The Orignal Nissan Build has Become a Famous SL Marketing Flub. Is the New Project Any Better?
Readers may recall our criticism of the Nissan build last October. It was our view that the build failed to take advantage of the social nature of online worlds and also failed to show any sort of imagination -- a giant vending machine dispensed scale models of Nissan Sentras in a world of flying saucers, dragons, and yiffing little furries.
Now Nissan has teamed up with the Electric Sheep Company with a project that raises new questions. According to an April 25 press release from Nissan North America (NNA), their Altima Island will contain lots of strange new builds. Quoting our friend Giff:
"The new Altima Island is an automotive amusement park for all types of avatars," says Giff Constable, founder of The Electric Sheep Company. "Each contraption was purposely built to transport avatars into a mesmerizing world that perfectly balances pseudo- and real-world features."
More specifically, there will be a number of virtual contraptions designed and scripted by Kage Seraph, Kanker Greenacre, and Calum Clifton. The kicker is that NNA is open-sourcing the scripts:
"Nissan wanted to provide the Second Life community with a unique, hands- on experience," says Steve Kerho, director of interactive marketing & media, NNA. "By sharing these open-source codes with everyone, we've given them the opportunity to learn and interact more in Second Life and ultimately, within Altima Island."
Editorializing now, I think this is definitely a step in the right direction, in that it addresses the creativity issue. The problem is it only highlights the creativity of the Electric Sheep. What I want to know is what the *Nissan* engineers would come up with if unconstrained by the laws of physics etc. There are also worries about the social reach of this project. I wonder exactly how many people they think they are going to touch by open sourcing some advanced scripts. This smells a little bit like Nissan went to the Sheep, and said we don't want another disaster like the Sentra thing. That thought fell down the hole of the group techie-think at ESC, and out popped this idea: "We like to script so *everyone* must like to. Or anyway, the important people and non-idiots like to." On the other hand, maybe the new builds will be fun. And we are all learning here. Baby steps.
The NNA press release (which is way way over the top by the way -- "Nissan Pioneers the Second Life Universe with Unique Innovations" WTF???) is below the fold. (Hat tip to Dustin Dwyer at Michigan Radio.)
Nissan Pioneers the Second Life Universe with Unique Innovations
All-New 2007 Nissan Altima Launches in Second Life Using Hands-On Technology to Fully Engage Consumers
NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) announced a ground-breaking collaboration with its partner The Electric Sheep Company, the leading creator of 3-D virtual world content and solutions. Through their novel efforts, Nissan will be the first automotive company to provide Second Life residents access to the open-source codes used on the Altima Island contraptions.
The Altima "Scriptyard" and contraptions were created by master builders Kage Seraph, Kanker Greenacre, and Calum Clifton; three renowned Second Life scriptors, one of whom was recently nominated at Linden's Extraordinary Avatar Exposition for the "2006 Metaverse Notable Avatar" award. Designed to engage and entertain both expert and novice gamers, Nissan will be sharing the secrets to their extremely sophisticated codes so all levels of gamers can learn from the best scriptors in the field and in turn, build their own designs.
"Nissan wanted to provide the Second Life community with a unique, hands- on experience," says Steve Kerho, director of interactive marketing & media, NNA. "By sharing these open-source codes with everyone, we've given them the opportunity to learn and interact more in Second Life and ultimately, within Altima Island."
Visitors to the Altima Island are first greeted with an impressive 20- story monolith, crowned by a flying Nissan Altima. Encircling the monolith are six clever contraptions based on the 2007 Nissan Altima's unique features. For example, Second Life gamers can experiment with the Xtronic CVT(TM) Avasphere -- a smooth-peddling, all-terrain hamster ball inspired by Altima's virtually gearless Xtronic CVT(TM) (Continuously Variable Transmission). They also can drive a replica of the Altima above the island on a special gravity- defying Nissan Sky Track.
"The new Altima Island is an automotive amusement park for all types of avatars," says Giff Constable, founder of The Electric Sheep Company. "Each contraption was purposely built to transport avatars into a mesmerizing world that perfectly balances pseudo- and real-world features."
Nissan Altima Island arrives as a follow-up to Nissan's successful launch of the popular Sentra Island -- known for its vending machine, loop-de-loop and driving simulators -- where over 20,000 virtual Nissan Sentras have been obtained to-date.
About the Next Generation Nissan Altima
The Next Generation Nissan Altima offers Nissan's advanced Xtronic CVT (TM) (Continuously Variable Transmission), a choice of the award-winning VQ- series 3.5-liter V6 or powerful 2.5-liter inline 4-cylinder engines, and a long list of technology and comfort features -- including standard Intelligent Key with Push Button Ignition, available Bluetooth(R) Hands-Free Phone System, Bose(R)-developed audio system with nine speakers, dual-zone automatic temperature control, RearView Monitor and a voice activated touch-screen navigation system with real time traffic updates.
About Nissan North America
In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive design, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at http://www.nissannews.com/.
