Sigh, more negative media =(

I can't tell you the last time I visited Coke's website, if ever. Does that make their website a stupid venture?

These people don't understand that a static display on Thirst Island does next to nothing for Coke, because it does next to nothing for US. It takes constant work to draw attention here, as it does in the real world. You'd think that would be elementary.

Negative? It seemed real enough to me. As far as I can see the article was merely stating facts. What do you want? Wild positive reviews? Those reviews are earned........so are the "negative" ones.

Most people in SL are here to play...........they are not here to seek out real world stuff. It's a game for heavens sake..............oh my god!!!! Sorry, it's a platform!!! LOL

Heh. Second life, unlike RL, does not revolve around real world companies. maybe to some. But everyone I know never visits any of these real-world company sims and has no intentions of ever doing so. So yeah, those companies probably are wasting money. But that doesnt mean the rest of us are wasting time, money, and/or talent here. I guess LL thought it would be great to have RL companies coming in (And the companies must have saw some potential in being here), but the truth is (And the companies so found out) the majority of active user base probably does not give a sht about them. ..This is 2nd life. Many times I find myself running into this type of press and thinking "They had a sim here?". Its like they think they can just set up and everyone will flock to them- not how it happens. No matter who you are, you have to work here and make a name for yourself. start from scratch and build up. just like the real world.



I didnt read the whole article just kind of scanned through it, btw.

The writer said 'nothing to do' ha! That reminds me of something I have noticed for many years... people who say "I'm bored" are really saying "I'm boring". To cite the incredible list of possibilites and things to do, learn, see, hear would take pages and I'd be preaching to the choir here

I agree, the facts were there
I did not even realize coke had a place in second life

if they want to get the attention they need to get them selves noticed, just because it is built doesn't mean we will go there

do something to entice us there, hold contests events anything with RL prizes, could be a T shirt a week or free coke prizes anything

if they want it to work, they need to make it work!!

same with anyone or anything in SL

At least they got this part right: "Created by an underfunded startup using a physics engine that's now years out of date, Second Life is made up of thousands of disconnected "regions" (read: processors), most of which remain invisible unless you explicitly search for them by name. Residents can reach these places only by teleporting into the void. And even the popular islands are never crowded, because each processor on Linden Lab's servers can handle a maximum of only 70 avatars at a time; more than that and the service slows to a crawl, some avatars disappear, or the island simply vanishes. "It's really the software's fault," says Andrew Meadows, Linden Lab's senior developer. "Way back when, we used to say, 'This is not going to scale.'"

Wonder what Phillip will be saying to Andrew when he reads this article...

Also my avatar has never once had to have his thirst quenched.

I didn't say that it was inaccurate, biased or untrue =)

As you noted, both the "enthusiatic" and the "critical" can be 100% accurate and true, and both at the same time.

My little saddy-face was not because I thought the article was totally unfair, it was only because it was "negative" in the sense that, well your average person reading this, would they think "Hey, I'd like to try that!" or "Ack, think I'll stay away."

Whether someone thinks it is the direction of the future, or a total waste of resources, obviously and for many reasons, Second Life is not yet "what it should be, what it could be."

Criticism can be a very healthy thing, a very necessary thing. But it still can sting. Maybe it should sting.

I read the article. Summary: RL Businesses are not successful (i.e. traffic) in SL because they do not have camping chairs.



Actually, there is already freebie coke machine, so who needs to go to thirst island?


Best quote "It will never scale"

Can they rez me a nice cold diet coke, right here and now when I want it? RL?

No?

Who cares then!

I didn't read the article, just from this thread I take it another RL company is not doing well in SL? AwwwwwWhat a pity.

Don't give them good ideas! I don't particularly want them here.

Anyhow, who cares if they're here. I care about the people who are here, ACTUALLY here, to play, to socialize, to create new dresses and shoes I can buy.

These articles are all written for businesses. They overlook entirely the whole world that was here, inhabited by us and MADE by us, before the businesses ever even noticed.

