water and fell in love with it, eventually dying as he was unable to tear himself from gazing at the reflection. As he says in Understanding Media, “in the true Narcissus style, one is hypnotized by the amputation and extension of his own being in a new technical form”. What Second Life has accomplished is to amputate the physical bodies of its participants. You’re no longer just going to a webpage from your browser, you’re walking to a store or flying to a conference on an island.
What Second Life demonstrates is what the Internet of Things may well look like. Second Life 2.0 (as in the unknown future incarnation of Second Life or an equivalent) will be not just about amputating ourselves, but also our real-world objects once they are embedded with RFID, as well as places and locations. A virtual-world representation of the physical world is not too hard to imagine where you’re able to walk around your own home, invite guests over and have them interact with whatever you have in your house all within the confines of your computer. Got a new widescreen plasma? You buy it from the store, log online, and you can show it off to your virtual neighbours. Perhaps you could pop on some VR goggles and really walk around looking at a 3D representation of your home, design a few objects in Second Life, and have a fabber create them for you, all while a friend from Australia sits on your couch talking to you. Hey, nice Plasma.
As Cypher says in The Matrix, “It means buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, ’cause Kansas is going byebye”.
I even suspect that real world geospatial data will be transplanted into “cyberspace”, meaning you could have a situation where you could physically interact with the real world - walking down the street, for example - but actually be viewing yourself in the game. Imagine: being able to live in a game, forever, that exists parallel to the real world. It’s not hard to conceive, because it does seem to be happening, slowly but surely, and Second Life is simply another sign of this, a reflection in the pool, not just of ourselves, but increasingly of our world.
I had an interesting conversation on the weekend with some friends, talking about Second Life, what it was, what it meant and so on. I held the view that Second Life fulfilled the requirements of being a type of drug, maybe even an hallucinogen, a highly addictive virtual substance that affected your senses and altered perception and reality. Having become addicted to old-school MUD’s in the mid-1990’s, I generally avoid online gaming as my addictive personality tends to not know when to quit, except perhaps too late (failing university was one consequence). So, when I hear of people dying from playing online games too much, or committing suicide, this strengthens my overall view that these things should be treated with extreme caution.
But something my one friend mentioned got me thinking. He asked, paraphrasing: “What’s the difference between what you do in Second Life, and what you do on, say, eBay? Or Amazon? Or any other internet activity?” And that’s, strictly speaking, true. A quick look at Second Life’s homepage shows 1.4 million users, and just over half a million dollars (US) spent in the last 24 hours (as of 16:51 GMT). But that’s not all. People have real-world business conferences in Second Life’s virtual setting, there’s traditional advertising and marketing and a virtual world representation of real world stores, musicians perform concerts, people buy, sell and rent virtual land, run businesses, and have legal disputes. People even play games within Second Life, as well as have traditional developers and coders within the game itself. There’s even porn.
What does it all mean? Is it just a game as many characterise it? Is it an OS or application platform as some people have suggested? Perhaps they’re both right. Myself, I view it as simply providing spatial references to the concept of “cyberspace”. (Perhaps we can call it “cybatial” if we want to get geeky). In Roger Clarke’s excellent work, Paradise Gained, Paradise Re-lost, he points out that “various experiences of using the Internet have” a “common” them, namely that “participants indulge in a ’shared hallucination’ that there is a virtual place or space within which they are interacting”. This is, incidently, where I thought that Second Life was a hallucinogen, but obviously the idea of Second Life being a drug applies to the internet as a whole.
The real significance of Second Life is that it has carried out what McLuhan termed the narcissus effect, named after the mythical story of Narcissus who saw his reflection in a pool of water and fell in love with it, eventually dying as he was unable to tear himself from gazing at the reflection. As he says in Understanding Media, “in the true Narcissus style, one is hypnotized by the amputation and extension of his own being in a new technical form”. What Second Life has accomplished is to amputate the physical bodies of its participants. You’re no longer just going to a webpage from your browser, you’re walking to a store or flying to a conference on an island.
What Second Life demonstrates is what the Internet of Things may well look like. Second Life 2.0 (as in the unknown future incarnation of Second Life or an equivalent) will be not just about amputating ourselves, but also our real-world objects once they are embedded with RFID, as well as places and locations. A virtual-world representation of the physical world is not too hard to imagine where you’re able to walk around your own home, invite guests over and have them interact with whatever you have in your house all within the confines of your computer. Got a new widescreen plasma? You buy it from the store, log online, and you can show it off to your virtual neighbours. Perhaps you could pop on some VR goggles and really walk around looking at a 3D representation of your home, design a few objects in Second Life, and have a fabber create them for you, all while a friend from Australia sits on your couch talking to you. Hey, nice Plasma.
As Cypher says in The Matrix, “It means buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, ’cause Kansas is going byebye”.
I even suspect that real world geospatial data will be transplanted into “cyberspace”, meaning you could have a situation where you could physically interact with the real world - walking down the street, for example - but actually be viewing yourself in the game. Imagine: being able to live in a game, forever, that exists parallel to the real world. It’s not hard to conceive, because it does seem to be happening, slowly but surely, and Second Life is simply another sign of this, a reflection in the pool, not just of ourselves, but increasingly of our world.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Users Spend More Time on Second Life Entertainment Than Real Life
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2007/07/users-spend-mor.html
Users spend 80 percent of their time in Second Life on entertainment activities, totaling just over 16 hours per week, reports Market Truths in their new study, Second Life Entertainment Market. Summarizing the report, the Business Communicators of Second Life blog says that's more than users report spending on entertainment in real life as "the median time spent on other forms of computer-related entertainment is just 4 hours per week, and 10 hours per week for non computer-related entertainment." What is possibly more interesting for brands entering Second Life is the breakdown of how users are spending that entertainment time.
Shopping tops the list, but as the LA Times pointed out, "shopping, at least for real-world products, isn't a main activity." Selling real-world products may not engage users, but the study lists plenty of other ways that users want to spend those 16 hours a week. Within the top of the list are plenty that would be easy experiences for real-world brands to provide and that it seems like many successful sites do:
1. Shopping
2.Traveling
3. Dancing
4. Talking with known acquaintances
5. Talking to new people
6. Listening to DJs
7. Building
8. Walking/hiking
9. Attending parties
10. Swimming.
Users spend 80 percent of their time in Second Life on entertainment activities, totaling just over 16 hours per week, reports Market Truths in their new study, Second Life Entertainment Market. Summarizing the report, the Business Communicators of Second Life blog says that's more than users report spending on entertainment in real life as "the median time spent on other forms of computer-related entertainment is just 4 hours per week, and 10 hours per week for non computer-related entertainment." What is possibly more interesting for brands entering Second Life is the breakdown of how users are spending that entertainment time.
Shopping tops the list, but as the LA Times pointed out, "shopping, at least for real-world products, isn't a main activity." Selling real-world products may not engage users, but the study lists plenty of other ways that users want to spend those 16 hours a week. Within the top of the list are plenty that would be easy experiences for real-world brands to provide and that it seems like many successful sites do:
1. Shopping
2.Traveling
3. Dancing
4. Talking with known acquaintances
5. Talking to new people
6. Listening to DJs
7. Building
8. Walking/hiking
9. Attending parties
10. Swimming.
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