1. here's my list...
.1. SL is a game with entertainment being the only tangible product offerred that isn't available elsewhere. If it wasn't then these "corporations don't understand SL" articles wouldn't be posted next to "LL is ruining SL by not making it more stable" articles so often.
.2. If TV was as reliable and solid as SL then we would have never known about Gilligan. (i.e. SL is not stable enough to put any real money into unless you don't think it's a game/chatroom for entertainment purposes.)
.3. The rabid consumers in SL (most RL companies' demographic) usually consume in RL also, or they can't afford to satisfy their consumption urges IRL which is why they're in SL in the first place. Either way your demographic already knows about you or could find out through other, more reliable means.
.4. Most people in SL already don't like you being there so be prepared to fight an uphill battle using asemetrical marketing.
.5. To modify a quote quote from the ever eloquent Tretch from Naughty By Nature, "If you haven't been to" SL, "...don't ever go to" SL. "You wouldn't understand" SL. "Stay the f#$% out of" SL.

Posted at 4:26PM on Sep 10th 2007 by SqueezeOne Pow

2. Correction...
(i.e. SL is not stable enough to put any real money into unless you DO think it's a game/chatroom for entertainment purposes.)

Posted at 4:27PM on Sep 10th 2007 by SqueezeOne Pow

3. My short list is:

(1) If people know who you are, live up to it.

(2) If people don't know who you are, don't build a site and sit there. Instead, run around and get to meet people... explore. Get people to come visit. Then, when people know who you are, see (1).

(3) Do your own metrics.

Posted at 8:58PM on Sep 10th 2007 by Nobody Fugazi

4. Hits the nail perfectly. I'd almost print this out as a checklist for the next board meeting where some corporate "genius" says "Let's have a presence in Second Life! It'll be amazing!"

Posted at 5:45AM on Sep 11th 2007 by Robert

5. And it can *be* amazing. Excellence is not something that is usually applied, unfortunately.

Posted at 5:47AM on Sep 11th 2007 by Tateru Nino

6. That list clearly stands out what Motorati has been doing wrong. ;)

Posted at 7:09AM on Sep 11th 2007 by Nacon

7. I love you, Tateru.

Posted at 11:08AM on Sep 11th 2007 by Tenshi

8. In response to SqueezeOne Pow - I think SL is the perfect place to try and learn marketing for the virtual worlds demographic. It's the only one where one can hope to get any ROI by learning how to market in a bustling and competitive economy.

If if a business comes into sl and can compete with the natives in any way whatsoever then they've developed a robust model for how to engage their customers, and can expect to do a lot better than their RL competition in a few years when virtual worlds start forming a significant demographic. There's not a lot of currency in being "just another first" in VR marketing.

The other opportunity for marketers in SL is to catch all those high disposable income folk in the highly attractive 25-35 year old demographic. These folks traditionally get most of their brand awareness delivered with their entertainment. They started replacing television with the internet several years ago, and are increasingly shifting from the net to virtual worlds for their entertainment.

It's been many years since RL brands got the idea that computer games were valid marketing, and happily licensed out their pontiacs and such to racing games. In sl - a terrible platform for cars by the way - pontiac is synonymous with them due to their engagement of the community. The mere idea that they managed to corner car culture in a world with such poor physics is a triumph of marketing. I'll never buy one, but I know their name, and I'll bet anyone with a genuine interest in cars in SL wouldn't take long to find them. More important even than their traffic in the sim is the chatter between people about the sim: "i might buy a car - you been to pontiac? they got a lot of types there." Bingo, the brand name is being shared.

As for stability... sure that's an issue, but the bad weather effects all. You could get stable brand your own VR like MTV did, but isn't that just preaching to the converted? Nothing happens in those potted worlds unless you make it happen. In terms of ROI it seems like spending a lot on content when you need to manufacture a whole world for your product.... and you know... make stuff happen so it's not dull. I guess it's stable though.

Hang on... if you go for a potted VR then you have to RL advertise your world to get people to download the client and get in to look at your stuff.. They've looked at your website already, why do you want them in your world? Is it just you know, the entertainment carrot again?

