The first Virtual Goods Summit was on Friday, and congrats to Charles and Susan for getting together an amazing group on short notice. There was remarkably little filler and a ton of real concrete discussion from the leaders in this industry.
I moderated a panel on Why Virtual Goods Matter, and there is good coverage on 3PointD. Craig, Amy Jo, Byron and the inimitable Daniel James represented a great range of perspectives on why customers care, from the social worlds to mmos to academia.
For me virtual goods represent two important things: the ability to monetize online communities in a much more effective way than advertising or subscription, and the ability to actually increase engagement of that community.
Virtual goods enable a user's ability to invest in their online identity the same way they invest in their offline one.
Read: 3PointD, Raph, and Virtual Worlds News for overall coverage of the event.
> Craig, Amy Jo, and Byron represented a great range of perspectives on why customers care, from the social worlds to mmos to academia.
"... but that guy Daniel James, he kept his mouth shut, for a change..."
Posted by: Daniel James | June 25, 2007 at 01:18 AM
Ah yes, were we talking in front of other people Daniel? I think maybe I've been talking to you too much lately if I screwed that up.
Thankfully there is a picture and pretty much everyone I've ever met recognizes you. But for any aborigines accesses via their wireless 1200 baud modems, I *guess* I can add your name above.
Posted by: Nabeel Hyatt | June 25, 2007 at 09:39 AM