I always enjoy Regina Lynn’s column over on Wired. But today’s article, “Coming Soon: Online Sex Games“, has me wondering if she’s been in There or Second Life. The closest she gets to either, as far as I can tell, is when she uses the catch-all MMPORG. Does anyone know? Because this specific distinction of creating “games” has me as confused as when I asked why anyone would bother with Virtual Eve. Maybe someone just needs to create a “game” inside Second Life.

Don’t blame me for that title – all those words are in a particularly nice article over on BW, “‘Mosh Pits’ Of Creativity“, that does it’s own spelunking. There’s lots of good stuff in this one, but this paragraph in the very beginning caught my attention:

To hustle the phone into production, Motorola engineers left their cubicles in Libertyville to team up with designers and marketers 50 miles to the southeast in Moto City. With its open spaces and waist-high cubicles for even senior managers, the lab fostered teamwork and a breaking down of barriers — both of which contributed to the success of the project. Razr developers, for instance, bypassed a normal process of running new-product ideas past regional managers across the world. Because they wanted to lead the market, not just give managers and customers what they thought they wanted, the Razr team put aside normal practices. “We did not want to be distracted by the normal inputs we get,” says Gary R. Weiss, senior director of mechanical engineering. “It would not have allowed us to be as innovative.”

With PLM software’s growing sophistication and eventual move to ubiquity, and then incorporating new business practices such as ROWE (and finding out it works!), I expect the future Moto City will be a virtual construct.

Over the past few months I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about branding in virtual environments; especially since reading Seth Godin’s comments on storytelling in his “The Placebo Affect” blog entry. I documented my concern with some of his observations in my own entry, “The Accomplice” (which received lots of attention for different reasons). That entry was really mostly about increasingly-savvy consumers eventually catching on to the often less-than-honest methods used to sell them products that don’t live up to the hype. How they’re loyalty is being tested by people who spend more time spinning tall tales than improving products, and how the changing marketplace (and future marketplace I envision) may not tolerate the kinds of tactics employed today. If ever there was a time to give serious thought to the future of branding (and reputation), now – with the emergence of virtual markets and a shrinking divide separating virtual goods from real products – seems as good a time as ever.

That said, I just read a blog entry over on Brand Autopsy that resonates with me. I’ve seen the blog mentioned previously elsewhere, but I think it’s time I make it a regular visit and suggest those interested in branding consider following it as well.

via TP Wire Service

Via Wonderland I made my way over to a BBC News online article about photo journalist Robbie Cooper’s ongoing effort to reveal the people behind videogame characters and virtual world avatars. There’s some interesting stuff in the article tracing his latest movements into China and Korea, but the one I thought most interesting was the person Wonderland pointed out: Mr. 5173. Be sure to read the caption on the enlarged picture.

{Image Source: BBC News}

Here I sit. In the virtual space of Second Life I’m sitting inside a detailed facsimile of the United Nations. In meatspace I’m sitting in front of a partially-rendered 3D screen image of that virtual space.

Why am I blogging this? Because the lag is so bad I can type this entry and not actually miss anything on the screen.

Why is this irritating? Because Thomas Barnett is also “inside” the virtual UN making a presentation and discussing his new book.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not the unfortunate circumstances surrounding this particular presentation that bugs me. It’s that considering the level of attention Linden Lab has given this presentation the last few days, one would expect better coordination (or at least waiting to upgrade the software client until afterward; the new release isn’t even 48 hours old!). One would expect something like “external scripts” to be turned off so that chatter in the open channel wouldn’t include stuff like “SuperFlightEnhancer Version: XX01.b.x025: Ready to rocket you to the moon”. One might also expect an introduction to include a request asking that those in attendence turn off their virtual gear (scanners, multi-gadgets, bubblegum(!), aso) as those things eat system resources and contribute to lag. And there are other things one might expect as well, assuming the presentation was well-planned and executed in such a way to ensure things went smoothly.

But here I sit. And so does the 800-lb lag monster that has planted itself on my lap. I just wish I could see Mr. Barnett’s in-world slideshow.