RESET!

The last few weeks have been rather hectic. I’ve been quite busy spending many hours cataloging SL blogs, coordinating the blog inspection team, researching unemployment rates, calculating revenue rates, navigating various painful dramas, preparing for several grid hunts, building gift items and rebuilding something underground. It was a seemingly endless stream of work, tasks and trouble.

And then something wonderful happened.

By chance, a friend had purchased a rather unusual object: a gigantic champagne bottle, equipped with a full glass of said fluid. When rezzed, the glass included active bubbles and was truly larger than a bathtub. I admit that in real life, I rarely get a chance to take a bath in champagne, and even more rarely in a gigantic champagne glass.

This particular glass included a dance animation. Spurred on by my alleged friends, I reluctantly sat upon the glass and began to dance.

Immediately, I noticed something horribly wrong: the dances were not exactly my style. I just don’t do sultry dips and swoops in champagne. Fancy prances with knees high around the glass. Suggestive bendy-overs across the lip of the glass. Hrmph.

But I didn’t hit the “Stand Up” button, as I’d usually do in mere microseconds when faced with such a terribly embarrassing SL moment.

Instead, I giggled. A lot.

After a long while, I felt a smile on my face, and realized something had happened. Something wonderful.

I was having fun. Fun with the unreality of Second Life, doing things that are impossible in real life. Things that are silly even in the insane universe that is Second Life. The very things that caused me to explore, learn and be amazed by our nutty virtual world so very long ago.

Somehow I’d managed to find my “reset” button and push it.

The smile stayed.

And a truth was revealed: you gotta have fun. There may be work, trouble or obligations, but none of it is worthwhile unless you’re having fun. This is true not only for Second Life, but even more so in real life. When it stops being fun, it’s time to move on.

But not this time. I’m still here, working. With a smile.

P.S. If you'd like to try out the champagne yourself and see if you can find your own reset, drop by anytime.

Digital Suicide

Editor's note: This is a guest post from Noelyci Ingmann of Ingmann Design Group, and is part of the first annual SL Blogger's Mix'n Match event. He's writing on a topic suggested by Alphonsus Peck of Alphonsus's Random Drivel

 

One of several hanging tools you can find on SLX

“I’m leaving Second Life!”  “That’s IT, this character is dead!” “I can’t take it anymore, I don’t know if I’ll ever be back!” Live long enough with a significant portion of your creative juices flowing through digital play and you’ll hear something similar. From pen and paper roleplaying through the UNIX Bulletin Board Systems of my youth to the AOL and Compuserve chatrooms, into worlds like Ultima, SWG, WOW and Second Life there’s always been a reason to commit suicide of a character, now it’s digital rather then analog, but what drives a person to do this? The other question is, is it still a character if you don’t think it is? If you’re just ‘yourself’ in Second Life, does that mean you’re killing the digital you when you ‘suicide’?

The fact of the mattter is that we all play roles, in every aspect of our lives, and when we decide we aren’t going to associate with those people anymore, we may find that we can stop playing that role, in fact it’s often why we stop hanging out with them, because we don’t like ourselves when we’re around them. This is a common reason for leaving Second Life. Because we lose balance, and lose part of ourselves in something ‘too deep’ that ‘isn’t real’ or detracts from our responsibilities and commitments outside of the digital realm. Most commonly the people I know who’ve left Second Life do so for this reason. They may have had a broken heart and been surprised by the strength of the feelings that the ‘unreal’ caused. They may have just lost track of time once too often and disrupted their sleep schedule, they may have not liked the fact that their avatar and fantasy fufillment didn’t fufill them the way they thought it would. But they leave because they don’t like the part of themselves that Second Life brings out, they excise that part of themselves, hoping that they can be different without. They have to commit digital suicide to maintain what they want or have to be. Does this work? I am not qualified to answer that and I am sure it depends on who you ask. The characters who ‘died’ in the course of my roleplaying are still very much a part of my Psyche, their stories just ended…. So even the ones that were destructive to play, and there were a few… don’t completely disappear from who we are as holistic people. Hence, the idea that “It’s all real!”

