For Discussion: Live a Second Life

Well, this video in YouTube have open up to me more about what avatars in the Virtual Worlds can do. In this video, it talks about what are the pros and cons of the virtual world. As you can see in the video, avatars can be use as a simultaneous connection between two or more people where you can communicate by voice or text in the virtual worlds. Also, one of the beauty of having an avatar in the virtual world is that, people around the world can come together for business meetings and have discussion even when they are from different parts of the world. This makes it easier for communication. For an example, in the virtual world called Second Life, a person can come to a place in Malaysia of the virtual world to meet with another person who is already in Malaysia of the virtual world even though they are not from the same country in the real world.

Besides that, in the virtual worlds there are virtual pets you could take care without having to spend money to buy foods for the pets itself. It can be seen that, in the virtual world, pets can be fed and play with as what can be done in the real world. Also, toys can be bought in the virtual world for the virtual pets to play with and the pets can even dress up.

However, the video also states that by using these virtual worlds, will it somehow replace the real world relationship? Will it replace the person to person interaction in real life? One example that could be seen is that, parents and kids would have not as much time to interact between each other as technologies like the virtual worlds have used up most of their time and they would have less time to interact with each other. This would then distant the relationship between both parents and children.

Here's some question for you to think about, is having an avatar in the virtual world a good thing? Will it reduce the time spend in the real world to interact with friends and family? What would you say?

Avatar Market Place

Here is one website that interest me which is called Avatar Marketplace. It is a place where online users can come to shop online for Virtual Worlds such as Second Life. The Online Shopping Services that Avatar Marketplace provided uses 'Opensim Grid' or also known as the OpenSimulator Grid which is an open source server platform for hosting virtual worlds. The good thing about the Opensim Grid is that it allows users to teleport between multiple OpenSim-based virtual worlds. This would make it easier for the residents of these virtual worlds to trade items created within the virtual worlds. Also, in the Virtual Worlds, the trading is done using game money (G$) which can be use in any participating Virtual Worlds. If you are interested, you can come and visit the website below.



Avatar Marketplace <-- Click here!

For Discussion: Part 4 Issues with Avatar Marketing

Well, as you all know, avatars are mostly meant to be merely a representation of the personality of the user in virtual worlds. The avatar itself does not necessarily have to be an exact replica of the user. However, as the years goes by, with the emergence of virtual worlds as a common part of society among the online communities, many people have turned to their avatars as their identical personality. Sometimes, the avatar can be seen as the personality itself of the user behind it. It can be seen that the users are mostly teenagers or even children who plays those online games or even adapting themselves in the online communities through forums and virtual worlds



However, even if they are in the virtual world, the avatars are not as innocent as they appear. For an example, intrusions on privacy would be a problem as the avatars are market to the people in the virtual realm where people would sometimes give up their identity such as age, address, name and more to online stalkers. Also, conversation in the virtual world would be as real in the real world. Thus, users tend to say things in private that people don't get to hear. But, others would not know of the virtual world developers that could 'hear' the conversation between two users, using their avatars.



Besides that, how come there are no avatar whom are disabled or of a certain eclectic skin color? Everything that is done in the real world can also be done in the virtual worlds. For an example, when the users include their race, gender and class which were not supposed to make its way here, could eventually represent the actual personality of the users. Thus, when the new users, especially children, enter into these online communities, they would be easy target for online predators as they have little but basic knowledge of what is going on in the virtual world, and of what types of avatars they should appear. This would cause problems for discrimination as they are pressure by the standards that is conform in the virtual world.



Even so, the users that uses the avatar would think that in order to survive in the long term, they have to think commercially. In other words, users would have to fork out money from their pockets to pay for the various items or even customize accessories for their avatars in order to fit in the communities. Thus, it can be seen that not only the avatars are market to the users but also the clothing and accessories of the avatars that is market to them. Unfortunately, most young users such as teenagers and children still do not have the income to purchase these items for their avatars.

In my opinion, these virtual worlds should not be fully commercialize or in other words, they should not have to pay for the use of avatars as in the virtual world, people can come together around the world to learn more about each other cultures and differences which maybe one day could resolve the war issues around the world. As some would say, it is still true that the best things in life are free.

Dear friends, do you face the same issues when you are online in the virtual world? What's your thought of using avatars in the online communities like Facebook or online forum?


References:

Bartle, R.A, 2009, Security and Privacy and Virtual Worlds, http://www.nis-summer-school.eu/nis09/presentations/02_barlte.pdf, viewed on 15 September 2010.

Squidoo, 2009, Virtual Worlds Avatar, http://www.squidoo.com/virtual-world-avatars#module30554242, viewed on 15 September 2010.

Part 3 Avatar Marketing Strategies

Virtual worlds are great platforms for business innovation and development. However commerce in virtual worlds is still at the experimental stages. There are many problems. Although problems persist, the potential for business in these immersive frontiers cannot be ignored.

