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Mark Ragan
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16
Blame a perfect storm of publicity. This summer and fall you will notice—if you haven’t already—a renewed interest in virtual worlds.
Despite what you hear, remember: The idea that real companies will conduct business in virtual worlds like Second Life is utterly ridiculous.
My opinion runs contrary to that of many intelligent, forward-thinking people; in fact, it runs contrary to some Ragan.com articles. But I cannot, in sound body and mind, think that we will one-day live part of our lives in virtual computer worlds.
Think about that. Living part of your life in a virtual world. Did anyone else just feel real, real creeped out? The idea is so utterly ridiculous it falls somewhere between the marketing disaster that was Coke II and the human disaster that was Terminator II.
Rest assured my conviction goes beyond gut feeling.
Last summer, many brick-and-mortar companies with Second Life presence shuttered their virtual shops. Communities without viable economies often get overrun with sex and drugs. Welcome to Second Life, a hive for sex and drugs. Of course, that duo actually precluded its economic downturn.
Before the stores shuttered, a Second Life terrorist organization—yes, you read that correctly—was carrying out virtual penis bombings. Uh-huh, you read that correctly as well.
And then there’s the proposed federal legislation to protect kids from possible pedophiles in Second Life.
Sex and drugs … fake penises … pedophilia … are there any rational-thinking people out there who really—and I mean really—believe this will take-off?
I hope not.
Unfortunately, attention will fall upon virtual worlds this summer and autumn thanks to a perfect storm of publicity. Here’s what I mean:
• Second Life celebrates its fifth birthday July 20 and Linden Labs will launch a PR blitz.
• Recent news of a breakthrough allowing Second Life avatars to teleport, or transfer, to an IBM created virtual world will continue its slow ripple through the media and blogs.
• Google quietly launched its own virtual world called Lively. When Google does something people notice.
• $345 million was invested in virtual worlds in the first two quarters of 2008 combined as more worlds are burbling to the surface.
Journalists, bloggers and Silicon Valley reps will insist we are at the dawn of the virtual Web; that we will soon browse the Internet using our virtual selves, called avatars.
But that’s a crock.
Despite the hullabaloo, virtual worlds will never have widespread appeal. They are too weird for Main Street, too explicit for children, too risky for corporations.
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