Chapter 17
Safko, The Social Media Bible
What’s striking about the world of on-line virtual gaming, as Safko describes it, is not only the number of players worldwide (millions or tens of millions in any given game) but also the broad demographics of the players: their variety of ages, occupations, and backgrounds. Also amazing is the amount of time they spend on line – 22 hours a week average, and 60 percent of the players have played for 10 continuous hours at one time.
Sixty percent! Ten continuous hours! Simply astounding, and for advertisers who want to make their products or services visible to large audiences, on-line games are a fertile field to begin plowing. Safko also mentions the strong emotions generated in on-line games, another factor that could predispose players to become customers.
A further indication of the potential for businesses to influence the behavior or customers or prospective customers in the first life is the way in which the line sometimes becomes blurred between games and reality. Safko cites the creation of real economies, as he did in the previous chapter on virtual reality. Virtual money and transactions sometimes result in real wealth for the players. What’s more fascinating is the corrupted blood epidemic of 2005 described on pages 328 and 329. A temporary programming error created a virtual plague that had some of the characteristics of real-world epidemics, and it was studied as a model. It seems weirdly organic that art (or technology) should imitate life in such unintended ways. Maybe the computers will take over someday.
For now, though, it is enough for advertisers to know that massive numbers of people spend massive amounts of time, and invest strong emotions, in on-line gaming. The potential for product placement is obvious, and for more imaginative marketers, there are possibilities yetd untapped.
I still am having difficulty figuring out how an organization like mine can use virtual gaming to build relationships. I suppose we could build some sort of Husker fan experience or get a bunch of Huskers in Second Life or something. But why bother?
ReplyDeleteMaybe it would be possible to get involved in virtual commerce in war-type games. What if a player's avatar could purchase a group of Husker lineman for protection on his or her quest? I think Safko refers to this type of virtual bodyguards as tanks.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I think UNL pays so much attention to branding itself and attaching certain qualities to that brand that it would be difficult to protect the brand in such a big, free-wheeling environment.