At one time, Second Life was viewed as having great potential for promoting political campaigns.
However, the Houston Chronicle points out that in the current presidential election, Barack Obama and John McCain have largely ignored the SL metaverse:
Campaigns haven't figured out how to reconcile the all-important image and fundraising with a world in which a Gothic nymph can sit in on a congressional hearing - or a Teddy bear might try to donate to a political campaign.
So for now, the Second Life campaign headquarters of Barack Obama and John McCain are pristine, glistening and completely vacant most of the time...
Fundraising is still not an option in Second Life, as there is no way to monitor where the donations are coming from, and the majority of players are from outside the U.S.
Julie Germany of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet told the Chronicle:
It's been written about in fiction and cyberpunk, this idea that these online worlds could actually be used for political purposes, whether it is to recruit supporters, or train people to take action or to fund raise. It just hasn't exploded the way other online tools have exploded.
Former congressional aide Nancy Scola, who was involved in former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner's much-discussed 2006 visit to SL (screenshot at left), added that options like Facebook, YouTube and MySpace are dominating the online side of politics:
All the air's been sucked out of the room... If you're working inside a campaign, your single goal is to get your guy in the White House. It doesn't leave a lot of room and motivation to play with new technology. Why mess with what's working?
Comments
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
Gallagher can araç kiralama say all he wants, but I strongly rent a car believe it's due to his crappy leadership and E3 being a joke. ESA's Board of Directors need to find a way to get out rent a car of this horrid contract with this Bush cronie before there's no one left on the Board.
Btw, I think Atari and Midway will drop out too, but mostly travesti because these guys have done nothing ttnet vitamin or little and need to start saving costs.
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
second ilife is the futur and ignorants can talk :::-)
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
Second Life is largely occupied by people who failed at their first. as such, it should be ignored.
Here are we -- and yonder yawns the universe.
Re: Second Life RIGHTLY Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
Yeah for all the initial hype a couple years back, Second Life has (pick one)
- failed to live up to its promise
- lost most of its initial raison d'etre
- faded into the background as later pop trends superseded it
- turned into an arena for self gratification, self aggrandizement, and general all around childishness
Get real!
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
Haven't paid attention to Second Life myself in a long time. The last I heard about it (this was a good year or more ago), its user base was drying up, and it was difficult to keep players - many would log in a few times and never return. If its userbase is still shrinking, it would stand to reason that it would no longer be a good campaign venue.
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
If the news is anything to go by, they're probably all Republicans anyway.
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
Well, McCain can't use a computer and Obama's last game he played was Pong, so this is not suprising.
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
Not surprised, the attempts at politicising Second Life were hardly succesful, and just provided a gathering point for 'griefers' (Not really an accurate description, I suppose 'Humour Activists' would be closer to the mark).
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
Eh, fine with me. Besides, better the candidates avoid it should one actualyl do research into it. And after that flying wang attack *shrug*
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
I think second life is largely ignored by the world in general.
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
Exactly. It's an incredibly niche game that isn't played by a large quantity of people. The candidates have absolutely no reason to pay attention to it.
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
No surprise really.
Tried the game once and within 30 seconds bumped into a "cyber-prostitute" propositioning me, a group of winged daemons having cyber-sex, and managed to get stuck in some sort of giant fetish mall. This was a while ago, so maybe things have changed, but nevertheless which political candidate wants to be associated with that?
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
That matches my XP of Second Life.
Lots of men with gaint cocks and wings shagging teddybears and little else.
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
Got as far as "Second Life..." in the title and lost interest.
Re: Second Life Largely Ignored by Obama, McCain Campaigns
I ignore Second Life too, some portions of the media may love it but I don't know anyone who subscribes. More hype than anything else IMHO; Linden Labs are masters of self promotion.
Gift.