The LA Times has an interesting article up on the failure of real life businesses in Second Life.
The crux of the piece is that despite the hype, real life businesses are closing down their Second Life outposts due to little to no interest in them.
The reasons for the failures are open to debate; from firms not engaging Second Life citizens, through to simply a lack of actual people using Second Life (the LA Times says it peaks at 40,000 users at any one given time).
Wagner James Au at GigaOm has a set of figures worth looking at. In defending Second Life, Au notes that the visitor rate to corporate installations on Second Life is 0.8-2% vs a CTR rate on standard web advertisements on 0.5-1%. Great, but does a higher CTR really matter? The 5 most popular corporate destinations on Second Life have between 1200 to 10,000 visitors per week. An island on Second Life (a popular choice for corporations) costs $1,675 upfront then $295/ month, and that doesn’t include the cost to actually create structures on the island from one of the various Second Life design firms (cost: approx $5-10,000). So lets do the figures: the most popular corporate destination has 10,000 visitors per week; at $295/ mth in maintenance fees that’s a CPM rate of approx $7.40. The bottom destination of the top 5 has a CPM rate of approx $61. If we apportion the upfront costs of design (say $5,000 although it’s probably higher) and setup ($1675) over 12 months the CPM rates become $21.20 (top) and approx $180 (bottom of the top 5). The CTR rate is irrelevant: the CPM cost for businesses on Second Life is insane: simply even for the very best, the figures don’t add up.
Au’s later notes in the same post that Second Life doesn’t rely on corporations for revenue and the decline of corporations on Second Life doesn’t really matter all that much to Linden Lab. Once the last corporation leaves Second Life, the user-generated metavserse will continue, and in some ways may even end up being better off.
It is possible the equation is not working out for corporations but several small businesses and independent folks claim they are making a good life on second life. But then, again, it might be that the tip of the iceberg making a lot of money while the larger part is just there for the brag value
I didn’t get a chance to read through all the comments so I don’t know if any of the commenters actually play the game “Second Life,” but I do, so let me give you my opinion from the “inside.” Real life companies in the game just aren’t interesting enough for gamers. When you look at the overall profit from a big corporation, they are paying much more than they are making from having a business in the game. The people who see the most profit from that game are ordinary people, people who normally would not be able to use their talents in the real world. Some of the biggest “name brand” companies in Second Life came from the mind of one person. Not an entire corporation. I own a business in the game. A photography studio. I consider it very successful, but I don’t turn a real life profit from it. Fact of the matter is, Second Life is what it is, a game. The only people that prosper from having a business in that game are people who are actually sitting down and playing it, designing product that suits the needs of the residents, in the game – not in the real world. Lets be real here for a moment. A known cell phone company came into Second Life to sell their products. Cell phones. We have absolutely NO use for cell phones in game. We have instant messaging, and we have voice. One click of the button and I am in voice talking to my friend who lives in Austrailia, and it doesn’t cost me anything but my membership fee. I think the poster Al Ramirez said it best when he said, “I think the bottom line is corporations plainly need to operate in the real world.” After all, when all is said and done, it’s only a game.
Dj
I think the bottom line is corporations plainly need to operate in the real world.
that’s not a surprise, lol – i saw this a while back that the businesses placing their storefronts in SL wouldn’t get anywhere.
people don’t exactly login into SL with the intent to window shop/buy, if anything – they just login to play this multi-player, mediocre online game.
Duncan, you also have to include the cost of staffing the islands, which is what most companies do – that really racks up the costs involved in running an island.
Duh!
Irrational marketing at best. SL is a crappy online game for geeks. Let the geeks play, and spend corporate marketing dollars in media engaged by decision makers and influencers.
“and spend corporate marketing dollars in media”
some of media people are so desperate & primitive on protecting own little turf…
Nik
good point
SL residents dont really care about RL corps, however if RL companies would be sleek enough to engage with SL residents there would be unique opportunities such as honest customers feedback and true opinions, hard to to get in real life or on the internet, let’s not forget brand re-inforcement at a VERY reasonable cost
.
Second Life it’s a game if you want it to be one. The amount of creativity in there is unreal, you just gotta know your way around to find it or learn *the game* to create something yourself.
Where can you create a building such a gallery or a museum and people from all over the planet can experience it in 3d or flying in it? Give it 18 months when the servers will be open source and there will be many…many grids.
