I was reading ,recently, about Mercedes closing down their SL sector. Putting myself in the shoes of a Mercedes Benz driver, would I ever (as a possible professional/older male or female) venture into something as quirky and somewhat nerdy (at least how some perceive virtual worlds) as SL? I think that companies with markets similar to Mercedes can still benefit from A virtual world environment....just not one that resembles SL. In fact, spending more and more time in SL, I have come to feel that the range of products and companies that can benefit from SL is simply too narrow. Thus, while virtual worlds might progress and flourish, SL seems destined for eventual failure, that is, unless they make drastic changes to the nature of the experience. Any thoughts?
-Ryan "Dustin Siddeley" Weiss
2 comments:
At a first glance, I kind of agreed with you when you said that companies like Mercedes do not need to go on Second Life, but after thinking about it for a while I began to disagree with your thought—No bad feelings.
First, I think it could be fun for those who cannot afford to buy a Mercedes to at least experience the ride on Second Life.
More importantly, I think Mercedes can take advantage of this technology in developing future concepts for their products. Second Life is a great place to build things and there are many talented, experienced and passionate builders on this virtual world. Mercedes can make their island an open source network for users to design exterior and interior concepts of their future cars.
The only advantage I can see to Mercedes going on SL is POSSIBLY creating attraction/loyalty to the brand for younger users (who will possibly one day purchase a Mercedes)
That's a stretch though, and the building possibilities aren't that intricate on SL, Mercedes has a team of people that work on nothing but new designs and models for future Mercedes. Their equipment is far superior to anything on SL and it is doubtful that some young adult is going to design a brilliant automobile to catch Mercedes' eye.
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