viralavatar: Which kind of residents are on Secondlife?

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Which kind of residents are on Secondlife?

I found this interesting study on New world notes where there is a study about the kind of residents who live on Secondlife. The study is only on "active" users, defined here as Residents who spend at least several hours in-world on a weekly basis.

Here an extract of the article:

- Social gamers, 40%: Residents who frequent nightclubs, dance and party circuits, casual gaming sites, casinos, sex havens, and other areas where social intercourse or casual gaming is central. As I mentioned at the Cyberarts talk, the fact that the activity tends toward casual and sexual does not mean that it's superficial or crass-- it can yield deeply felt associations, and work as quite a conversation starter.

- Fashionistas, 20%: I've come come to believe SL fashion is such a strong and pervasive industry and culture that it deserves its own category: not only the designers and consumers, but the modeling industry, and any business or setting where customizing avatar appearance in itself is primary. They support a vast culture of avatar presentation that transcends social gaming or role playing (below) or any of the other segments. But here, I defer to Iris.

- Role Players, 20%: This would include the participants in mini-RPGs like City of Lost Angels, and discrete, highly defined subcultures like the Furries and Goreans.

- Capitalists, 10%: As the name suggests, this would include the current 34,000 business-focused Residents who are reporting a positive cash flow.

- Innovators, 10%: The builders and scripters, the Web-to-SL transformers. Included in this group would be the sandbox denizens, landless creators who turn the free build area into their living portfolio, or an end in itself: junior innovators.