So why else would we commit digital suicide? The idea that the character is done with their story, or it’s just too painful to play leads to Alts most of the time, unless it’s a balance issue brought on by real life concerns. But the other major reason I see people committing digital ‘suicide’ is because they disagree or protest the decisions made by the company. In this instance it would be Linden Labs, but this has happened before, Star Wars Galaxies is a fairly big example, when they completely changed the game and experience while people were playing, they lost at least half their user base. So, are open space pricing issues enough to make you commit suicide from Second Life, to never go back? The people I find who do this the most are people who don’t have ‘real’ friends in Second Life, but use it as a tool, they get upset that their tool dosen’t function properly so they leave. If you have a social group in the game then it’s unlikely that it matters as much to you, you’ll adapt to hang out with those people. Neither is wrong, just observations on my part.

Could we truly commit digital suicide? I’m not sure I could. Think about it… could you stop signing on to a computer to have anything to do with our ‘second life’? I’m not talking about not signing onto the grid. I’m talking about deleting the email that has your avatar name… Never contacting anyone who you met in Second Life… Never posting another blog post under that name… Being dead. I know that for certain people this is the step they have to take, but I suspect some of the friendships they have made continue, in forms outside Second Life. This leads me back to the assertion that it’s all ‘real’. Could you kill off part of yourself completely? Sure, we all do it when we grow, it’s how we transform and become what we ultimately are, but it’s not as easy as you think. The more I reflect on the term ‘digital sucide’ the more I like it. You may not be actually killing anything other than pixels but you’re certainly putting yourself through agonizing transformative pain if you do it right.

As always, written by ‘a random collection of pixels’ ~Noel.

http://www.ingmanndesign.com

All Reality, All The Time

Something I frequently observe in virtual reality is transformation. Of ideas, personalities, opinions, and minds. Today I’m speaking of how my mind’s conception of reality has been severely distorted by my virtual experience.

Prior to my Second Life experience I viewed reality in the conventional way: things, people, molecules and matter arranged in an intricate manner. But mostly I viewed the world as a place of things. Houses, people, plants, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc.

Then I entered virtual reality. For a very short while I viewed the virtual world as I do the real world: as a place of things. Shortly thereafter I learned how to build virtual objects. After a few weeks of virtual construction (of mostly incredibly bad newbie-oriented flotsam), something weird happened in real life.

I had previously visited the virtual encampment of Canadian telecom carrier Telus. At the time they had (and may still have) a virtual store that appears very similar to their real life stores. The colors, styles and layout were nearly identical, as was no doubt their intention.

The next day in real life I happened to walk by a true, real-life, made-with-Actual-Molecules Telus store. I saw the same colors, structures and layout as existed in virtual reality. I saw that they had rezzed the real life store with a stretched prim cube along the top, and had textured the desks in a slightly transparent green.

Wait a minute...

Prim? Texture? Rezzed!!!

Those are virtual concepts, not for use in real life. Even so, my then-virtual-oriented mind was mentally decomposing the real Telus store as if it were made from virtual prims! This virtual bounce-back effect continued, as it seemed everything I looked at was no longer a “thing”. Instead real life had become “objects” made of Real Prims. I had transformed. My world view had permanently changed as I then saw real life and the virtual world in the same way. I continue to perceive reality in this way.

More recently during a quick trip to humanity’s Capital of Extreme, Las Vegas, Nevada, more transformations occurred. First, I happened to bumble into the lobby of the astounding Bellagio hotel (which, by the way, has a virtual counterpart). Just off the lobby is a giant greenhouse in which amazing displays of horticulture sprout on a regular basis.

I stopped dead in my tracks as my gaze rose up to see Huge Flowers! Flowers so tall they were Not Possible In Real Life! That's NPIRL, a term I've heard elsewhere of late.

Amazing yes, but much more so than most of the Bellagio’s patrons realized. Not only was real life similar to the virtual world in components (prims), but here they were similar in Things. As I walked among the titanic plants, cow-sized butterflies and gaily decorated giant snails large enough to ride upon I felt just as I would floating through a sim with such monstrous flora and fauna. The real world is not only made of prims, but also contains Strange Impossible Things, just like virtual reality!

