Reuter's closes it's SL Bureau

you'd think online advertisers would realize that while their ads do work (the same way spam works, on a .001% basis) that it isn't effective... sure you can meet cost margins on that, but a more effective means would spell huge increases in the bottom line. I'm sure some creative soul will come up with it.

I suspect that many are bending their minds toward that end now: all over the world, demand is falling at a pace we haven't seen in many decades. How to induce people to buy when their perceptions tell them the sky is falling?

If this new US Administration, working with others around the world, succeed in building people's confidence again (not just in the one nation, but globally), we may see some innovative persuaders at work trying to convince people that their product will change their lives for the better. (And heck, that could even be true: not ALL advertising claims are false...)

You mean RL Universal? Of course not. But SL isn't RL. At least for me. The few hours a wekk I spend in SL are meant to escape from RL's annoyances as much as possible. I've managed to ignore the RL Corporate presence in SL, as little as there has been, and I will continue to do so. They can spend their money on your behalf, not mine.

Ah... someone that bought in to the "Audacity of Hype".

If memory serves, Reuter's offered a hud that had some promise of facilitating spontaneous topic based chatting. The problem was no one went to the place to chat.

It made sense enough for Reuter's to cover news about SL, but making a bureau was like pretending that SL is a real place, which it's not. That's what didn't make sense to me. News internal to SL, like a battle between two SL factions, or which designer has new fashions out, is not big news to a general audience, and the internal SL news audience is small enough for a mass public news provider to pretty much completely ignore.

I'm sure that there are folks who'd go to a great build with some big company ads in and not mind the ads. I would, to the same degree that I go to any good build in SL, which isn't much, I've seen prims with textures on them a lot. To get people to keep coming back, there would need to be something to do there, or the great build would need to constantly changed, and there's not much to do in SL as consumers, other than chat and run animations (dancing and av sex) and you can chat and dance anywhere, no need to go to the big companies great build for that. I suspect an outfit like Coke would do better to advertise on SLUniverse or Massively than within SL.

"Welcome to WalMart. Not only will you buy our shit, you'll feel good about doing it. Shopping here is good for your Country. If your Country is China".

Those are fair points. It would take some innovative thinking to keep people coming back. I think one of the great strengths of this platform is that we are able to consider it possible that such innovation COULD occur, though.





Very possibly. But outfits like Coke, or any other giant multinational, would be wise to spend some time pondering the degree to which users of SL are both more demographically varied than users of sites like Massively, and also just as rabidly devoted as gamers.

It's a different market (despite some overlap), and one that many who sell goods or services might well want to reach.

No, my vote was somewhat reluctant. But the alternative was horrifying. (Many things that should change, won't, is my not-very-surprising prediction. But at least this way, there's at least a remote chance that some things could change.)

Likewise with my 'vote' on LL's enterprises--it's a for-profit company. It doesn't exist on hopes and wishes and dreams. I may not be thrilled with all the ways they seek to make their profit, but I do understand this: make a profit, they must.

I can sympathise with the impulse to cry out that SL should be Pure and Above Commerce, and all that sort of thing.

But: how could that happen?

I enjoyed the corporate builds for Pontiac and Nissan, but there really wasn't a reason to go back. That is the thing these sims keep missing - why go back?

It shouldn't be above commerce. But there is a difference between rl commerc and sl commerce. If an rl company wants to push there products here I will NOT buy them. But if someone creates something I like because they understand sl and are part of the community then I will buy it.

And because LL is going after the RL commercial companies to gain real money to continue with SL you are going to be an unhappy camper if LL succeeds in their quest. SL commerce cannot ever produce the revenues necessary for the advancement of the platform LL has in mind. SL can remain a game or it can become what LL wants it to become...........I bet LL will follow THEIR dream way before it will follow yours.

We all are going to have to adapt...........or move on.

That seems like a useful goal for those engaged in commerce. After all, no one likes to feel they are being manipulated. If we buy, we prefer to consider that our decision is reasoned and reasonable.

Of course they will. But if they don't have people in world to buy those corporate products what good will it do them? As far as a stabile product for rl businesses to do such things as business conferences and such well... maybe in a large corporation that can piss away a few thousand $ for a few days until they realize how much they don't know about their imaginary target audience.

I will choose to move on, in that event. The RL's can come in allthey want. As long as the are in their own areas, where I can avoid their noise I'm fine. But if I'm going to be out in the general "World" and I'm going to see their presence alongside resident businesses, possibly competeing with them, then my use for SL is finished. Now it's just RL plus. Initially, I can ignore them, but eventually they will intrude on my experience enough to make me look for entertainment elsewhere.

I agree it is ineveitable, as all good things must come to an end.

With such low concurrency numbers for SL, I honestly couldn't see companies even going through the trouble of advertising to such a tiny group of people anyway. So it is no surprise they leave after awhile.

"There's a sucker born every minute" -credited to Barnum

I also visited some corporate builds, and even helped out with one, but the problem is just as people said here - you see them, and there often isn't that much reason to go back. Ben and Jerry's was neat, but why would I visit more than once?

