Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has announced that it will maintain a display hall and auditorium in the much-hyped Second Life online virtual game (note the use of the term “game†not “worldâ€Â).AMD is hoping to use its new AMD Dev Central Pavilion on AMD Dev Central Island to engage with developers (both amateur and professional) about working with AMD. Its virtual hall will be available for meetings and training, and its auditorium will be used to run seminars. The first AMD event is scheduled for February 25.
“The Second Life metaverse is a gathering place for both new and established developers. Through the interactive virtual experience at the pavilion, we hope to provide developers with an outlet to learn and grow, such as helping them to optimize native code for multi-threaded applications,†said Paul Nolte, an AMD project manager Second Life Pavilion.
AMD joins other companies, such as Cisco, Dell, IBM and Sun, in establishing a presence on Second Life, seemingly oblivious to the fact that far, far fewer people actually play Second Life than the much touted 3 million registered users – but more on that in a moment.
What I find bothersome about companies jumping on the Second Life band wagon is that often do so thinking that they’re doing something innovative and ground breaking. What’s actually happening is that they’re getting sucked into Second Life hype.
Obviously AMD believes that Second Life is a good way of reaching developers. The logic being that game developers are likely to be “residents†of Second Life.
I’d would like to point out a number of issues.
First, while Second Life likes to talk about 3 million registered accounts, there are only around 100,000 active residents. It has a churn rate of 85% (yes, you read right). In other worlds there is small group of hard core users. Most people come, have a look, get bored, and don’t come back. I’d like to see how interested companies would be if Linden Labs touted the 100,000 figure instead of 3 million.
Second, there are other virtual games out there. Companies supporting one game over another, send a negative message to developers who are members of other gaming communities.
Third, trying to do business in a virtual world is far more difficult and time consuming than doing business via a regular web site. To access Second Life, for example, you have download a viewer, set up an account, work out the controls, orientate yourself in the 3D world, and them clumsily try to locate and get to the company you’re interested in finding out about. Personally, I’d rather google the company name, and access its web site, and this is why I think having a Second Life presence is a gimmick more than anything else.
As far as gimmicks go, setting up a shop front on Second Life is probably not a bad idea. At least it’s still getting publicity, and column inches, for companies that are doing it.
However, I suspect in the medium term, once the novelty of Second Life has worn off, companies need to start looking for a new fad in order to generate PR.
Tags: online, Tech News
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