Author Archive

This week, the Behavioral Research Department says goodbye to our summer interns – CarterAllen and MetalStorm001. Both have played key roles in the success of our summer Virtual Worlds Research Program. Together, they have conducted research on marketing, branding and avatar behavior in a range of virtual worlds including:

• HiPiHi
• Doppelganger
• Habbo Hotel
• ToonTown
• There.com
• Entropia
• Kaneva
• RuneScape
• Whyville
• And of course, Second Life

MetalStorm001 and CarterAllen have become so immersed with in-world experiences that I refer to them by their avatar names here. But just before I send them back to school and back to the realities that come with the real world, I wanted to ask them a few questions about their virtual world experiences so far. Here’s what they had to say.

What is your favorite virtual world and why?

CarterAllen: Kaneva was my favorite, mainly because they seemed to merge the real world with the virtual world. Many of these worlds, like RuneScape or Entropia, are so far out that they hardly seem possible, and these fantasy aspects are why they’re such a big draw for many users. However, Kaneva combined aspects of a virtual world like Second Life with aspects of a 2D social networking site like MySpace, and this made the world a sort of halfway point between the virtual world and the real world. It’s targeted specifically at users who are less interested in extensive fantasy worlds, but more interested in spending time online for social interaction.

MetalStorm001: I would choose There.com. There are several reasons. A) There is a very large area of land to explore and many cool themes for islands and such. Such as an island designed to look like an alien planet and a city called Saja, which is located above the ground, floating in the sky. B) I like that in There.com, if you do not pay for the subscription, you can level up your skills to get awarded free stuff. That way, even if you don’t want to spend money on the game, you can still customize your avatar and have your own house. C) I also enjoy that there is always an activity being held somewhere in There.com pretty much all the time, all you have to do to find people is look for an activity in the activity bar. D) I also love that real bands come into the game to play in concerts that you can attend. E) I also like the ability to customize your avatar in many ways, from changing their appearance, to whatever you want them to wear, from goofy clown noses to cool t-shirts.

What is the most surprising thing you learned in your virtual worlds research this summer?

CarterAllen: The most surprising aspect for me is how fast these worlds are growing. For instance, Second Life has grown from 6 million avatars to 8 million avatars (a 25% increase) in the last two months. Yet, more than anything else, it almost boggles my mind that people are willing to spend their hard earned dollars on virtual items (land, houses, clothing, concerts) that don’t even really exist. More than $1.25 million real dollars are usually spent in world in Second Life on a day to day basis. This is proof more than anything else that virtual worlds are more than just a passing fad.

MetalStorm001: First, I’m surprised that so many people take virtual worlds very seriously and spend a large portion of their time in world. Second, I’m amazed that the amount of custom made items is almost infinite… I mean, I have ridden on everything from a sports car to a giant floating Great White Shark! Thirdly, I learned that no two virtual worlds are the same, even though some strive for the same goal as their competitors.

Will you go in world after you leave this internship?

CarterAllen: Honestly, probably not. This is partly because I think if I picked up virtual world browsing as a habit, I don’t know how I’d ever get anything else done at college. The other part is that, while I’ve immensely enjoyed researching and learning about these worlds over the last three months, it’s still not something where I’ve then felt like, “Wow, this is something that I have to get into.” For me, the concept of a virtual world where people actually interact, much less spend money, is in itself almost surreal and challenges our traditional view of reality.

MetalStorm001: Yes, There.com is entertaining and I would like to continue playing after I leave my internship here at Spunlogic. Probably, because I have it on my computer and a couple of my friends play. If my friends didn’t play, I probably wouldn’t, because I wouldn’t know anybody and it’d be complete strangers online. I will also go into World of Warcraft after my internship, because I’m currently paying for that game and I find it very entertaining and fun to play.

What are your thoughts on the future of virtual worlds? How will they change or evolve?

CarterAllen: I think the evolution of virtual worlds over the next five years is going to be very interesting. Like most somewhat controversial issues, there are distinct positives and negatives that come with these booming virtual worlds. On the positive side, worlds like Second Life have created virtual meeting spaces for businesses. This never before has been possible. Two people from opposite ends of the world can now interact and hang out in the same club, side by side. The social networking possibilities are limitless. At the same time, virtual worlds may open up a new can of worms that even ten years ago we never could have envisioned. There was an article in last week’s Wall Street Journal about a man whose real-life marriage is on the ropes because of his Second Life relationship with another woman. I think it’s a given that virtual worlds are going to grow like wildfire in the next few years. Whether that’s such a good thing or not remains to be seen.

MetalStorm001: Virtual Worlds will never die. They provide us with an alternative with which to escape from reality and become someone other than ourselves. I think more companies will get in, even though a lot of companies are already in-world. People will always play, but if they keep making more virtual worlds, eventually there will be too many. There are already some that aren’t making it because there aren’t enough people going in them. With more and more virtual worlds popping up, they’re going to continue to run into that problem.

To the naked eye, a dog’s tail wags when he’s happy. But careful study reveals something more. Recently, a team of researchers used cameras to study tail wagging. And in doing so, they made a remarkable discovery. When dogs experience positive emotions, they wag their tails a little more to their right. When they experience negative emotions, they do the opposite.

Sometimes, a dog’s tail wags when he’s not happy. But we’d never know it – even if we watched him very closely. Even if we loved him very much. It reminds me that there’s so much more to this world than we can experience with our eyes alone, that our world is so rich with things to discover … but our eyes are only one of many tools we can use to study it. It also reminds me that sometimes other tools work much better. Because oftentimes, our discoveries are largely dependent on the tools we use to make them. As in the case of dogs. As in the case of many other things …

Well it’s official. Two of my greatest loves (data visualization and real estate information) were married recently in this video. And what a beautiful couple they make – a powerful example of how even the most complex data sets can be communicated in a language that anyone can understand.

