Second Life Mimics Real Life
I’m convinced that the worlds of social networking and multiplayer online games (MMOGs) will soon be one.
They moved a step closer today. It was annouced that superbig Japanese ad agency Dentsu (bless you!) is putting a virtual Tokyo on marketers’ favorite alternate univese, Second Life. They paid many Yen for the virtual landspace, but are convinced the investment will reap big rewards from brands who wish to have a presence in their new virtual city.
It’s funny, but the online virtual worlds found in MMOGs - of which Second Life is loosely one - are usually strange and mystical ones that offer an escape from the humdrom of everyday “real” life, but in Second Life one is being created that more and more is starting to resemble the Real Thing (now there’s an idea - a world EXACTLY like our own called “The Real Thing” and sponsored by Coke). Soon they’ll be so similar, there’ll be little point in going to visit the virtual version. Or will it be the other way around….?
Where’s the tribute to Hilly Kristal?
Personally, I think that the true merge will come somewhere else, and that it will be more in the form of in-game advertising. While venues like World of Warcraft may not be attractive to marketers, as MMOG’s branch out into areas of wider appeal (e.g. racing games, sports games, etc…) the appeal for traditional marketing within these games will widen.
Second Life is not nearly as popular as it’s creators would leave you to believe. True, they have hundreds of thousands of registered users, however, their traffic rates have been in a steady decline and the number of users in the game at any time have been in the low thousands as of late. Second Life is running the risk of becoming little more than a virtual shopping mall, which may have an appeal to some, but will not eliminate online shopping elsewhere.
Check out this article from TechCrunch. It pretty much covers everything I’m saying. I think Dentsu is a little late to the game.