Disillusionment of ‘Virtual’ Reality

Komjuniti, a German research firm found that 70% of Second Life residents are disappointed in the presence that marketers have established in Second Life. Seems that marketers so far are just extending their brands with limited creativity and not tapping into Second Life’s unique power.

The study also looked at why current Second Life marketers are frustrated. Only a small percentage of Second Life’s reported 3 million players, visit regularly and spend any substantial time there. Thus marketers aren’t finding a return on their investment or substantial brand building that they were looking for.

Marshal Cahill, political officer for Second Life Liberation Army, decided he didn’t like what he experienced in Second Life. To right what he considers wrong, Cahill developed bombs, exploding nukes, and swirling fireballs and used them in front of store fronts like American Apparel.

So it seems that Second Life might not be the picture perfect utopian society. Google is looking to capitalize on interest in virtual world and channel growing discontent with Second Life into a new virtual world.

Why are we spending time, effort and resources on developing these virtual realities when they only turn out to be like our current world? Why the desire for so much more?

Matthew Fox, author, speaker & spirituality theologian, describes our current preoccupation with consumerism and alternate realities as a symptom of our discontent with our ‘real’ lives mainly work that doesn’t nourish the soul’s hunger for community and creative expression.

Personally, I choose to be pretty happy with my life. Granted there are days when nothing seems to go my way and I feel as if the whole world is out to get me. But after reconnecting with nature, a loving human being or myself, I’m ready to face the world again. Thanks to the Law of Attraction and Quantum physics, I think I’d rather spend my time co-creating realities for myself here in this dimension and work on figuring out how to help other figure it out too. Maybe that’s the thought process that’s behind sites like First Life.