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This whole Second Life phenomenon has just gotten completely out of hand. We have tried downloading Second Life multiple times, trying to fall in love with the software as much as the rest of the world seems to be doing. The reasoning behind this worldwide advertising deals and now international DIPLOMACY baffles our mind.
Sweden has announced its plan to launch a cyber Embassy on the Second Life landscape. Complete with diplomats and spokespeople. We thought it was some kind of not funny joke that someone was trying to pull. But nope. The world has gone nuts.
The appeal of Second Life seems disheartining because most know that the entire platform is basically built on the idea of both subliminal and in your face advertising. You know, those things we all complain about in our mail, TV, newspapers, and magazines. The whole thing seems very faddish and pyramid scheme-esque. Predictions anyone? I say Second Life’s decline starts by late summer 2007 and becoming obsolete by late 2008.
The world “embassy” seems a harsh one considering Sweden’s plan is to devise more of an information portal then a working government. Which in business terms, means they need your tourism dollars. We say, screw Sweden embassies. What we NEED is more graphically exact Swedish Second Life models. — Andrew Dobrow
Sweden to set up embassy in Second Life [Yahoo! News]
God, you are negative…
It’s really not a matter of being negative towards Sweden or any other diplomatic channel. But the use of ambassador involvement in a video game is a ridiculous premise. Why should we mix politics with technology if we don’t have too? The questions of net neutrality were inevitable, but involving foreign policy within a simulated platform is purely ridiculous. If there was a benefit from launching an embassy, other than lagging down the servers with the extra data, I would love to hear it. The proof shows that this is nothing but a cheap marketing ploy to put Sweden on the map in the technology world.