World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

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In my work as creative director, I do a fair amount of projects in Second Life, so I know where the hype ends and ROI begins. It took only a few minutes to determine that Lively had a very limited shelf life. Their first crime was that Lively only worked on Windows platforms – this is a multiplatform world, keeping spiritual resonance with Redmond these days is the kiss of death. If some under-funded start-up was bringing us Lively, I could understand the Windows Only mentality, but this was a Google product. So the thousands of art directors in the ad agencies of America, who were slaving away on the next big campaign, were ignored by the Lively roll-out because most of them are on Macs.

To say that Second Life is a failure is to say the web was a failure in 1996. Remember back then when every company knew they needed a website but had no clue what to do with it? Just how many of those horrible 90s era websites have we blocked out? Oodles probably. But the web didn’t fail, the web sites failed because the developers didn’t know how to make the sites generate ROI.

Virtual worlds are in the same boat. Very few companies out there have a clue about how to generate ROI for their clients with virtual world campaigns. I recently met with a San Francisco Bay Area ad agency who had a client who wanted to invest in Second Life and the ad agency talked them out of it, mostly because they didn’t know how to generate ROI for that medium. Inexcusable. There are plenty of ways to get your clients product into Second Life and have it be a success. It is done everyday.

But there is another reason why Lively failed and it is a problem through out their product line. Google became number one without advertising. Not one ad campaign was ever developed or deployed for Google. Last week, ClickStream published the results of a study showing Google Docs having difficulty finding a foothold against Microsoft products. Well, duh. Guess who has an ad budget?

If no one knows about your product, it is impossible for them to buy it. The process of buying denotes a previous familiarity, even if it is just brand recognition, that is sometimes enough to make the sale. But if you choose to keep quiet about a product, there is not going to be a lot of urgency to buy.

So why did Lively fail? Plenty of reasons, none of which are related to virtual worlds or the marketability of virtual worlds.

And if you still think virtual worlds are never going to take off, check out this little product.

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Wherever people gather there is the chance for humanity to impart itself upon those gathered.

We should expect no less from Second Life.

In a garden pavilion on an island, I sat with an assortment of human beings – one clad as a teddy bear wearing a Santa hat, another as a brazen vixen, a blue man, a tuxedoed prom king – and poured out my heart from a place of loneliness and grief. Click click went the computer keys, like the staccato beat of my heart. Clack clack went their replies, their empathy and their own tales of triumph and woe. Via my avatar – the persona I’d created to engage here – I was participating in an “anxiety support group” in the free, virtual world of Second Life.

As I write those words, I can hear the scoffing. Pathetic! Escapist! Are you addicted to computer games? Do you have no friends? Second Life? That place is just about weird sex fantasies!

I saw my first instance of online group therapy in the form of an email list in the mid-90s. Second Life is no different really, it is just a more immersive experience than email. And that immersion could be the key to better connections and a more expressive group therapy experience. Gone are the vulnerabilities of speaking to strangers in person. Expressing issues is more important I believe than rubbing elbows at the local church.

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My avatar name is StormBear Hitchcock and he was the last guest of the night. We discussed the the creation of Books For Soldiers and the technology used to bring Books For Soldiers to Second Life.

Angelico’s show is part of the MBC’ (Metaverse Broadcasting Company) 1600 in-world screens and the show is seen throughout Second Life and is also available on the web. If the below player doesn’t work for you, you can also see the show HERE.

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Last summer, Robert Freedman interviewed me about Second Life and how I develop projects in Second Life for Fortune 500 companies.

I promptly forgot about the interview until Robert emailed me over the holidays and told me it was out. I have to admit I cringed a bit, not knowing how I would be quoted. Would it be accurate? One can only hope. I snagged a copy this week and read it. How To Make Real Money In Second Life is a good read and Robert NAILED all my comments and quoted them in context. It turns out Robert used my interview as the foundation for the book and quotes from me are spread out all through the book.

I ordered a copy for all my clients and so should you. Amazon Link

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CNBC ran a story on Second Life and how SL is creating a new economy much in the way eBay has. One woman profiled is on track to make over $80,000 in US dollars this year from the sales of her clothing line in Second Life. Her initial investment was a tad over $500.

The video is worth watching.

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I am planning a Second Life presence for TCD during Yearly Kos, the convention for Daily Kos users and fans. This year at Yearly Kos, they will be streaming video of the panels and speeches into a special area set up in Second Life for those of us who can’t get to the in-person meeting in Chicago.

Inside the TCD booth will be all sorts of TCD branded Second Life goodies like avatars, clothing and other crazy nonsense like your very own inflatable sheep!

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SLURL – click here to teleport to the donation center.

It is difficult to explain what Second Life is, the same way it is difficult to explain what the web is to someone who has never heard of the Internet.

Second Life (http://secondlife.com) is an online 3D video-game like environment. The difference is you can build whatever you can dream of inside the game. Your game character (called an avatar) can be anything, dress-up as anything and do anything. But it isn’t really a game.

In late 2005, the number of members grew to 1 million, in December of last year Second Life crossed the 2 million landmark. Three weeks ago they crossed the 3 million member landmark. this weekend, they passed the 4 million mark. This puts Second Life where AOL was in 1996.

Corporations are moving into Second Life and they realize the marketing potential of it. Adidas, Toyota, Reebok all have presences there and just last week Mercedes opened a race track and showroom inside Second Life.

And that is what BFS is going to do.

One complaint we have all seen from our BFS soldiers is missing their family members back home – husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. Email doesn’t cut it, instant messenger seems hollow and although postal mail is very welcomed, it is always too infrequent for our deployed troops tastes.

The BFS Pavilion in Second Life will be built like something akin to a World War II era USO dance hall and park. This is a wonderful method for whole families to reunite with deployed loved-ones and have some semblance of a family life, even though it is a virtual one. Husbands can dance with wives and kids can play with their deployed parent once again.

It will also be a place for BFS volunteers to actually meet and hang out with our soldiers and maybe have a few virtual drinks.

No, BFS won’t stop shipping books to soldiers, but we are adding ways to help the troops, like we always have. They are serving us and we should never forget that.

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