Awesomely Interesting Article on Virtual Worlds

Youth-Oriented Virtual Worlds to hit 20 Million Users in 2011

53% of all American child and teen Internet users will visit virtual worlds at least once a month by 2011 says eMarketer Senior Analyst Debra Aho Williamson. Right now that number sits at about 24%, with only 9% visiting a virtual world weekly. In her new study, Kids and Teens Online: Virtual Worlds Open New Universe, Williamson, whose recent background is in studying social networks, lays out a detailed survey of the new, fertile market. “Several marketers have already been active in virtual worlds for kids and teens,” Williamson said in an interview with VirtualWorldsNews.com. “These companies are on the vanguard. Definitely from a marketers’ perspective, virtual worlds haven’t gotten to the point of social networks. Everyone wants to use social networks to reach a youth audience. Virtual worlds are where social networks were a year or two ago.“

“I think we may well see a growth trajectory similar to what we’ve seen for social networking,” continued Williamson. “Virtual worlds can be an addictive, immersive, compelling environment. They offer a lot of things for kids and teens to do. Just over half of kids and teens will visit virtual worlds at least on a monthly basis by 2011. Already
you’re seeing session times of a half hour, an hour, and ten hours a month. 2008 and 2009 are where the growth is slightly bigger than ‘10 and ‘11. You’ve got other media companies jumping in the game. Disney is getting aggressive. MTV and Nick are getting very aggressive. Right now what we’re seeing is a lot more development activity and figuring out how a virtual world fits into media assets. I think as we get into ‘08 and ‘09 is when you see a lot of traction.”

The study contains a wealth of data on virtual worlds and virtual worlds usage with the goal of providing marketers who may not be involved in the space an opportunity to hit the ground running. One interesting note for developers, though, is the way that marketers are still approaching virtual worlds.

“Probably less than 10% of [Whyville's] ad revenue is banner ads,” COO Jim Goss told eMarkter. “We throw them in to speak the language that Madison Avenue is used to right now.”

The common wisdom in virtual worlds circles has been that billboards and banner ads are an ineffective way for marketers to approach the immersive space, but Williamson still sees them as a reasonable way to test the waters.

“From a virtual world perspective, there are so many better ways to engage a user than to stick up a billboard or slap a banner somewhere,” she said. “If you think about it from a marketer’s perspective, though, if they want to experiment and don’t have the time or budget to run a full-fledged campaign, a banner ad or a billboard is still better than
nothing.”

She explains that the current level of technology adds to the approach. That’s one reason why certain companies, like Scion, have taken vanguard approaches to virtual worlds and invested in novel
marketing strategies, but others have held back.

“I remember the early days when people were complaining about the effort it took to build a web page,” Williamson said. “It was a lot of money and development time. I see something like that happening in virtual worlds. There’s a lot of development that needs to be done to create a large campaign in virtual worlds. It’s different. It’s not turnkey. The technology is different for all the worlds. I think that’s where you see the push back from companies that don’t have the time or resources for a full campaign.”

That will change, though, as the technology improves and as ad spending increases for the media that surrounds virtual worlds, says Williamson.

“What I really found was that virtual worlds are really at a sweet spot,” she said. “They are attractive to young teens and kids who are into games, but they’re also attractive to older teens who are interested in communication and socializing. They’re really at the
intersection of gaming and social networks. Both of those things are available in virtual worlds.”

eMarketer predicts that the worldwide ad spend for social networks will hit $3,603 million in 2011 when video games will receive $1,938 million.

For a more detailed report, check out the full study. Also, I’ll be moderating a panel on “Kids and Teen Worlds - What You Need to Know” at the Virtual Worlds Fall Conference & Expo, October 10-11 at the San Jose Convention Center. I’ll be joined by representatives from Stardoll, Nickelodeon, Habbo, and Neopets, so it should be an informative session.

Virtual Worlds News: Youth-Oriented Virtual Worlds to hit 20 Million Users in 2011

BAH! THEY’RE TELLING ALL THE SECRETS. No, not really– but still. Hahaha.  In all seriousness- it’s exciting to see all the opportunities and possibilities associated with Virtual Worlds and that people think they’ll be so huge still in a few years.  Rock on.

I’m quite jealous of the author of the this post & their pane at VW in the Fall out in San Jose. BAH!

Which is why anyone in New York intersted in VWs should come to the Tween Mashup this Friday and say hi to me as I’m exploring Virtual Worlds with an interesting panel who are doing their own unique interpretations of VWs! (DO IT! YOU KNOW YOU WANNA GO!)

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Opinions: Harry Potter Vs the Purists.