As if that wasn’t enough, a final incident at the pool sealed my reality confusion. A woman beside me suddenly got up to chase her young boy, as he had galloped off toward the menacing water. As she stood, I saw the boy’s sandal attached by Velcro to the lady’s behind! Evidently the real world also has the “shoes up your ass” bug.

Real World, Virtual World. What’s the difference? It’s All Reality, All The Time.

Stindberg Speaks

A very quick post today: I stumbled into a very interesting post by SLEntrepreneur, who interviewed my pal, SL translator extraordinary Peter Stindberg. Peter discusses various aspects of his translation business, which I believe will be of interest to Second Effects readers... at least the business types, anyway.

Starving In Second Life

I didn't realize it was possible to starve in Second Life. But it is possible. I have a friend named Xena Bikcin, who I think is very talented. She knows how to build, script, sell and organize. She's even constructed a unique vehicle (pictured, that's her at the controls flying me around Furumachi.) But she's always having trouble in Second Life. She tries really hard to earn a living by doing various business activities, most recently running fireworks shows. She's also had a store that sold artwork, and managed events as well. Unfortunately, she never seems to make enough money to be financially independent. I think she's very typical of many in Second Life who struggle to survive.

There seems to be two modes of financial existence in Second Life: Earner and Consumer. The Consumers are content to spend whatever they need to satisfy their immersionist roles, and they are the foundation of our virtual economy. Meanwhile, the Earners create the items and services that are purchased by the consumers. Both need each other, obviously.

However, I propose a third financial category: Non-Earners. These people, such as Xena, are inbetween Consumer and Earner status. It's a very uncomfortable position indeed, as they transition from one comfy mode to the other. They try to be Earners by creating businesses, but never seem to make enough money to offset the costs of creating their business. They act like Earners, but must spend like Consumers. It must be a very frustrating existence. Many must give up and go back to being consumers or even leave Second Life altogether.

I often encounter Non-Earners, and am always impressed by their (Second Life) youthful enthusiasm. I want to help them. I give them tips and suggestions, and sometimes they benefit. Or at least I hope so. I believe I help many more Non-Earners by posting Second Life business tips here on the Second Effects blog.

Their enthusiasm and creativity is absolutely required. But there is something else they need, something that Xena has: Persistence. You cannot give up. You have to keep trying. Trying different things until you find something that works for you. Yes, it is always disappointing that a business idea didn't work out, but that's OK. You learned something valuable for next time. You must build on your failures and successes. But you won't have any failures or successes unless you try.

Xena is still trying, and I help her when I can. Someday she will be a successful Earner, because she has all the things she needs. Do you?

Where are the Avatars?

Mainstream media often complains that the population of Second Life is tiny. Perhaps it is, and I constantly see debates on the best way to measure it. But here's my opinion on the matter.

I think that among the general RL population, many people are unwilling or unable to enter Second Life or any virtual world. You all know them – the people who give you a blank look when you try to explain your virtual reality experience. Or worse, they give you that you're-out-of-your-mind look. They say things like, “but it's just pixels on a screen!” or “Why don't you talk with real people?” These folks will never go virtual. And that's why Second Life and other virtual worlds will always attract fewer users than traditional web services. At least until virtual reality concepts become widespread.

I heard a good story that illustrates this common phenomenon when I was introducing a friend, TwelveBar Botha, to Second Life. I told him about my store, my “second life”, how it works, etc. Later, he was relating all this to his senior-age parents:

TwelveBar: “I have a friend who owns land in a virtual world.”

Parents: (skeptically) “Oh?”

TwelveBar: “And he has a store on it.”

Parents: “What does he sell?”

TwelveBar: “Fog!”

And then they “lost it.”

Parents: “What do you mean, he sells fog?!? What kind of a store would sell fog?”

It seems that I have this kind of conversation with somebody in RL almost every week. I almost think that some proportion of the general population has a gene or type of brain structure that seems to prevent comprehension of virtual reality.

Regardless, there are tons of people who can fit into Second Life, and we can see them every time we login and get the concurrent online Second Life count. Say what you want about Second Life problems, but that number just keeps growing, week after week. When I first rezzed just over a year ago, that number hovered around 15,000 or so. Today it's almost four times as large. That's pretty decent growth for one year. I expect it to continue and certainly will break 100,000 within a few months. But how can this growth be sped up?

