Second Life

"Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe". Although I've never been interested, this game is pretty intense. You can mimic virtually ANY real life thing, even relationships. In some instances, I see where this can be beneficial to someone with low self esteem or interpersonal skill or communication problems, but Second Life is being abused in some senses. There are so many stories out there where Second Life mimics or effects people's real lives. There is some good in the idea, don't get me wrong, but something has to be done about these negative effects.

Second Life can definitely be used for advertising. If an advertiser wants to target that particular audience, they know exactly where to go. Advertising in games is not uncommon. Video games have increasingly more advertising and product placement and brand alignments these days. Lord knows how much more that will increase. Even Barack Obama's presidential campaign placed advertising in EA Games in 2008!

There is a darker side coming to light with users of Second Life-like gaming. There have been published reports from CNN breaking news of "rape games" like Second Life. Virtually reality wolds where users take advantage of innocent "characters". Horrible-i know. I guess there's no way of keeping things wholesome these days.

Here's an article on it.

Gaming, Teaching & Learning

With more and more use of the Internet and interactivity in education, it is easy to forecast an increase in educational gaming. Growing up, gaming in the classroom was mainly used as a supplement to traditional forms of education tools. Today, as technology advances and more and more people take advantage of the Internet, people are using technology for more interesting ways of teaching and learning. Now, games aren't just for "kids in the classroom". Professionals and people coming up in the academia are using educational games in their field. This is quite interesting but I feel that these games are more experience and understanding based, a modified and elevated form of education. It isn't just learning concepts such as math and spelling, it provides and understanding of a concept or real life ideas in the field that traditional academia can't.

Being that these educational games are now advancing in this manner, more around teaching an experience, advertising can and has used this for brands, products and campaigns. Interactive media such as games are very common in the field today. The education part is the twist. In the earlier stages of campaigns, especially those centered around introducing a new product or feature in a product, consumers need information so that's what we as advertisers focus on. These "educational" games can be such an easy way to engage a consumer and teach them what we need to about the product or brand in contrast to traditional media.

This is a great example!

Although it sells less of an experience related directly to what is being sold like I explained before, this particular part of Orbitz has helped to build brand awareness and equity as people have come to love these games. It helps to get impressions on the brand name and drive traffic to the real Web site where the product is actually being showed. Clever and unconventional was to work in the field is always the best way to go.