Lively – Google’s new virtual world
Some of you may have heard of have heard of Linden Lab’s Second Life – it is a virtual world where you can take the form of pretty much whoever you want to be and interract with people from around the world. It has got all sorts of press over the past few years (it has been around a while), from stories about people making a living from it (there is a currency of Linden Dollars which do equate to real US dollars), to adult areas which cross the line and also some brands and companies having a presence.
To be perfectly honest, I had not really heard much about it for a while, but now Google has just launched Lively – it looks to be slightly similar to Second Life, but with rooms rather than an actual world.
Techcrunch has a post that proclaims that there has been $345 million invested in virtual worlds this year. This is some serious money and invested in very new companies. From a marketing perspective, it is interesting that some brands dabbled with Second Life, but to me, it is almost a step too far, UNLESS the brand or company is niched towards the kind of people (early adopters) who are trying virtual worlds. Heck, I know of many companies who have no email data from customers!
I’d be interested to know what you all think…. is this a fad, or do you see yourself having a virtual life online in 5-10 years?
UPDATE – the BBC Tech Blog has a good post about this subject here. Mentions Vivaty and also Second Life and IBM teaming up to “transport your avatar from one world to another’. Blimey.
