Have we passed the Virtual World fad yet?

A couple years ago, Second Life and 3D virtual worlds were all the rage of new social media and internet marketing. At least from my perspective, working at MTV in the business development group, it was something we focused on - a lot.

Second Life's website: http://secondlife.com/?v=1.1

From a marketer's perspective, I understood why virtual worlds could be a new windfall. All user interactions in the world could be tracked: from what billboards were within their avatar's viewing radius, what items/brands they purchased or interacted with in the virtual economy, to setting up virtual shops and fronts for their own businesses. It would be an entirely new and almost entirely controllable and measurable channel through which to reach mass audiences.

However, I never fully understood the allure of virtual worlds to the end-user consumer. At least from a 'proper usage' standpoint (let's ignore all the... less than scrupulous reasons people use Second Life), consumers get very little out of the virtual world than they could simply using the Internet normally. For shopping? It's much faster to simply go to Amazon.com, BestBuy.com or wherever to find something, than to have to walk to the store front in SL, browse selections, and purchase something with Linden dollars or real dollars. For social interaction and community? It's much easier (and safer) to use Facebook, Match.com, LinkedIn, and so forth. For business and work meetings? What with conference calls, skype, and burgeoning video conference technologies, I'd argue it's more efficient to have meetings not done in a virtual setting. At least I'd rather do a video conference than have to emote strategic recommendations via an avatar in a fake boardroom.

In my opinion there's a reason why Second Life hasn't shot up and become the juggernaut many pundits were predicting. It's simply not that compelling. While MMO's like World of Warcraft have huge subscriber bases because they offer users a sense of accomplishment and adventure, with an identifiable payoff (levels, items, fame, etc.), open ended virtual worlds like Second Life offer really very little. After I'd left MTV and came to Columbia, the company has since shut down all of its virtual world projects and moved on. And I'm glad they did.