June 20, 2007What a tool!
Filed Under: Gaming
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Verdino points me to an absurd article (I'm not linking to it for obvious reasons...it's reprinted below) in PC Magazine by Lance Ulanoff about MySpace, Twitter and Second Life (etc.) being doomed i.e. social media being bubble 2.0 (in a nutshell)
Now I could call Lance (who? my point exactly) a tosser; a wanker; an idiot etc....but I won't. I could get all upset about this clearly desperate and misguided attempt at trying to understand how the world has changed by being a serial naysayer...but again, I won't.
I realize now that this is the kind of schlocky sensationalist "journalism" solely designed to prolong the destruction of the rainforests in favor of short-lived (toilet) paper called magazines.
Oops, did I just fly off as a misunderstood blogger? Perhaps I tied the belt of my gown too tight or perhaps the damp in my basement is finally causing my brain to turn to mush. Perhaps I should just go on a drunken tirade in Second Life or send some random messages about what I'm doing right now in the form of a Tweet. Perhaps that will help me calm down.
Because here's the thing. Lance Ulanoff has most likely never set foot in Second Life. Lance Ulanoff has most likely never set up a Twitter profile or sent a tweet about a story idea or a search for an expert opinion on obscure topics such as...oh....well.....'er how about Second Life, MySpace or Twitter. Lance Ulanoff has most likely never even visited MySpace.
This kind of crap has really got to stop. You see, Lance is a smart "journalist". He knows that people like me will play right into his hands and rant, rave and rage against his stupidity. He knows that people will soon forget about him because dumb pieces like this one in Forbes will be around to replace his drivel. And he knows that should any of these new marketing approaches take a step backwards (for whatever reason), he'll be dancing on the graves singing Halleluyah (apologies to Monty Python)
For what it's worth, let's isolate a few of Lance's pearls:
Second Life could just as easily be the first to go. go where? are you referring to being acquired in which case, nothing says failure quite like a hundreds of millions of dollars No one believes its reported participation numbers anymore you mean more people than are on Amazon.com at any given point in time?, even though big companies, such as Circuit City and IBM, have built virtual stores (and Playboy is jumping in with both, er, feet this month). Some individuals are even claiming to make real-world money in there, but are they really? Frankly, I think Second Life is the equivalent of a virtual con. much like convincing people to buy cigarettes through sexy slim models or any other game or any other anything that people spend voluntary time and even money in exchange for value and/or a consumption experience There's no doubt that it's enjoyed startling growth in the last year and a half much like your magazine, right?, but that was driven, for the most part, by the laudatory press and media coverage it received from magazines like yours until such time the wind changed direction and with it your spineless coverage. Companies herded like sheep to the platform much like any other medium before it, because they believed the hype. So did users. But reality is finally starting to trump perception. Companies' virtual stores sit empty this has been addressed if you were paying any attention, and there's no way they can measure if they're building any additional brand recognition simply by being there. aaah measurement - let's compare Second Life to TV shall we. Let's hold SL to a higher standard than TV while we're at it.
Of course, they're not.
Twitter's demise will certainly come before we hit 2011. That's in 4 years time. So you're basically saying that Twitter will be around for another 4 years, which will surely be yet another sign of utter failure. It's the perfect example of Internet flash paper, and I suspect it will shine as brightly and briefly as this favorite magician's gimmick. I'm singling out the site, which revolves entirely around people's random notes about what they're doing and thinking at any given moment, that's the origin of Twitter, but it has quickly being used for a variety of experimental applications such as I did with live call-ins on Across the Sound because of a recent John C. Dvorak column
.
He somewhat insanely says that these random postings should be saved
for posterity. Dvorak is too smart to believe this, so I'll assume his
entire column was tongue-in-cheek. No one is going to save these random
posts about nothing. Twitter is popular now because the Web cognoscenti
some call these people influencers are using it. This bunch of eggheads prides itself on irony and
witticism. They treat the site like some sort of ongoing haiku contest.
Well, folks, I have a haiku for you:
Goodbye, bubble, and Dude - at this point, I'm thinking you're a genius as there's no way [much like your hat-tip to Dvorak] you actually believe this is a bubble per se. For what it's worth, I believe the next big thing is NOW. Also check out this post of mine which talks about Bubble 1.0 versus your 2.0 notion.
So long, overhyped nonsense
Till the next "Big Thing."
Peace my brother.
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Comments
Amen, brother.
You said what we were all thinking. Or at least I was...
Posted by: Ryan Karpeles
I think you're protesting way too much.
I don't agree with the article, but I don't think it's any siller that proclamations that traditional media are dead, traditional advertising doesn't work, etc., etc.
There is an unfortunate tendency among the cognoscenti to forget that most of the world finds things like Second Life and Twitter incredibly uncompelling. The ideas behind them will mature and take hold in some form or another, but the hype is way out of proportion to tangible results.
