This morning I went to my first InformationWeek coffee session in Second Life at the invitation of Mitch Wagner. I met a small bunch of great people. We discussed the selling of Amsterdam for $50,000, a subject we could only speculate on for the most part, then moved onto an impromptu field trip to go check out the Coldwell Banker setup.
The houses, and streets where much like any kind of suburbia. Bland, inoffensive, and boring. The houses were uniform, and drab, the streets deserted (though to be fair it's very early days yet...). None of this came as a big shock, but what was interesting was the reception we got upon entering the CB offices.
Unlike many, many companies in Second Life, there were actually live people there to greet us and help us buy. There were no less than THREE polite, attentive and helpful staff in the office waiting to help us, and they didn't mind a bit when we explained that we were just sight seeing. Of particular interest was the fact that Ancient Shriner himself was there too. If you recall, I mentioned that the SL Herald had slammed CB for doing business with Shriner (he set them up in SL) based on his reportedly shady reputation as a land griefer (someone who pressures and extorts using nasty tactics like gross advertising planted next to residential homes). He didn't say much at all, but he was there.
All in all it was a good meet, and I was really pleased to be part of the group, thanks guys.
You can teleport to Coldwell Banker here.
I hopped into Coldwell's headquaters last Friday and Monday. After a promising start, it turned out that I didn't meet Coldwell's age requirements to purchase a home. I was too old! Age discrimination!! ;)
Read all about it and see some pics from trip on my blog.
As it turns out, they are specifically focusing on SL newbies who might be intimidated by the prospect of buying property. So, if you're over 120 days old, you're out of luck for now. I don't really have a problem with this, as they're trying to help ease new SL residents into the virutal world.
I also like that they've set up shop in an established region of SL as opposed to setting up an island, a practice we've seen other brands make a habit of.
Cheers,
Scott
Hey I didn't know that, thanks Scott! Seems like a pretty clever policy to me as well.
I'll check out your post, thanks.