Truth is, sl is currently the most active virtual economy outside gold farming. In the grand scheme of things not a huge ammount of money changes hands. They mostly spend their time having fun and ignoring your other serious marketing channels. Yet they have enough money for reasonable pcs, broadband and most importantly of all, they are people who are willing spend real cash on things that don't even tangibly exist. In a way they are the kind of demographic marketers dream of.

So SL may not be a huge market yet - but if you can crack it you have a future in this business.

Posted at 1:30PM on Sep 11th 2007 by Pavig Lok

9. Great article. In all honesty, I find myself answering yes for 1 and a half for the project I was recently involved with. =D

The one solid "yes" it has to do with not having the sim staffed, and this was factored into the design ahead of time with multiple ways for users to engage the company either with RL contact info, or systems for sending an e-mail to the business. So far we've had a pretty positive response rate. As for the half, I suppose once you've experienced the entire museum that we built, there isn't alot to bring you back for further visits yet. Although the hope is that you'll bring your friends by to show them what you found while we plan for a phase 2 for the sim.

For anyone that's curious, the sim is called Avnet, feel free to check it out.

Posted at 1:34PM on Sep 11th 2007 by ZeePixel

10. I don't doubt that SL will one day ACTUALLY become a viable source of long-term income but in it's present form it's a video game that people take too seriously. People would be saying all this stuff about WoW if you were allowed to cash out your gold for real money.

As long as SL is in the hands of one company it will not be a solid, legitimate platform for commerce in the long term. If LL can't make it to the "Internet in 3-D" phaze that they want to push SL to then you'll be seeing a lot of broke-ass virtual sex bed and photoshopped women's clothes makers out there!

It's still a game that people take too seriously. At best it's a risky experiment. Don't be bummed if you get burned by putting too much capital in it!

Posted at 4:43PM on Sep 11th 2007 by SqueezeOne Pow

11. 1. SL is a game. This is not because of the users, the culture that exists within SL, etc. It has everything to do with the TOS. Content is owned by Linden Labs...whatever gets stored on their servers. Data, your account login and any related credentials. That is not true in the real world, for real business operations. I wish it was less of a game in this sense, as there's some great potential for mashing up content provision within a VR environment, such as SL can support. However, if I don't own the rights to content, builds, etc., that gets stored on their servers, and they can take any and all monies I may make in L$, and they can revoke my avatar and related affiliates without notice or explanation, it's basically saying to me, don't take this seriously. If I was a company like Dell, perhaps I could arrange an advertising campaign, along with a contract that is much different than what we as users agree to as far as the TOS, I could see this as a marketing and business solution. I'm sure Dell has a bit more legal smarts, and has done something like this in building, and protecting their SL in-world presence and content. For most of the rest of us, our eggs are in someone else's basket. According to the terms for putting things in that basket, once those eggs are there, in that basket, the belong to the basket owner. I would never do that in the real world with my business pursuits.

SL is a game...Linden Labs has made sure of that for now. It may be marketed in a different way than that by them, and by the users, because the culture, the use and history of how things have been. However, if someone owns what you do, what you create, and present, and you have no legal way to insure compensation, or have any security with your marketing plan or model, and you use one that belongs to someone else, and always will because of the TOS, you may find yourself sorely disappointed sometime, when you find yourself locked out of your business strategy, because of being locked out of your account, without explanation, and are unable to access your content and all that you've built into SL as far as running and in-world business, or bringing RL business solutions into SL. This scenario may never occur, however, it expressly allowed for in the TOS.

If you want to run a business in a game, but consider it to have real world principles applied, you better make sure those principles are in place in the game. I would never set up a web site on a server with a company that said to me, that whatever I put on the server, is theirs, and that intellectual property rights don't apply, because my login name and password, or account, belonged to them, even though I was paying them to simply provide me with a service. The type of service LL provides is nowhere near what a web host provides or allows for. The technology of SL is amazing. The TOS, keeps it theirs, not ours, to use. It's not empowering, for people, or for businesses, when what we create, is created for them, rather than for whomever we wish to share it with. We have no rights to anything we do or create in SL. It all belongs to LL. Read the TOS before you reply to this post. Businesses do not succeed, by agreeing to give away anything...including marketing. They may offer freebies and loss leaders, however, they are in control of that...not someone such as LL is in this case.