I believe that the major barrier to growth (aside from the segment of the population that can't grok virtual reality) is the user interface. I'm a techie (if you haven't noticed already) and even I find the interface clunky at times. Here is the historical sequence of events:

• Linden Lab creates Second Life, with the principle that users will build everything.
• Accordingly, the viewer contains all the tools necessary for users to create things.
• Innovative and early adopters willing to suffer through non-optimal clunky builder tools show up and build stuff. Wonderful stuff.
• Non-builder users are attracted by the wonderful stuff and the population swells.
• Non-builders are subjected to the same viewer as originally intended for early-adopter techies, and many give up because it's just beyond their capability to understand how to use these tools.

The mere presence of "Orientation Island" indicates that the interface is too complicated. Most people won't spend the time to go through it, and if they don't, they'll likely have a bad Second Life experience before too long. In fact, I often hear of people of basically skip the orientation and just jump into the world. And then make a mess.

The solution is obvious. In RL I discussed this issue with Gartner's Virtual Reality Analyst, Steve Prentice, and he had the same idea. Second Life needs a simplified browser suitable for general users, especially those who have no intention of building anything. Builders will find their way to the necessary tools, don't worry about them.

We've seen a couple of steps in this direction so far: First, Linden Lab open-sourced the viewer code, and secondly Electric Sheep built their simplified browser with that code, broadly distributed during the famous (infamous?) CSI episode. What will the next step be? A simplified interface usable from a web browser? We can only hope.

Why RL Businesses Fail in Second Life, Part 3

This is part three of my analysis of the ongoing failure of RL businesses in Second Life. Part one was in response to the infamous WIRED article, and part two expanded on my thoughts. In part three, we'll discuss ideas for how RL businesses may actually succeed in Second Life. So, what could a RL company do?

There are only three basic approaches to using Virtual Reality by a large RL business:

Indirect or subtle marketing. We have all seen how the hard sell has not worked. Dell, Coke and other major RL corporations set up large Second Life operations, sometimes covering multiple islands. The islands are usually covered with logos, branding, analog virtual products, etc. Few come to see these. Why would you want to visit a billboard? What kind of immersive experience is that? We immerse to engage our own fantasies, not a corporation's! Some have gone further by arranging events or activities at these sites in attempts to attract visitors. But it's all "pull", and little genuine interest.

The only successful approach I've seen is by General Motors on Motorati Island. They've created a sandbox for virtual automotive businesses within the sandbox of Second Life itself. They've out-web2.0'd Second Life! Why does this work? Simply because it promotes the cult of the car, and it does it well. A visit to Motorati Island reveals many interesting automotive businesses, including GM itself. It works because it addresses our immersive fantasies, not GM's. GM approach is very subtle, and it's a shining example of how to leverage Second Life for business purposes.

Collaboration. We all know how much different a 3D meeting is from a typical conference call or chat session. There just seems to be something extra in the experience that makes it a little bit closer to reality. No, it's by no means perfect, but it is definitely better than audio or chat alone. Businesses can certainly use Second Life as a platform for collaboration, as long as they take appropriate precautions against griefers.

Go Native! This is perhaps the most interesting approach, where a RL business simply attempts to compete as an in-world company. They produce products and sell them.

But what should a RL company sell? I suspect they should simply do what any sensible business does: find out what people want, and then make it! Most RL businesses seem to believe that a virtual presence will lead to RL sales, but I don't see why that would be so, considering that most people use the virtual world for immersive reasons. A RL business should carefully consider their strengths and then see how they could apply in a virtual world.

Here's some obvious suggestions:

• Retailers like Wal-Mart or Best-Buy are good at determining buying patterns and arranging easy ways for consumers to buy products from multiple manufacturers. Well, Just Do That In Second Life! A well-organized virtual Wal-Mart that is properly advertised and promoted would be an incredibly busy place. And I suspect it would be desired by many scattered builders desperately trying to attract shoppers to their small plots – and who really have little idea of how to do so effectively, as compared to the skills of a big retail chain. Builders should build; Wal-Marts should sell.
  