Speculativebubble, you fascinate me.

Here lately, LOST is losing it — at least for me. In previous seasons, things were different. Work came to a grinding halt every Thursday morning as hours of LOST water cooler conversations ensued. We’d TiVo back and forth through LOST commercials like mad fools, logging onto secret websites to dig for clues. LOST theories ran through the office like wildfire — blackberries going off in meetings with one liners that could go back and forth into the night. The purgatory theory…the ‘it’s all just a big dream’ theory…the writers are on crack theory…It was like the year between the Matrix 2 and Matrix 3. Endless possibilities. Unlimited potential. But something’s different with LOST this season. This season, we’re back to work.

So with all this extra time on my hands, I’ve been thinking. What’s changed? The characters are the same. The set’s the same. The story is heading the same direction. But there’s one fundamental difference. And it’s kind of hard to ignore. This season, we got to meet The Others. And as it happens, The Others really aren’t that scary.

In previous seasons, we were forced to ponder questions like “What do The Others look like? How many are out there? How far are they willing to go?” In our minds, The Others were a dangerous group of primitive people…or ferocious monsters…or people possessed by some evil deity…or whatever else scared the H out of us. Now that we’ve met The Others and have gotten to know them, things are very different. Now, they’re just a group of slightly off key adults singing Kumbaya in some outdoor recreation center.

Is our rapid loss of LOST engagement surprising? Perhaps not. After all, the funniest comedies don’t give you all the lines. The best mysteries don’t give you all the clues. The scariest movies never show you the monster. No matter what the genre, it seems that audiences are most engaged when they aren’t given all the details — when they are forced to make inferences instead. And when you think about it, this is really a timeless concept. Take Helen of Troy. She’s possibly the most beautiful literary character of all time — all because Homer never described her face. All we know is that she was so beautiful that the grandfathers of the soldiers who died in battle over her could look upon her face and understand what all the fighting was for. Now that’s hot! So many people have imagined her differently. In the 60s and 70s, she was a twiggy, thin lipped woman dressed in psychedelic cloths. In the 80s, she was a curvy full lipped woman wearing a black unitard and pink aerobics sox. If you’re into brunettes, she’s a brunette. If you’re into read heads, she’s a read head. Helen of Troy will always be beautiful because it doesn’t matter what you’re into — she’s that.

So how does the concept of inference apply to our industry? Should we design our brands to flex with audience expectations — to let our audience dictate what they want to see? Could ‘inferential marketing’ (if you will) be the key to reaching the highest levels of audience engagement — the key to universal brand appeal? Given the effects of inference in so many other media forms, perhaps it could.

Give the brain a taste of what you want it to know and the mind runs wild. Give the brain too much and the mind stops –making room for other curious things.

Ten years ago, I discovered a new food at an Icelandic breakfast table, Vla — a kind of yogurt you can drink. Packaged in a boxed milk container, Vla was a smooth yogurt that came in several flavors. I loved Vla. It was so unique. I had never tasted anything like it before. Invented by the Dutch, the Icelandic people had been drinking Vla for years… it just hadn’t quite reached the US markets. Several years after tasting Vla, I stumbled upon a similar product in an Israeli convenience store. It was designed to give you a cool boost in the desert heat. Unlike Vla, this product was packaged in individual plastic containers — perfect for any desert traveler on the go. Years after that, I found a similar product called Dannon Light and Fit in an American grocery store. Packaged in a small bottle, shaped like an hourglass, Light and Fit was a smooth yogurt drink designed for athletic people who wanted a fast and healthy snack.

Sometimes the greatest new things aren’t new at all — they’re just reincarnations of old things in new places. I think of that often as I watch our fascination with User Generated Content grow. People love to talk about User Generated Content like it’s a new thing in media — a phenomenon that shocked our industry, becoming an overnight success. But here lately, I’m starting to wonder whether it’s really new at all.

Consider reality TV shows like American Idol. On Idol, everyday people get to compete for fame. Everyday people create most of the shows’ content. And even if they aren’t brave enough to get in front of the cameras, everyday people decide on what they see by casting votes. There’s a TON of participation on Idol — more votes were cast for that show last year than any presidential election. And there are so many other shows like it. Survivor, The Real World and even Jerry Springer are no exception. In each, most of the content is generated by the user. Radio talk shows like Howard Stern work the same way. People love to call in and give their perspectives. And that’s the show — real people giving real perspectives. One time, I was listening to an Atlanta radio station where some guy in his mid 20’s was planning a special date… with his step sister. They’d been separated before college but were recently reunited. The guy thought it might be wrong to date his stepsister… but in his words, “She’s smokin’ hot!” You can’t imagine how many people called in with their two cents on that. That show was so funny I missed my exit on the way to work.

User Generated Content is a new phenomenon for the Internet, but is it really new to media? Or is it just a reincarnation of a very old concept – one that has been successful in so many other media forms? Some would say that Reality TV and radio talk show participants have less control over content when compared to Internet contributors. After all, producers can modify tapes and recordings to give shows their own spin. But ultimately, don’t web administrators sensor online contributions in basically the same way?

Every time a new and successful idea is introduced online, I ask myself whether it’s new at all. It’s usually not. A single good concept can be reborn in so many new places — becoming an overnight success time and time again. I’m not a fortune teller, but I believe I’ve got the power predict the next big thing in any new media form. The past and the present are my crystal ball.