DIME-CIO-Birkbeck conference on The Creative Industries and Intellectual Property Sofia Gkiousou, Birkbeck, University of London May 08 Creativity in Second Life: the virtual world as a site of experimentation for fashion start-ups

Research Question Could Second Life be a good plateau for novice fashion designers to experiment and gain skills in design, marketing, customer identification etc? To answer the question we need to understand 1)Demographics – Social Interaction – Emotional Involvement in SL and why these might differ from existing MMORPG research findings 2)The characteristics of SL fashion industry in comparison to First Life (FL fashion industry) Methods: a) Analysis of literature, SL statistics, press, blogs, observation. b) Pilot interviews: SL fashion vendors/ designers.

Second Life online persistent 3D virtual world own Economy (Linden Dollars) Entrepreneurs & products (because it allowed users to maintain copyright of everything that they created?) “Residents” are the users of Second Life, and their appearance is their avatar (often abbreviated to av, avi or ava). The avatar will be created automatically but the resident may change their appearance dramatically.

SL Statistics acres of virtual land 12,765,680 Residents (but one user does not necessarily equal one resident) only 92,096 Premium Accounts US$1 to L$270 * Data from SL Virtual Economy Key Metrics, Jan. 08

Figure 1 – Welcome to SL – orientation for new residents (captured Feb. 08)]

Just another MMORPG? Differences 1.No quests, no levels, no script, no storyline 2.Intellectual rights belong to the user Instead we consider SL a metaverse (scalability, usability, economics) Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, 1992 Sometimes referred in the literature as a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). But is it really and MMORPG? Is it even a game?

Demographics & society MMORPG LiteratureSL Players in their 20s (Yee, 2001 & 2006;Griffiths, Davis & Chappell, 2003; Cole & Griffiths, 2007) Majority Female av. 16% - 29% (Yee, 2001; Cole & Griffiths, 2007) Female av. 40% Variety of occupations (Yee, 2006) ? Emotional Investment – Social Interactions (McKenna & Bargh, 2000; Yee, 2006; Cole & Griffiths, 2007 (Do transactions point to emotional investment?) Nonverbal social norms persist in SL (Yee et.al., 2007) But who is the resident and what are his preferences?

FL Fashion & SL Fashion FL FashionSL Fashion Some styles will die and be replacedMedieval clothes, armours, science fiction etc. New fashion propagators identifiedNew fashion propagators unidentified or depend on the genre Gatekeepers: critics, press etc.Blogs, digital magazines, catwalk organizers Clothing and accessoriesClothing, accessories and ‘skins’ The fashion designerThe SL designer The ‘design problem’“I do what I feel like doing” (pilot study respondent) MainstreamLong Tail Identity ‘defined’ – consumption ‘predictable’ Identity uncertain – production unpredictable

SL Fashion 1860s Day Dress by Laynie Link of Laynie Wear (Linden Lifestyles blog,

SL Fashion Red Dawn in a dress by Last Call in the SL Botanical Gardens

SL Fashion Mystic Mask Advertisement in the ‘Linden Lifestyles’ blog

SL Fashion Fernando Skin by Soul in their SL shop

SL Fashion Kelly Skin by Soul in their SL shop

Conclusions & Future Research Who is the user – Who is the resident Effects of fashion style co-existence Variety of products Designers engaging in business management, marketing etc. The role of the gate – keepers Mapping the entire SL fashion system

References See the conference submission for full bibliography Cole, H. & Griffiths, M. (2007) Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gamers, Cyberpsychology & Behavior, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 575 – 583. Crane, D. (1999), Diffusion Models and Fashion: A Reassessment, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 566, The Social Diffusion of Ideas and Things, pp Griffiths, M.D., Davies, M.N.O. & Chappell, D. (2003), Breaking the Stereotype: The Case of Online Gaming, Cyberpshychology & Behavior, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 81 – 91. Hirsch, P.M. (1972) ‘Processing fads and fashions: an organization – set analysis of cultural industry systems’, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 77, pp. 639 – 659. McKenna, K. & Bargh, J. (2000). Plan 9 from cyberspace: The implications of the Internet for personality and social psychology. Personality and Social Psychology Review. Vol. 4, pp Sproles, G. (1981), Analyzing Fashion Life Cycles: Principles and Perspectives, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 45, No. 4, pp Yee, N. (2001). The Norrathian Scrolls: a study of EverQuest version 2.5, (last accessed 17/03/08) Yee, N. (2006), The Demographics, Motivations and Derived Experiences of Users of Massively-Multiuser Online Graphical Environments, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, Vol. 15, pp Second Life logo from the official website