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Are Marketers Abandoning Second Life?

Posted by kdawson on from the peaked-too-soon dept.

Vary writes "The LA Times is running a story today saying that marketers are pulling out of Second Life, primarily because — surprise, surprise — the 'more than 8 million residents' figure on the game's Web site is grossly inflated. Also, as it turns out, the virtual world's regular visitors — at most 40,000 of them online at any time — are not only disinterested in in-world marketing, but actively hostile to it, staging attacks on corporate presences such as the Reebok and American Apparel stores. The companies aren't giving up on virtual worlds altogether, though, but moving on to games like There, Gaia Online and Entropia Universe. The article also contains some commentary from a marketing executive who conducted an informal survey of the game and discovered that 'One of the most frequently purchased items in Second Life is genitalia.' What company wouldn't want to be in on that action?"

12 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. They are moving to FirstLive by tronicum · · Score: 5, Funny
    Maybe are marketers moving to make campaings on this greate game called First Life.


    Total Residents: 6,553,628,382
    Born Today: 364,936
    Died Today: 152,029
    Pants Purchased: 27,021
    TV Hours Watched: 82,124,102,305

    1. Re:They are moving to FirstLive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Just buy some acid. That'll make you change levels at will (sometimes against your will, if you're not skilfull enough).

    2. Re:They are moving to FirstLive by Have+Blue · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't know about that, I keep getting emails promising me that feature can be unlocked.

  2. heh. by apodyopsis · · Score: 2, Funny

    and somewhere, a bear shits in the woods.

  3. More Importantly.. by InfiniteSingularity · · Score: 5, Funny

    'One of the most frequently purchased items in Second Life is genitalia.'
    I wonder what their return policy is?
    1. Re:More Importantly.. by Source+Quench · · Score: 5, Funny

      Consider this - would *you* want to buy second-hand genitalia?

  4. Re:One of the most frequently purchased items... by niceone · · Score: 4, Funny

    Genitalia is traded in real life all the time. The only thing novel about this trading in second life is that you are purchasing your own.

    Umm, remind me not to go shopping with you.

    --
    ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
  5. Re:One of the most frequently purchased items... by smittyoneeach · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not known as the oldest profession for nothing.
    Now, is politics the second oldest profession, or merely a variation on the first?

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  6. Hype by tsa · · Score: 2, Funny

    Finally the hype is over and we can turn our attention to more important things. Now where did I put my iPhone?

    --

    -- Cheers!

  7. Re:One of the most frequently purchased items... by Reaperducer · · Score: 4, Funny

    Politics is a variation of goat herding?

    --
    -- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
  8. Re:Second Life? by SleepyHappyDoc · · Score: 2, Funny

    what I found most freeing is that anonminity. Since nobody knows who I am, I was free to make mistakes.

    "the terror of the blank canvas" is real. My paints, brushes etc all sit unused.

    Sorry, but you already admitted to being an anonymous coward. Kinda late to take it back now.

    --
    Stasis is death. Embrace change.
  9. Re:One of the most frequently purchased items... by SageMusings · · Score: 5, Funny

    Right,

    At least with prostitution up-front you know you're getting fucked. With politicians, its more like date rape.

    --
    -- Posted from my parent's basement