Traditional morpegs

• MMORPG-s (morpegs): massively multi-player online role-playing games

• Games: pre-fabricated, themed fantasy worlds• Example: World of Warcraft– Introduced by Blizzard Entertainment – ~15 years old– Over 10 million subscribers (price: $20/month)– Theme: ‘Tolkien’-type mythologies– Defined goal: slaughter monsters and each other

New morpegs: ‘making not slaying’

• Platforms: Virtual worlds entirely generated by users• Example: Second Life

– Owner: Linden Labs– Founded by Philip Rosedale after the novel ‘Snowcrash’.– ~ 8 years old– Explosive growth since summer 2006– > 14 million subscribers with ~ 1 million regulars/month– ~ $1 million spent by residents per day– 65k acres of virtual land – No defined goal: people can do whatever they want and own

whatever they build. So what do they do?

They party!

They socialize with stars like Susan Vega and Bob Dylan playing live

They shop!

They build!

They go to church!

And may get married!

They also need a home!

There are cities!

They do everything…and more

• Culture – museums, cinemas, theaters, concerts..• Sports - races, adventures• Entertainment: film festivals, reality shows• Nightlife – gambling, sex, parties…• Shopping, shopping, shopping….• Work – top incomes are ~$200k• Business - thousands of profitable businesses• Crime – gunshots, retail fraud, terrorism• Politics – democracy, independence movements• Currency, real estate, stock markets• …..

Major corporations are present

• Starwood Hotels – showrooms/reservations• Toyota, Nissan – sell virtual cars• American Apparel – setup a virtual store for clothes• U2, Duran Duran, Susan Vega - concerts• IBM – business solutions (owns 15 islands)• Intel – tech conferences, product information• Reuters – permanent correspondent• Sweden has an embassy• Presidential candidates’ headquarters (Mark Warner, Sarkozy,

Royale)• US congress – investigates taxable income earned• FBI investigates illegal gambling• INSEAD• …

INSEAD’s SL campus

Booming real estate market• Land prices

– ~ $100 for 4000 m2, $1600 for a small island, $10-200 monthly rents depending on land size

– Land prices evolve like in real markets

• Hundreds of real estate agents– David Storey: $26,500 island on Entropia U.– Anshe Chung:, 8 million m2 assets– themed neighborhoods– construction business, retail business– restrictions, privacy, …

• Lawsuits (Bragg against Linden Lab)

Opportunities for Businesses(Internal)

• Virtual office• Virtual lab – development/collaboration center (Unilever,

Xerox)• E-learning/training – workshops (Intel, IBM)• Conferences – meetings (IBM…)• Recruiting – community building (Areva, Cisco, l’Oreal...)

IBM uses virtual worlds to help collaboration between employees

Sun Microsystems’ virtual office

Health-care professionals use virtual worlds to train doctors and nurses

An energy company uses Forterra Systems to train employees to handle hazardous materials on a virtual oil rig

Opportunities for Businesses(External)

• Marketing Communications– Advertising/product placements (series, films, L’Oreal)

• $15 million spent in 2006• Over a dozen metaverse ad agencies

– Corporate identity/image– Demos, show rooms, product trial– Build community of clients – community-based brands– Trade-shows (Cisco, Startus,..)

• Alternative Channel– Sales meetings with customers– Stores (branches, shelf space, assistance)– Procurement interfaces (auctions, markets)

• Market research – Test designs (Sears, Toyota)– Customer focus groups

Xerox researchers explore Second Life for customer demos

Cisco Systems – virtual summit for channel partners

Wisconsin architect John Brouchoud shows model home on Second Life

Wall Street Journal, June 16, 2008

Arcelor organizesshareholder meeting in SL

Challenges

• ID and security – Payment– Transactions– Hackers

• Backbone logistics• Availability of the system

– Servers– Infrastructure (bandwidth)

• Competing platforms – Compatibility – Transferability of avatars– Balcanisation

• Legal issues– Copyright– Ownership rights– Taxation

Uncertain future…

Conclusion

• Metaverses may become the ‘operating system’ of the Internet– Platform– Standards– Winner-take-all aspects– Huge uncertainty

• Get an avatar now! • Explore / understand / experiment