Second Life Education Research

AngryBeth Shortbread is a genius! If you haven’t been to The Port, then GO! Go now! Come back and read the rest of this later. If you have been there, well…go again! Why? Because AngryBeth does something that most great Metaverse creators just don’t seem the catch on to…she changes things up. The great bits of her place are always there but there is always something new too. For example, have you seen the caves under her place? If you haven’t, I say again, go now! Go ahead…I’ll wait.

Ok you’re back.

You’ve seen the caves. You’ve seen that AngryBeth is always building and developing new features in her SL space. But this post is about more than the fact that Ms. Shortbread is a genius. It’s about the importance of making an SL space dynamic. Most folks spend a good amount of time developing a space when they first buy land but whether you’re a big Multiverse Development Company or just a little guy with a 512 newbie spot, you’ve got to keep it moving if you want to maintain a certain level of traffic. It’s not enough to build something grandiose if it stays static. The best stores get in new merchandise all the time. The best games add dynamic content to keep folks coming back. The best SL spaces offer a consistent and yet ever-changing (even if it’s just a bit of the space that changes) experience. A static sim in SL is about as exciting as your grandma’s living room. If it’s looked exactly the same way since you were five how eager are you to go back? And SL spaces don’t even bake cookies!

There are two ways to keep a space dynamic: 1) new interactive content and 2) new people. It’s a cycle. If you build it they will come. If you rebuild it, they’ll come again and again. The more people who stop by and spend time and tell their friends…well the more people who will come by, spend time, and tell their friends. See the trend? What’s the point of a great space if no one sees it?

Hiro Pendgragon recently blogged about the way that Dell has integrated their SL presence into their overall market strategy. This is also smart. If your SL space is an extension of a larger project (a website, a company, a class) it can’t be treated as optional. It shouldn’t be presented in a wishy-washy way that makes it seem less than necessary. In addition, if you’ve developed the space correctly, the people who visit it will make it necessary as well through their participation in the space.

We have to remember that building an SL presence is only the beginning of a long process. It’s a relationship. You wouldn’t consider landing the first date with a girl the end of the relationship and this is no different.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.