Marketing & SEO Discussion List - LED Digest

Greetings LEDer,

Do you know anything about "Second Life"? It's a virtual reality online gaming world. That's nothing new -- the interesting thing is the marketplace that its developers intended. Members of Second Life (no doubt in their deep desires to have a different life than the one they've got) create avatars, homes, and even stuff to sell to other Second Lifers.

Here's a description of what it's all about from the Second Life site:

"Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents... today it's inhabited by nearly 100,000 people from around the globe.

- From the moment you enter the World you’ll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you’ve explored a bit, perhaps you’ll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.

- You’ll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow residents. Because residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents.

- The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world currency, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online currency exchanges."

Here's an interesting story about this phenomenon at Wired. From the article:

"It's not just a game anymore," said online artisan Kimberly Rufer-Bach. "There are businesses, nonprofits and universities" taking advantage of the online world.

"With users now numbering over 130,000, game-maker Linden Lab estimates that nearly $5 million dollars, or about $38 per person, was exchanged between players in January 2006 alone. Working in Second Life is "the same as working in London and sending money home to pay the rent for your spouse," said company CEO Philip Rosedale."

It seems people are making some pretty good coin in this game. This whole thing reminds me of William Gibson's "Neuromancer." It's all pretty bizarre to me, but hey - whatever floats the old boat.

What do you think of evolving new "virtual markets" like this? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Best wishes,

adam

This actually interests me. As you say, virtual worlds like this aren't new... but virtual markets like this sure are. But let me ask LEDers something:  if Second Life is as successful as Wired reported, can they still be called a virtual market? Sounds like some pretty damn real money to me. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come. Markets like this were first seen in Neverwinter (I think). More of a "grey market" thing though. This on the other hand is very legit. The ramifications may be pretty interesting:

- International virtual markets mean all sorts of opportunity and complexity.

- Whenever a market consists solely of trading "virtual goods" -- read un-real, non-existent -- it doesn't exactly breed confidence.

- I'm committing a serious stereotype here, but these sorts of things generally attract two kinds of people: a) those who need to escape from something, are unhappy with their lives, have suppressed desires, etc and b) those who are "rats" in the sense of they will scramble for money no matter what, are opportunistic, entrepreneurial, sometimes shady, and may incorporate all sorts of illegal things (software related).

- Which brings me to the last point: it's too easy to cheat in these kinds of things!

I for one will stay away!

Nathan Brings

(site not fit for public viewing... ever)