Strength
Virtual worlds have real economies. Firstly, many companies import real branding and advertising to the virtual world. That creates an environment for people who can’t buy the valuables in the real world an opportunity to do purchases for their avatars to satisfy their desire that they can’t achieve in reality. Secondly in the virtual world many companies hold marketing and sponsorship of events, avatars’ participation helps build reputation of the companies. Lastly, companies often take advantage of virtual world to do new product research. By checking the statistics of the avatars’ activity, companies have a better view of their product developments.

Weakness
Every coin has two sides. Avatar marketing has weaknesses as well. First of all, there are many inactive users who have no concept that the avatars are their representation. They don’t put themselves in the immersive environment, to the opposite, they separate reality and virtual world. Additionally, the infrastructure of the virtual world is not fully developed. Many problems occur: lag times and crashes, downtimes, clunky interface etc.

Opportunities
Virtual worlds are popular places on the Internet and are more and more popular. According to Gartner Research predicted that by the end of 2011, 80% of active Internet users will have some sort of presence in a virtual world. That means more and more people tend to link virtual world with reality, avatars and themselves. It’s a good signal for companies that it is time to market avatars to further market their real customers.

Threats
Immersive environments are more complicated than they appear. That is approved by the fact that virtual world duplications of real world products and marketing techniques do not appear to work. Besides, it is difficult to judge how users respond to marketing efforts online based on their avatars’ performance. Lastly there is a lack of proven metrics to measure business performances in immersive environments issues.


Based on the analysis above, I come up with some strategies.
According to new Concordia University research that shows in most cases, avatars reflect the personality of their creators. (Science Daily, 2010) Overall, the impressions made by the physical traits of the avatar match certain dimensions of the true personality of the creator. This correlation between avatar and creator helps identify the consumers behind the avatars and will lead to improved avatar-marketing strategy.

To do avatar marketing, companies can host some social media campaign to call on all the web people to be engaged in the virtual world. Besides companies can take full use of official online spots such as facebook, MySpace, YouTube channel, and Twitter which have many existing fans to help spread influencing scope to attract more people be involved in the virtual world.

Damer B, 1997, Applications of Virtual Worlds, viewed on 14 September 2010.
http://www.digitalspace.com/avatars/book/chus/chus1.htm
Science Daily, 2010, What Does Your Avatar Say About You, viewed 15 September, 2010
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100726094905.htm

For Discussion: Part 2 Avatar Marketing Application

Well, you all may have a rough idea on what avatar is from the previous post, where avatar is a representation or embodiment of the identity of the virtual world icon which you and I can obtain through the manifestation of one's presence in these online communities. As you all know, avatars has been used widely around the Internet where forums, online games, and more have used these avatars for people as their representation in the virtual world. These avatars have evolved from a one-dimensional user-name and a two-dimensional icon(picture) to a 3-dimensional figure which can be seen in games or social networking virtual worlds such as Second Life.



In most games, the player's representation is fixed, however some games offer a basic character model, or template, and then allow customization of the physical features as the player sees fit. For an example, a player can customize their avatar physical appearance such as hairstyle, and also can be dressed in wide ranged of clothes. However, massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are have a more sophisticated avatars which player can customize like skin tones, facial expression and more.



Besides that, avatars are also widely use among the online communities in the virtual worlds as what I had mention earlier. One example that can be seen would be in Second Life which they take on a whole new level and become the exact replica or otherwise a created persona of the user himself. Through this new experience, Second Life is attracting more and more users who are not interested in gaming where it becomes a virtual meeting place for users to socialize among themselves using avatars. Also,most of these avatars are free for users to create as the popularity is rising by the increasing computer users for the Internet. Users can then communicate in the virtual worlds, by creating their own avatars that uses instant messaging systems to communicate.



Avatars have also been used for educational purposes where universities uses virtual world as the virtual classroom. This is where the students are able to communicate with their lecturers through a virtual worlds that represents them using avatars to enhance their learning experience. Even so, a new concept for the uses of virtual worlds has been tested where a virtual shopping mall in the future that is fill with avatars poking at merchandise which would definitely change the ways how shoppers shop in the Internet. Thus, it can be seen that Internet users nowadays uses avatars to represent them in most of the social networking sites or even games in the virtual world where there will be a continuous growing community of users in the coming future.

If you were to create an avatar, would you use it for games or socializing?
What do you think of the use of avatars for educational purposes? Do you think its convenient?

Feel free to leave your comment below. Thanks!

References:

Damer B, 1997, Applications of Virtual Worlds, http://www.digitalspace.com/avatars/book/chus/chus1.htm, viewed on 14 September 2010.

Avatar pictures - fresh our eyes - enjoy - guys

cartoon yourself

here is a link which help you create your avatar.

Try it and have fun!

http://mywebface.mywebsearch.com/download/index.jhtml?partner=GRxdm047