Corporate Concerns.

After reading a few online articles (and im sorry if this has been talked about before) about 3rd party companies taking an interesing in second life. Am I the only person thats just a little concerned that our grid (one of the few remaining places online that isnt a giant advertising service) could soon be spammed to death.

For example no longer will you be able to purchase thing from shops unless they have a real world branding. People walking about in corporate branded clothing etc etc.

Dont get me wrong, im not an anti capitalist fruitcake. Capitalism if its done properly can be a very good thing for everyone. But I really dont want to find adverts for "myspace, adult friend finder, 888online casino" and all other kinds of junk littering my im boxes and bill boards all over the grid.

Im pretty sure the lindens wont do this but with the big bucks that get thrown at them, it could be a very tempting prospect to just say screw it all, heres the keys to second life.

i am worried too but nothing can be done -_-

Yup I hear what ur saying. It would be a shame to see it go that way, I pray it doesn't lol

seek solace in places that will not stand for such crap. Luskwood is one, there will be many many others if the grid gets *that* encroached

We'll just agree to disagree.

Seriously, though...

LL supposedly has a rule against spamming, but how likely are they to enforce that when a company is paying them several hundred a month for a large chunk of private island space?

I really dislike this wank about how wonderful it supposedly is that RL companies are sliding into SL. With no disrespect to Aimee Weber, I've never seen anything particularly special about American Apparel clothing in first life, and I don't see why I'm supposed to rejoice over them joining my second.

My guess - or at least hope - is that most of the corporations coming in to Second Life will be making their homes on islands, and staying there.

I personally don't have a particular issue with them being here, as long as the following two conditions are met:

1) Their presence here is not promoted to the detriment of the rest of us.

2) Advertising does not spring up everywhere destroying what's left of the mainland.

As long as I can continue my Second Life without being smacked in the face by real world advertising everywhere I turn, then I will be happy.

When the time comes that I can't, then like many others I will either tier down or quit altogether because the whole purpose of Second Life has been lost, and Linden Lab will have sold out their dream.

Lewis

.. in order to advertise, they have to rent or buy the space to do it. And land is only worth so much. If they start throwing large sums of money around, they'll basically destroy the SL economy, and make whatever they earn in-world worthless.

And as long as they have to "color inside the lines" with respect to the game economy, they'll have to work under the same constraints as everybody else.

In short, apart from RL publicity tie-ins, there really isn't a lot of incentive for RL companies to move into SL and take over in the way you describe.

OMG! I agree with Lewis ... the forums must be ending!!

Seriously though I'm hoping it's not going to happen too, and after reading a few blogs and news articles about the emergence of RL brand advertising in SL it seems that companies are currently taking the route of "immersive experience" (for which islands are far more preferable) rather than blanket advertising on the mainland.

That's not to say that some companies won't try it in the future though, and when they do I think that LL's initial response will be that the community should deal with it themselves (just like the Impeach Bush campaign). But I think (/hope!) the smart companies will spend enough time researching the "new marketplace" to realise that, given the passion that the average resident has for our little corner of the metaverse, any spamlike advertising campaigns will earn them a lot more bad publicity than it will good.

Sun.

I am an anti-capitalist fruitcake and this doesn't concern me immensely - well, not the direct impact on the Grid, anyway. Of course, the extent to which it it changes LL's priorities to make them more focussed on developing SL as a branding tool and advertising or money-making medium is significant (and debatable). But we already have huge problems with spam billboards and so on, usually far worse and more irritating than any RL corporation would dream of using.

I'm not really that bothered if Company X wants to buy a sim and pay Electric Sheep to make them prim cars or whatever, any more than if Avatar Y wants to buy a sim and put up a club on it. These are pretty non-intrusive in the grand scheme of things, because the companies concerned don't really care much about the Grid at all. At this stage it's a marketing gimmick to have an SL presence. Now, if some company started GOMing residents I would be concerned, but I can't see it being worth anyone's while in the near future.

One word: lobbyists.