”
Duncan, you also have to include the cost of staffing the islands, which is what most companies do – that really racks up the costs involved in running an island.”
racking up cost? lol..that’s peanuts compared to how much they pay for one ad on a national publication…that ain’t nothing don’t ya think?
Corporations should stay out of Second Life.
They don’t bother me…ya don’t have to get involved with them if you don’t want to
Ria’s got it, actually. It’s the small businesses that typically do well because they are more agile (if they pay attention). Some large companies do well, but their revenue model isn’t Second Life dependent.
Personally, I could do with less marketers. Period. The products and services are good and useful, but where marketers go wrong is building hype. That hype has, as expected, bitten them back. We could go into how the blogosphere feeds the hype-bubbles, too.
Au is a reasonable fellow, so I won’t comment on his post. What I can and will say is that… it’s the summer, marketers have had their bubble which has burst, and maybe now people can focus on what is important for a change. What is important? Depends on the person and what they want out of their life. The same for businesses.
Having spent some time in Second Life I fail to see what the attraction is/was for businesses. Most people in Second Life are there for reasons other than wanting to engage with “real life” business
Pontiac’s Initiative in SL was actually quite awesome– it engaged the users, didn’t shove corp messaging down throats.
As far as the whole ‘Real Life’ nonsense, may I direct your attention to product placement in video games and movies that has been going on for years?
That is all.
As a matter of disclosure btw, I was one of the applicants who was accepted to be granted land, where I built a music listening center on one of Pontiac’s Motorati island– I was not paid by or representative of Motorati. I wouldn’t have participated if I didn’t think they were a corp with their head screwed on properly. As an aside, I am relocating my music center into the virtual world of Kaneva as the architecture there is better for my work with music promotions (indie, podsafe, etc).
“Duncan, you also have to include the cost of staffing the islands, which is what most companies do – that really racks up the costs involved in running an island.”
I argree with this.
I spend a good amount of time in SL to find graphic designers, artists and musicians for various projects I’m working on. It’s FULL of them, if you put the time in to find them. However, I don’t consider that a strike against SL – it’s just like the regular internet. You have to look for good content – it doesn’t look for you.
Most corporations fail in SL because they make the same mistake most journalists writing about it do: they don’t do the research to really understand the platform. SL’s big drawback is that it has a steep learning curve to get started, so anyone looking to get into it should bear that in mind and actually spend some time there before opening a plot. You wouldn’t fire up your first computer and start a good, successful website ten minutes later, so I am always baffled at why a corporation would do this in SL. Buying an island is actually not a bad deal – it’s not more expensive month to month than any other land in SL, but that extra set-up fee ensures the fastest kind of server and better control over your land, right down to the color of the grass.
But seriously, anyone who would pay $10k USD to have something built for them or their company is being had. The most beautiful thing about SL is that anyone there can build anything if they are willing to put in a little bit of runway to learn. Or, you can go somewhere in between and buy yourself a pre-fabbed building – I rarely see any that cost more than $20 USD, even for the nicest ones that are made by real-life architects and graphic designers, if that gives you any idea of the luxury it must be to have a marketing budget.
In the end, most corporations fail in SL because they do pretty much nothing to engage the population there. They spend a fortune to put up a pretty build and then sit there and wait for people to flock there and then presumably click through to their website. The businesses that do extraordinarily well in SL are the ones that create content that engages the users. There’s a very strong blog network among SLers and any entity wanting to hang up their shingle there would be wise to investigate those further before getting started. Word travels fast in SL *IF* you have something good to offer and make the effort to tell people about it IN SL, and not just on your regular channels.
But hey – if anyone wants to pay me $10,000 USD to build them something, we can talk.
SL = NTY (Not There Yet). It will die or essentially be morphed out of existence.
The UX is awful and the UI sucks … and it doesn’t function well (in a relative sense) as either a communications or collaboration tool.
Okay for someone who has been in second life for over a year (no i aint a fanboy cause parts of SL suck big time) but when it comes to corporations in SL, its tiring listening to people go on and on about corporations who leave because they sucked at building an island/venue/shop/inset faboulous thing here/widet.
American Apprael sucked because they didnt even bother advertising to SL consumers in world (that i can remember seeing). Thats the classifieds section in search (not a place listing in search thats costs L$30. Which is pretty damn important if you want customers who shop in world and most dont or havent even heard of blogs such as the SL herald, New world notes, Secondlife insider etc.
