Starwood Previews New Hotel Brand in Second Life
Earlier this week there was some good feedback on the video interview I gave to Beet.tv about Second Life. I talked about the virtual world as a place where people go to escape, but there's more. Second Life is about realism too. Thanks to Clickable Culture for teaching this to me. You're dead on and that's why I like this program.
Starwood Hotels is adding a dose of realism to the virtual world. But they're doing more. They are giving people a chance to experience something that doesn't exist in the physical world yet. This adds tremendous value to the experience. My only advice to them is to use it as a simulation exercise to get feedback from the Second Life community that makes the real hotels better when they launch in 2008.
Tags: starwoodhotels, secondlife
Extraordinary. I'd love to see this as part of a trend to testing out public architecture - or even stuff as basic as home extensions - online in places that the public actually go. If virtual visitors get the chance to say "This is really ugly" , "My shop next door has been driven out of business because people can't see me" or "I'm in a wheelchair, I can't get in", then it increases the chances of not making silly mistakes.
Posted by: Ian Delaney | Friday, August 04, 2006 at 11:56 AM
Truly it is great to see this kind of thing, and we will continue to see more and more of it. The problem, is going to be getting people to come and give feedback voluntarily after the coolness factor wears off. Then again, there are plenty of gimmics to get people to do things. Undoubedly though, there will be so much of this in the future it will be hard for an individual project to get heard above the noise. This of couse says nothing against it, just what is going to be. Thanks Steve!
Posted by: Jeremy Vaught | Friday, August 04, 2006 at 03:03 PM
Now if only SL could simulate wild roomthrashing orgies.
Posted by: Mike Abundo | Saturday, August 05, 2006 at 09:45 AM