SoftBank, one of Japan's leading mobile phone companies, is selling Second Life avatars as wallpaper personalities -- i.e., idoru. This news comes to us from Japanese language SL news site Second Times, and my brilliant NWN translator Sanny Yoshikawa. "This is the first project of 'AquaEdge'," Sanny tells me. "Usthem Labo works as a talent agency of these virtual idols and Second Life creators will develop them as a real idols. The virtual idols are expected to be exposed in photo books, movies and music." Somewhat calling to mind the idoru envisioned in William Gibson's novel of the same name -- a virtual celebrity crossing several medium.
More info (in Japanese) on Aqua Edge:"As real idols are polished by a fashion coordinator, makeup artists or musicians, virtual idols are also polished by many SL creators," Sanny translates for us. "The goal of this project is making virtual idols with metaverse creators and sending virtual idols to media such as movie, music and photo books." For now, however, SoftBank subscribers can get an SL-based idoru for their mobile phone, a service known as "Virtual Lovely Mobile", which'll run them 300 Yen/month, about USD$3.15 (see screencap, courtesy Sanny.) Image credit: aquaedge.jp
hmm.
Ill assume all IDOLS are using items/elements designed / owned or licensed by Aquaedge for their new service.?
The temptation to treat SL as giant "free-almost free" stock house of images/elements seems to be a current myth or meme by many this week.
I note many sell items. textures etc, that explicitly state non commercial usage, and usage only within the SL grid service.
its a shame i feel i need to point this out, isnt it.
Posted by: cube inada | Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 02:46 PM
As the post itself notes, the site says the avatars are created in collaboration with SL partners.
Posted by: Hamlet Au | Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 03:05 PM
The content creators are listed on the creators page. http://aquaedge.jp/creators.html
I wish they would have an English translation version of the web site. It looks like a very interesting business idea.
Those look like those manga age play avatars the Japanese seem to be so fond of in SL. I have seen a lot of them. They do a good job with them but laws in Japan differ from laws in the USA. An excellent topic for virtual world journalists to research and report on. Just because certain content and activities are OK in one country doesn't make it ok in another. Technically speaking doesn't it seem like all the Zindra regions need to be hosted out of Amsterdam?
Interesting post.
Posted by: Ann Otoole | Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 03:24 PM
Aww someone read this old article I guess ;)
Posted by: Gwyneth Llewelyn | Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 03:33 PM
actually does it not say "polished" by many...
what ever that means....
i saw the site, it looked nice and did seem to indicate that the characters and branded shops that supply the items i suspect theyll use were all accountable within the venture.
c3
Posted by: cube inada | Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 05:03 PM
cube
>actually does it not say "polished" by many...
>what ever that means....
Should I use the word "improved" instead of "polished" ?
The original text of this part is here(in the blue box):
http://aquaedge.jp/index.html
Posted by: Sanny Yoshikawa | Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 08:23 PM
;)
im not sure "improved" is the term you want;) i cant read your website, but "polished" might work;)
and yes, you site and business look nice and are a fun/ good idea.
c3
Posted by: cube3 | Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 10:03 PM