Virtual World Standards and Marketing

PC World editor China Martens asks Do Virtual Worlds Need Standards? in the face of growing sort-of popularity of 3D Worlds for internet users to play and interact in. These aren’t standards like always put the toilet seat down, more like marketing standards to decide how best to understand the user’s behavior and sell them stuff. I would venture to say this conference being held is trying to set the ground work for a marketing initiative that can be applied accross different 3D worlds so each 3D service has essentially a consistent Media Kit PDF file to email to marketing companies and corporate branding services. Or, set the ground-work for a 3D advertising megabranding marketing service company. Someone will get smart and bank on that soon.

In other words…something simple so XYZ VP of Marketing can trust that his XYZ brand will consistently be displayed across various new virtual billboards.

Amidst the constant marketing buzz over worlds like 2nd Life, this entertains me (Get a First Life) ...

My point is, if there is one. After reading the Virtual World Standards article, this was my comment.

By the time they figure out all these silly, yet still interesting, marketing details, the technology that drives it will be out of date. Besides anytime a novel idea is taken over by corporate decision making like this, it only bleaches the concept into something stale.

Really, nothing holds broad interest on the internet for very long. Especially something as gimmicky as 2nd Life. People will have moved on to something more entertaining, sociable, PRETTIER, and less marketing driven. Already 2nd Life is looking archaic. It brings to mind images of the Dire Strait’s video “Money for Nothing” with the blocky 3D animation that was so cutting edge for its time. The geeks may still be enthralled because they can create scripts and code to interact with the environment. But normal folks are starting to yawn already.

And, with any luck this blog entry will reach the top of Google’s results because THIS is might be what Virtual World Standards and Marketing is all about.

Posted by Tom Purcell - Jun 13.
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Youtube Wildlife Videos

Not Scary: Watch a Leopard save a baby monkey!

Some of them are pretty scary, but this one is nice.

I’m not a big YouTube person, but finding all these great nature videos kept me glued for awhile today.

Posted by Tom Purcell - Jun 3.
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Get inside the minds of car salesmen.

car salesman rip offAn editor from the website edmunds.com goes undercover for this article as a car salesman at a high pressure dealership.

It’s a seedy adventure from the very hiring process that reveals all the tricks used during the process of negotiation and the types of predatorial maneuvers that psychologically put you into a place where you get ripped off on trades, financing and sticker prices.

Anyone who has ever purchased a car from a dealership would agree this story, all 50 pages, should be a mandatory read for anyone! It certainly prepares you to save a huge amount of money should you purchase another car from a dealer.

It’s just so damn fascinating, I had to post this. Its a PDF download. Click and view, or better yet, save it and share!

DOWNLOAD: Car-Salesman-Confessions.pdf

Posted by Tom Purcell - May 22.
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