Their clothing sucked too. It was designed by Aimee Weeber who is a really good designer but the clothes looked horrible and the shop was badly laid out for shopping in SL. If you are spending L$600 on clothes in SL you want the good stuff and fashion like in real life is a very fast paced busines, so why by from a shop that doesnt advertise in classifieds that you wont have heard off and who bad designs and hard to navigate shop where things were badly laid out.
Ok that is one example of a (Real Life) rl company not getting it.
How about another. Wow how about Play Boy in Secondlife. After all SL is all about sex etc, porn, sex beds, genetallia, so Play Boy Should fit well in there.
Luanch day in SL was popular for playboy. They drew a massive crowd. Trouble is though. It wasnt much of a bunny party. Sure it had live music in their hard to find club/dance area floating above over priced SL versions of Bunny Merchandise on the island which had nothing much to do with what Playboy is mostly associated. (Sex, Girls, Bunnys and Hugh Hefner) Maybe i missed something but i couldnt see there easily, it was laggy their after all.
Lastly, traffic in secondlife is meaningless. It doesnt mean *****. If you want to make money in SL. Count Sales, not traffic/pages and run your SL business like a Real world business. After all you are there to make money arent you.
Sigh Real World products in SL dont sell cause why go into SL to look for a real life product like a car. After all you wouldnt expect a car to fly in the real world yet funky looking (insert famous brand here does) oh and change alloys and paint at a click of the button too. Why cant i do that with my real world mercedes
If a real world car handle like one in SL, they wont sell many.
Marketeers will move on to the next thing, facebook, sorry i mean your iphone app, no i mean myspace, no i mean widget, no i mean youtube ……
If SL was so bad why do people keep buying islands, land, buy linden dollars (they was $2,000,000 (us $) bought the other day according to Secondlife insider), Goto live music concerts, clubs with a real dj, free sex areas, take part in charity events like Relay for life, shop (and lots of it -> Women in 30’s in SL make up userbase who spend real money on clothes, accessories,more than the men do, like real life
Buy a prefabricated house, learn how to build in classes, play Tringo ( you know that game that was invented in SL and now sold on PC, Nintendos etc) or Devil May Care (SLingo), buy textures so they can make their own buildings, objects etc or upload textures so they can make clothes.
Yes i went on to long. But saying Corporations are leaving SL who didnt have a clue anbd paid fancy consultants stupid money in droves is like flogging a dead horse in the hopes it will run in the Kentucky Derby. Look at SL as a developing community/economy/world in uncharted waters still in early infancy.
- Jay
(Yeah they are probably typos and i made mistakes but its late and who cares, hopefully you can get the points I amke and then do your own research to correct the ones I did)
This is no surprise to me either. I mean “Oh man I have to go to that AOL/Time Warner Island. I heard it’s pretty kick ass!”…. I don’t recall ever saying that to myself or hearing others say that.
I’m with most people when it deals with Second Life. What it really is, is a half-assed piece of crap 3D World, where people pretend to be Furries to have cyber-sex with eachother. That’s all I ever saw in that game… well that and the griefers spamming Mario TGA’s all over the place lol. That was pretty funny to me when I first saw it happen.
I did like creating stuff in the game. But that did not last long. Not until I realized how Linden Labs charged you for anything you wanted to do creatively. You’re very limited there. And I wasn’t willing to spend real money in the game at all. I’d rather just spend the $14.95 a month on World of Warcraft.
I don’t think Second Life will fade out of existence on the net. Not as long as Linden Labs has 40k+ morons willing to continue paying for Land Tiers, and sex-related avatar skins. Remember.. Second Life is Serious Business.
SL? Even Borat know better than time waste there
Just wrote my own article on the topic. Second life may be ahead of its time and advertisers may be too far behind. Nissan should consider advertising in a casino…then watch what happens.
dot boom boom
http://dotboomb...t-their-island/
Oh the money is there, its just like with most new media the indie users are reaping the initial benefits instead of the large corps.
I think businesses need to also consider this more as a branding tool than a revenue generator at the moment. For a good (and fun) example go the weather channel sim and try the various activities.
