Virtual Worlds: Are they really dead?
Depending on who you talk to, some may say Virtual Worlds are dead. But are they really? In this recent San Jose Mercury News piece, Business is Booming in Virtual Worlds for Companies, virtual worlds are still all the rage for companies such as IBM, Sun Microsystems and Intel. What about San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation using Second Life to drive design ideas? Even Hollywood is getting into the virtual mix in order to reach new audiences.
While there have been a lot of articles written about companies exiting virtual worlds such as Second Life, they’ve been balanced with a good number of stories highlighting its successes. Personally, I think just looking at virtual environments as simply a marketing tool can be a recipe for disaster in the long run. Whether it comes in the form of an online video game, 3D similation environment or social networking utility, you should look at them more as powerful collaboration tools. Still not convinced?
Cisco’s very own CEO, John Chambers will be in Second Life on Tuesday, June 24th at 2:00 PM Eastern for a Q&A session with the virtual community to discuss just that—the power of collaboration. Here’s a glimpse at what you can expect at the event. Don’t miss it!
Posted by Autumn Truong at 03:21PM PST
Toei Rei Mar 4, 2009
In my opinion it’s just that the great big hype is over and now the crowd just went smaller. But I’d say it’s far away from ‘dead’.
True, Linden Lab did some price- and policy changes that caused quite some anger in the community and it feels like they are trying to get rid of us users - but in my opinion, the old guys who are believing in the good things are still there trying to make the 2nd world a better one.