---

Guest post by: Andy Marken Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

“ What is the reason? Soon the why and the reason are gone and all that matters is the feeling. This is the nature of the universe. We struggle against it, we fight to deny it; but it is of course a lie. Beneath our poised appearance we are completely out of control.” -- Merovingian, The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in 1996.
Picture perfect for a funeral.
We buried the Mexican pot beneath the Yucca tree in the back yard.
Our daughter wept uncontrollably. Her mother consoled her.
Her brother looked on disgusted and bored.
We mumbled a few words, slapped the dirt with the shovel and our daughter’s beloved Tamagotchi (Photo 1) was put to rest.
She had faithfully fed it, played with it, cleaned it and took care of it’s every want and need.
Still the damn thing died!
Fast forward 11 years.
We just learned about our son has two avatars on SecondLife (Photo 2).
He had already dropped a few Linden dollars for new clothes.
He’s thinking about buiying a few acres of land for them in the virtual world.
Boy…we never saw that one coming !
But should we have been surprised?
Probably not.
We saw both Matrix movies – twice. As a kid we regularly watched Twilight Zone.
It was all laid out for us.
All we had to do is develop cheap, high-powered chips, build out an inexpensive to use, large-piped sensory path and let fertile, creative minds do the rest.
SecondLife is the mash-up of personal/competitive gaming, multimedia PCs, Faith Popcorn’s projections on cocooning, interrelationships and…entertainment.
Until recently the focus of research on the growing market has been on the activities of teens and tweens.
What’s your kid doing because that will show companies where to invest for products and services that will be in hot demand tomorrow!
For the most part this still holds true.
The great thing though is that adults are “getting it” more quickly today. And adults are the ones who really have the bucks!
Younger kids may have been the first to rip digital music and enjoy it over the internet on their PC (Figure 1). But adults, including the 24-40 category, listen to it with greater frequency.
The same is true of game play. Sony, MS and the game developers targeted their sweat and blood entertainment to the “hard core” gamers.
Nintendo blindsided the kingpins (and the reviewers) with the Wii and its initial cache of games.
Who gives a crap about bowling, tennis, baseball, golf?
Turns out darned near everyone including your grandma, grandpa who probably didn’t even touch an Atari 2600 joystick!
Neilsen/NetRatings found that about 37% of adults own a game system and 16% have a portable game console.
Around the globe it appears that few people are cutting back on their game play (Figure 2). In most countries game play has even increased.
As Neo (Keanu Reeves) noted…”It's strange... the code is somehow different.”
With broadband to the home increasing and $500 computers now becoming more of the norm we also see a logical extension for the MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games).
MMOGs like WoW (World of Warcraft) and Everquest still dominate the online gaming world.
Traditional logic (such a dangerous thing) said the boys would rush away if the games weren’t totally violent and destructive.
Another gottcha!
Not only are girls playing the games but according to comScore, females account for 52% of the gaming audience, she’s 41 years old and has an income of $55,000. Darned good thing 84% of them have broadband!
The Web 2.0 part of the mash-up has been the logic growth of social networking.
For kids with their WiFi notebooks in the backpacks this was just another way to stay in touch with friends and develop new relationships (Figure 3).
With the introduction of locations like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and the amazing variety of horizontal and vertical sites the demographics again shifted. Today 60% of the users are 25 and older. While many of the social networking sites are country-centric, many are going global – reaching, touching and entertaining people who have specific subject and avocation interests.
For the social network sites, new entertainment/gaming options are easy add-ons. We’re now seeing Neo pet rearing games (yes including the evolution of our daughter’s Tamagotchis), MMO puzzles, international sports.
Is that all there is? Games?
No!
As The Oracle said… “What do all men with power want? More power.”
So feminists don’t get in a bind we believe he meant men in the overall human race term…not just men. Better?
To prove to Neo that we control the machines rather than their controlling us, SecondLife and similar virtual worlds have emerged.
In many ways they are an extension, a dramatic enhancement of the power and capabilities of the Internet.
The internet after all are simply pipes and computing power spread around the globe. For the most part it is barren except for the hundreds of spam emails you get daily. Certainly people go to chat rooms, use lists and similar horizontal/vertical locations to “talk,” exchange information and get assistance.
But they are simply words streaming across the screen. People think to themselves…”I suppose the obvious question is how can I trust you?”
You want to interact with people you go down the hall, you go to the mall, you go to (gasp) meetings.
SecondLife and similar virtual worlds are bringing people together.
SecondLife claims more than 4 million residents and usually there are 20-30,000 of them hanging out at any given time.
As with any brave new world it is far from a success and still a work in progress. But already leading firms have “bought” land and opened storefronts. That includes IBM, Intel, Toyota, Cisco, Sun, GM, Reuters, Circuit City and other commercial and retail businesses have staked claims in the virtual worlds.
Virtual worlds like There.com and SecondLife aren’t being used by these firms as online retail outlets but rather business locations that can lead to real world sales or to quickly solve real world problems.
Granted firms like American Apparel sells virtual jeans while Toyota and GM sell virtual cars. But most use their virtual businesses to give people an undisturbed view of their products. They test store layouts, production facility workflow layouts and market test future product concepts.
Other organizations like IBM and Cisco use their virtual locations for “face-to-face” global meetings –sales meetings, customer conferences, shareholder briefings and departmental staff meetings.
As with most social networks, people step into their virtual worlds also to hang out with friends, visit new places and even build new relationships.
A number of marriages have already been reported by people whose avatars met each other in their virtual worlds.
In the virtual world as in the real world Neo emphasized …”Choice, the problem is choice.”
The citizens of the virtual worlds are finding out just how much Matrix Reloaded mirrors our two worlds.
Vandalism, shootings and skirmishes have already occurred in all of the online virtual worlds.
We admit that there are a lot of times you’d like to simply say “To H*** with it! I’m packing up and moving to the brave new world.”
SecondLife, Them.com and the other virtual worlds offer a gold mine of opportunities for companies and individuals to test ideas, products and concepts that can be sold/implemented in the real world.
There’s a lot of potential out there for really creative people.
We just hope nothing bad happens to our kid’s avatars in SecondLife (Photo 3).
In the back of our mind we believe Councillor Harmann…” These machines keep us alive, while other machines are coming to kill us. The power to give life, and the power to end it. Interesting, isn't it?.”
We’re just not certain where you bury an Avatar in SecondLife (Photo 4).
We’re not even sure what you wear to an avatar funeral ?
We’ll deal with it when the time comes.
As Merovingian in The Matrix Reloaded said, “You see there is only one constant. One universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect.”