So when someone feels compelled to try and take it all down a notch - as will always happen in these cases - take a breath and keep plugging along.
Posted by: John Whiteside
I think you're protesting way too much.
I don't agree with the article, but I don't think it's any siller that proclamations that traditional media are dead, traditional advertising doesn't work, etc., etc.
There is an unfortunate tendency among the cognoscenti to forget that most of the world finds things like Second Life and Twitter incredibly uncompelling. The ideas behind them will mature and take hold in some form or another, but the hype is way out of proportion to tangible results.
So when someone feels compelled to try and take it all down a notch - as will always happen in these cases - take a breath and keep plugging along.
Posted by: John Whiteside
Am I? I'm not sure how criticizing new marketing versus traditional marketing is apples to apples. The former is nascent and in its infancy...it is uncluttered and begging for investment and creativity; the latter is bloated, staid, unimaginative and being rejected left, right and center by consumers.
John - there was once a time that the rest of the world found the Internet incredibly uncompelling.
I guess my main point is "don't knock it until you've tried it"
Posted by: jJ
Jaffe-
I agree with what you say about not knocking something without trying it. At the same time, I think you are a little biased because you obviously work with this medium a great deal. It's easy to become upset when someone is illegitimizing your ever increasing scope of work.
You are also correct that these kinds of new marketing need to be investigated and understood more. Someone who writes an article holds no influence as the medium is still in infancy.
Anyway, I'm a bit marketer entrenched more DM and traditional forms for many reasons (budget and market scope); but I WANT TO LEARN ABOUT 2ND LIFE! Yes I can pick up a few things by entering the realm and walking around; but I want to hear from you about the things Crayon does and is learning about the medium. Are you attempting to measure impact? Are you developing new ways to attract and influence?
Focus on the reader who wants to learn for lack of understanding; not the person denigrating your work for the same reason.
Posted by: Robert John Ed
Of course, Robert! Send me an e-mail to jaffe [at] crayonville [dot] com and we will put the crayonista team to work for you!
Posted by: jJ
Anyone catch the interesting article in the WSJ about virtual job interviews? Here's the link:
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB118229876637841321-lMyQjAxMDE3ODIyMDIyOTA4Wj.html
I was also listening yesterday to an interesting discussion from Seth Godin. He discusses the perspective of the need by the radio industry to use all these tools (i.e. Twitter, etc.) to create a marketing conversation with the audience. It's on Mark Ramsey's Radio 2.0 blog:
http://www.hear2.com/2007/06/7_days_of_seth__3.html
Posted by: Ed
Ed: Did YOU read the Journal article? The author did everything but shout "Check out the weirdos" to make the people being interviewed on Second Life seem like a bunch of losers and freaks. Take,for example. the last bit about the computer programmer from Miami " who attended the event as a brunette female avatar named Dragon Ritt"
Joe: The late Bill Bernback used to carry an index card in his shirt pocket. On it was the sentence "They might be right."
Something to think about.
Posted by: tangerine Toad
Bernbach, not Bernback. Sorry
Posted by: tangerine Toad
Bernback was a hack. Bernbach on the other hand also said "safe advertising is the riskiest advertising of all"
Wonder if he would have Twittered that line like Steven Wright does now?
Posted by: jJ
Toad, I did, but I don't see everything with negative eyes. Sure the reporter even discussed about handing the beer instead of the resume or not being able to sit down during an interview. But, I think overall it was positive.
Posted by: Ed
In fairness, you ain't in Second Life much yourself Joe.
Posted by: JD
Logged in yesterday, Dawg. But didn't realize it was a competition.
I also haven't recorded an episode of Across the Sound in 2+ weeks. Does that mean I've abandoned podcasting?
Posted by: jJ
Ed: I think you're only seeing what you want.
Given that the article ran in the Wall Street Journal- not Wired-- it was pretty clear the writer's purpose was to mock people on Second Life. The Journal's readers tend to be of a certain mindset about these things. So when some investment banker or big firm lawyer is reading about a 32 year old adult male who is dressed as a female dragon, the reaction is not going to be a positive one. (Although one might consider laughter to be positive.)
The rest of the article focused on the problems people have using it and whatnot. It did hold out promise for the future, but the writer made sure to let his audience know that the hardcore users were exactly the sort of Dungeons & Dragons playing freaks they were expecting.
Posted by: tangerine Toad
JD, if it's any consolation, I'm the Chief Creative Officer of crayon, and i'm in Second Life 2-3 hours every day. So you can always seek me out. Including coffee with crayon, every Thursday in SL at 9am EST.
Posted by: Steve Coulson
What substance would exist in your work if you weren't slamming people and their work left and right?
Many things will fail. Some will evolve and thrive. Think humans.
Posted by: -challis
Well said challis.
Posted by: jJ