Do what you want. I'll even do some of my own business related stuff in SL, but it's going to be very, very, low key. I do want to explore business concepts in simulation environment. However, it's a simulation...it's not real. It's, a game...or perhaps, also, a bit of an educational tool. That's it. There's no real world business or legal leverages allowed for the users of SL.

Posted at 5:01AM on Sep 20th 2007 by Zenm Flow

12. None of those things fit any definitions of a game that I am aware of, Zenm. Perhaps you have some other term in mind?

Posted at 5:23AM on Sep 20th 2007 by Tateru Nino

13. If you could explain to me how it's not a game from a business perspective, as I've described this in reference to the TOS, I'd be happy to hear it. Sure, a company can advertise with their logo for RL business stuff in SL, but that's not what I personally feel comfortable doing with my own business, when I could set up a marketing model in SL, and they could revoke my access to SL, and can use whatever content stored on their servers in whatever way they would want to, and so can the users of the service as well. This goes against the ideas regarding brand identity issues, as far as managing that by my own company. Their are certain demographics, I don't want to attract at all.

Simply put, my definitions, which reference the TOS, which are not my definitions, but those of Linden Labs, strip away the idea that SL is viable business platform. I'd never base my business content or marketing distribution on something that gives someone else complete ownership and no legal recourse in the future for whatever circumstances may come. Would you? What else would you call it then if you wouldn't call it a game?

The first week I was in SL, I met someone else who was new, and as uneducated about SL as I was. He had a great idea. He had a spreadsheet he used for his RL business, that did a lot of number crunching that would have some issues with the lag inherent in SL. However, if the lag was not an issue, there would still be the issue of having that particular spreadsheet application stored on the LL servers. The information, if he were to figure out a way to integrate it into SL, and stored on the servers, would leave something his RL business depended upon, securely in the real world, open to being used by LL, as well as other users of the service, as the TOS prescribe. This of course would damage his business's ability to use a tool his business guards as it's something his business has a particular advantage over other businesses in a competitive market. He'd like to output the data in-world. But unfortunately, as it is now, it wouldn't just be his business presentation that would be accessible to all, but also, the construct of how that data was being crunched in the first place. The calculations being done were for the real world stock exchange, and they were in scope, daily, weekly, monthly and also, dating back decades, if one choose, which his company does. The latter would be forbidden given todays bandwidth and computer crunching abilities, client side.

LL would own the data, the formulas, etc., not his company. Or more simply put, if I give a resume to someone in-world, all that information would also be owned, as the TOS prescribes, if I have an online in-world interview with a company...virtual or not.

You tell me what perspective to have...is it a game, or is it real? There's no personal, or business security in SL. It's revoked completely, by the TOS. I've been in SL for a little over a month now, and I'm already considering abandoning it. I'll at least lay low for a bit and see if my opinion changes, but I don't think it will, unless the TOS, Linden Labs and SL changes in some way that mirrors my own passions, and concerns, in RL. The game play aspect of SL sucks. I'd rather spend time on my RL business, and learn in RL, rather than in a game that doesn't have any real world principles that can be learned from for RL applications, other than being suckered.

Posted at 10:41AM on Sep 20th 2007 by Zenm Flow

14. French sociologist Roger Caillois, in his book Les jeux et les hommes (Games and Men)Caillois, Roger (1957). Les jeux et les hommes. Gallimard. , defined a game as an activity that must have the following characteristics:

* fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character
* separate: it is circumscribed in time and place
* uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable
* non-productive
* governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everyday life
* fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality

I don't believe the Terms of Service act to create all of these basics, so I don't quite understand on what basis your material supports the assertion that SL is a game.

Posted at 11:33AM on Sep 20th 2007 by Tateru Nino

15. * fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character.

Well, it's fun. I guess that a personal perspective, but it's fun. That one counts.

* separate: it is circumscribed in time and place

SL is limited. The TOS has a great amount of usage of words that refer to, or actually use the word limit and it's derivatives, over and over. Perhaps the space could be better termed as access to VR here, but, 1957 didn't give much thought to online virtual space. Nor did they have the advantages we have today of having machines running continuously, offering nearly, but not technically, perpetual play.

* uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable

A few times, the TOS say, "for any or no reason..." termination, deletion, cancellation... That's pretty uncertain, not too mention the real world circumstances of interruption of service, due to acts of the weather, etc..

* non-productive

Well, I'll challenge that as not being a necessary attribute of game play. I find chess and strategy games to be quite productive in challenging my mind to think in, well, strategic ways, that benefits my productivity in other pursuits not related to game play, as my brain is better trained in logic, planning strategy, etc. And I find that fun too. But, I would also have to say, having sex with life size furries to be a bit unproductive...something one can do in SL. Aside from that, it would be quite unproductive if I couldn't cash out the money earned in SL, didn't have access to content I created, and my account was terminated for any reason, or no reason. That would be very unproductive, and the TOS offer no guarantee of productivity, or viability in a business sense, as in, ROI, and the TOS gives them complete control of that. The outcome of a foreseeable return, is completely up to them, and they hold themselves 100% non-liable, much different than my contract with my web host, who lets me use their service for a fee, with expressed liabilities on their side in that contract.

* governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everyday life

Again, many games have rules that are the same as everyday life. If you're not smart in life, and educated about how to go about living, and getting along with others, you won't gain or win much in life. The same is true in Trivial pursuit...if you're not smart, you won't win their either. However, there are many rules that aren't the same as they are in everyday life in SL. I don't get a weekly stipend of $300 for free from anyone in RL. Nor can someone just erase my financial accounts without legal consequence. The TOS says LL can do that, without legal consequence, for any, or no, reason.

* fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality

I can't fly around in real life, not the way one can in SL, or throw particle streams out, teleport, walk through a stargate, rez objects, have sex with life sized rabbits...:) I'd say there's a bit of an element of a different reality in SL. LOL!!! And again, L$ are have fictitious value as well. The TOS also says that explicitly as such...from the TOS itself..."You acknowledge that the Service presently includes a component of in-world fictional currency ("Currency" or "Linden Dollars" or "L$")." That's a bit different than reality as well.

By the way, strategy came in handy for me here, as I knew you would post back quickly, and I already had the answers ready. Care to play trivial pursuit?:) I would have to say categorically, according to the definition you have offered, I've answered all of these in the affirmative here, as to what would be considered a game. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy SL. I may just be recovering from a little disillusionment from what I was told by the hype, and what it really is. SL is still productive, just as chess is. But as long as we are forever pawns, it's best to remember that's all we are...avatars...game characters, with the possibility of being empowered with more than what a pawn can do, but the TOS doesn't allow that yet.

I also want to say, I don't necessarily discredit LL for doing what they have done with the TOS. They're a private company, we can agree, or disagree. And I also feel they've undertaken something that's going take quite a while to evolve into something substantial that offers some real world security for business, education and pleasure. As it though, it's rather anarchic, but with a bit of an empirical overseer of the anarchy. It's quite fun to watch and interact with that, and discuss it here as well.

Thank you for the discourse.

Posted at 12:14PM on Sep 20th 2007 by zenmonk

16. There is one area of this thread I'd like to add to today. I was a bit unclear on the rules aspect regarding what one considers something to be a game or not. In chess, as well as many other games, there's an objective to meet. This is also true in real life circumstances, and there usually is some governing agency, be it a government, or trade organization, etc., that has in effect, certain rules that apply.

In Second Life, as it's on U.S. soil, there are certain aspects of real life rules that do, or at least, should apply, if it's to be considered worthy as a viable business platform, with real world rules and consequences...good or bad...making money, or being subject to trade laws so that businesses are protected by already decided ways, laws or rules, of doing business that protects the business owners, the employees as well as the clients and customers.

