Driving Virtual Sales

It's getting to the point where I can't read a technical publication without running into some mention of Second Life! Issue 129 of Web Designer magazine reveals that Mazda has created a concept car for SL residents to test drive. No word yet on whether they will sell the car either in SL or the real world, though.
If such an item were available for purchase in SL, what would it go for? Certainly not the Linden Dollar equaivalent of the real world cost because I can't imagine such a car having the same "value" in a virtual world without all of the physical sensations. Still, it would definitely rate as a premium item, which could lead to some new social side effects. There's so much ruckus about the Grand Theft Auto video game series, imagine it playing out in a virtual world where a car that you essentially paid real dollars for. What would a thief do with it? Pretty much the same he would do in the real world; either sell it, flaunt it (e.g. take his picture with it and post it) and/or demolish it. The last option may even become a form of expression for inhabitants who don't appreciate economic elitism in "their" virtual world.
Also, if a number of such cars are rolling around in SL, how do you identify the rightful owner? Objects have properties that define the creator and owner, but like any software object this information is susceptible to hacking. Maybe a license plaete system would be useful? You can get checked against your license plate to see if the ownership is consistent. Yes, this object cna be hacked too, but if you fake a plate then it won't show up in the DVV (Department of Virtual Vehicles) registry. Just in the real world, if you sell the vehicle, you can officially transfer the plate ownership. Now I just hope we won't have to wait in long lines and take tests to get our licenses renewed...

Time for a Vcation

Continuing to mine from the surprising attention given to Second Life by The Miami Herald last week, their Virtual Vacation article gives the scoop on an entire segment of the Second Life economy devoted to providing recreations of real-world vacation spots. What I mean is that it's not just that some plunked down a replica cathedral in some remote corner of the world, but that there are virtual travel agencies, guidebooks (one is published as a real-world book), tours and of course, shopping sprees for tourist swag. This virtual world even suffers from the same congestion during its "tourist seasons" - meaning nighttime in the US and Europe.
For a working family on a budget, you can get a lot of the experiences of travelling, like learning about architecture, cultures and languages. When you teleport to a Brazilian beach, the chat is in Brazilian Portuguese. And guess what? You can use a free translation program to converse with the natives. Some locales try to faithfully represent a real-world spot like a specific cathedral, while others try to recreate entire towns or something as big as the island of Ibiza.
As with other goods and services, the in-game costs are paid in Linden dollars. One real-world hotel chain - Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide - hosts an in-world hotel (hurry and use it while it's still free!). Expect to see more "branded" experiences which are likely to employ the people in Second Life who are the experts at putting up buildings. Land will have to be bought also, so more fuel for the Second Life economic engine.
Now, since I like to try and look forward a little, I'm seeing a Second Life cruise ship in the future. Some big company (Royal Caribbean are you listening?) will stepo up and put a "digital dinghy" into the deep waters of 2L. Just think how ideal this would be - no seasickness, you won't put on weight from the buffet food, no sunburn (except virtually that would be fun to see avatars with the "raccoon eyes" from leaving their sunglasses on...) no running aground or engine problems. Just hop on, schmooze with the other travelers, play some virtual shuffleboard and dance all night. If there was an island location that you couldn't teleport to directly, but *had* to take the ship, that could drive more virtual cruising. It's all good for the economy.

Looks Good on Paper

Leaving work today I was startled by the big headline on the front of the Broward edition of The Miami Herald newspaper staring at me from the gauntlet of dispensing boxes that I pass every day on my way in and out of work. The headline was "VIRTUAL LIVES" with the sub-title "Millions of people are investing time - and money - in avatars in the online universe." Well I thought it would be worth the quarter to chedk it out and hopefully get some blog material, and here we are - just as I'd hoped.