• After the many recent virtual bank failures, isn't it clear that a RL financial institution could quickly set up a similar service – this time backed by their solid RL reputation? Who would use a fly-by-night bank then? That segment of virtual business is theirs for the taking.

And there are many other similar ideas if one puts your mind to it. But there's a problem.

The problem is that even if these RL mega-corps were to set up such virtual operations they'd be profitable, but probably only make a few thousand dollars. Maybe more, but certainly not millions. Not worth their time, perhaps. Revenue would eventually top out, not because they are doing something wrong, but because there just aren't that many customers. Second Life is still just too small, at least at this point. You can make only so much money in a small city.

But wouldn't it be a good position to be the premier virtual bank as Second Life's population grew? Double the population, double the revenue. Think long-term. Where will virtual reality be in five years? Ten? Start now and gain experience and reputation for the future.

Why RL Businesses Fail in Second Life, Part 2

In my previous article on RL business experiences, I explained my theory that there are more immersionists than augmentationists, and that RL companies fail because they do not correctly address the larger market.

In RL companies have discovered products that people require for their RL activities. Massive businesses have been created around these needs: fast food, clothing, entertainment, manufacturing and many others. Business that do not address RL needs generally don't exist because they die out.

In Second Life the same principles are in play: companies must discover products that are useful for Second Life activities. These products are not necessarily the same as RL products. Consider the following scenarios:

• A RL company produces perfume. Second Life has no means of implementing a sense of smell, so a perfume product simply cannot be created.
• A RL company produces food. Food objects can be created in Second Life, and to some degree might be animated to emit steam, sizzle or slowly disappear as they pretend to be consumed. But no one “needs” food in Second Life. Second Life “Food” is merely decorative, adding to the rich visual experience (but not the smell or taste experience).
• A RL company produces clothing. Clothing is commonly created and sold in Second Life, so you might figure that clothing can be routinely “carried over” between worlds. However, there are subtle differences between RL and Second Life that can affect the clothing experience. Avatars are have different (often exaggerated) size and shape ratios, making the clothing hang differently, color and texture appear somewhat differently due to visual resolutions. RL clothing stretches and moves; Second Life clothing doesn't. These subtle changes can mean the difference between a successful clothing item or a failure. As in RL, Second Life clothing is decorative, adding to the rich visual experience. Hey, didn't I say that already?

Yes, I did. Because there is a clear pattern here. The visual richness of many successful Second Life products directly adds to the avatar's immersionist experience, perhaps because of a deep and powerful psychological effect where RL memories or concepts are visually triggered.

Like art. Second Life products are essentially a kind of artwork. I recall a long time ago I learned that the measure of art is not what it looks like, but instead how it makes you feel. That's what's going on with the successful products. That's why they sell.

A RL running shoe is sold because not because it looks cool; it sells because it makes the owner feel cool wearing them! A Second Life running shoe sells because it makes the owner feel cool, or get closer to their immersionist universe. A RL shoe sold in Second Life does not sell just because it is a top seller in RL. It must also make the owner feel cool or otherwise aid their immersionist vision. I know this to be true since my customers very often “Oooh” or “Ahhh” when they see products I have built.

Like clothing, RL products cannot simply be duplicated in Second Life. The only market for duplicates is the aficionados who are already weirdly compelled to buy, like someone who collects Coke paraphernalia. And bad news for the RL company: the aficionados probably already own that product in RL and few net new RL sales are made.

Now you might think there are some exceptions to this. For example, some successful Second Life products are gadgets of some kind. I suggest, however, that the ultimate purpose of most gadgets is to indirectly add to the rich visual experience by simplifying steps to achieve that experience. Consider the numerous HUDs that allow the user to more easily control their rich visual experience.

So my bottom line is this: successful Second Life products should add to the visual experience, either directly or indirectly.

By now RL companies must be asking, “but what can I do in Second Life? How can I make money like I do in RL?” I think there are some answers, but that's something I will save for another post in coming weeks.