However, my experience in Second Life suggests that the rules are very sparse regarding Second Life businesses, and so are the outcomes of any Second Life ventures. Of course, intellectual property issues, as they relate to RL interactions are quite evident in SL, like multi-media concerns. And the TOS seems to have a measure of intellectual property language thrown in, but it's very ambiguous, and perhaps that is in part to my lack of understanding, but I'm not clear on how far reaching intellectual property rights and the language in the TOS is, regarding protecting copyrights and patents, the measure and security and the rewards that go along with that, or the remedies that would be available to whomever, if, whomever find their rights infringed upon...that is, if we actually have those rights, or have we signed those away when we agreed to the TOS. That part is the area of ambiguity that isn't fully clear to me as of yet. The TOS says that regardless of intellectual property rights, LL owns all data and related information and content we create, or introduce to the SL servers irrevocably, and we cannot hold LL or any users liable for use. There seems to be just a bit of intellectual property right protection in there...just a bit. How to remedy though? It doesn't read as though it's as strong as RL laws are.

So, what's the objective in SL, regarding business ventures in SL? To make money. How to do that? According to what rules? Well, since the L$ is fictional currency, and LL has the sole right to erase the whole concept of L$, with no RL $ compensation, the objective is unpredictable regarding the outcome, even if one is entirely successful in SL in a business venture. You could say LL could get rid of the L$ concept, and in RL, it would like having a major natural catastrophe happen, or an immense market crash...or paper just un_rezzed, and so did all the data in RL banks at the same time. It's a bit of a farse to consider something on that scale to occur in RL, but, suffice it say, it would be like an act of God, as insurance companies and such would say in many of their contracts with us, regarding their financial liabilities to us.

So are there rules? Yes. Not many though. The TOS itself though, is a rule based document, but it doesn't prescribe much in the way of how to obtain an objective based outcome, as most games do. What's more, certain things have already occurred in SL, like what people are talking about regarding Anshe Chung, comparing her to Wal-Mart tactics. And people are crying. But what are the laws that we can apply to that type of thing in SL, vs. RL? In SL, the remedy is not allowed for. She can do what she wants. Regardless of whether or not here decision has good or bad motive, she, and anyone, can do what has occurred, without having to abide by any gaming rules, or RL rules that would provide for sustaining market stability. Wal-Mart did face and still faces many RL legal issues regarding it's practices as a business. The FTC gets involved in RL, so do other trade industry groups, as well as groups of citizens in class action lawsuits. So what would we do? Sue someone in SL for fictional money?

There isn't a reality in SL that provides that same type of model, or a measure of security for business ventures in SL, as there is in the real world. The outcome isn't predictable either, and there aren't many rules to govern meeting objectives in SL business. It's very much in the baby stages, if at all if we want to scope it out as actually becoming something to consider seriously to bank on...RL bank on that is.

It's a gamble. And as far as things of chance, I'd rather consider something as chancy as a business venture in SL, I'll be keeping my own perspective on anything I do in SL regarding any virtual commerce, to be a game of chance as far as relying on a capital, out-world income, or in-world for that matter, and pay more attention to sharing, exploring, learning and enjoying the experimental nature of a virtual economy, that doesn't have much to do with RL rules at all, aside from common sense, and ideas that are at play that I've learned about economics in general, such as supply and demand. However, the goods in SL, the supply, is rather abundant, and resources are not so limited in SL, as they are in RL, for examply, copy and paste. I wish I could do that with my own RL belongings...even if it were just a couple of them.

My objective? I'm in it, just to see what happens. My rules? I'm not going to get to invested in making any real money, I'm not going to take it seriously, and I'm going to have a little fun. But RL is a bit better than SL. I can make real money in RL, and have tons of fun there too.

I would love to see though, SL $ be more real. I'd love to see VR or SL, become much more serious when it comes to harnessing technology...computers and Internet, in a 3D sense as it is in SL, to use as a better tool than it is already, for real world business venture objectives, in-world business objectives for real money, and also, for creativity, meeting new people, experiencing new ideas, without all the negativity that currently surrounds SL, of which in many ways, is justified. But hey, we create our own reality don't we, whether virtual or real?:) That's why I've got security orbs on my virtual land. Only those I want around, can stick around. The same is true in RL. An orb in RL though, would be very nice. That's not far fetched idea either, as in, RFID chips. But that's off topic. I need to get that own my own blog.:)

Posted at 3:12PM on Sep 21st 2007 by zenmonk