Source: Nissan North America
CONTACT: Scott Vazin of Nissan, +1-615-725-5238,
[email protected]; Melissa Trivino of Edelman, +1-323-202-1894,
[email protected]; or Jeremy Miller of TBWA Worldwide,
+1-212-804-1162, [email protected]
Web site: http://www.nissannews.com/
I bet it took you alot of willpower to not add something about animal cock to your story
Posted by: NigrasOnMyLawn | April 26, 2007 at 01:08 AM
Remember when Uri lambasted the Sheep on Secondcast for the Reuters build, then marketing drives in general, and then went on to shill for Coke? God that was *awesome*.
Posted by: black pot | April 26, 2007 at 01:20 AM
"...open sourcing some advanced scripts."
Advanced? Pfft... those cars drove like crap, thus the reason why to open source them anyway.
I'd call it an non-sense abuse, wishy-dream fantasy to self-made claims to be "advanced" harassments crap in SL's car market.
If this were to be about "who's in the car market lead", it's no one, clearly.
Posted by: Nacon | April 26, 2007 at 01:46 AM
"That thought fell down the hole of the group techie-think at ESC"
Is that YOU Prokofy?
haha
"The NNA press release (which is way way over the top by the way"
It's not like that's a Nissan only thing, all companies do that, it's a good way to advertise. If you say you're the best, or if you act over the top, people will generally believe it. Just look at all the places advertising "World's best coffee", hell look at all the new Mac commercials, which is basically a 30 second long masturbation to itself.
I still don't know what you're expecting with all this non-physics magical world talk, sure they could create some kind of super Nissan never invented and do all kinds of crazy shit, but they're hear to advertise not blow your mind, so they want to make stuff that's realistic, something that they've done quite well so far.
Posted by: Artemis Fate | April 26, 2007 at 02:01 AM
who cares about the lame sedans anyway. sentra and altima are just boring cars that get good gas mileage. They should focus on futuristic concepts not this imitation crap.
I don't need to see an altima in second life to know it's a boring design. Maybe if they scrpted a working engine that shows exactly how hybrid drives work that might atleast be educational. I forsee another huge 3 sim long empty sandbox in the future free scripts or not.
Posted by: tp | April 26, 2007 at 03:49 AM
"where over 20,000 virtual Nissan Sentras have been obtained"
Um.... and how many of them are still being used?
Lewis
Posted by: Lewis Nerd | April 26, 2007 at 07:44 AM
First, the people who builds sims for marketers AND the marketers who are rushing to get in on the "next big thing" should spend some time inworld and get an idea of what they want to make first. While a car vending machine was a cutsy idea, it wasn't all that inventive or impressive. If you want people to hang around then you need to give them a place to hang around and a reason to come in the first place.
What would make a good sim for Nissan? Make it set in the year 2057 when we have HOVERING cars (no tires) and skylanes to "drive" on. You can have a "museum" showing the cars from 50 years ago, AKA this year's models. The fun will be the cars driving the skytrack - be sure it zooms through a downtown area for maximum visual appeal. (Hint: You can build a cityscape on it's side and have LOTS more area to zoom through) Make a big "garage" with parts for social interaction, as the group plays with building their own monster car.
But the SL Vehicles, any SL vehicles, hold no appeal to me anymore. And a place trying to get my attention with nothing but free vehicles doesn't stand a chance. With all the simcrossing problems and vehicles getting jammed every 4th sim, running a vehicle as transportation is pointless. Running a vehicle as entertainment turns into a fuming exercise in trying to get things to work, which isn't entertainng at all. So my few air and ground machines sit unused in my inventory and n'ar shall another one enter my collection.
If Nissan wants to make a spot for itself in SL, they need to stop thinking like Nissan and think more like Disney. "What can we do here?" and "You know what would be really cool?" need to the first and last sentences in any discussion about what to put in a sim.
Just don't make the track cross any sim boundries, please.
Posted by: shockwave yareach | April 26, 2007 at 09:47 AM
Black Pot, I never dissed marketing or PR in SL. I've always talked about *how* things were being done and in particular about things like the fake firsts, the useless virtual corporate monuments and hypervents, and the failure of marketing and PR to come to grips with the social aspects of SL.
Posted by: urizenus | April 26, 2007 at 10:05 AM
Okay, I just have to comment on this. I love my Nissan, but often it behaves like a disobedient dog. It does do some interesting tricks though, rolls over, begs, even occasionally does back flips or sends me hurling through the air, or it decides to leave parts behind when starting up, or it sinks through the ground. Oh, and the vending machine went a little crazy and dispensed 20 to me.
Posted by: Economic Mip | April 26, 2007 at 10:13 AM
'Oh, and the vending machine went a little crazy and dispensed 20 to me.'
That wasn't a vending machine - it was a gambling machine. And you didn't win, you got second prize.
Third prize? You wouldn't want to know...
