‘Ave a heart, Avatar
November 17th, 2008 by Jon Clements
As relationships go in the wired world, it’s been a weird week.
Real-life husband and wife, Dave Pollard and Amy Taylor, of Newquay, Cornwall - who originally met in virtual online world, Second Life - divorced after Mr Pollard was caught having cyber sex (to be precise, his Second Life persona and avatar, Dave Barmy, was) with another virtual person. For those who haven’t experienced Second Life, divorce might seem a bit extreme, as amorous avatar-ing is about as physical as a saucy text message, if not less so.
As a reader of the story comments: “This has got to be the dumbest thing I have read in a long time.”
But activities in virtual worlds, like Second Life, are becoming increasingly a part of people’s lives. Think 3-D chatroom, which allows you to bump into a myriad of other virtual people seeking virtual fun. I tried it myself; got an avatar and wandered around trippy-looking animations wondering what on earth to do.
And- literally - whatever you want to do, you can in Second Life, without suffering any of the ill after-effects of First Life hedonism (or so Mr Pollard thought). But after a while, it just became boring as well as having some glitch causing my avatar to continually morph into a facsimile of Bee Gee, Barry Gibb. Suddenly, it seemed like hard work which had no link with First Life - and everyone needs a screen break sometime.
But Victor Keegan writing in The Observer is clearly an advocate, having bought land in Second Life, launching a book of poetry there as well as an art gallery. What’s interesting in his analysis is that the adults of tomorrow now provide millions of participants to various virtual worlds. So, as weird as it might seem to the mainstream today, it could well be our mainstream future. And people such as online entrepreneur, Jon Jacobs are making real life money out of it.
Clearly doing business in Second Life has been a success story for some, but is it really a place for larger companies? There has to be a note of caution when companies are thinking of ways to engage with social media. Just because it’s there doesn’t automatically mean you should be in it. For it to stand a chance, there has to be a meaningful and relevant connection between the organisation, the social medium and that medium’s users. A survey into the better performing larger companies on Second Life suggests it can be done, but (and I apologise for this) the data on these developments are now so old it’s difficult to tell whether a. corporations in SL are quietly getting on with the business of making money or b. it’s such a flop, everyone’s keeping their virtual mouths shut.
Tags: , avatar, Dave Barmy, Dave Pollard, Second Life, Social Media, The Observer, Victor Keegan
January 5th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Nice post, i like those avatars. Keep up the good work.
February 25th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Good job for the nice article.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Sweet and sexy