Why RL Businesses Fail in Second Life

I've had more thoughts about the Infamous WIRED article about RL businesses failing in their attempts to conquer Second Life. I first wrote about this earlier in my post rebutting the WIRED article.

First you must understand the difference between Augmentation vs. Immersion in Second Life. Basically, “Immersionists” go to Second Life to create a new reality for themselves, while “Augmentationists” go to Second Life to aid some RL activity. An example of a typical immersionist would be a club-goer or perhaps someone who builds/buys themselves a castle, unaffordable by them in RL. An augmentationist example would be someone who uses Second Life as a means to collaborate with others to support a RL charity group.

The immersionist tries to create an environment they cannot easily achieve in RL. Perhaps it is a big house, a circle of friends, kinky activities, blingy clothes, role playing or something else. Slavers, Star Trekkers and Steampunkers are all types of role playing immersionists. They are immersing themselves in their own particular fantasy world. That's why they are there.

Sometimes individuals exhibit a bit of both characteristics, but in my limited experience avatars tend to be mostly one or the other. What type am I? After some consideration, I realized I am primarily immersionist. No, I'm not into role-playing or bling – but I am into creating and running a standalone business that makes things for people to enjoy. That's something I'd like to do in RL sometime. That's my fantasy world.

There are debates whether Second Life residents can truly be classified in this way, but I believe that such a classification is useful in understanding why businesses fail in Second Life.

So what does this have to do with RL businesses? I alluded to this in my previous article but here it is in more words: I believe the simple answer is that there are more immersionists than augmentationists. Of course, augmentationists exist (and some immersionists even become augmentationists from time to time) but augmentationists seem to be fewer in number. Or at least the number of people "augmenting" seems to be lower at any given moment.

So let's see what happens:

A RL business sets up shop in SL, perhaps selling RL-analogous products, trying brand-recognition schemes like offering games of some sort. But they receive little traffic, and conclude that Second Life just doesn't work. Worse, they spent $100K's to do so, and presumably expected to gain their investment back somehow.

Meanwhile, these RL businesses are often out-trafficked by in-world businesses. My own particle shop sometimes beats major RL players on certain days. Why is this so?

It's because the in-world businesses are implicitly addressing the actual needs of the most numerous avatars: Immersionists. Immersionists need virtual artifacts to enhance their secondary reality. They typically do not need analogs of commercial RL products. They need products that fit into their secondary reality. They especially do not appreciate brand recognition schemes (er, advertising), since its presence greatly disrupts their immersion experience. Indeed, branding that interrupts an RPG experience would obviously be viewed quite negatively.

In other words, in a mostly-immersive virtual world, the RL companies often have little to offer. What should they do? I have some interesting ideas, but let's save them for another post.

The WIRED Article...

I read the now-infamous article in Wired this month that suggested RL companies have given up because they cannot seem to make any money in SL. The article cited a series of what I would consider bogus reasons for this, such as “empty sims”. Here are my thoughts on the situation.

First, the article applies RL standards to a virtual world. It suggests that business success in SL is limited because of the apparent low population, and there is some truth to that, but not in the way the article implies. I don't think SL is a way to generate zillions, at least not yet. I believe this is because SL's current population (8M registered, 45K online) represents a market space and economy equivalent to a medium-sized city, not a national-sized audience.

The SL market is essentially a small market, unlike Myspace or Facebook who have many millions of participants and is essentially an extension of the RL universe. SL operates more or less in a secondary virtual universe, whose connection to RL is very different from traditional websites who can easily address the needs of millions.

SL Users are typically not in SL for RL purposes. They are in SL to create a NEW environment for themselves and their comrades. They make, use, wear and do things they cannot do in RL. Yes, there are some who do RL-related activities, but they are by far the minority. Most SL residents are there to create fantasies for themselves. This is why RL companies are having so much trouble – they are addressing the wrong universe!

In such a small market, you must expect small returns until the economy grows. You cannot expect big things to happen. Consider an analogous situation: a big-city manufacturer shows up in 45,000 resident Smallville and spends $1M on a spanky new store. By the way, the big city manufacturer produces items that are not usable in Smallville. What do you think is going to happen?