I don't think so. Real world companies don't NEED to earn anything in-world, so to speak. They only need the advertising venue, the exposure.

Imagine that we have a million people signed up to SL, or 5 million, and the media is all abuzz about this cool new thing.

It is going to be a drop in the bucket for a company to spend enough money to get a flagship shop going somewhere, and, say, 400 16-meter properties for billboards.

Well worth the advertising. And unlike the real world, they CAN put a billboard right in front of your house! (Except on zoned private islands.)

I think this is not only going to happen, I think it is specifically what LL hopes will happen, with not just dozens, but thousands of rl companies.

It's why they would not enforce the applicable parts of the TOS against the extorting Bush sign guy. Bad precedent.

Our job will be, can we still exist without this bothering us? I think so. Whether it's by moving to a private island community, or just by mentally tuning out all the ad blight. I think I can do it, anyway.

coco

P.S. I would hope, also that what Sun said would be true:

"But I think (/hope!) the smart companies will spend enough time researching the "new marketplace" to realise that, given the passion that the average resident has for our little corner of the metaverse, any spamlike advertising campaigns will earn them a lot more bad publicity than it will good."

Lobbyists for what?

We already have lobbyists, it's just that they're residents.

It's not the fact corporations are trying their hands in Second Life that bugs me. It's them seeing the vast prospects for marketing that has me scared.

At the moment there's not much money in marketing *to* SL residents, there aren't enough of them. The major point is to get write-ups in Business Week et al saying "look at how cool and young this company is". If the population ever expands to the sort of target figures that are bandied about, that might change, but there's no immediate danger of that, and if you just want advertising you're better off looking at Myspace or something right now.

From what I've seen, corporations dont' come in themselves -- they hire other companies to give them a presence in-world.

Companies like Rivers Run Red, Millions of Us, Electric Sheep Company, etc.

Guess who runs those? Yeah, residents. Residents who have been here a LONG time. They have as much at stake by turning SL into a corporate wasteland as the rest of us.

Regardless, it'd be horrible press if, say, Coke started putting up billboards everywhere in-world. Rather, they'd probably try merchandise branding. Like shirts, coke machines, etc. WHich is fine, because how many Coke logos have you seen in SL already? Lots.

We've nothing to fear, I think. Corporations want resident-run companies to do the hard work for them, and they generally also want 100% total control over the experience, which means an island which you dont' have to visit.

And there we go.

Besides, imagine this wonderful scenario: sponsored venues for public entertainment. Imagnie Frogg Marlowe getting a steady paycheck because the venue he plays is sponsored by GM, or Pepsi, or whomever.

Sweet.

we could shot em

but yeah, im not much into cookie cutter

They'd have to find people willing to carve up their land into 16m parcels in high traffic areas for that to work. Mutually exclusive concepts, really.

Considering that only about 8% of the total accounts are online at most, and that those are spread out all over SL, there just isn't the incentive - they're not going to get the exposure numbers to make it worth doing, unless they host an island and do something that makes people want to come there so they can be subjected to the advertising. And remember than even a whole sim can only reasonable hold 45 people at one time. The numbers just aren't there because of the platform limitations.

The only way they could get some bang for their buck is if they offered some sort of invaluable free service tied to their product name. That would get the brand in front of people irrespective of their physical location.

Ech, I have a bad reaction to corporate-sponsored entertainment venues after seeing Carling basically take over live music in my corner of the UK (they even have sponsored spots for buskers on the tube). Maybe if it was a decent beer I wouldn't mind so much.

It would benefit LL if they made it in the TOS to require corporations to buy Islands. That is pretty cheap marketing for a large company such as Coca-Cola inc.
That would be a win for LL and for us as residents. We wont be subjected to forced marketing and LL will get more then the cost of a parcel of first land. In theory Coke could come in with one premium account, find a first land plot as a base and buy a low tier for 16 sgm plots to advertise. That would be chump change to them. Of course an Island would too.

Well, that's a good idea. Maybe they'll take you up on that.

For the rest, well, we'll see.

coco