We are Worldswide
We make a Journey together.
US rock group Journey are developing an island in SL, to be launched Feb 1. The launch party will have members of the band showing up for a meet and greet.
That’s about with this one. The island itself is a little chaotic – images below, but hey, you can get your hands on a T-shirt. One thing that did strike me as a little OTT was the notecard – seems a little on the stern side, as follows:
The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast is a regular series of podcasts interviewing the key (mainly) European players in the virtual worlds space. The latest podcast (available here) features Nick Wilson, ex-Metaversed and now CEO and Founder of Clever Zebra. Run by Mike O’Hara, the Virtual Worlds BusinessCast is part of Voices in Business.
Nick is a great advocate of virtual worlds whilst having a balanced, objective and informed view on metaverse developments.
In the interview, Nick talks in detail about his decision to discontinue Metaversed.com and focus his energies on Clever Zebra.
Here’s the run-down:
00:12 – Mike OHara introduction
00:57 – Start of interview
01:28 – Nicks background & a brief history of Metaversed.com
03:32 – The Virtual Worlds Podcast
04:17 – Background to Clever Zebra
05:14 – Business issues facing firms moving into SL
07:43 – What virtual worlds can do for corporations
08:50 – Bringing down the barriers to entry
09:41 – The Clever Zebra proposition
12:14 – Land fees
13;25 – Designers and builders
15:42 – How does a firm get access to this?
16:20 – Second Life business resources
17:55 – End of interview, contact details & wrap-up
Other interviews in the series include Francesco dOrazio (Founder and CEO of Myrl.com), Peter Dunkley (Head of depo consulting), Justin Bovington (CEO of Rivers Run Red) and yours truly.
After the coverage from the K Zero virtual world forecast analysis, this assessment has been expanded (in terms of the number of worlds) and this time focusses on current total registered accounts. Again, by no means exhaustive (more worlds will be added) but nevertheless a good insight into both live worlds and those in development or beta stage.
When someone says Anshe Chung, most people (involved with virtual worlds) will think of the stories from last year about her (or more appropriately them, being Anshe Chung Studios) making over $1m from selling land in Second Life – the first metamillionaire (read the press release).
In the words of Michael Caine, not a lot of people know that Anshe Chung Studios is also heavily active in IMVU. In this instance through, it’s not so much selling land but instead, selling spaces and objects that the company is engaged in. In IMVU socialising takes place in small rooms or areas and a range of different spaces and items are available to purchase from the IMVU website as well as a dedicated microsite.
IMVU already has several off the shelf chat venues to socialise in, but just as avatar customisation is extremely popular worlds, this functionality allows avatars to place themselves into venues of their choosing or give them specific objects. The company focusses on creating rooms, furniture, clothing, pets and skins.
The most popular Anshe Chung products are: (more…)
Second Life gets most of the attention from real world brands venturing into virtual world activity. But, some companies are also taking their brands into other worlds.
Why? Because different worlds have different audience profiles and just as normal (real world) media planning techniques involve targeting different types of media, the growing list of metaverses means the same can apply.
Here’s a table showing marketing activity across multiple virtual worlds. It’s not an exhaustive list, but it’s pretty close (and will be updated as and when).
Who’s the most adventurous marketer? Toyota, with projects involving Second Life (Scion City), There, Gaia, Whyville (Financial Services) and they’ve even used a MMOG, World of Warcraft, in some TV advertising.
Although primarily a European brand, it’s the Latin America division of Fiat that’s first into SL, adding to the already long list of automobile companies present in-world.
This venue is busier than most other car venues and has areas dedicated to:
The overall design treatment is playful and easy-going and drawing on a theme seen more often in corporate builds, it’s clear that the strategy here is to retain visitors as long as possible using social spaces.
Yesterday my middle son (age six) was surfing in Club Penguin.
‘What do you like best about Club Penguin?’ I asked.
‘Buying things’, he replied.
That answer took me by surprise, so I asked him why buying things was fun…
‘Because it makes me feel like a grown-up being able to buy things’ he said.
The use of virtual worlds in music videos is steadily getting more popular. And, it’s a clever way of showing the attributes and environments of a metaverse without having to go in-world (not to mention an insight into the typical demographics of particular worlds.
Recently, a Duran Duran mash-up competition has resulted in SL machinima being produced. vMTV (naturally) went as far as running a virtual music video competition. Contest one is now closed (winner yet to be announced) but here’s the most viewed entry taken from the submission site. Contest 2 is here.
MTV Virtual Music Video – Driving Down The Block – For more funny movies, click hereHere’s another one, this time with Soulja Boy and IMVU.
And here’s Bow Wow and Omarion in vSide
