Slashdot Mirror
Most Business-Launched Virtual Worlds Fail
bughunter writes "Internet consultant firm Gartner claims that only 1 in 10 commercial virtual worlds succeeds, and most fail within 18 months: 'Businesses have learned some hard lessons," Gartner analyst Steve Prentice said in a statement released Thursday. "They need to realize that virtual worlds mark the transition from Web pages to Web places and a successful virtual presence starts with people, not physics. Realistic graphics and physical behavior count for little unless the presence is valued by and engaging to a large audience."'" Hard to believe it's even as high as one in ten -- most "virtual worlds" with obvious commercial trappings certainly don't inspire much besides mockery.
Don't worry about it, it's Gartner. Probably the only reason that businesses fail is because they listen to the mindless, erroneous, buzzword-infested garbage that Gartner spews out every so often. Gartner exists for the sake of existing, they add no genuine value to anything, virtual or real.
> his is hardly surprising. Look at the multitude of MMOs that have started development, and been left by the roadside due to /* lack of funding for */ the craptastic product.
Fixed that for you. And I'm quite serious: many of the exciting new products in many fields are proposed by people who have no idea of what the market will actually support, misled by their own hopes and the VC marketer who took the commission for finding them the money and is long gone by the time the product finishes failing. Far too many companies are producing far, far too many big projects to create a new future, rather than filling a real need. And it's easy to poison such a project with a single mistake from a single developer or manager, or a market change.
My employers will sell you this. Indeed, they'll be delighted to sell you this, since we developed it three years ago and so far have no real customers. It's a great idea... on paper.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Just a little background on myself.. I run a virtual world business. Skidz Partz in second life, and while.. I understand all the laughter and criticisms, I have made my living from it making tools other gadgets. So I guess I am one out of the ten.
One of the reason 9 out of 10 businesses fail in virtual worlds, is they are so easy to start. Its nothing to buy land (rent server space) and set up shop. You don't even have to have a product of your own. The hard part, is taking it seriously, customer support, having events and such.
The second reason is most people open the store and think its like a web page, place things for sale and people buy.. completely automated.. no work at all.. I find, in virtual worlds the community factor is something that those 9 don't take into consideration. When coke put up there sim, it was empty of anyone that works there. People come to virtual worlds to communicate, explore, and create, and it defeats the whole purpose of the virtual world not to have a staff on hand to communicate and reach out to the audience.
And, as far as the fancy ligth show, and physics, I would agree that the core business user of a virtual world would not care about those things, but I believe the base users do. They want a great experience with great graphics. Most people that come into second life just want to escape reality for a bit, roll play, chat with friends and those thing add to the experience. And if you have not seen the wind light version of secondlife, I recommend you take a look, its stunning.
And now time to defend virtual worlds a bit... Last night I was searching the net high and low for a mathematical solution, but could not find it anywhere. I join the mathematics group in second life and had the answer I was looking for in just seconds. This is a great example of how the community is very powerful function in virtual worlds. In the future, I do believe virtual worlds will increase in popularity. I know IBM, Google, and Second life are working together now on something even bigger and better. While, right now, I would never suggest using second life as a work at home but in a virtual office, with the price of gas I believe something like that will become even more popular or more likely in the future.
Well.. just my 2 cents.