New World Notes

Throwback Thursday: There's an Official Iron Man Suit in Second Life & It's Fully User-Modifiable -- Case Study for Current Metaverse Marketers

Above: Standard Iron Man with Watermelon-Flavored Iron Man and Duck Head Iron Man (via Torley)

I had forgotten about this until Linden Lab veteran-turned-guru VC Hunter Walk reminded me when we chatted for my upcoming book: There's free copies of an official Iron Man outfit in Second Life, part of the promotion for the very first movie in the Marvel Comic Universe in 2008, even before Disney owned Marvel.

And notably, the outfit is fully customizable by Second Life users, as a way of encouraging fan-made content and creativity. This was quite a progressive leap for Marvel at the time, but a good one that understands how metaverse platforms work.

"The challenge for lots of corporations and established companies," as Hunter put it to me, "is whether they end up defaulting to the controllable level of where the user can modify the outfits but can't really create [with them]".

Compare and contrast, for instance, with official Fortnite skins from the MCU and other major IP, which far as I know, are not modifiable. Which is probably one reason why we don't see many videos of MCU characters in Fortnite doing anything besides participating in standard battle royale matches. (And my guess is the long tail for actual purchases of these Marvel skins are not as good as they could have been, too.)

By contrast, as I wrote back then:

Throwback Thursday: The First Backlash Against Metaverse Real Estate

When I express my skepticism over blockchain-based metaverse platforms, despite a "boom" of major companies and brands buying virtual real estate in them, here's why: It's happened before. From 2006-2008, major companies and brands like Adidas, American Apparel, BMW, Dell, Duran Duran, Nissan, NBC, and so on (and on), bought virtual land in Second Life, mainly to use as marketing outreach to the SL userbase.

Two small problems:

• As Internet academic Clay Shirky noted, the SL userbase wasn't really growing all that much.
• And as Wired magazine reported, hardly anyone in the SL userbase was even showing up at these branded locations in Second Life.

The Wired story got a lot technically wrong (which you can read about here), but that basic narrative was true.

Throwback Thursday: That Time We Noticed Bitcoin Was Being Used Less Than Linden Dollars... in 2013

With Bitcoin's experiencing an utter bloodbath today, this may come across as "I told ya so", but hopefully not. For nearly 10 years, Bitcoin promoters and major investors have never been able to answer a question I started asking in 2013, and kept asking over the years: If Bitcoin is such an important virtual currency, why does it have less daily transactions than Linden Dollars in Second Life?

This isn't to say Linden Dollars are superior to Bitcoin -- which after all, are a virtual currency intrinsically tied to a social game MMO platform. However, after all that hype, you'd think Silicon Valley would be quick to have the same skepticism for Bitcoin as they did for Second Life after it failed to deliver on its promises in 2006-2008.

Daily BTC transactions have grown somewhat since then, but remain below 300,000 per day, as compared to Second Life's 400,000+.

Why? Short answer: Because the value of any money -- even and especially virtual money -- is created by a community which agrees to value it. Even and especially a virtual community. Linden Dollars have that. Bitcoin never really did.

Again, this isn't said with any triumph, because thousands if not millions of people have bought into the Bitcoin hype, and are now suffering. But the thing is, another blockchain-based speculation bubble is still happening, and the same principles still apply:

Throwback Thursday: Metaverse Developers Not Only Testified Before Congress In 2008, Jon Stewart Featured It on The Daily Show!

When I was talking to that Government Body That Shall Remain Nameless about regulation of metaverse platforms, and plans to start calling public hearings before Congress and EU Parliaments, they were surprised when I mentioned that this already happened in 2008 with Philip Rosedale and other metaverse developers.

"Yeah," I said. "Jon Stewart even did a segment about it on The Daily Show."

"Really?"

Yes really and you can watch it here. (Note to Comedy Central: Did you forget to enable embed settings?) Jon Stewart even had an embedded reporter in Second Life: Rob Riggle as the bodacious avatar Beowulf Porpoiseburg.

OK, not really Second Life. Here's what happened:

Throwback Thursday: Metaverse Developer Philip Rosedale Testified Before Congress... in 2008

When I mentioned that metaverse platform CEOs should prepare to testify under oath before Congress soon, that was not an exaggeration: In fact, that very thing already happened in 2008, with Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale. (Wearing a suit for the first time that I'm aware of since meeting him in 2003!) 

Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), who chairs the subcommittee, seems to have a surprisingly solid understanding of virtual worlds. He described virtual worlds as a “glimpse into future [and] a window into current reality for millions of people.” He noted that “at their best, virtual worlds are vehicles for understanding across boarders and in communities.” The concerns he listed were also on point: consumer protection, intellectual property protection, online banking, gambling, and child protection.

Most of those concerns are still concerning, and yet to be adequately addressed!

Read the whole 2008 summary/analysis from lawyer and virtual law blogger Benjamin Duranske. (Who interestingly enough, later went on to become Chief Compliance Officer at metaverse-developer Facebook.)

Philip's appearance was a friendly fact-finding one, but that was when metaverse platforms like Second Life only had hundreds of thousands of active users.  Now they're used by nearly half a billion people, the plurality of whom are minors in the United States. (And in the US, minors enjoy a special legally protected status.) So the next time subpoenas start flying, CEOs should expect the questions they get from Congress to be much more pointed.