Second Life is now officially the Most Over-Hyped Emerging Media Trend according to Adage. All I can say is—no kidding.
I never bought into the idea that suddenly everyone was going to get avatars and interact over the internet more than in person—it feels like such an unsociable way to socialize. The whole concept of Second Life seemed more niche than mass-market from the get go, but marketers were jumping on the bandwagon left and right. Of course people will want to shop for their TV in the virtual Circuit City rather than the real one. What? Sorry, not me. Is it a cool new concept to have a virtual store? Yes. Would I as a consumer ever use it? No. I was beginning to think maybe I just wasn't that cool, but I'm relieved to see that I wasn't so out of touch after all. I have no interest in a second life, this one is just fine.
3 comments:
I'll give you 100,000 Linden dollars if you change your opinion.
Hi! As the Circuit City guy in Second Life I wanted to point out that we don't actually sell anything on our Islands. Instead, we put someone in world (me) to answer customer questions about products and technology. We also have some educational tools (like our D-SLR camera for instance) to help consumers understand the technology in a way that we couldn't otherwise show them. And that's not even getting into consumers who face roadblocks to communication while in a store (people who speak English as as a second language, people who are deaf and speak sign language, those who may have other speech-related challenges) I'd like to invite you to come to our island in Second Life to see for yourself. I don't think I'll change your mind, but I'd like to show you another perspective ;)
You've inspired me to write a blog post of my own as well, you're welcome to come read it http://sltechguy.blogspot.com/ I'll likely have it up by the end of the day today or by tomorrow morning.
Better put a TM after Linden or Second Life will come after you...
Post a Comment