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John Edwards' Campaign Enters Second Life

Posted by samzenpus on from the obamas-in-the-undercity dept.

politics 2.0 writes "It may not be an official effort — yet — but thanks to a grass-roots effort, John Edwards has become the first presidential candidate to set-up-shop in Second Life. Jerimee Richir, whose avatar is called Jose Rote, paid-for and developed Edwards' virtual headquarters, and, on a voluntary basis, is managing the in-world campaign. Considering that Second Life's user numbers are much smaller than other social networks, such as MySpace and Facebook — aside from generating press coverage — will campaigning in Second Life actually win many votes? Rote says yes, and that 'Second Life users are a unique audience, in that, they are first adopters. It is a smaller community, but I would argue it is a more influential community.'"

3 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Second life is influential? Its a scam! by tomhudson · · Score: 3, Informative

    "It is a smaller community, but I would argue it is a more influential community"

    Second Life is a ponzi scheme.

    http://randolfe.typepad.com/randolfe/2007/01/secon dlife_revo.html
    http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/24/ 1319236

    1. Re:Second life is influential? Its a scam! by vadim_t · · Score: 3, Informative

      That article made no sense at all.

      (typing from memory, so I might get details wrong) Economist goes into SL, tries to earn cash from their internal currency which is *controlled by Linden Lab*, fails, and declares SL a scam.

      There's one important detail he missed here: LL controls the currency, and buys and sells as required to maintain a stable value. That means that after the percentage LL takes for buying/selling, the amount you can earn from simple buying/selling of currency is very little, if anything at all. No surpsise that he failed. But then, since when "making money in SL" was supposed to be done like in a stock market?

      SL has a services based economy. You make/do something for me, I pay you for it. The concept of a ponzi scheme simply doesn't apply in that situation, because a Ponzi scheme is an investment scam, and nobody sane earns money in SL by investing it. What there is is a straightforward system of supply and demand.

  2. Re:Who actually *plays* SL anyway? by CronoCloud · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'll try to answer that question, as best I can anyway.

    SL is more popular in the US than in other parts of the world, but the demographics are changing. (Mor French and Italians showing up, for example)

    SL appeals not to hardcore geeks, or to the WoW crowd but to several groups:

    artistic folks, like those who use photoshop for work/study in RL, RL jewelry designers, clothing designers, art students, etc.

    social geeks: these folks might have hung out in certain communities in IRC and do pretty much the same in SL, The furries might be considered part of this group

    those who see something interesting in the scripting and object creation tools and try to make cool stuff.

    but overall, everyone who is in SL is in there just to have whatever fun and enjoyment they can find that they like. It could be pr0n and boobehs, it could be just hanging out with friends, it could even be shopping, or playing Tringo.

    I guess SL is what the individual makes of it.