Forbes has an article up about how Second Life might not be the best idea for your company when you are looking for ways to attract new customers. Thanks to Kotaku, I can show you the part where corporations are looking to distance themselves from the online train wreck that is Second Life:
American Apparel, the first retailer to set up a virtual store on the site, in June 2006, is all but shuttering its Second Life shop, which attracted more critics than shoppers. Not long after it opened, a group called the Second Life Liberation Army--its members are grumpy about commercialization on Second Life, among other things--shot American Apparel customers with virtual guns. Rasmus Schiönning, Web director for the company, says the retailer is disappointed by "insignificant" sales from the site...
Wells Fargo (nyse: WFC) stopped using Linden Lab's clunky technology to run the financial company's virtual Stagecoach Island (from its own Web site) four months after setting it up in September 2005. It no longer has any connection with Second Life. Laughs Erik Hauser, creative director of Swivel Media, Wells Fargo's digital agency: "Going into Second Life now is the equivalent of running a field marketing program in Iraq."
IRAQ! Not quite a Godwin but it will have to do. At least he didn't toss in a 9/11 reference for good measure. Anyway, someone has a problem with the Forbes article and goes into detail about somethings that may be a bit off:
2007 is the year of equally inaccurate counter-spin. "Sex, Pranks, and Reality" is 714 words long, yet contains at least ten errors or omissions, many I've spotted in other publications; given Forbes' reputation, however, these memes are now injected even deeper into an unresolved issue. The irony is that there are numerous limitations to SL as a marketing platform-- it requires a client download, advertising is easy for users to ignore, and so on-- but Forbes fails to mention any of those.
Ok, they make the point that "Sexual activity is reportedly designated on less than 18% of SL's total landmass, actually", but that 18% is made up of some of the worst type of sexual practices out there. Virtual sex with children, animals, children dressed as animals, animals wearing children's clothing, and all kinds of diaper stuff.
I know that when I take my kid to the mall, I don't really want to have to answer the questions "Daddy, why is Bugs Bunny trying to crawl away from Sonic the Hedgehog? Why are Sonic and Tigger kissing and why are they all wearing diapers?" Maybe that's why the mall is deciding to get out of Second Life.
