A quick glance at the author’s avatar indicates he is not a newcomer to SL, and it should be safe to assume that the concept of griefers is not alien him, whether it be on SL or any other online game.

That the author chose to vent his frustrations over *one* griefer on the company itself is wholely irresponsible and completely irrelevant to the initial topic of in game branding.

Furthermore, being a customer who was in the store at the time, I have to say that the author was treated with the utmost respect by the company’s representative, despite incredibly rude behaviour from said author. The Telus representative also requested that the griefer leave (which he did).

I would suggest that the author reassess his methods of evaluating in-game locations. He professes to be ‘fair’ with Telus, yet from the start he walked in with a biased attitude against the company, despite factors that were not completely in the control of the representative who was there.

People also TP a lot so it’s true that networking and being in groups and talking in chat is more important than a static visit to a store, pulling a body to a store and trapping it. The era of avatar-trapping with telehubs passed because a determined minority wouldn’t allow that method to be used in retailing, even though vendors and shoppers themselves tolerated the experience.

On griefing the solution is not to ask for an “SL Police Force” created by residents — these groups are often worse than the griefers themselves. I think the Lindens have to be challenged to do a better job of policing and publicizing of justice — their Police Blotter is woefully inadequate.

You don’t get anywhere by pretending that this experience of being blown away in a store is somehow isolated. It’s rampant. Deprecate push and teleport home. The weapons lobby and the tiny minority of people using elevators who requuire push shouldn’t be allowed to destroy the SL experience for the majority of the public.

Reading all the truly worthless posts on this topic the last couple of weeks has been a refreshing reminder of why I left corporate life: new ideas are not welcome, especially if they require a new way of thinking or doing business. This most recent rush into SL is like giving canned goods to someone who has never heard of a can opener… and then rants about how hard it was to get at the food inside. Imagine what they’ll do when the interface to the web is 3D and it isn’t hosted by a company that does actually keep the peace. I can hardly wait.

Boliver Oddfellow
Chief Experience Officer
Infinite Vision Media

btw, I defended you on one blog entry that ripped on your SLCC panel comments and claimed that the 4P’s still applied. I don’t think most people realize just what can actually be done in a virtual space. It’s too far from the real world. They continue to import limitations that simply no longer apply (e.g. Distribution).

Thing is, when Rapid Manufacturing starts to become a reality, those virtual possibilities start to leak into the Real World. We can forget factories altogether.

There’s so much more to this than people realize.

And PSFK unwittingly played into that “blighted mainland” stereotype by recounting the adventure with being blasted as if it’s the constant norm in SL — it isn’t. BTW, putting on push restrictions doesn’t fully prevent the experience of still being caged, smoked, and harassed in other ways.

The mainland has many well-kept areas where stores thrive — I know because I own sims and keep them up and mytenants do well there. The mainland offers fly-bys and spontaneous connections and an open market, not the wall garden and gated community feel of the islands which are often empty stagesets devoid of traffic once the big media hit happens and the initial campaign is over.

BTW, “don’t sell me, play with me” is REALLY getting annoying to the point of nausea. Um, I don’t want a clothing or cell phone company to play with me, thank you very much. No, do NOT play with me, dammit. Either go away, or produce something that fits with, and harmonizes with, the virtual world and my experience in it such that I would care to buy it, in the normal way, without fake “play experiences” like fake mass ecstasy at concerts or be-ins. Make something interest and witty and it will sell. Tie it to RL in some compelling and intriguing way, and it will sell. Learn about the world and how to do that and don’t let all the sherpas filter your experience.

It will sell not in the old fashioned way of grabbing eyeballs, becaue they can’t be grabbed in a world so atomized, and connected more by groups and networks than by proximity.

Don’t sell, be. If you get the being part right, the selling will flow naturally.

If a brand appears in Second Life and no-one is around, does it really exist? Good question. PSFK, is wondering what the heck is going on at Second Life. Real people are spending real money to enjoy a second life

Giff Constable from leading SL ‘agency’ dropped us a line with his thoughts about what we said about Second Life in our article, Brands Led Blindly Into Second Life Forest.