In a recent interview, a character actor from Scotland who portrays the popular Inspector Rebus has launched an odd attack of sorts on those in the education field who favor children reading the Harry Potter novels. The Scotsman reports that actor Ken Stott (who also appeared in “The Girl in the Cafe” directed by David Yates) said the following during an interview with Radio Times:

“If we’re going to make a fuss about children reading
books, do it with Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books, not JK
Rowling.

“I can’t believe idiot educationalists are praising children for turning up at school and reading Harry Potter.”

In a small bit of irony, the Rebus series are based on works by author Ian Rankin, a longtime friend and neighbor of J.K. Rowling in Edinburgh, Scotland. Mr. Stott continued on in his interview about his future, noting “I’ll remain a grumpy old man.” We wish him continued success with his grumpiness!

The Leaky Cauldron: Actor Says Educators who Praise Children for Reading Harry Potter are “Idiots”

Interesting. Philip Pullman, whose book series “His Dark Materials”– in my opinion– is fantastic, intriguing, yet not quite appropriate for children (brings up a lot of questions about “Church” since it’s basically the enemy in the books… that’s sometimes hard to deal with especially in some US households).

But I’m not going to pick apples vs pears on this one. He’s entitled to his grumpy ole opinion.

I think I’ve mentioned this before– but I’ve come across the Anti-Potter Posse before. When I was in my senior year at Millikin, our Children’s Literature & Reading class (for educators) posed a project of controversial elements. We were allowed to pick our topic, and I chose the Anti-Harry Potter complaints.

You see, I had just finished my student teaching at a wonderful Lutheran School in town. The parents were VERY interested/concerned with various elements of entertainment. Spongebob, for example, was not allowed in many of my 3rd grader’s homes due to his occasional “sponge butt flashing”. Yes, Spongebob does occasionally appear with a rounded nude butt. Apparently admitting to the fact that all humans or human-based characters or many creatures on earth have a BUTT is against moral rights. Whatever, that’s a parents choice not mine.

But aside from Spongebob, Harry Potter was NOT NOT NOT allowed to be MENTIONED to children. Why? Because, as one very outspoken young lady told me, “Harry Potter is a devil. He works for Satan.” Right. Hmm. Interesting.

At the time I was very frustrated with the fact that parents might block their child from reading about this imaginative and vivid world. I felt like the kids were denied this right to imagination and creativity. But alas, as I realize now, it’s a parents decision, no matter how much I may be confused or in disagreement, it is what it is. <But now you realize why I’m so careful about the “His Dark Materials” series. If people feel this way about HP, how are they going to feel about Mrs. Coultier & her church stealing the innocence from a child’s soul, leaving them almost dead? Exactly.

So anyway– I was in the computer lab at Millikin surfing the World Wide Web for some discussions by parents, educators, etc regarding the Harry Potter controversy. I had found the information about the book burning down south and so on. And then I came across a site entitled “Parents Against Potter: Stopping Harry from Infecting Youth” and immediately thought “jackpot” - I was sure this would be the place for devil’s advocate ramblings (devils, heh, ironic use just now).

So, I click the link– and all hell breaks loose. THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of pictures flood my screen of porn. Yes. Porn. They came so quickly I couldn’t stop any of them. Have you every played Solitaire or Hearts on the comp? You know at the end, once you win, when the cards come streaming down like card waterfalls? Yes– now imagine that with the most horrendous porn possible. It gets better– foamy-covered earphones don’t really do very well when the sound they’re trying to withhold is on full blast of insanity. Right, now along with the horrible porn covering my computer screen (instead of the valuable insights from the anti-potter crowd) a voice rang true, shouting “LOOK AT ME! LOOK WHAT I’M STARING AT! AREN’T I BAD? I’M A BAD PERSON!” on loop. So everyone in my computer lab turned and stared as the world within my comp went nutso.

What was I to do? Control/alt/delete didn’t work. Neither did holding down the power button on the comp tower. So I crawled (mortified) under the computer lab table and yanked the entire power cord out of the wall… thus shutting down all 15 computers attached to the same cords.

Not a good day for me.

So whenever I see people shouting “nay! bad! boo” at Harry Potter I remember this story and think three things:

a) Awww… I like Harry Potter

b) Um… don’t say anything, people who hate the Potter have a lot of conviction and they’re entitled to their own views… which I don’t want to be a part of.

c) I wonder if they tried to join that Anti-Potter posse on the web and had the same porn attack? If so… I bet my embarrassment story beats their’s. Ha! Nothing like a roomful of college kids during finals lose the power on their computer as they’re finishing up projects. That doesn’t win anyone friends.

And That’s The End of Izzy Story Hour.

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