Reuters has an interesting article which, while it merely expresses a trend that's been clear for some time in the virtual worlds industry, backs it up with quotes from the principals. The subject: virtual agencies turning their attention away from Second Life towards other virtual worlds. It includes some pretty critical quotes from Electric Sheep COO Giff Constable, although he's not entirely down on Linden's prospects.
“In 2006, Second Life seemed like the place we could get the most immersion. Linden hasn’t been able to realize the potential of the platform or to make it easy… Second Life is just not at production level. You want to things to be bulletproof when you’re working with a global brand … I don’t know if we’d do it in Second Life the next time… I’m bullish on virtual worlds. I’ll keep on rooting for Linden Lab to make progress on their platform, and maybe we’ll be back in Second Life in a significant way down the road.”
Difficulties with its high-profile CSI:NY project appear to be at the heart of Constable’s comments, and something that’s recognised by Linden Lab’s Glenn Fisher in the Reuters article, although he points out that other brands have had success with their Second Life marketing campaigns. Electric Sheep’s rivals aren’t quite as critical as Constable, although there is a clear sense that their attention is elsewhere. This from Mat Small of Millions of Us:
“Second Life, despite its much publicized travails, has a lot of very loyal users there. We wouldn’t hesitate to go into Second Life again. That being said, we recognize that a lot of the growth right now is in youth-centric worlds like Habbo and Gaia.”
Of course, a lot of this simply represents a maturity in brands’ attitudes towards virtual worlds. Rather than saying ‘We have to be in Second Life’, they’re saying ‘We want to be in virtual worlds, but we want them to be the right ones for our audience / message’. Which is surely progress.
(via Reuters)
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