By Guest Writer Tenchi Morigi
Location: Pontiac’s Motorati

I always wonder why corporate Sims seem to be built and managed by people who obviously haven´t understood the concept of SL. One cannot expect to build a Sim and have thousands of people visiting and boosting real-life sales tenfold. That calculation won´t work. Why should something work in a virtual, somewhat anarchic, world when it does not work in RL either? This resulted in the withdrawal of some companies who made a start here which in my eyes is not a great loss (AOL will be the next to leave).

According to Avastar issue #52 Jim Hopson (manager of Pontiac in RL) stated:

“Pontiac’s experience in SL has been wonderful, and we’ve really enjoyed the experience of being in-world. But, after a year of what we always considering to be a 24/7 social marketing experiment, we felt it was time to move on and explore other possibilities in the digital and social networking space.“

ehrm sorry ... what? Sounds like a lot of hot air and not wanting to reveal the real reason.

Nevertheless its a pity that they will close it down. 7 sims shouldn’t cost the world for a company like Pontiac. They might simply let it continue to exist in-world, even if they stop making events and such.

Iggy’s Note: I’d estimate the company’s up-front cost at $21,000 and montly fees at $2,100. That’s peanuts for a giant like General Motors.  I don’t understand why they did it, but I’ll take a cheap shot at GM, a company whose vehicles I’ve not liked for 30 years (three Buicks, 5 transmissions, and a junkyard’s worth of broken GM parts in my past…need I say more?). 

The company is famous for pulling the plug on promising projects just as they get them right.  The title for this post was used by an automotive writer, back in the 80s, when GM discontinued the revolutionary, and after many bugs, remarkably nice Fiero.  GM also tends to ruin other projects with poor styling—the ‘Vette is a mere shadow of its good looks from the 60s and early 70s.  Now Motorati “poofs,“ one of the coolest projects from the company in a long long time.

My question would be, might GM and others launch their own heavily branded and more tightly controlled virtual worlds?  MTV has done just this.

I think those companies are missing something really important here. SL is not a platform for advertising and people will not drag your RL stuff from your hands like chocolate cookies when you have an SL Sim. What companies could actually gain here is kudos for their project which might actually influence future decisions of customers. But when their try to force their name into the avatars’ head with a 50-ton hammers this won´t work. SL might have “turbo capitalism” running here, but that’s virtual and users want to keep it virtual, or better even not at all, to live their creative dreams.

Pontiac missed a good chance here by creating less excitement. So visit Motorati and take a look at it today, while it is still there.  Tomorrow it’s going to be a memory.

In Mourning
Tenchi & Iggy
(avowed motor maniacs)

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

My heartfelt condolences go out to both of you during this difficult time :[

-c

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