SL is dying slowly. I used to be on all the time and spent time with a large group of people and there were loads of new people around. Now *none* of the people I spoke to are on, ever, and the streams of new people have stopped completely. I pop in now and then to see what is happening, and the answer is nothing, and I usually end up with the client failing on me – the software is amazingly unreliable and the as someone above said, the UI is just clunky. I did visit the IBM and AOL sites – once each : there was no reason to stay. SL is full of constructions that people have spent enormous amounts of time on which are devoid of actual visitors. It eminds me of many art galleries.
SL will flame out and burst with energy in v 2.0 and the corporations will return. we’ve seen this story before, it probably will take voice activation or wii UI to take it to critical mass.
until then,its a happy little nerd paradise…
I think SL’s main bottleneck is the graphic/computing power of the general public. SL’s experience is just really not that great even on decent computers. SL on the average laptop is subpar as well, let alone the ones w/o Nvidia or Ati video cards. In order for SL or any virtual world for that matter, to be highly successful, it needs to make us really feel like its another virtual world. With that said, extra emphasis on graphics, sound, and atmosphere is of utmost importance.
Somehow, Nvidia and/or Ati will undoubtedly play a key role in this race to establish THE virtual world for the masses.
Rather than delve into a rant about how offbase the pronouncements of Second Life’s demise as a platform for corporate marketing are, let me hit you with a few facts from the front lines and then a link to a longer piece I just wrote on the subject.
1. Second Life is great for some things and not great for others. Specifically, for cost effectively creating communities of passionate users around a brand its phenomenal
2. Efforts that are erected and neglected tend to wither and fail. This is not Second Life’s fault and nobody in their right mind would suggest otherwise.
3. Second Life is capable of delivering Engagement statistics that are unmatched in other environments. Our recently launched campaign for Microsoft ( http://millions...og/archives/245 ) has an average engagement per user of 24 hours. That’s better than most console video games and . . . . well, you know how it stacks up to banner ads.
4. Here’’s the longer rant. Bottom line is that this is turning into a bigger and clients want a breadth of choices. No longer are they choosing one virtual world vs. another but rather making buys across a variety of worlds.. And that’s a good thing. http://millions...og/archives/273
I think the idea of second life is not successful.
Apparently there was a fire sale at the “blinder” factory and everyone is wearing a pair. Does anyone recall the early days of the web when these same type of articles were circulated? Millions of people learned how to download browsers, configure Winsock and surf the bare internet. Can you say Pathfinder?
Virtual worlds are at the same point in time as the early web regarding interest and development. Its already proven that millions of people use these worlds and spend millions of real dollars everyday in them. Whether or not Second Life is the catalyst to make this happen is irrelevant. There are a dozen more worlds behind them. This field has far too much steam for the train to brake. Those wearing blinders can release the emergency brake cable now, you just look silly with your arms in the air. The revolution will be virtualized.
I don’t understand why Second Life is getting treated any differently than the broader internet. There are tons of poor advertisements on the internet that end up costing way way more than they should ($60 million on bud.tv anyone) but nobody says that it’s the internet’s fault.
Just as with the broader net, Second Life has pros and cons (I find SL ugly and awkward myself, but I’m a fan of the concept). The real issue is not SL, but rather the agencies and advertisers flocking to create heavy-handed marketing materials without innovation, creativity, or an understanding of what might attract people to their offering. That and the dearth of customers in SL are the real issues.
Frankly, if an advertiser came along and did something really creative and compelling in SL I bet not only would it be worth their money, but might even boost SL traffic.
“…Second Life doesn’t rely on corporations for revenue and the decline of corporations on Second Life doesn’t really matter all that much to Linden Lab.”
You have got to be kidding? SL positioned themselves as a momentum story that in reality was nothing more than an overly hyped fad. Its positioning has been hugely dependent the syrupy coverage by a compliant mainstream media. One of its major sources of stories have been the press releases from the corporations drinking the SL Kool-aid about various events they were doing. As the corporations fade away so will their silly events and consequently so will much of the press coverage that SL has enjoyed.
The only thing left to write about on SL will be its actual stats which the LAT piece shows will not be to SL’s liking. If I was SL I’d be very worried. The tied has turned and mainstream media is finally coming around to start asking the same questions that the blogs started doing at the end of last year and we’ll likely see a series of very uncomplimentary stories. In other words good-bye fad.
Couple of things:
First, fantastic title for this article. Normally I never comment about the title but this one really struck me as perfect for the rest of the post.