At this point in SL's history the successful commercial SL operations are those that directly address the residents' needs. These operations intimately understand the culture, habits and activities that take place in SL. They don't assume that success in some other universe will translate into SL success. They create new successes based on the characteristics of the secondary universe of SL. They fully engage SL and determine what the market needs – Like Any Successful Business Should Do!

It Was Mall Maddness!

It's now several weeks after setting up a second satellite mall location in Amat next to a popular Rave club, and it's time to examine the results.

Well, that didn't take long – THERE ARE NO RESULTS! That's not quite right, there are ALMOST no sales whatsoever.

How can this be? The shop is located right next to what I thought would be a prime location.

What do I mean by “a prime location”? Here was my thinking beforehand:

• Heavy Traffic, generated by the club owners, who in this case seem to do an amazing job at organizing DJs, events, etc. There are always lots of people in the club
• Location immediately beside the club. If you step out the door of the club, you cannot possibly avoid seeing the store
• Right kind of Traffic. The club-goers are not only Ravers, a genre for whom I have specifically built many products, but quite a few of these specific people are already my customers and “rave” about my products

This should be a no brainer, right?

Wrong. My traffic counter indicates I am getting about 0.5 visits per day, which is many, many times less than my main shop's traffic. As a result, there are few sales.

So what went wrong? All the facts seemed to indicate that this shop should have been successful, but it wasn't. Here's my analysis. By going into the club and observing the comings-and-goings, I knew what was wrong right away:

• While the right kind and quantity of people were in fact nearby, they did not enter the shop
• People would arrive frequently to participate in the well-promoted club activities (usually DJ's, etc.)
• People would participate (dance their brains out) in the club and then simply TP away
• The avatars would almost never take the time to step out of the club and stumble into the mall and my shop

So, I now conclude there is a third factor required for mall success: Traffic Flow! Yes, you need not only lots of traffic and the right kind of traffic, but also the traffic must somehow flow past your store. In the Amat case, the people flow occurred entirely within the club walls and never left. The mall shops were left to the ghosts.

So now I am thinking, how does one design a mall/club to produce effective traffic flow? If I was building a mall, I would consider the following aspects:

• You (the mall owner) cannot control the point from which people leave. They can just TP out anytime from anywhere in your sim
• You (the mall owner) CAN control their entry point
• Visitors are coming for their own benefit, not the shopowners. They were attracted to the sim for a particular reason. In the Amat case, they come in their dozens to participate in the club activities
• So (and this is the key point) visitors will traverse the shortest path between the entry point and the area they were attracted to in the first place
• Therefore, if you want visitors to see the mall... The Mall Must Be Placed In Between The Entry Point and The Sim's Attraction!

I am now imagining various designs for malls that could do this. All would be relatively simple to do, it's just positioning of the build objects. Does any mall actually do this? One limitation to this approach would be that visitors would tolerate only a certain number of stores on their way to the attraction. You can't expect them to walk through an entire Mall of America just to get to the pole dancers!

I spoke to the Amat club owner about this, but he seemed to think that a change in building style of the mall units would be the solution. I am not sure about this, because that would do nothing to affect the traffic flow at all.

So, my secondary shop remains in Amat, not selling anything. Come by and visit sometime!

Building a New Store, or SL Ergonomics 101

Man, I am tired! I just spend two whole days building my new store. While I took the logos and color scheme from the old store, I wanted to try to use my experience from the old store to create an improved store concept.

Here were my goals:

• Make things as easy as possible for customers, meaning easy to see/find products, move around, operate demonstrators, etc.
• Create an expandable design suitable for adding many more products in the future (I am staying here a long time, remember?)
• Keep the prim count low (thus extending my stay at this location for the longest possible time)

I thought about other store designs that I have encountered, and realized some problems that are all too often present:

• Products placed one by one on a wall cause avatars to move from one product to the next in a very tedious manner. Step, turn, look; Step, turn, look; repeat twelve times
• Doors are a pain. In RL, doors keep thieves from walking off with your inventory. That kind of theft simply doesn't happen in SL (at least most of the time, LOL!) You don't need really need doors at all, unless doors are critical to the store's atmosphere. Worse, poorly designed doors are sometimes hard to get through
• Have I seen all of this store? Is there another room I haven't found because it is hidden around the corner? Should I open that door to the back room? Is it a back room? Sadly, this type of confusion is often the case
• What the heck am I buying? I want to be able to see it, which is doubly important with particle effects that involve motion that can't be properly captured in a still image

Sometimes these “problems” aren't really issues because the store is trying to achieve a look-and-feel by approximating a specific real life situation. That I understand. But far too many shops simply build square walls, doors, etc. without really thinking of the effect on the ease of use by avatars in SL. SL ergonomics are DIFFERENT than RL ergonomics!

