week5


 * Do you see that conventional means of mass media advertising can translate into Second Life? Provide reasons why or why not? **

Mass media advertising acts as an outlet for corporations to expand their horizons and reach out to society, providing them with their products and services. Through virtual online worlds like Second Life, advertising is able to reach out to the users more efficiently and with difficulty at the same time, pushing the boundaries of the digital world. The utopian paradise of Second Life is essentially one of the last public spaces available, where people can communicate and exchange ideas freely behind a masked avatar. Second Life has been successful for strategies of marketing due to three reasons: Micropayments which can be converted into real dollars, intellectual property rights owned by residents, and the fact that it is open sourced, developers or businesses are able to extend on what is possible. With these capabilities, companies are then able to increase participation and activity from online users. Freedom for advertisers to roam around the Internet does have its limits though; rules are set and governed within Second Life, limiting the accessibility of those who only want to constantly market and ‘spam’ users with messages by monitoring each resident’s behaviours so any form of harassment and violation of the Community Standards will not be acceptable. At the end, the goal of Second Life is not to attract mass-market crowds or build upon its image in the media, but it is about people’s relationships with others and the subculture of a utopian public space.

Works Cited Another Perfect World: In search of Virtual Paradise. Dir. Femke Wolting and Jorien Van Nes. Submarine, 2009. Youtube.com. 30 June 2009. Web. 13 Oct. 2009. . McCarthy, Caroline. "'Second Life,' after the backlash." CNET.com. 23 Aug. 2007. Web. 13 Oct. 2009. . Nes, Jorien Van, and Femke Wolting. "Another Perfect World." Hotdocs.ca. Web. 13 Oct. 2009. . Valdez, Norman. "Mainstreaming of Second Life." Week 5 CCT300 Labs. Sheridan College, Oakville. 8 Oct. 2009. Lecture.