I noticed a fresh looking Second Life advert earlier this evening, one with colour and richness, sun, sand and bikinis. I don’t know if this is new or from last year’s campaign but it has a certain charm and a certain suggestion that may annoy some folk.
This doesn’t look like a typical Second Life advert, for a start, there are no vampires in sight! The advert has a nice appeal for people to make new friends around the world, emphasising the social side of Second Life. Then it says “Play Now” and in some parts of the metaverse, people roll their eyes.
However, I don’t see this as a bad thing, if people want to play in Second Life then they are more than welcome to, that’s part of a sandbox environment, it’s many different things to many different people.
However, where LL may be missing a trick these days is in not pointing out that Second Life is a fantastic sandbox. Sandbox worlds are likely to grow and the appeal to content creators of different sandbox environments should not be under estimated. Sony Online Entertainment are getting very onboard with the sandbox concept with forthcoming titles such as Everquest Next Landmark of particular interest in that area.
Second Life is not only a massive sandbox environment, it also has a thriving market for content creators, so in many ways Second Life has a massive head start over the new generation of sandbox ventures. Whereas it’s fine for Linden Lab to let people know that there are vampires, beaches, bikinis and socialising in Second Life, they shouldn’t forget that that there are plenty of creatives around who would embrace Second Life too.
Linden Lab also may want to have an advert with Orcs in, as I’ve pointed out recently in this blog, people don’t realise there are Orcs in Second Life. Orcs have many powers, Linden Lab should unleash them!
Orc in a bikini… in a sandbox?
-ls/cm
Well the other adverts mention watching what unfolds and that anything can happen … so that fits in there!
SL needs more Orc Nouveau:
http://www.redwombatstudio.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=342
http://www.redwombatstudio.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=360
From a designer’s point of view it’s cheap but that doesn’t mean it won’t work, for some particular audience anyway. So, here’s what wipe I get from this: Says “Hey you! We have nicer b*tches than IMVU and whatnot!”, while happy guy in background approves “Just friends alright *winks*”, eventually nicely rounded with a “f*ck now” button. On a personal note, I probably would just click it, since I’m quite fond of pink buttons.
PS: I guess more or less everybody is familiar with the thrills and risks of having an affair on vacation, somewhere far away, on a tropical island. Orgy paradise alright. You’re just there, overcome your inhibitions, and back home it’s business as usual. I would say, that’s the inherent message of this setup. Not sure if on purpose though. Not sure at all if LL has any employee that qualifies as creative director. But that’s just like my opinion.
Just wish they would focus on more nerdy people, which won’t suffer a stroke from tinkering with SL’s mechanics.