10 Reasons why kids dominated VW08

Filed under: Trends by Digado

Virtual Worlds for Kids

When I posted ‘The Teen Dilemma’ it was already obvious how Linden Labs was missing out on the big potential for the next couple of years - the teen based worlds. Neopets claim of 30 million unique users, Club Penguins sale and nickelodeon’s announcement to open a series of virtual worlds made sure even the most sceptic analysts can’t deny the upcoming market for persistent, social environments for kids. At the last VW’08 conference it became painfully obvious how big the gap between the kids & teens and the actual adult audience was according to the Reuters report. Apart from a Second Life stand there was hardly any material targeting the adult virtual world participant.

So why is it these kidsworlds are currently dominating the market, and have no intention of surrendering this position any time soon, with about 30 to 40 worlds getting ready to launch in the next 12 to 18 months? Here are 10 reasons why I think the marketing money right now is going towards kids:

  1. Kids are already online, and used to virtual environments
  2. Kids have proven to be capable of providing critical mass
  3. Kids know the value of Virtual Products (status) by nature
  4. Kids don’t object to the controlled, safe environments corporations want
  5. Kids play, play creates content, content captivates and creates lock ins
  6. Kids are not sceptical about branding
  7. Kidsworlds are centralized, creating valuable ‘focus points’ for advertising
  8. Kids don’t go bezerk on corporate decisions
  9. Kids want stuff. Adult ’stuff’ such as coffee mugs don’t work, toys do
  10. Kids are harder to reach outside of the internet

Posted on: April 8, 2008 | Share on: Digg del.icio.us Technorati Facebook

  1. Aleister KronosNo Gravatar said on April 8th

    I take some exception to the title of this piece. It wasn’t kids dominating VW’08 - wasn’t it adults looking to exploit kids for financial gain that dominated VW’08?

  2. Rick van der WalNo Gravatar said on April 8th

    Hmmm, I think these 10 reasons listed are specifically the ‘qualities’ of kids (with the exception of #7) these virtual worlds and exploiting adults cater to.

    It’s their specific (simple) ‘needs’ that dominate the demand for virtual worlds, and the ‘development’ thereof at this point in time, because their competition (the adults) has proven to be a much tougher customer.

    Kids simply provide the money, the bread and butter of Virtual Worlds, hence they dominate the market, and the conference? Once the adult demand picks up we will see this balancing out again - or see the people exploiting adults for financial gain become more dominant again (on the marketing front) ;-)

  3. Dale InnisNo Gravatar said on April 8th

    Do we really know that kids are not sceptical about branding, compared to adults? Maybe I just hang around with bright kids, but the ones I know seem to be extremely sensitive to attempts to market to them and manipulate them, cynical about the intentions of advertisers (and providers / manufacturer in general), good at just not seeing ads, and media-savvy in general (goes with #1 on the list). Are there studies on the subject?

  4. Rick van der WalNo Gravatar said on April 8th

    Hello Dale Innis, thank you for commenting :)

    Yes there have been studies towards child/brand behaviour, and the scepticism/ aversion towards them. children below the age of 12 often don’t even recognize the difference between a commercial and the actual TV program, they don’t switch channels while watching cartoons at all, and are open to suggestions done by adults. (over television in case of the study)

    A full list of studies about child/brand relations:

    * Comstock, George (1991). Television and the American child. Academic Press Inc.
    * Fischer, Paul M., Schwartz, Meyer P., Richards, John W. Jr., Goldstein, Adam O. (1991, December 11). Brand logo recognition by children aged 3 to 6 years: Mickey Mouse and Old Joe the Camel. Journal of the American Medical Association, 266, 3145 - 3148.
    * McNeal, James (1992). Kids as customers. NY:Lexington Books.
    * McNeal, James (1999). The Kids’ Market: Myths and Realities. Ithaca, NY: Paramount Market.
    * McNeal, James (2001). Quoted in McDonald M, Lavelle M. Call it ‘kid-fluence’. U.S. News & World Report, July 30, 2001, p.32.
    * McNeal, James (2002). Quoted in MacPherson K. Poll of children shows whining wins. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 17, 2002, pA-7.
    * Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 10, 1999.
    * McNeal, James (1998, April). Tapping the three kids’ markets. American Demographics, 20, 36-41.
    * McNeal, James (1999). The kids’ market: Myths and realities. Ithaca, NY: Paramount Market.
    * Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 10, 1999.
    * Strasburger, Victor C. (2001, June). Children and TV advertising: Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 22, 185.
    * Strasburger, Victor C., Wilson, Barbara J. (2002). Children, adolescents and the media. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA., p53.
    * Teen Research Unlimited (2002). Cited in Robust teen market offers growth in ‘02. FN, April 29, 2002, v58, p15.

    But I think you will find an easier answer in the choices of the big brand marketers:

    Lego world
    Barbie World
    Coca Cola World

    No attempt has been made to hide the fact they are branded, in fact, its quite obvious the entire world is just a big brand advertisement yet are joined by the millions :)

  5. KMTONo Gravatar said on April 15th

    Hi - love your list and made a german translation: http://blog.kmto.de/article/10-gruende-warum-kinder-3d-welten-fuehren

    yours
    Michael

  6. Raising Kids in Virtual Worlds | Digado said on May 5th

    [...] a previous post I listen 10 reasons why the closed, kids based platforms will be the preferred choice for advertisers/commercial development for community based virtual worlds. I briefly touched on [...]

  7. julieNo Gravatar said on February 18th

    Hi Rick, thank you for the wonderful article!
    I don’t quiet understand #5.
    What do you mean by content captivates and creates lock ins?

    English isn’t my mother tongue, and your explanation would help me a lot.

    Thanks much,
    Julie

  8. Rick van der WalNo Gravatar said on February 18th

    Hi Julie!

    Thank you for commenting.

    What I meant by #5 is games (play) have certain mechanics in place to keep the player coming back for more, and reward the time they spend in the ‘virtual world’. With virtual money, experience points, new challenges or a progressing story.

    These kind of mechanics are important for virtual worlds because they only make money of the returning visits.

    Creating this kind of loyalty (returning visitors for a longer period of time) is a problem for the multi purpose virtual worlds aimed at the adult market such a Second Life. They have trouble implementing play features because (amongst other things) it could turn away some of the more serious business clients Second Life tried to recruit at the time of writing.

    Evidence of the lack of ‘lock in’ by these game mechanics in these virtual worlds that target an adult market is in the high number of people that signed up for a Second Life or Active Worlds account but never returned after the first week (at some point it was almost 90% of the total sign-ups).

    So in short:

    - Kids want to play
    - Play allows game mechanics to keep them interested and feel challenged
    - New challenges keep them coming back for more

    Hope this helps :)
    - Rick

  9. Club PenguinNo Gravatar said on April 16th

    We are seeing more and more kids heading into virtual worlds. Unfortunately they are ending up and Club penguin only. There are so many terrific virtual worlds for kids out there. I hope the audience spreads out. http://www.mimogames.com

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