Worthwhile Reading - Week Ending 04/06/2008
April 6, 2008
Here are some topics of interest I’ve read in the past week. Definitely worth your time to read. Read more
More Second Life Statistics
May 5, 2007
According to ComScore research, in March 2007, active Second Life residents came from these regions:
- 61 percent from Europe
- 16 percent from the States
- 13 percent from the Asia-Pacific region
According to Linden Lab’s self-reported data last February, 54 percent were European and 31 percent from the U.S.
Gender breakdown:
- 61 percent of residents are male
- 39 percent are female
That’s very close to Linden Lab’s self-reported data last February: 60 percent male and 40 percent female.
The study calculated that about 1.3 million people ran the official software and logged into Second Life in March 2007. This represents an increase of 46 percent in the number of active residents from January 2007, ComScore said.
Second Life’s own figures state that it has more than 6 million residents and that 1.7 million have logged in during the last 60 days.
More details about geographic breakdown can be found in the Cnet article.
Related Links:
Making Sense of Second Life Statistics
Cnet: “Europeans latch on to ‘Second Life’“
Vandalizm in Second Life
March 8, 2007
Wikipedia is a notorious stalking ground for overzealous, nasty political shenanigans and vandalism. But this high profile defacing is the first I’ve heard of in Second Life:
Edwards’ Second Life Headquarters Vandalized
by Shankar Gupta, Tuesday, Mar 6, 2007 6:00 AM ET
THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE JOHN Edwards campaign in Second Life suffered an attack by vandals last week, when shortly before midnight, the virtual building was defaced by a group of Second Life users bearing “Bush ‘08″ tags.
Although the Edwards campaign on its blog identified the vandals as Republicans, a commenter on the blog claimed responsibility in the name of a Second Life griefing group called “Patriotic Nigras.” The group claimed to have simply done it for laughs–or, in their own words, “lulz.”“Guess what: we’re not Republicans. In fact, I’m one of the most hard-core liberals I know,” a pseudonymous commenter wrote on the Edwards blog. The commenter’s affiliation with Patriotic Nigras was discovered through his pseudonym, “Mudkips Acronym,” by the webzine 10 Zen Monkeys.
The Edwards campaign said that an abuse report against the perpetrators had been filed with Linden Lab, Second Life’s developer.
The vandalism of the Edwards campaign HQ isn’t the first high-profile attack Second Life has seen. In December, when CNET interviewed controversial Second Life businesswoman Anshe Chung, a virtual real estate dealer who has been described as Second Life’s first millionaire, the theater was attacked by griefers who bombarded Chung with flying, animated phalluses.
Source: MediaPost
Okay, I visited the John Edwards ‘08 — a very small parcel consisting of a one story open air building with helicopter landing pad on top, and an open area with podium, two TV cameras, billboards and (love this) virtual folding tables with free John Edwards t-shirts in the corner. Plus campaign posters promising that “John Edwards ‘08. Tomorrow Begins Today.”
I saw no defacements by the time I arrived, but I heard a Nazi “sieg heil” off in the distance. I spin around and diagonally connected is another area and building similarly decorated. Yet there were goose-stepping black dressed avatars marching along to the seig heil chant. 
The campaign posters were similar except they read: “John Edward ‘08. He Can Read Minds.”
It’s a clever spoof promoting celebrity “psychic” John Edward.
UPDATE:
I did a bit more digging into what vandals do in Second Life. Of course, they post videos on YouTube (who doesn’t?). I couldn’t find an Edwards one up (yet), but other examples are there: Bombarding a location with hundreds of animated Mario (from Mario Bros), or dropping cubes all over a couple dancing on Valentine’s Day.
I know it’s wrong, but I have to laugh. It’s like a college prank. Location owners can eject items left behind on their property, so nothing is permanent. Of course if these pranksters came every day, that would be harassment and akin to a Denial of Service attack.
Cost of Building a Second Life Presence and Campaign
March 7, 2007
According to this article on what agencies are charging to develop marketing programs for brands in Second Life:
“An initial build might cost a client between $75,000 and $100,000. Another $50,000 might pay for six or so events at the site. Monthly support fees could add another $10,000 a month to the cost.”
Why so high you might wonder? Consider the following…
- Start with your Strategy and Creative brainstorming, which will determine what your destination may be. Then factor in labor for Design, Developers, Project Management and Quality Assurance.
- How will you promote the destination and what will that cost? (Promotion both inside Second Life and in the real world.)
- Do you need to hire virtual staffers to appear at your destination and interact with visitors?
- How “permanent” is your destination in SL and how often will you stage events to drive traffic to your destination?
- Finally, don’t forget these basic costs:
- You need to create a member account ($10/month, $22.50/quarterly, or $72/annual)
- The price for portion to entire region ranges from $5-$195/month based on the number of square meters you want. Here is the land pricing chart
- Want more land? You can own a private island, which costs $1,675 for 65,536 square meters (about 16 acres) to setup. Then monthly land fees for maintenance are $295/month.
It adds up quickly, doesn’t it?
In my travels through Second Life, I come across so many vacant places. You can’t have a Field of Dreams attitude about it. Just because you build it, it doesn’t mean they will come. You need to constantly work at promotion and improvements to make it a premier destination.
What’s your experience with planning for Second Life? Please let me know.
Thanks.
-Roland
Brand Development for Second Life
March 6, 2007
Finally an article on what agencies are charging to develop marketing programs for brands in Second Life.
“An initial build might cost a client between $75,000 and $100,000. Another $50,000 might pay for six or so events at the site. Monthly support fees could add another $10,000 a month to the cost.”
But I’m disappointed that the article didn’t go further.
“Creating a virtual destination packed with interactive content takes more than an expert in the digital stitching that keeps “Second Life” together. Artists, writers, marketing gurus and others are often needed to develop everything from the look and design of a project to event programming within the space that will keep people coming back.”
Of course, no one says how they demonstrate a return on investment.
“A lot of these companies are treating it as marketing research and development.”
Great, so what are they learning?
“A good campaign, you can expect a lot of people to pick up and use your virtual product for hours.”
So how did people find out about it? What tactics were successful at driving traffic to the SL destination(s)?
I find it frustrating that these journalists gain access then get lazy and just regurgitate the basic info we’ve all read/know already.
