On June 20th Linden Lab blogged Celebrate SL10B With a Chance to Win a New Alienware 14 Laptop! “Awesome” was likely to have been the reaction of many, until they saw “Note: this contest is limited to Second Life users in the US” At this point the reaction of many was likely to have been “Boooooo!” I don’t have a problem with this, even though I can’t enter, the same as I don’t have a problem with the previous Amazon promotions I can’t participate in.
The competition runs until July 17th, so if you are a US resident and fancy entering, go here: http://www.alienwarearena.com/lan-give-a-way/second-life/ Read the rules carefully, if you’re from Rhode Island you’re out of luck!
I see promotions such as this as helping to promote Second Life outside of Second Life circles, and that’s a good thing. I will however say that I don’t think this competition is a great fit as part of the SL10B community celebrations, but that’s a minor quibble.
To get this into some sort of perspective, there are Alienware competitions that cover other countries, for example The Alienware Arena Weekly “Gamer’s Grab” Sweepstakes is open to: “legal residents of the United States, Canada (excluding Quebec), United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, that are 13 years of age or older and residents of Germany that are fifteen (15) years of age or older.”
A lot of excluded countries there, then there’s the 5v5 Heroes of Newerth Tournament – Europe which is open : “only to residents of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom that are thirteen (13) years of age or older, residents of Spain that are fourteen (14) years of age or older and residents of Germany that are fifteen (15) years of age or older as of June 17, 2013”
So we can see that it’s not unusual for competitions and tournaments to be restricted. However where I feel opportunities have been missed here is that a platform such as Second Life has a wide range of ways to deliver content and prizes, and there are more creative ways to engage with a wider range of users.
Ok so the main competition for the laptop is for USA residents only, but how about a secondary competition for someone to design Alienware T-Shirts or an inworld Alienware laptop/desktop for free distribution in return for some Linden Dollars? Maybe Linden Lab get the heebie jeebies about prizes involving Linden Dollars, but something along those lines could surely be more inclusive as well as involving an ongoing cross promotion between Linden Lab and Alienware.
How about an Alienware sponsored sim with a lottery on shop space, sort of like the old Luna Oaks lottery? The Island could be called Alienware Island or something like that. Obviously part of the issue is that these competitions are often run in conjunction with companies other than Alienware, rather than just run by Alienware but something like this would feel more inclusive.
I’m a big fan of the idea of cross promotion, I feel Linden Lab have ideal partners in Adobe and potentially with Blender and Gimp too, how about competitions to win Blender goodies, training materials etc? How about a chance to win Adobe creative suite?
There are rules and regulations the world over, outside the virtual world and they will often be restrictive and I don’t really have a big issue with that because it’s the way of the world. However I do think better use could be made with competions such as the Alienware one and whereas you’ll never please all of the people all of the time, there are ways and means of promotion of Second Life as well as engaging with users inside Second Life and outside Second Life.
I’ll finish this post by wishing anyone who has entered the Alienware competition the very best of luck, it’s certainly a nice prize, but watch out for folk from outside the USA (including Rhode Island) chasing you with torches and pitchforks if you win!