When one of Europes oldest insurance companies told me they wanted to build community in Second Life, I was more than a little skeptical. When they told me they were building a driving game in the virtual world, that taught Second Lifer's that "safety was fun too", eyebrows were raised. After being given the grand tour yesterday however, and having played the game after it's final frantic tweaks had been made, I have to concede that it's not a bad plan at all, and may even do just what they hope: Get people to have fun on their new SIM [teleport link] and bring the 176yr old brand of Assicurazioni Generali to Second Lifers in a unique, and potentially engaging way.
The island is relatively unremarkable. Regular buildings and areas for meetings, much like any such thing. The game however, which is the center of the build, is fun, in a 2D retro kind of way. And that's exactly what design firm Newton 21 set out to create -- a tacky, tongue in cheek tribute to the arcade games of yore. If you're in your thirties of forties, like many Second Lifer's. you'll remember these games with some affection no doubt. Clockwork Miles, the project lead for Newton told me that they knew it would be impossible to build a driving game on par with anything available in recent times, so decided to work with what they had, and make the retro game to appeal to those of us that remember playing Frogger, Pacman and the like. It's fun, and you even get to record your high score...
Whether Generali can actually build community in Second Life remains to be seen, and they know that as well, and are prepared to tweak the strategy on the fly.
Disclosure: Generali are new sponsors of our Metanomics series of events.
That looks cool, I'll have to check it out!