We're not exactly chopped liver. It's our money that keeps this game going. It's us the Lindens need to please, imo.

coco

Personally I recomand to the people I know to NOT goto second life...I do this for MANY reasons...crappy codeing of the server/viewer being one of the big ones and SHITTY customer service a damn close second I really cant think of a reason to recomend SL to anyone I care about..IRC works better and is more stable then SL HTML chat is the same as well as java chat. Intell the "LAB" gets their head out of ther collective ass I will not recomend sl to anyone I know..the last 8 months on sl has been pretty much high school codeing I would thingk more then half of the sl staff need to be fired including Robien Linden with the age crap shes pushing down everyone but it wount happen and I really see sl dieing a slow and painfull death...o well good example of what NOT to do with your own company...as for me I spend very little time in sl..its just not worth it any more I goto other VR worlds...that happen to WORK and not crash multiple times in less the 24 hours..sl is pretty much dead now that they dont and wont listen to the customer base...wow I actualy feel sorry for Dreamland damn shes gona take one heck of a hit

I've done various custom builds for corps over the last 18 months and the people I have interacted with including IBM, Reebok, Fat face. BBC, and lots more do not expect to generate any real revenue from SL. Their presence here is driven by 2 reason, firstly and foremost is purely for publicity sake. Being associated with SL and being able to take pretty images of their corporate sim to put on their website and in news articles. IBM and the BBC have different aspirations and can see multiple applications for SL but everyone else i've had dealings with feel the media exposure has been worth the investment. Not sure how they feel now the media has turned. Secondly companies simply don't want to miss out. It's inevitable that virtual worlds will play a big part in the future online experience and the corporations are simply making sure they do not miss out. Coke must have been mis-informed by their in world advisors and developmenmt team (if they have one) because the people i've worked with never really expected to engage the SL community. It's the media they are trying to engage.

I've been saying all along that the only thing a presence here gives you is a spiffy press release. Yes, it will be interesting from this point forward since the first thing the press will say if you come into SL now is, "Why the hell are they going into SL?"

Yeah the beast has now turned so it will be interesting to see what the corps decide to do. It will take another article in Business week or or similar publication to really drive it home to the corps. Is only a matter of time though if people like Coke are already throwing their toys out of their pram.

"Coke's Virtual Thirst pavilion, a mere 27."

My store gets more traffic than that with a low cost classified ad. What are Coke spending their money on?

RL businesses need to stop expecting everyone to just find them, whose going to go searching for a coke? They need to be utilising the infrastructure to attract attention. Ad farms are their friend, spend some money advertising their products in other locations and people will start finding their products.

So, the Coke guy said he looked at the builds of other big brands. Saw they were empty then.... decided to do the same. I love the way corprates think like reef fish.

I'd put some of the blame on the development companies who are only interested in getting the money for the job, rather than actually explaining to the companies what SL is, how it works, and how to be successful rather than plonk down a build, walk away and forget about it.

I know *some* have a clue, but it's quite clear that some don't.

Broccoli

I think that by now should be obvious that a RL company should:

- build a nice place
- offer something valuable to SL residents
- have live people there
- advertise their presence, not leave that to a one time newsflash

I have not been there yet, but I hear that an important Italian bank with subsidiaries over the world has opened a presence in SL.

From what I read, they'll have live people there, talking about the bank and their services. Also, they will be doing job interviews too.

I think that's a nice approach to SL.

OK, we've had the influx of corporate sims and seen that by and large very few of them 'work' in the sense of drawing in any sort of traffic from the existing population. The few that I've seen to 'work' are regions like the IBM sims which are largely used by......... IBM staff and employees. Not there's anything wrong with that.... more power to 'em for finding a use for SL in their corporate culture.

However............

There's alot of corporate sims that pretty much sit empty doing nothing. Mercedes, anyone? At the same time there's alot of creativity out there on the grid that languishes for the lack of a sim where their ideas could be made manifest.

So..........

What about corporate sponsorship? Before you throw your hands up in horror. Think about it. Let's take a 2 examples: Amsterdam and Svarga. In both cases they're popular and well-recognised sims. In both cases the original creator wanted to get out of that project for one reason or another. In both cases the sims would be missed.

Corporate sponsorship could be a way for interesting areas (aesthetically, culturally, whatever) to be built up and maintained without the content creators having to bash their heads against a wall worrying about where the money's going to come from. Furthermore it works for the corporate sponsor as a way of drawing attention to their product by being associated with quality content in SL. Product placement, anyone?

That's my hat thrown in the ring. No idea if it's relevant to the discussion at hand but I'd be interested in your thoughts in this direction.

whew

70? LOL. How optimistic. That's like saying Calista Flockhart's bra could support Pamela Anderson's breasts. I'm sure she could get them in there, but it wouldn't be a very comfortable (or advisable) experience.