Virtual Worlds the next trend?
The LA Times had a year end article about some of the future trends that they see happening. One that has been talked about for awhile is the growth of Second Life, a website that boasts over two million current users.
Neil Sherman from digitalmediawire.com gave his take on the future of these virtual worlds.
THE TREND TO watch in 2007: Virtual worlds, one of the most populous of which is Second Life, a 3-D environment built and owned by its
residents (currently about 2 million).These digital playgrounds combine elements of social networking with aspects of a multiplayer online game. At Second Life’s virtual marketplace, residents buy, sell and trade millions of dollars in digital goods. Even more fascinating from a business standpoint is that millions of dollars in real-world currency are being generated from the exchange of virtual dollars into hard cash.
A cottage industry is beginning to develop around virtual communities, with real-world businesses profiting from the sale of related goods and services. For instance, there’s an e-commerce site that allows you to customize your “avatar” — the persona you create for yourself on line — and another company that puts together custom games for organizations that want to use Second Life for training and education.
Second Life may not grow to the scale of a MySpace or a YouTube, but it may be laying the groundwork for something that will.
The question is how can a company tap into Second Life and use it for their own gain? The one benefit of Second Life is that it has it’s own economy within the game. Contests and offers are a good way to possibly earn some traffic from Second Life but beyond that the time and effort it takes to play the game on their I don’t see it as a potential very much and I hope that this doesn’t replace social networking at the next big thing.
Technorati Tags: second life, myspace, social networking, trends
Related Stories
POSTED IN: News
0 opinions for Virtual Worlds the next trend?
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: