I have been thinking about bringing back “Marty and Joe” on a wider scope. For those who don’t know Marty and Joe were two evil executives I used to use as conversation points years ago to focus in on issues through the use of satire. They had no morals, no real brains beyond being conniving, and everything revolved around how to screw over their partners. They were the worst of everything rolled into a litigation happy package. Most people saw it for what it was, others actually took some of the dialogs at face value. The conversations were merely meant to stimulate thinking about worse case scenarios…and sometimes real scenarios or scenarios that “could be”. Sometimes I would “interview” them, sometimes we just got a glimpse into a conversation.

How would Marty and Joe respond to this prediction about Second Life and spartan living?

The authors of the “Metaverse Roadmap,” a briefing document that explores the possible development of virtual worlds over the next 20 years, agree that a boom within a decade is likely. Their research has indicated that by 2016, half of us will have interactive avatars, with those aged between 13 and 30 spending around 10 hours a week socializing in 3-D visual environments.

And the draw of virtual worlds may encourage some of us to forsake our mundane real-life surroundings for a luxury life online.

The Metaverse Roadmap points to the millions of youths who already use worlds like Habbo Hotel and Playdo, and suggests that “Youth raised in such conditions might live increasingly Spartan lives in the physical world, and rich, exotic lives in virtual space.” It makes a certain kind of sense: why cripple yourself with huge mortgage payments on “real” real-estate when on Second Life you can buy an entire island for $1,600 and $300/month maintenance?

Marty and Joe Business Brainstorm on Second Life

Marty: “OK the initial reports about Second Life are in. It seems marketers are having a hard time making money directly and there are some “problems”. Drugs, prostitution, nudity etc. Nothing unusual, the same kind of stuff you see in IRC only with avatars.”

Joe: “Problems. Good. Problems are usually market opportunities Marty.”

Marty: “True. What are you thinking?”

Joe: “Well according to ground reports they actually have “free” and complete “doobie” and drug kits to dispense virtual drugs, joints that exhale simulated particle effects and auto chat scripts to the message line every x random times messages like “you smell california chronic”…..They even have a “hit of sunshine” you can place on your HUD to simulate LSD effects.”

Marty: “Hmmm. So we build a “Marijuana Island”. Seems like the demographic is pretty poor. You thinking t-shirts, caps, that kind of stuff?”

Joe: “That is short-term Marty- think bigger- this is the attention economy. Wouldn’t the feds be interested in an inter-state, pro-marijuana island in SL?”

Marty: “Yes, yes I think they would. We could make it an Alternate-Reality-Game to educate people on the effects of drugs. We can have all the “virtual drugs” made and
laced with some tracking using the scripting language. We can find out who are the “weed passers” and those within range of the smoke. Then we append the information from a social network.”

Joe: “The pay off is what? Some funding from a drug education group?”

Marty: “Nah….not enough dollars. We sell it all to the feds in act of revolt as we quietly go “Jerry Ruben 2.0″, they get to nail a few silicon hippies, and ironically we can take our money and relocate to Amsterdam.”

Joe: “I like it- this has legs. Get Winthrop and the legal team in here…and find a way to plug it into Facebook- it’s hot right now.”

Marty: “You know…this might even be more lucrative in China…virtual worlds are huge there.”

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