Second, as noted in the article, Second Life doesn’t need traditional corporate presence to continue its popularity and success. If players are looking for items sold by these traditional corporations, they’ll do so through traditional methods. Players do not make “real life” purchasing decisions based on whether a traditional corporation has a Second Life presence or not.
Third, commerce in the game is all about buying things specifically for the game. Whether it’s clothes for your avatar, or land for a home/business. No one comes to Second Life to “shop” for something not related to the game. Sorry, Second Life is interesting but it’s NOT the “new frontier” that Linden Labs wants you to think it is.
Finally, traditional corporations showed up in Second Life because they bought into the hype and heard that people were making “real” money in the game. Once they arrived, they quickly realized that a form of money was changing hands but not for their products. Their realization led to questioning whether a Second Life presence made sense. Fundamentally, Second Life is a “game” regardless what people might think. I blogged about this at one of my blogs a few weeks ago: the game of Second Life is the economy. Participate in the economy and you are playing the game of Second Life. Unfortunately for traditional corporations, Second Life players are playing in an alternate economy which does not easily translate to real life.
Second life article
I don’t think we can generalize. There are some businesses that lend themselves to second life and some that don’t. Anything where people need choices will do fairly well on SL whereas if there are no choices needed, then SL has very little to offer.
Hey, at least SL keeps ‘em out of WoW.
As with a real estate deal, the most important part of the equation was location, location, location.. Second Life, merely is subjected to timing being right, and it will be before we know it…
Second Life started as an underground vehicle for young people. and already is being used by some of the largest corporations. Success is imminent, I bet with 8 million current residents, it’s on its way…
Regards, Dorothy
I would give props to all those companies failing on SL:
1. They dared venturing (and failing), probably with a not well-definite business model, into something new. Usually we blame corporations for being slow and late-adopters.
2. They quested the virtual world like colons did back in the days. That’s brave, mostly when share-holders are wondering why in the hell their companies is investing time and money in a silly video game.
3. They failed and retreated: I guess Second Life really is a game, where you can die and you can start all over again. At least that’s how we should see this.
Second life is not dead at all because cat has nine lives.
It still has
Third life,
fourth life,
fifth life,
sixth life
seventh life.
So ppl here, how can SL be dead ? You can’t be serious.
I could have said this is going to fail when it comes down to it. You have to sell things people will buy in game; either flipping land prices, or creating a unique game/item/toy that will bring customers back for more. I know several people who make multiple six figure incomes by dedicating their lives to Second Life. You just have to do the proper research to know what people want, and be able to create it with little or next to no money being put into the game to have the ability to turn profit. You build a client base, THEN expand to a larger parcel of land. They were banking on their ability to have a well known out of game name out of game and bringing it in game. People aren’t stupid, they know those people are still new to the game and won’t have the ability to make quality products in game. Coupled with their thought that you need a massive amount of land to be able to turn money, was the complete opposite of what they should have done.
I’m a Second Life user, I don’t take it seriously, but I have fun in it, it has taught me a lot about graphics design, and each day I make more money in it without ever having put any money in. I hang out with a lot of people who are in my same situation. As per the topic, the main point should be that corporations are not what Second Life is about, and to think it somehow depends on corporate interest is misguided. A lot of people have mentioned how poorly done it is, and I’m the first to agree that LL has no idea what it’s doing, but what they’re doing is unique and unchartered.
Or you can think it’s all about cybersex and furries and wonder why you’re not playing WoW with the other people who are too cool for Second Life.
“Au notes that the visitor rate to corporate installations on Second Life is 0.8-2% vs a CTR rate on standard web advertisements on 0.5-1%.”
I buy online advertising for a living, and I find this statement very strange. If your “standard web advertisement is getting a 0.5 CTR, it’s doing very well. If it’s getting 1.0%, it’s amazing almost beyond belief.
Worth mentioning that for every company leaving (Starwood, American Apparel) there are hundreds succeeding (Pontiac, Microsoft, Intel, Toyota, Coca Cola, Thompson Net G, Telstra, etc.) The more I think about this, the more it seems to me to be the sign of a market maturing. More platforms, more choices, more interest from corporations. And along with that, lessons learned about how to fail and how to succeed.
Virtual worlds make possible things that were previously unimagnable and we’re early in the first inning. Companies, for the most part, are spending modest sums and experimenting, as they should be. And they call these things experiments because the goal is to learn.
