In its July 2 issue, Forbes magazine is running a story called "Sex, Pranks and Reality" about the shifting tides of doing business in Second Life (also picked up by Kotaku and other blogs). The article discusses the ups and downs of several real world businesses that are or have been in Second Life, concluding with:
Wells Fargo stopped using Linden Lab's clunky technology to run the financial company's virtual Stagecoach Island (from its own Web site) four months after setting it up in September 2005. It no longer has any connection with Second Life. Laughs Erik Hauser, creative director of Swivel Media, Wells Fargo's digital agency: "Going into Second Life now is the equivalent of running a field marketing program in Iraq."
This PR backlash, while not particularly unexpected, isn't great news for Linden Labs. But what does it mean for virtual worlds in general as operators try to move beyond their "men in tights" roots? As the difficulties of courting both user-generated content and mainstream business (or education and other non-entertainment sectors) as key constituents become clearer, what does this mean for the evolution of virtual worlds? How long will it be before companies stung by this experience like Wells Fargo decide it's once again time to venture into virtual worlds for business?