I probably sound like a stuck record by now, but this should make it plain the necessity of an integrated experience. Sex is popular on talkers and in VMs because it is the only integrated experience they offer, unless they make effort to offer others.

That's really sad, I mean I never even saw their sim, but we really need real life company backing if anyone who is not a total video game nerd is going to ever take Secondlife seriously. The Fortune 500 in SL has always been a mixed bag, some hate it, think they have no right to be there. But realistically as a professional myself, I think it is crutial for the general public's perception of the SL platform in general.

And so many have left, all that I am aware of. I think all that is left of the Fortune 500's is IBM. As people noted, almost all have left, and most never really were here for the right reasons anyway. Not to mention that they didn't have merit, but most companies like this are just in it for profits, if they don't see revenues asap they will just pull the plug.

But I don't understand this hate-on by the residents for any real life branding. At some point in the near future it's going to be pretty inevatable for the web not to go 3D.

I have never understood this point of view. What is the actual benefit of a 3D web?

If you will recall, in Neuromancer etc., it was only the hackers and techies who used the 3D cyberspace; everyone else just used regular 2D terminals. That, I could possibly see happening (although it'd be unlikely) but I can't see a 3D web becoming mainstream - it just doesn't offer enough extra benefit.

The web will go 3D, but probably not like this. With more technology to increase the sensory experience, the word virtual will take on new dimensions. It just isn't going to be the blinged out way we experience it now.

If you could do physical things and get the sensory feedback I can see it to an extent. But people talk about mundane things like shopping, where I see almost no benefit over the current 2D method.

I think there's a lot of reasons...

1. There was an incredible amount of hype about SL after it crossed the 1,000,000 member threshold. A great many of those, however, we not active accounts, which meant that the companies never saw 2,000,000 eyes in their sims.

2. Some of the "solution providers" did not adequately set up locations that would continue to engage users, or provide an experience different from other, established regions. Likewise, it would seem few did any work to hold the hands of their corporate clients, helping them learn to engage the world.

3. Related to the above, a distinct lack of understanding of what the world is or how it works. SL is much like RL, with many distinct differences. Marketing is definintely one of those differences.

4. The "blow back" from residents against corporates. There was a ddefinite distrust of corporations by residents, and corporations, LL, and others havedone little to try to prevent or mollify this.

5. SLs "outsider nature." I think many would point to the Ansche Chung interview of December 2006 as a prime example of this, when her interview was interrupted by flying green phalli. IMO, this freedom and spirit needs to be turned into a positve -- so far the assumptions is to "tame" this world for more sensible people, rather than consider that is is the untamed aspect that makes the place what it is. If I wanted a plain-jane, RL experience, I would simply stay in my RL.

There were a couple exceptions to this, and had these been followed through, might have had a very different end for corporations. NBC did a very high profile tree lighting two years ago, in multiple rockefeller center locations. They got a lot of people *in spite of* network outages all that day. If they had continted to do this, as well as other RL/SL tie ins that were heavily promoted, then they might have had something on their hand. Same for the UK newspaper that did the multi sim concert a year ago and perhaps even AOL and Comcast for their engaging regions.

Current good examples include 7 Days Magical Bakery (definitely wins on engagement and repeatability) and Wiley Publishing (nice to see a corporate take to mainland)

I think it does have a future as a business platform, but not as a 'must-have' for every aspiring company. I mean, a virtual wine-tasting might be amusing but of little practical RL value!

Because part of SL's attraction, at least to me is the absence of their incessant pimping of their mostly garbage products that has become RL and the Internet in General.

I may be a bit extreme in my view as I hold most large corporations in very low refard to begin with, I kepp my distance from them as much as possible in RL, they are a necessary evil at best, for the jobs they provide to a lot of people, and the fact they have in a lot of cases made it to where they are the only options. But I will go to great lengths, travel farther and pay more to patronize smaller businesses whenever possible.

I certainly dont have a problem with corporate participation when it isn't in my face a la adfarms. I number several corporate islands among my favorite hangouts, including Weather Channel Island and Splenda. Their influences remain in their own backyards. Who can object to that?

Eric brings up a good point, and to me this was just plain inane unless there was a financial reason behind Xing out a hundred plus Orientation Islands:

Elimiinating OIs as a first stop for new users and dumping the disoriented onto Help Islands as if to say: Forget how to use your body and just start amassing stuff and attaching boxes to your arm.

This was all the while pondering how to improve the new user first experience. Doesnt make sense to kill the only resource until they had an alternative ready. If an area shared the same island as the HI galleries and shops and greeting spot - perhaps placed in the area of the sandbox since - let's face it - no one coming into SL for the first time is going to need a sandbox. Make it their arrival point and the final flight test face the greeting area and freebie shop.

All statistics aside: these arent for the alts but new users, and they are still a necessity - if they are interested in bringing more new users into the fold.