Wells Fargo in Second Life

Philip's Announcement

So the first big name real world company to have a significant presence in SL is Wells Fargo. I wouldn't have guessed they'd be the one. Predictions were usually of such big names as Nike or McDonalds or anyone that spends as much on marketing as they do on product.

Sounds like a very good use of Second Life's strengths, actually. Almost more educational than marketing.

I'm looking forward to seeing it.


What do YOU think?

omg FIC $$$

(Just to get that out of the way)

Yeay! It's out of the way!

Hm.. anybody knows how to visit this place? Do I need to pay something..

You need a special promotional code. It's on a separate grid, away from normal residents.

Sorry to be asking these questions. I am feeling like a kid trying to get his hands on a promised but invisible candy.

You need to be a Wells Fargo customer I think. It's only in Beta, not deployed nationwide yet. (Heck, I'm still coding parts of it)
I have no idea how to get you one, but I can post screenshots or something *shrug*

This sounds very cool!! I hope someday I'll get a chance to visit the sim!!

Congratulations to Jimmy Thomson for yet another excellent build

This is a very very very very very encouraging fact. Grats to the builders. My mortgage is held by WF so perhaps I'll be able to browse the display.

It's too bad that they didn't have an open house for a couple of days before production so we could all ooo and aaa.

This is really cool. Sounds like an excellent way for them to use SL, and I'm glad it's intended for a specific purpose and not just as a way to market to potential new customers. The screenshot looks excellent. Congrats to the Bedazzle team!

I'm new to SL and when I saw the Ivory Tower last night I had an epiphany as to how the metaverse could be used. But what does this Wells Fargo sim really provide? I haven't seen it yet, but all PL said was:

"an immersive experience set in Second Life that teaches young adults how to handle their finances in an entertaining way"

That sounds very marketing-y to me. I hope it's not like the millions of company websites out there that nobody ever visits. I'd like to see it provide real value, like a tie to RL online banking.

But I'm only speculating now. I haven't see it yet. I hope it does well. I think SL is amazing and the possibilities for what can be done in SL are endless.

It's an educational project meant to teach people about banking (and promote the WF brand of course). Loans, Debit Cards, Checking accounts, the works.
It doesn't tie into a real banking system, though it contains a miniature banking / e-commerce system for people to mess with.
You have an account, you can deposit or withdraw money, earn interest, you can visit stores and add/remove stuff to/from a shopping cart. There's also games, quizzes and stuff.

That's what I was afraid of. There are a gazillion web sites that try to provide the same sort of "experience" to entertainingly educate about their goods or services. Lots of talent and effort goes into building them, but how many people really care? Why would someone really want to go there? To spend an evening learning how to balance their checkbook? In the end they're nothing but long, boring, interactive infomercials.

But I could be wrong. Who wants cake?

Looks great folks. Congratulations!

I read about Stagecoach Island in one of my banking journals. Sadly, no mention of SL in the piece at that time - it was a while ago. I like prior notice when my world's collide.

My understanding was that users would be given money that could be used at Stagecoach Island to make some sort of purchases and was to earn more by setting up shops or some such. There was more draw to it than tust a basic tutorial. Besides, kids love to chat online.

That is a great looking little sim. Nice work Bedazzle!

Tai, Stagecoach Island is a miniature SL. You can buy stuff for your av, meet people, play various games and even ignore the banking aspect. There's hovercars, jetskis, sky diving, paintball, mahjong... and above all PEOPLE. Plus, I get the feeling people will be able to make real money off of this, as in, WF paying participants real USD, but I dont have any official statement to this effect.

People should see, from this build, why LL changed new character locations so that people can leave the Newbie Islands and go directly to a non-WA land.

The press release is up.

And the PR thingamaroo sez:



Bolded added by me. Whee!

It's time to dance to Mondo Grosso.

Wow, this is the only thread discussing this and it isn't titled Attention SL: Begin Freakout.

Eggy, is that a normal sim? It looks small for some reason. This will be very interesting but it's only for WF customers?

I expect that in the context of how WF is using it, it is a roleplaying game. However, that doesn't mean that SL is a roleplaying game too. In fact that only reinforces my belief that SL is a platform for hosting content that can include games.

Exactly, which is why I said "It's time to dance to Mondo Grosso."