All I can say is it’s a damn good thing Second Life isn’t actually a game or this news might be annoying.
Coldwell Banker has bought extensive tracts of property on the central “mainland” of Second Life. (Most companies own “islands” scattered all over.) It subdivided this digital land into 520 individual houses and living units, half of which it will sell and half it will rent.
If you read the article I linked from /. on money.cnn, you’ll see they aren’t in it to make money. Which we know is a lie, since companies don’t invest in things that don’t make them money. Now where they are trying to make the money, that’s a good question. They say they will invest the money they make back into Second Life. I assume that means either more advertising or more land, right? Wouldn’t it be awesome if all land in SL was eventually owned by Coldwell or those like them? Yeah, it would pwn. (I’m lying)
This brings about the larger question. It being fact that no MMO is used for advertising more than SL, does anyone but us geeks (i.e. - internet gaming asshats) know about SL? Is that the market Edwards is aiming for? And Coldwell the same? I’m just trying to understand what the market is. We all know that Linden Labs fakes their number of subscribers, so they don’t actually have the bajillions of subscribers they claim. So what is the rather market (compared to most other MMOs) they are trying to tap into here? Those retarded enough to wade through horrible UI to pay for virtual property (be it land or otherwise)? Are they big buyers/voters/etc? It’s almost as if these companies (and politicians) are going to Linden Labs and asking, does your game cater to such and such demographic? And LL, being crazy, is agreeing and using their cockneyed (sp?) to back it up?
Beyond SL being the most talked about MMO in proportion to it’s number of actual users, I just ain’t getting it.
What Would Matt Do: Wonder what kind of magic dust Linden Labs uses to summon so much media attention to a game that is absolutely not about sex at all.