It would seem that the reason for the corporate pull out is the cost for a island and the monthly rent. But they, should look towards other virtual worlds. I spend all my time “life” and lots of money on the alternative to SL. Its the virtual world of There.com. They have built 3 successful game virtual worlds platforms for MTV. The cost for land or islands is so low its as if they give it away!
Second life is not about playing second life now and playing with users. It is about preparing yourself, your company, your organisation for what is going to come in a few years time.
Playing around in Second Life now and realizing that 3D has arrived means budgeting more money for better computers in the next investment round.
Telecommuting never really worked, for several reasons. Playing and engaging now in a tool like SL (notice a tool like) means getting to know a possible future.
SL is the first real environment where the public took notice and in some way engaged with it. As a favourite quote from one of my customers go regarding SL “hm. that is not going away isn’t it?”
This is the great opportunity for bigger companies – to learn.
Tried it. Uninstalled it. Waited a year. Installed it. Tried it. Uninstalled it.
It’s an interesting idea but a waste of time. Too much wierd adult stuff too. Corporations had better be careful mixing their brands with the wierd shit that permeates the SL world.
Maybe these companies just need some smart ideas.
See my small cartoon:
http://geekandp...o-stay-in-.html
Bye,
Oliver
unfortunately, it seems that their Alexa line is pointing South-East even as there is so much wonderful buzz… but I think SL are smart guys and will figure it out – maybe outside of the virtual world – the very platform is great!
Most of the real-life companies on SL have terrible non-sticky places. Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come. There needs to be some actual interactivity and means for socializing, otherwise it’s pointless. Although wonderfully designed, the SONY island is complete crap.
I got an account and was absolutely SHOCKED at how slow and clunky the whole program (secondlife) was. How could anyone use it and take it seriously? And why is it so damn slow and hard to use anyways? All of the new multiplayer online games have no problems with simple navigation and use. Anyways, interesting idea but needs some serious polish.
Rep the brand.
-materialBITCH
http://www.materialbitch.com
I have had RL corporations as customers who rent shops from me in my communities — the RL travel company of RL Ravenglass in West Cumbria, UK, which has settled in my virtual Ravenglass sim; I’ve also had book, software, and mobile phone companies, in addition to the inworld tenants.
I wish more corporations would come off their islands and come on to the mainland and the residents’ shops on private islands and support them with their rentals — it also helps them get a lot more eyeballs than they were getting cooped up on their sims, waiting for us to try to TP into their laggy, or maxed-out events we couldn’t even get near. It costs companies *pennies* to rent in micropayments to inworld landlords who charge $3.00 US, not $300 US a month.
And who says you have to be on an island? You can achieve the same effect on 4096 m2 o the mainland with a sharp looking office and display with freebies and handouts for $25 US. And pay an inworlder in Lindens to staff it, and pay them a part-time low salary rather than a full-time outworld salary.
You don’t have to be afraid of “mixing your brand” on SL’s mainland and private island shopping, club, live music, and zoned rentals sims. These are well-maintained by dedicated people. They aren’t the griefing script-kiddy sandboxes you read about in the media. There are more than 8000 sims now, a vast trackless expanse. You cannot do the virtual equivalent of opening just in Pinsk or Minsk or Tomsk. You need the flagship in Moscow, but you need 20 or 30 affiliates or sub-offices or at least a logo or decal spread across the grid, and in doing so you help the economy and help yourself.
Big media corporations and their PR firms still think in static terms of push media, where the put out some big shiny thing, and everyone is supposed to come and bow and say, ooh, shiny. But people are busy pulling and pushing media of their own and saying ooh shiny about little things they and their friends make. You have to mix in with them.
Show me more than a handful of corporations that are actually getting and using Web 2.0 effectively. It took at least a decade for them to “get” the Web at all, and it could be argued that they are still struggling with the whole concept. Big corporations by their very definition don’t get new, disruptive technologies. The only difference these days is that they are a little quicker to dive head first into emerging technologies without actually understanding them or the dynamics that make them popular.
Second Life is representative of an emerging technology. It’s not the virtual world part that is interesting, rather it is the collaborative 3d environment for collaborative browsing of content that is interesting. The web is all about me experiencing content alone. Web 2.0 is all about lots more people being authors of content. Second Life (and a few of the other systems like it) is all about lots of people sharing the experience of browsing content. Of course a lot of it is sex and gambling, of course there are going to be major hiccups and burnouts along the way, but it is something to keep an eye on.
-josh