This is a definite must-read if you want to get your head around the consequences of virtual worlds.
And is a welcome support to the chapter in our book The emerging virtual economy. Magic Kingdoms for us and our children
Business week in My Virtual Life blows your head off with the social, cultural and economic possibilites of a game called Second Life created by Linden Lab
Even the BBC simulcasted their Big Weekend Pop festival within Second Life to 6,000 people.
Aleks Krotoski writing in the Guardian says
The technology represents a new approach for content distribution that may capture the demographic slice that's turning its back on television. The BBC's move signals recognition of the importance of access diversification, and heralds a new phase of public awareness of social virtual worlds.The BBC says it has rented a virtual island for a year, which it hopes to use to promote new bands. Homegrown talent already jostles for a place in Second Life's burgeoning events schedule, and live and pre-recorded performance has proven a crowd-pleaser at virtual dance clubs and parties. Support from an institution like the BBC could tip this space as a successor to MySpace, which is now an essential part of any aspiring music star's portfol
In the Business week article, I found this of interest
...it turns out, Second Life is one of the many so-called massively multiplayer online games that are booming in popularity these days. Because thousands of people can play at once, they're fundamentally different from traditional computer games in which one or two people play on one PC. In these games, typified by the current No. 1 seller, World of Warcraft, from Vivendi Universal's (V ) Blizzard Entertainment unit, players are actors such as warriors, miners, or hunters in an endless medieval-style quest for virtual gold and power.All told, at least 10 million people pay $15 and up a month to play these games, and maybe 20 million more log in once in a while. Some players call World of Warcraft "the new golf," as young colleagues and business partners gather online to slay orcs instead of gathering on the green to hack away at little white balls. Says eBay Inc. founder and Chairman Pierre M. Omidyar, whose investing group, Omidyar Network, is a Linden Lab backer: "This generation that grew up on video games is blurring the lines between games and real life."
Owning what I create, is an incentive
this virtual stuff isn't imaginary at all. In November, 2003, Linden Lab made a policy change unprecedented in online games: It allowed Second Life residents to retain full ownership of their virtual creations. The inception of property rights in the virtual world made for a thriving market economy. Programmer Nathan Keir in Australia, for example, created a game played by avatars inside Second Life that's so popular he licensed it to a publisher, who'll soon release it on video game players and cell phones. All that has caught real-world investors' attention, too. On Mar. 28, Linden Lab raised a second, $11 million round of private financing, including new investor Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com
Money
there's no denying the explosion of media, products, and services produced by users of these virtual worlds. IGE Ltd., an independent online gaming services firm, estimates that players spent about $1 billion in real money last year on virtual goods and services at all these games combined, and predicts that could rise to $1.5 billion this year. One brave (or crazy) player in the online game Project Entropia last fall paid $100,000 in real money for a virtual space station, from which he hopes to earn money charging other players rent and taxes. In January inside Second Life alone, people spent nearly $5 million in some 4.2 million transactions buying or selling clothes, buildings, and the like.
One guy from the UK creates a small animation for couples that enables them to cuddle or dance together at $1 a pop he sells 300 per day.
The reallocation of human creativity
After all my travels around Second Life, it's becoming apparent that virtual worlds, most of all this one, tap into something very powerful: the talent and hard work of everyone inside. Residents spend a quarter of the time they're logged in, a total of nearly 23,000 hours a day, creating things that become part of the world, available to everyone else. It would take a paid 4,100-person software team to do all that, says Linden Lab. Assuming those programmers make about $100,000 a year, that would be $410 million worth of free work over a year. Think of it: The company charges customers anywhere from $6 to thousands of dollars a month for the privilege of doing most of the work.
Sounds like the incremental/exponential value created by Reeds Law
The ramifications go beyond this however...
All this has some companies mulling a wild idea: Why not use gaming's psychology, incentive systems, and social appeal to get real jobs done better and faster? "People are willing to do tedious, complex tasks within games," notes Nick Yee, a Stanford University graduate student in communications who has extensively studied online games. "What if we could tap into that brainpower?"
How about education, healthcare, dealing with social issues? What about democracy? If people are shunning traditional organisations, better communication might be acheived in such environments. Where they co-create the value. This has all sorts of interesting social and psychological consequences relating to self-esteem, reputation and engagement.
As C.K Prahalad and Venkatram Ramaswamy say in their article The Co-Creation Connection
Companies spent the 20th century managing efficiencies. They must spend the 21st century managing experiences.Because companies have historically controlled all business activities involved in the creation of the things they sell, it is their view of value that is dominant. Indeed, the consumer typically has little or no influence on value created until the point of exchange when ownership of the product is typically transferred to the consumer from the firm. This is true whether the consumer is a company or an individual.
Now consumers are challenging this corporate logic of value creation. Spurred by the consumer-centric culture of the Internet — with its emphasis on interactivity, speed, individuality, and openness — the consumer’s influence on value creation has never been greater, and it is spreading to all points in the value chain.
In Second Life, there are no defined limits to the ways players can interact. They can communicate and socialize through normal chatting or instant messaging, or in clubs or associations.Other MMOs, such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest and Ultima Online, to name a few, dwarf Second Life's 25,000 users. Still, many industry observers feel Second Life offers the best platform for mixing social interaction, play and the opportunity to tackle serious issues.
"There isn't really another platform that is so free of gaming lore," said Ed Castronova, a professor at the University of Indiana and an expert on MMOs. "In Second Life you can make anything."
It sort of blows your mind.
Suggested reading: Synthetic worlds the business and culture of onlines games
"There isn't really another platform that is so free of gaming lore
Posted by: Alexander Mcqueen Bags | July 27, 2011 at 09:55 AM