Virtual Worlds for Global Commerce

Virtual Worlds for Global Commerce

Daniel Livingstone

Welcome to Adventure!! Would you likeinstructions?>no

You are standing at the end of a roadbefore a small brick building.Around you is a forest. A smallstream flows out of the building anddown a gully. In the distance there isa tall gleaming white tower.>

Games

Ultima Online

World of Warcraft

MUVEsA range of 3D virtual worlds are more ‘general

purpose’ - not games per se– Active Worlds– There– Second Life / Teen Second Life– Habbo Hotel– Kaneva– VastPark– Twinity– Gaia Online– OpenCroquet– Project Wonderland– …

0

2,000,000

4,000,000

6,000,000

8,000,000

10,000,000

12,000,000

14,000,000

Subscribers/Users Worldwide

WoW

SL (Residents)

SL (Users?)

Lineage I & II

Runescape

FF XI

Habbo Hotel(visitors monthly)

Some numbers

Annual world-wide subscription income from World of Warcraft?

Estimated: US $2 Billion

You know, for kids

Club Penguin: Bought by Disney in 2007 for $700 Million US

(L)earning From Virtual Worlds

WoW in Action

How to make real money the MMOG way• Players can trade items in games• Can trade accounts

– People started selling items and characters for real money

– Virtual assets = real money

• Generally discouraged by developers – with exceptions

• Gold Farming

Second Life

• Any - and every - user is able to create content– Buildings, Furniture, Scenery– With scripts – pets, vehicles, guns– Avatar clothing, skins, custom avatars

• A user-created world• With IP rights and freely convertible in-world

currency (L$)• Social platform: Engaging with other ‘residents’

is the core experience

Resident Run Businesses

• Many residents enjoy SL for the ability to create their own content

• Many choose to sell their creations– To cover their in-world expenses– To supplement RL income– Or even as their primary real-life income

• SLExchange & OnRez: eCommerce web sites for Second Life

What’s in it for business?

• Sales and direct income?

• Marketing?– Market size? Degree of contact?– Engaging with audience

• A business tool?– Virtual meetings

Virtually There

Show me the (real) money

Real Life Business• Many real-life businesses have created

presences in SL, or run marketing campaigns…– IBM, Dell, Sun, Amazon, O’Reilly, Wired, C|Net, BBH,

Vodaphone, BBC, Adidas, Nissan, Sony Ericsson, Fox Movies, Pontiac, L’Oreal, Microsoft, CBS Television, Cisco, Intel, Coke, British Telecom …

• Some have left…– ABM AMRO, …

• New businesses providing virtual worlds marketing & development services– Electric Sheep Co., Millions of Us, Beta Technologies,

KZero, …

Imaginary worlds, real laws

LinksGames:Ultima Online: http://www.uoherald.com/news/ World of Warcraft: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml You Know, For Kids:Club Penguin: http://www.clubpenguin.com/ WebKinz: http://www.webkinz.com/ Barbie Girls: http://www.barbiegirls.com/home.htmlL(earning) from virtual worlds:Leeroy Jenkins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBUYou play WOW? You’re Hired!: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/learn.htmlVirtually There:Tapped-In: http://tappedin.org/tappedin/ Qwaq: http://www.qwaq.com/ Project Wonderland: https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/ Show me the (real) money:IBM Virtual Business Center: http://www.ibm.com/virtualworlds/businesscenter/http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/23800.wss Virtual Worlds 2008: http://www.virtualworlds2008.com/Imaginary worlds, real laws:US Congress committee meeting on virtual worlds (April 2008):

http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-ti-hrg.040108.VirtualWorlds.shtmlAmerican Bar Association, virtual worlds group:

http://www.abanet.org/dch/committee.cfm?com=ST252000

Further reading:Virtual Worlds News http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/ Virtual Worlds Weekly http://www.virtualworldsweekly.com/ http://terranova.blogs.com/http://learninggames.wordpress.com/