Starbucks Survey: Ever heard of Second Life?

I constantly remind people that despite the massive news coverage of the virtual world of Second Life, the vast majority of people have never heard of it. For instance, the entire Midwest. However, the average Starbucks denizen in San Francisco has not heard of it either. Nor had they heard of There, Habbo Hotel, or Puzzle Pirates. A few had heard of World of Warcraft, from the TV commercials. Everyone had heard of Myspace.

I, of course, look on the bright side. If few people have heard of MMOs and virtual worlds, it means that the space has that much more room to grow. Myspace, on the other hand, may have reached its saturation point.

Admittedly, my sample size was about 15 people. I did not ask the employees. For comparison, I did the same experiment with MacGyver in DC's Union Station. In a 50 person sample, ninety percent knew who MacGyver was.

By the way, this was in a Starbucks in downtown San Francisco, near to Union Square on a Sunday afternoon. Try it yourself. Insert your own particular obsession/company/product. You'll be enlightened.

Market Opportunity: Ebay Stops Trading of Virtual Items

Ebay has decided to stop the sales of virtual items and currency on its site. Why? I assume that it’s a reputational risk issue. From what I’ve gathered following the virtual item trading world, sellers are not a particularly reputable bunch, leaving buyers without the goods they purchased.

Clearly, the traffic to other virtual trading platforms, most owned by one company, IGE, is going to increase dramatically. People want to trade items. Let them.

Why don’t MMOs encourage in-world trading? Raph Koster has an interesting post about the game dynamics of MMOs that push developers to dampen item trade. His point is basically that limiting trade of virtual items extends the life of the standard MMO.

I have no idea how many millions that Ebay is sacrificing by stopping virtual item trading, but for a company its size, it’s probably insignificant. Yet, it’s short-term thinking. The virtual item economy is huge and continues to grow. Ebay’s core business is no longer experiencing high-growth levels, you’d think that they would want to grab the opportunity to dominate one of the few auction categories experiencing double-digit growth.

But again, it’s an opportunity for a savvy entepreneur to push out a specialized auction site, figure out the pain points specific to virtual item trading (delivery, trust, questionable legality) and address them.

Article about IGE:

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060825/carless_01.shtml

UPDATE: You can still buy and sell Second Life related items. Probably because the founder of Ebay is an investor in Linden Labs, the company behind Second Life.

(via slashdot)