########

For copies of the charts, illustrations contact andy@markencom.com

Related Articles

  Matrix Organization - Possible in China?
  Video Matrix Switch: Creates a Web like Pattern of Connections between Sources and Displays
  Getting Paid 6 People at a Time: The Pyxism Compensation Structure
  Examine Buy In with Stakeholder Analysis
  Develop your Team’s Strategic Skill-Set
  KVM Matrix Switch: Allows multiple Users to control multiple Servers
  Developing Strategic Options From an External-Internal Analysis
  Matrix management: Scheduling your resources in a complicated world
  Opening a New Office Location
  Evaluating Candidate Interviews
  Get What You Need From Your Matrix Partners: Five Guidelines for Influencing in a Matrix Structure
  How to Use the Time Management Matrix
  How To Find A Long-Lasting Home Based MLM Business Opportunity
  Video Switch: Route video from multiple sources to a single display
  Working Effectively in a Matrix: Three Cooperation Builders
  ESCAPE THE MATRIX PROGRAMED INTO US
  Develop Leaders with Succession Planning
  Assess Advertising Concept Effectiveness
  Lean your Training, Don't start with a blank piece of paper
  The Great Network Marketing Debate Rages On: Is It Better To Sponsor Wide Or Deep?

Related Forum Posts

Focus Brings Long Term Results

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Successful Cold Calling

Ten Viral Marketing Best Practices

Keep the Business Mind Busy

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.