Thursday, November 6, 2008

Who is the "Average" Second Lifer?

I found myself having an interesting conversation today. So many of us are up in arms over the OS announcements, but what if you are a Second Life resident who isn't necessarily "directly" affected by it by not owning or renting an OS or being a member of the SL aviation, sailing, or themed communities? It made me wonder--although I'm sure the answers are numerous--"Is there an 'average' Second Lifer? And if so, what are they like?"Has there ever been a general survey done of SLers? Have more in-depth questions been asked about their experiences? What do most SLers use SL for? Sex? Partying? Creating? Business? Combat? Roleplaying? How many of us actually own or rent land? How much is contributed to the economy and how and why? What do we really want? Sure, we have as many interests and opinions as there are residents, but what are our common interests and needs? We certainly seem to have a pretty common view about these latest announcements, that's for certain.

LL keeps saying that it'd be so hard to have 1:1 discussions and dialogue with us residents, but how do they even truly know what we need if they do not truly know who we are?

Just thinking out loud...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

An excellent post, Elle.

My guess is they lack any demographic detail of the sort you describe.

Nancy Frye said...

I'm with Zoe. It makes sense that LL are most often going to hear from folks who have the biggest financial stake in SL. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but I don't know if it's possible for them to have a true handle on the real "Joe Average" SL denizen. This parallels 1st Life, I'm sure.

I'm certain I'm not "average" in SL, if we go by numbers, because I don't visit "Blingtardia" unless I'm doing a lightning strike on a shop or art build somebody has recommended. I pretty much stay in Steelhead and Caledon, occasional forays into Babbage, Steeltopia, Antiquity, and Versaille. All historic sims with a completely different level of interaction then SL at large.