on AOL and San Diego

I always wanted to be a musician! Rai on baby!
My star at AOL Pointe.

I actually thinks San Diego is a really great place. The weather is always nice, good food especially mexican. It never seems to rain down there so all the cars look new and shiney. Great place to buy a used car. They have all kinds of old muscle cars for sale. The coast is fantastic as well dotted with gleaming white sailboats flaunting multi-colored sails. Lots of big, beautiful homes, golf courses etc. All the local people seem healthy and relaxed--ok some of them are medicated but they still look good.

But why turn SL into San Diego?

Seems to me (and what do I really know, so take this as it is) that in the brave new virtual world people seek the sunny saftey of San Diego because they are disoriented or scared. The new AOL area is perhaps a recent example of a safe place to explore SL. It is a very nice build, but not more adventorous than an average seaside amusement park.

But I think it is a bad trade-off to recreate the happy, main street USA stuff in SL. Although famillar, it misses the point of what SL can be and that is/should be more challenging. Certainly the vampires I met at AOL Pointe seemed to be interesting than the bland offerings at the AOL amphitheatre.

I think also that the big Brands are having a hard time figuring out what to do in SL. The AOL brand is a bit lost even on the internet, so figuring out the right message in SL is pretty tough. How can a big corporate do much more than serve up San Diego without taking the kinds of risks that they just can't take? Unfortunately these corporates are the ones who have the budgets to pay the Sheep, MOUs, RRRs. Is it really that only the residents can take the chances and push the limits.


San Diego or TJ? Usually an easy choice!

Motorati tries to open stuff up a little. They have the blah blah Pontiac dealership, but also a little ghetto for a game to drive-over zombies. They are letting people get involved with some direction on the area and maybe that is because Pontiac is only a sponsor and not the owner. They can tap the creative energy, but not get all dirty. Still seems a little compromised.

Tijuana is still more fun that San Diego!