MobStalking...

What a week! After a few (worryingly) quiet days immediately following its retail launch, MobVend suddenly took off in a *huge* way mid-week, and a reporter from SLNN.com came to interview me over the whole phenomena [article here]. Neat! :) 

For me, the whole week has been a heady mixture of terror and excitement. Terror because - well, let's face it, the baseline performance of SL has been particularly poor this last couple of weeks, and the MobVends *do* encourage crowds on a scale that tends to push SL to its limits. This scheme definitely sits on the borderline of "sensible things to attempt in SL", and the last thing I want is a pitchfork-wielding flashmob baying for my blood if one of the units flakes out under the strain! 

I guess that's why I've been nervously following the flashmobs... observing from a distance; re-assuring myself that everything is running OK (and getting some great crowd-shots in the process!)

And as for the excitement? Well... I guess you have to experience one of these flashmobs first-hand to understand it, but the atmosphere at these events is *wonderful*. I'm not really sure how to explain it, but there's the strangest kind of buzz in the crowd; a combination of camaraderie and anticipation as the price ticks down (even if you're only there to watch!) - then the buying frenzy as the "mad minute" kicks off - w00ts from the people who get the best price, wails from the people who weren't paying attention ... but nobody seems to stay upset for long, they just wait around for the vendor to tick down all over again... Great stuff! :) 

 

One thing that's become apparent is that - currently - the MobVends aren't as "slow-burning" an attraction as the lucky chairs are, and the more strategically-minded users are viewing them as a tool to get a short-term flurry of large crowds into their stores.

 

I'm expecting that perception to shift as more MobVends come on-stream. If you consider the fact that there are currently around 500 lucky chairs operational in SL... if there were 500 mobvends, each running a 20 minute prize cycle, then it would (mathematically) take a well-organized mob nearly a week to "floor" them all (assuming they didn't eat, sleep, take toilet breaks, or any other messy meatspace stuff like that) - in other words, there should be plenty of activity to occupy even the most insane flashmobber soon, and sufficient variety to allow them to pick and choose the sites that they decide to mob. In that sense, I guess sellers who get into the scene before it reaches any kind of saturation point are going to be the ones who stand to gain the most from serendipitous traffic.

(Hrm... salespitch!)