'Internal emigration' to virtual worlds

An article on the BBC News site looks at how a telecoms and tech academic is predicting a ‘large scale exodus’ to virtual worlds as people seek to escape, or recreate their reality.

Dr Edward Castronova, the academic quoted in the BBC piece, has written a book on the topic called “Exodus to the Virtual World”, where he makes parallels with the original colonists who sailed from the British Isles in the 17th century to start a new life in what’s now the US and Canada.

This is a theme already articulated in Tim Guest’s book, Second Lives, where he gives a number of examples of internal emigration from teenagers who don’t find their immediate real world neighbourhood very safe, to disabled residents in Second Life who express themselves through their avatars.

Two other developments worth noting that back up this theory.

First of all, Vodafone has launched a service allowing you to send messages from your mobile phone to avatars in Second Life...but using your Second Life and not actual identity.

In practice this means you can carry on your virtual life pretty much 24/7 even when you’re not in front of a computer screen. Your Second Life friends will see the messages come through from your avatar and you can keep your real name secret, if you so choose. You will continue to 'be' whoever you are in Second Life.

Secondly, The Gartner Group has been talking about the concept of “Generation V” (virtual).

According to Gartner principal analyst Adam Sarner, “"For Generation V, the virtual environment provides many aspects of a level playing field, where age, gender, class and income of individuals are less important and less rewarded than competence, motivation and effort...The opportunity for reputation, prestige, influence and personal growth provides a powerful social draw for the masses to spend more time in a virtual world."

One of Gartner’s guidelines for marketers is “sell to the persona, and not the person.” By and large ignore real world details about the person and look to his/her virtual identity for clues about how s/he wants to be treated.

Update (14 December), on her blog Helenonishi links back to a prediction that with kids rushing into child centred virtual worlds (like Club Penguin), having a digital persona will soon become second nature.

At the same time, coming back to "sell to the persona, not the person", The Gartner Group has predicted that in two years, 20% of 'tier one' retailers will have a marketing presence in virtual worlds