[Youtube=http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=8g5X_jGIU0g]

Although
still in its infancy, machin­ima — animated films created by using a
number of different game or virtual world engines — is rapidly emerging
as a surpris­ingly effective new tool for marketers.

Currently, most machinima
is produced through the online virtual world Second Life. However, it
is expanding to include other online games and virtual worlds.

“From a creative perspective, machin­ima allows you to do things
that you sim­ply can’t afford in the real world,” explains Chris Drury,
CEO of New York-based Drury Design Dynamics, who has worked with brands
such as IBM on machinima campaigns. “Computer graphics anima­tion can
cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, while with machinima you can
create the same thing for about a quarter of the price.” Its
distinctive look also “gives companies the ability to do something new
and clever that can position them on the cutting edge,” he added.

“What machinima is really great at is allowing you to take people
into a vir­tual world experience without having to download or master
any new software,” said Boris Kizelshteyn, CEO of New York-based
Popcha, who worked with Drury on the IBM campaign and also has produced
machinima marketing for other clients. “Not only is it hugely viral,
but it allows the execs signing the checks to see what they’re paying
for.”

As with viral video campaigns, Kizelshteyn notes you can embed links
either within or at the end of a machinima piece that can drive
consumers to a Web site, enabling marketers to track results.

Right now, machinima provides a com­pelling enough visual to attract viewers even beyond its target audience.

“For some of these viral machinima pieces, we ended up with 10,000
hits, which is an amazing number for a corpo­rate video,” Drury says.
“You’re going to see it emerge as a great marketing tool.”

Kizelshteyn agrees, adding the real value for marketers is that it
allows you to deliver complex messages in a fairly-entertaining way.

“You can release a series of machinima episodes around the launch of
a product or sell the creation myth around your company with a level of
detail that was pretty much impossible for everyone but the biggest
brands,” he added.

For IBM, Drury and Kizelshteyn cre­ated a series of machinima pieces
that were posted on a dedicated Web site, attached to e-mails and
included on social networking sites.

“You want to use as many different user touch points as you can,” Drury said.

www.beyondspaceandtime.org

The Virtual Forbidden City is a 3-dimensional virtual world where
visitors from around the world can experience the Forbidden City in
Beijing. You can explore the magnificient palace as it was during the
Qing dynasty, which ruled from 1644 until 1912, the end of the Imperial
period in China. More than that TVFC is a virtual hystorical and architectural museum, a place where virtual tourism picks one of the most important landmarks,

Uno sguardo ai mondi virtuali ci prepara, quanto meno, a considerare la possibilita’ che i modelli sociali della wikicultura siano in fase di sperimentazione avanzata ormai da tempo.

I gruppi Rolebased delle comunita’ in Second Life, ad esempio, rappresentano entita’ che utilizzano tutti gli strumenti della wikicultura, un ambiente virtuale in cui le informazioni sono sostanzalmente condivise per mezzo di Istant Messaging, Audio, e soprattutto per mezzo di oggetti virtuali, che sono il soggetto stesso della wiki, quando sono realizzati per mezzo di attivita di progettazione condivisa.

Ebbene, la -nanoeconomia- di Second Life, in cui un oggetto ha valore di circa 300 volte ridotto rispetto al suo reale, rende possibile la vendita per una nuova generazione di creativi una nuova serie di prodotti, come ad esempio avatar e dimore virtuali. Nello scambio su piu livelli fra consumatore e produttore, in cui non vi e’ sostanziale differenza fra i due, come il risultato della collaborazione arriva a una controparte materiale dipende essenzialmente dalla nascita di imprese, o gruppi di lavoro, la cui attivita’ e’ proprio quella di trasferire valore dai modelli e dalle simulazioni verso l’economia di primo livello, quella del mercato globale materiale.