BuddeBlog

I have been following this market since the late 1980s, when I wrote several articles about virtual reality. You may remember me talking about special helmets and gloves.

Things have certainly progressed a long way since then.

During the 1990s the gaming industry made great advances, but I wasn’t seriously interested at that time. While I was aware that billions of dollars are involved in this industry I didn’t follow the market in any detail.

However, the Second Life service has encouraged me to have another look.

I watched the ABC Four Corners program on this topic, after which our new media expert, Luke Connell, took me on a tour. I signed on as Paulus Helgerud, got my avatar and was teleported to the town square.

Luke was waiting there for me and he took me to the Stock Exchange where he has an office and an interesting VIP museum. You walk through this place by using the cursor. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but soon it’s as though you really are walking through the place. You behave as you do in your first life when you enter a new place – stop and look around and take in your surroundings. You can click on the pics in Luke’s gallery and get background information on these people, courtesy of Wikipedia. The SIM models that have been built are extremely clever and I was soon immersed in my Second Life.

Communication is by instant messaging. This is fine, but a day or so later I spoke to Scott Bagby from Skype and we discussed how the experience should be complemented by voice. Scott believes that this is still a year or so away.

Skype wants to give the Internet a voice. I do find it a bit distracting to have to type while having a ‘conversation’ with others. At a certain stage I was still typing away and Luke had already moved on.  I had to search around to find him again.  I actually felt quite lost at the time, and that, in itself, is indicative of the feeling of reality one experiences at Second Life.

Luke also gave me L$200 (L stands for Linden), I think the current exchange rate for this is Real$2.  I haven’t spent any yet, but I did notice when I visited a night club that you can rent a special platform on the dance floor for a few Linden cents. And, on inspection, the people you meet in Second Life seem to wear much better designed clothes than my standard avatar uniform, so I guess that’s where a lot of those Linden dollars are going.

You can also buy land in Second Life – the Amsterdam (SIM) precinct was recently sold for US$50,000.

Luke is going to rent an office for me at Second Life, so I will soon be able to give you my Second Life address. Please feel free to drop in.  I will make sure that it will be easy to find your own way around my office, as I’m very busy in my First Life and won’t be able to be there to welcome you personally.

Second Life Financial – February 2007

• There are over 2271 unique users with Positive Monthly Linden Dollar Flow (PMLF).
• PMLF looks at the flow of Linden Dollars into a unique user’s account BEFORE Linden Lab Charges are applied to the account. These numbers exclude payments or receipts related to the sale or acquisition of land (since theoretically these represent investments and not business receipts). All numbers are rolled-up among avatar “alts” to the Unique Customer Level. Businesses that operate with Linden Dollar exchanges are excluded.
• Some businesses accept payment outside the Linden Economy (e.g. via CC & Paypal) and those numbers are not included in these reports.
• In February 2007 there was L$1,511,954,743 and USD$5,621,839 exchanged on all linden currency exchanges. There were 229,578 residents who spent Lindens that month.
• $1 USD = L$280

Source: Linden Research Inc.

In the end I spent two nights in Second Life and it really was ‘a blast’. I marvelled at the impact Second Life had on me – I found the experience mind-boggling. I can also see that it could be very, very addictive, so parents beware! I would guess that teenagers, in particular, could end up spending rather too much time living their Second Life. The average age of visitors, however, is slightly older – people in their twenties and early thirties are the most frequent users.

Do I hear you saying:  ‘Get real Paul. Why are you wasting your time on this?’

All I can say is:  ‘Experience Second Life for yourself and will you see what it could lead to’.

For instance, in the Four Corners program we saw a medical application where schizophrenia was explained by replicating the experiences of patients in an avatar and using the avatar to explain what is going on in a patient’s mind to students and friends and family of the patient. And I can imagine Second Life will be the venue for lectures on interesting topics, providing interaction with the presenter and fellow students. Already concerts and other entertainment events are taking place – true, this can already be done in other multimedia ways, but this virtual reality environment is cheap, easy and very interactive. I am sure it will take off.

Second Life in Stats – 2007

• The average age in the Adult service (Grid) is 33
• Females 41%, males 59%
• A third of active users are based in the USA (1.5% in Australia)
• There are over 5 million avatar accounts of which an estimated 3.5m unique users.
• 1.7m residents logged in within the last 60 days.
• There are around 67,000 are premium accounts paying USD$9.95 per month that gives them the ability to own more than 512sqm of virtual land.

Source: Linden Research Inc.

Of course, as in the real world, there is a great deal of sex and gambling going on in Second Life. This brings to mind the comment made by the previous Minister for Communication, Richard Alston, in 2002, when he said that Australia didn’t need broadband because it was ‘all to do with adult and gambling’.

But the 20/80 rule will undoubtedly apply in this context. Many new media start off with 80% adult and gambling and 20% other services and in five years’ time that ratio is reversed. So by all means let’s keep an eye on unwanted developments, but let’s also keep the bigger picture in mind. People with vision will lead this field.

I guarantee that Second Life is one of those new disruptive social and technological developments that will have a big impact on our society – so let’s work with it rather than against it.

Paul Budde

See Global Digital Media web reports:-
Global - Digital Media - Video Media
Global - Digital Media - The Media Industry
Global - Digital Media - Permission Based Marketing
Global - Digital Media - Overview & Analyses 2007
Global - Digital Media - Marketing Strategies
Global - Digital Media - Internet Media Companies
Global - Digital Media - Internet Economy
Global - Digital Media - Industry Business Models
Global - Digital Media - Home Media Centres
Global - Digital Media - Digital Video Recorders (DVR)
Global - Digital Media - Consumer and Business Markets
Global - Digital Media - Broadband TV (IPTV)
Global - Digital Media - Blogging, Social Networking & User Generated Content (UGC)
Global - Digital Media - Advertising Overview, Statistics & Forecasts

See New Annual reports - Australia Digital Media:-
Broadcasting and Pay TV;
Converging Industries;
Digital Content Markets;
Digital Media, Overview and Statistics.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 12:34 pm and is filed under BuddeBlog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.