The two major point the papers seems to want to make are
1. virtual worlds aren't just used by "lonely kids who couldn't get dates." (yes, I'm quoting the paper here)
and
2. a significant number of people are spending real money to lead virtual lives

The article is not very speculative, but does present some data which I had not know - at least in the detail provided by the paper (have I gotten lazy?). While WoW gets a lot of press for how it broke through to become the most massive MMORPG with 8million plus subscribers and counting, Second Life is a close rival with 6.2 million residents. Both pale in comparison to the globally accessible Habbo Hotel, which the paper says has 50 MILLION residents worldwide. Some other worlds cited and briefly mentioned are Whyville which is geared for children and There.

Some attention inthe article is given to the role the avatars' appearance plays in the worlds, particularly how they relate to the "real" person's appearance and persona. Also, at least as much attention is given to the real-dollar income opportunities in these worlds and the role that currency plays. A small information box gives exchange rates, which I've normalized for comparison. $10 US dollars will get you...
18,000 Therebucks (There) or
2,600 Linden Dollars (Second Life) or
250 clams (Whyville) or
50 Habbo coins
Which is the best buy? That will depend on the goods or experience you are looking for and whether you are spending just to get something, or expecting a return on an investment.

Two particularly interesting anecdotes in the article are a guy in Tampa who makes money in There.com building stuff for residents, including a "virtual lodge" that landed him a payed gig to build a virtual headquarters in that game world for Coldwell Banker. Oh yeah, he also said he knows people who earn $100,000-plus in that world just making and selling upgrades for other people's avatars. Wowee!

The second interesting fellow bought the Weblo.com version of Florida (a steal at $18,000 US), made himself governor and now gets a cut of the action whenever Weblo gets paid by a virtual resident to "live" in that virtual Florida. Hopefully, it's not overcorwded and drought-free. I'd like to see down the road how the virtual world operators handle growth. When that Florida fills up, do they spawn a new world and sell the properties all over again? That could have a negative impact on the original world. Some will find to cost of moving to the new world too high - with some many friends and investments, and so on. But others will be able to start fresh. Eventually, there could be multiple parallel "Earths" operating in Cyberspace - an interesting social experiment to see how each is governed and developed differently.

Give WOW Some Credit

It's been talked about, it's been anticipated and now it's finally here. While this kind of thing was first immagined for Everquest, it makes sense that the 8 million-plus subscriber World of Warcraft would be the first ones out the box to offer their own credit card.

As detailed in this announcement from Blizzard, the cards reward program gives a reward point for every dollar spent on the card, redeemable for free playing time at the rate of 1500 points for a month of play. For now, at least, you'll also get am introductory 0% interest rate (subject to certain terms) and a free month of play after the first time you use the card.

I'm surprised that having gone this far, that the card doesn't give rewards in WoW gold. Assuming that this is technically possible, there may be legal and/or regulatory barriers to pulling that off. If you just can't wait to get one, rush over here now. Otherwise, wait until your favorite multiuplayer title gets big enough. Is Second Life next? And don't look over your shoulder - that's LOTR online I hear coming up behind you...

For Fun and Nonprofit

You will all be relieved to know that virtual worlds aren't solely inhabited by cutthroat profit seekers. Here's one Second Life citizen promoting virtual funds Charity Balls for big name organizations like Doctors Without Borders and St. Jude's Childrens Hospital. Check out the numbers - over 100,000 Lindens were raised at one of the events.
A couple of things worth observing here. First, accessibility to a Charity Ball is far easier in a virtual worlds than in our real one. I don't have to book a flight, a hotel room and a limo to show up - not to mention the clothes I'd need to purchase or rent. In fact, in a constructive world like Second Life you can actually *create* your own clothes and limo using their Linden Scripting Language (LSL).
Which leads to the second point, which is that a virtual form of this kind of event is "green" in the sense that people aren't using up natural resources to participate (jet fuel, car emissions, etc.) and at the same time more currency is disposable to actually donate since you didn't have to spend $5,000 just to get there.
So, between the possibility of getting more people to show up and at no expense to the participants, will we see record amounts of money being raised this way? Some of this may depend on what population sizes can be achieved in Second Life and other virtual or game worlds, but my guess is that in three years or less at least one prominent organization will be raising more money from virtual events than real world soirees. I would especially expect this from an environmental or conservation charity.