Shep Korvin - Blog is the new Black

What dreams may come.

Typical, isn't it?... the week that I start falling behind on my RSS feeds is the week one of my inventions gets some coverage over on SL Insider. Eloise Pasteur wrote this piece on MobVends ... oddly, declaring them to be a new invention (I'm assuming she doesn't get out shopping too often). Disappointingly, the piece didn't really delve into the subculture of the chair hopping/mobbing scene, and pretty much went for the easy "this causes lag... must be bad" line :(

Oh well. They reckon all publicity is good publicity ;)

Now, could I interest any of you in a VCR.....?

Crowdpricing and Podcasts

Walker Spaight has coined a wonderfully web2.0-esque phrase to summarise exactly what it is that MobVends do.... "crowdpricing". I love that word! ... so expect me to use it a lot in the future :)  ... you can read what he had to say about MobVendors over on 3pointD.com. In a predictably yin-yang fasion, Prokofky uses the associated comments section to diss Mobvends/Lucky Chairs. Yay!... my first public denunciation by Prokofky Neva - I feel like I've finally arrived on the SL developer circuit! My FIC membership card must surely already be in the post?

Elsewhere in the SL mediasphere... (this happened 6 weeks ago, and I have to admit - with slight embarassment - completely passed me by at the time) ...the "GBAffair" Podcast devoted an entire episode to Lucky Chairs! Episode #61 (direct mp3 link) features almost 30 minutes of LC-related goodness ...chat, interviews, and even a spot on Lucky Chair etiquette! Great stuff :)

"Lucky Frog Waits"

I spotted this page in my RSS reader earlier today (courtesy of worldofsl.com) - and while I don't read Kanji (or, for that matter, speak more than about 3 words of Japanese), the repeated use of the English text "Lucky Chair" and "MobVend" jumped straight out at me. A swift google translation reveals that Petra Ash has written a Japanese-language guide to Lucky Chairs and MobVends! Excellent stuff!! :)

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!)