LA Times has recently published an article explaining how the companies and marketers are having second thoughts when it comes to investing in the Online Videogame/Social Network Second Life. It seems that the ROI made on the advertised 8M players that roam the virtual world of Second Life doesn’t really compensate. Besides, all the updating, dedicated time and long hours to actually be able to coordinate all the campaigns on this virtual world sort of go to waste when the players just aren’t interested.
What is actually amazing is the short memory in the minds of Web Users. With the Bubble Burst of the Web 1.0, Marketers are supposed to have a more critical eye on the emerging hypes of the Web – hypes that might catapult your strategies up or just might get you entangled on its hypnotizing promises of never-ending success. Either way, the bubble burst once – it might just happen again.
Why mention this? Because Second Life is the perfect example of a consumer tendency over-exploration. Online Oxygen, Masters of the Youniverse, Transparency Tyranny, all these concepts point toward the same point – The Generation C – with all the endless possibilities of the user generated content that can take your company into the top of mind status you so desire. If this works on most Web 2.0 Websites out there, it would be natural that it be success on a videogame. Not!
Second Life is a videogame that, in the end, does not keep the players wanting to come back and actually keep on playing. If you want a good example of a Videogame gone Social Networking Tool that actually works, think WoW – or World of Warcraft for the non-addicted. Addictive, focusing mainly on the Questing and Storytelling components, WoW is a game that just keeps you coming back. Besides, if you have to come back because of all the friends you’ve agreed to meet there to go kill that monster boss!
Second Life has been pointed out as unsafe Game, as well as the actual website as well. The game is slow, has graphical flaws and gives the players certain details that just aren’t that realistic for a virtual world – one of the first things you learn on the game is how to fly…). On WoW, for example, travelling happens in Real Time. If you want to fly, you have to rent a Gripphon and ride him to another town, taking up to 15 minutes to get there. The game economy works at an actual scale, given that everything bought and traded change the price of items. The money you get in the game is earned from the items you create online and the quests you do – so no Linden Dolar speculation and people trying to sell you virtual items for real money. Although it can happen in WoW, Blizzard Interactive is actually against it.
Above all, the Social Networking Tools WoW contains turns the average adventure game into an interactive multi-person online experience. You can forge Guilds, create a background for your group, take pictures and send it via e-mail, as well as managing you list of friends. Second Life does have a strong set of Social Networking tools – but that’s about all the game has for the average gamer.
But we still haven’t mentioned the most important factor of them all – Second Life will keep you entertained while you talk to people and build up some houses or items. But, in the end, it lacks CONTEXT. There is no story, no drive, no meaning. You just walk around, talk to people and build objects. Everything you do in this world is created by you and the interactions you make. This might be a good concept, but it does not work on a Videogame - everybody is bound to get bored. Even in a success case like The Sims a story mode had to be created to keep the interest up – The Sims Life Stories. In WoW you have a background the World you are in, you meet up NPCs (non-playable characters) that add depth to the story while still creating you own paths. This will keep people engaged, entertained and will keep the game evolving.
What is the lesson in all of this? Think around the hypes before you jump to the gun. Think if it makes sense using the same trends on every aspect of your strategy. Think of your audience and their vehicle and then find the trend that you should focus to create an engaging experience – it’s not the other way around. Don’t forget about the past – the Web is a fabulous world that might push your company up the success ladder, or might just entangle you in dead-end strategy.
This is really an important discussion for us as a leading company in the digital world, as we MUST have a position for our clients on ‘How to leverage virtual worlds to run effective marketing’. We were just challenged by a Bank to come up with a recommendation on whether they should or should not invest in Second Life and if not, what other virtual worlds should they use as a test to position themselves as leaders in this area: they want to experiment, to generate buzz but also to create ‘the financial marketing of the future’.
It would help this discussion, if suggestions of other Virtual Worlds would come up and why would they be better worth or not vs.SL.
Also ideias on ‘How to leverage 3D worlds top generate business to our clients.
PB
Fascinating article on Wired:
How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-08/ff_sheep