Virtual World Blog Posting

This week we played with a virtual world that put you in scenarios with natural disasters. Your goal was to save as many people as possible.  The virtual world was not like the popular second life or world of warcraft but it did give you the control of a virtual villages fate. I thought the scenarios were interesting. Scenarios that were in the game included flooding, hurricaines, tsunamis, and a wild fire. My favorite scenario was the wild fire because I kept the whole town alive! It was cool that you had to use your brain to think of the best way to protect the people. I would say the graphics and maps were kinda lame. They could have given you better graphics and options to save people. I had a few top scores and did play the game at home, but only to finish the scenarios I did not finish in class.

Marketers could use marketing basically everywhere through out virtual worlds. They can set up real life business's in the worlds such as Macys, Mcdonalds, and Best Buy. Buying pretend virtual products in these stores will get you to think about these business's and possibly influence you to go visit the store and make a purchase. It is a good way to target a younger audience that is easily influenced by games and what they see in them. If the buckle is in my favorite video game, then it must be a good place to buy clothes. If a teen see's a Pepsi machine in a game, it may drive them to go get one to drink. Billboards could be displayed through out a game in appropriate places. For example, Placing a auto insurance ad in a virtual car lot.

At first I thought marketing in virtual worlds is silly, but its no different then product placement in movies and television. It can be useful and influence many. People who are easily influenced by things they enjoy are the key factor for marketers. It can be supported by other social media by being allowed to share your virtual world with your social media sites. If it is shared, other people see the information and what is being marketed in the virtual world. The more people who see it, the better.