Week 9 - Virtual Worlds Reaction

Virtual worlds such as Second Life and others are an interesting phenomenon that evolved in the past several years. Though I am not active in virtual worlds, I had the opportunity to learn about and research them as part of a consumer behavior class that I was enrolled in several years ago. Virtual worlds are extremely profitable with “real” money being traded for virtual goods and services. Virtual communities have laws, regulations and norms that are to be followed just like in the real world and function much the same. Through all the reading and researching about virtual worlds the question that I think about most is still why individuals join these communities.

I don’t think that virtual worlds had the same level of success in the United States as in other countries because our cultural norms may be a less stringent than other nations. Social media platforms such as blogging, Twitter and Facebook took off better in the United States because it gives us a platform to broadcast our individuality. In other cultures that are collectivist with less focus on the individual and more on conforming to the group, virtual worlds like Second Life provide a platform to create and live a separate individual life that perhaps doesn’t conform to the social norms of the collectivist culture.

From a public relations point of view, I am not sure how much value virtual worlds have in the United States. I think that some industries would be well served by establishing a presence in virtual worlds to develop a relationship with their publics, but I think that this is more of a niche rather than something that would be vital for all organizations.