So, I built a store with some unique, SL-ergonomic features. Time will tell if they prove valuable:

• Products are hung on semi-circular walls. The customers need only rotate (one key press) to see many different full-on views of products. Step, turn, look at 12 products all at once
• Modular design that can be added to vertically. When do we run out of vertical? Not anytime soon for me!
• Demonstrators beside all products. Customers do not have to move at all to see an instant demonstration of the product
• Open design without walls or ceilings. Customers can quickly hop up or down to get to any portion of the store. In fact, when they arrive via TP, they can actually see the entire store all at once without any hidden rooms for them to find, and fly-bys can also see the entire operation
• Visible work area. I have placed a Laboratory Sandbox behind some glass. This not only provides me with an area to work, but also something for visitors to observe (think “zoo animal”.) Watching someone build particles is usually interesting, especially when things go horribly wrong...
• Open stage with bleacher seats for presentations or special events

That's enough for now. I have to open the store now (which means shutting down the old store and replacing it with redirection signs and re-issuing the advertising with new landmarks.)

Mall Time Not!

I wrote previously about setting up a second location in a busy mall, and speculated on how well it may do. I am afraid it's bombed catastrophically. After several weeks of operation, I have sold exactly ZERO items, while my main shop sells dozens of items daily. How could this be? The mall shop is located in a high-traffic area, right next to a club. Other apparently successful shops are nearby as well.

Puzzled, I spent some time hanging out at this location to see what was going on. Soon, I learned the truth: there was indeed high traffic, but the people were wrong! Don't misunderstand me – I am sure they are nice people, but they just were not the type that would find my products of interest.

What kind of people were they? I watched the traffic TP inbound and followed their path.... they typically walked by all the stores and entered the club. From there they presumably TP'd out somewhere – never entering my shop.

My very good friend WarmSpirit Williams and I went into the club to see what happens, and we immediately realized what was going down - literally! The club was not a dance club, but instead was a sex club for newbs and strippers! As we all know, newbs typically have no money and are not able to buy many products. Also, those in SL for sex are unlikely to buy my products. Obviously, I was never going to make any substantial sales at this location.

Stepping out of the club, I also saw a Money Tree outside – which I then recalled from my newbish days, shaking single L$ from as many trees as I could find. And who do Money Trees attract, exactly? They attract more people with no Lindens! Clearly, this is not the right place for me. I am moving out right away. (Note to self: don't bother putting up that Money Tree in my shop.)

My next mall experience must have quality traffic – that is to say, people who might have an interest in my products and have the money to buy them.

Romance in the Atmosphere

I wrote earlier about addressing products towards specific genres, and now I believe I've found another one: Romance. Sure, we all hear about the incredible dramas taking place between people (and non-people – it's SL after all!) It turns out that these situations do require products. Romance in SL, like RL, requires not only time and a great personality, but also items that help establish the mood. Things such as shape, skin, hair, clothing, smell (well, not smell!) and particle effects!


I've created two items that seem to be quite popular with the Romantics: a hearts poofer that gently blows away in the wind, and a fogger that produces pink and white colored fog. I call it “ValentineFog”. These are obviously not for everyone, but some people are really turned on by them – well, rather they are affected by how the effects alter the mood of the situation.

It's kind of like art: it's not what it looks like, it's how it makes you feel. That's what is going on in SL: people are trying to achieve meaningful alternate situations. Particle effects, clothes, music and other factors can dramatically affect the situation's mood. There is clearly a market for these items.

Come and try them out via live demonstration at my shop in Caso Milo!

Maybe I am a Particle Artist, instead of a Particle Engineer?