Jeneane Sessum raises a very interesting point about Second Life. Presumably, Second Life users are using the site for entertainment, so may choose to have a somewhat different personality than their first life (aka. real world) version. If that's the case, how should businesses approach Second Life, and what kind of feedback can they expect to receive from the people they interact with? Here is the video spawning this discussion:
ALLIED by Jeneane Sessum: Text 100 Misses the Second Life Boat
"The REAL power is in human beings inhabiting worlds where they are not who they are, and who they are is not who they become, and what they do may -- just may be -- who they really are. Within those nuances of play and passion and aggression is where we connect."
It seems quite possible that people may provide more brutally honest feedback about your company's products or services while in character in a virtual world than they would face to face.
Sessum snarkily explains that simply recreating the real world in cyberspace is really missing the point. Why not interact with your customers in the real virtual world?
"What a waste of a high quality video effort. I've got it! Let's say we're going to demonstrate the power of virtual world interactions so that we can build islands for OUR clients right? And show them how they can invite their customers to do business with them the same way as before, except, it's fake, right, so let's replicate the meeting rooms, dress up in nice suits that only Kenny with the earrings can wear "that way" in our real office, and drag our clients into a virtual world meeting where they can stare at a virtual CEO at a virtual podium talking about the power of brand building and marketing in a virtual world with our virtual logo installed in the virtual background."
There have been a lot of attempts to recreate a boardroom feel in online conferencing applications to date, but none have gained any traction as far as I can tell. Avatars contribute little to a conference call. I can't imagine someone choosing to play business dress-up during non-work hours in a game they're paying to play. Well, I suppose everyone has their fetishes . . .
Karl Long offers a different take on this experiment by looking at the opportunities for corporate video in Second Life:
Corporate Video 2.0 - Second Life Machinima + Youtube at ExperienceCurve
"Apart from the fact that this supports the message that Text100 can serve as a guide to companies around the communication opportunities in SecondLife, it demonstrates a wonderful way use SecondLife for corporate videos. Think about virtual tours of facilities, product launches, even testing product concepts. It seems to me that SecondLife is a great opportunity to help customers experience aspects of your company, your products, your ideas, in ways that are more visceral and tangible."
While that's certainly possible, why not simply use online video for corporate video? The quality is significantly higher and your audience reach goes WAY beyond what you'll achieve through Second Life. This seems like a solution in need of a problem to me.
1. Posted by: Donnell King on November 7, 2006 7:12 PM:
There are two reasons, at least, to use SL this way rather than corporate video online. One: cost. You can do things in SL significantly cheaper. Two: interactivity. You're not just showing a video to a client via SL; you are immersing them in a simulation. They can poke around, explore at THEIR pace, go where THEY want to. That raises the psychological engagement in a way a video simply cannot, despite the higher visual quality of the video. With increasing bandwidth and computing power over the next two or three years, the perceived difference in visual quality will lessen, and the engagement will simply go up.