Second Life is a marketing wasteland

In a long article titled “How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life,” Wired lays out the age old question which may as well translate into “What if Linden Labs threw a party and no one came?” Or at least, a party where no one sticks around because there really isn’t anything to do in Second Life once you’ve wasted hours trying to figure out how to use it. About 85 percent of the avatars that have been created are abandoned and there are precious few frequently returning monthly visitors, leaving marketers an audience of about 100,000 Americans to pitch on their expensive little islands. It all adds up to a reality that is nowhere near as exciting as the claim that there are 7 million ‘residents’ of Second Life’s virtual reality.