Posted by: Inigo Chamerberlin | April 26, 2007 at 11:53 AM
From that press release it sounds as if they're *still* trying to sell something. "features"???
*sigh*
Posted by: csven | April 26, 2007 at 01:00 PM
Artemis said "...so they want to make stuff that's realistic, something that they've done quite well so far."
Yeah.... except it's no where realistic. Loop Gear? Hover Mode? Paint Changing Function?
Lewis said "...and how many of them are still being used?"
That's what I want to know, but being in popular tracks in SL, newbies use them like once or 3 times while they don't have money to get a better one. I can say for sure, that no one loves using them for racing nor drifting at all.
My best bet is somewhere below 10% of them are being used at all.
Note to Shockwave: Whoa, let's not try helping them any ideas, shall we? ;)
Posted by: Nacon | April 26, 2007 at 02:23 PM
Nacon: I'd hope that they would do a better job with the vehicles, if they had to start from scratch and make them perform like aircraft instead.
And right now, my ideas are free. But if the LL doesn't let me into the developers group, then I may have to start charging. :)
Posted by: shockwave yareach | April 26, 2007 at 02:29 PM
Uri, a campaign which gives a winner of a contest nothing but a plane ticket to the coast to visit a couple of advertisers who refuse to pay them, then holds all rights to all ideas in perpetuity with nothing in return is one of the worst ideas ever. I mean come on, talk about poor execution. So coming to grips with the "social aspects" of Second Life and marketing obviously include paying people nothing for real ideas. Not ever, even if you end up using the,. For a company that finds chains of distibution to, say, Zanzibar and Afghanistan, it's a small request.
Posted by: Black Pot | April 27, 2007 at 01:04 AM
*Not ever, even if Coke ends up using the idea you submitted.
I would take a crappy nissan machine any day. At least I know the person who came up with it was probably paid.
Posted by: Black Pot | April 27, 2007 at 01:06 AM
...i know that a lot of work went into creating these newly-featured contraptions - did their makers know when they initially signed on that their work would be open-sourced?..
Posted by: Myrrh Massiel | April 27, 2007 at 02:16 AM
>Uri, a campaign which gives a winner of a contest nothing but a plane ticket to the coast to visit a couple of advertisers who refuse to pay them, then holds all rights to all ideas in perpetuity with nothing in return is one of the worst ideas ever. I mean come on, talk about poor execution. So coming to grips with the "social aspects" of Second Life and marketing obviously include paying people nothing for real ideas.<
Yeah but you left out the dream date with Reuben. Seriously though, I don't disagree with you. You'll have to ask coke why they set up the rights and the prize they way they did, because I simply don't know.
Posted by: urizenus | April 27, 2007 at 02:51 AM
nice sidestep uri, baby.
seriously tho, how come you're hating on your own kind?
Posted by: kettlelover | April 27, 2007 at 09:22 AM
just for clarity's sake: "a trip out to the coast to visit a couple of advertisters"=dream date with Reuben, looks like. Call it whatever you want. Sounds dull and arrogant to me, and about three to ten thousand dollars south of what that person should expect.
And if you agree, why did you participate and lend your name to an initiative that gives nothing to the participants, if you knew it was so bad to begin with?
Posted by: black pot | April 27, 2007 at 01:27 PM
No one is being forced to enter the virtual thirst contest. if people think the prize is worth it (given the surrender of IP rights) then they will enter, and if they don't they won't. If *you* don't think its worth it, then don't enter.
I recommended a prize of one million Linden dollars in addition to the SF trip. You'll have to ask Coke and Crayon why they did what they did. They heard what I said and did otherwise. I understand that they have their reasons.
Posted by: urizenus | April 27, 2007 at 01:38 PM
>No one is being forced to enter the virtual thirst contest.
Well this is certainly true but not relevant it seems to me; no one was forced to look at the old Nissan build,(and indeed perhaps no one would have had the Herald not made such a big deal out of it) but you still criticized it. No one was forced to join the Edelman contest, but you still criticized it.
I can't imagine that you don't understand how silly this all looks. You make a big cyber-splash by calling marketers 'fucktards,' for their hyperventilation about SL, cluelessness and use of real-world techniques in this very surreal space, and their false first claims. You tear apart Edelman for offering a totally nominal prize and claiming ownership of the business plans their contestants submitted.
Flash forward 6 months:
You join up with Coca Cola, presumably because they've got some of this right. But certainly nobody thinks that Coke is a particularly well-behaved company (especially not people in India). And they offer a similar prize in which individuals lose the rights to their work. And probably somewhere or other they've made the mistake of claiming some of this stuff 'first'.
So what's the story here? Did you just give up? Or (I hope I hope I hope) are you a mole for us good guys?
Posted by: kettlelover | April 27, 2007 at 02:24 PM
Who says the Herald *won't* criticize the contest? Indeed, why don't you write an Op/Ed so we don't have to wait?
Posted by: urizenus | April 27, 2007 at 03:20 PM
Dunno, but after watching him light into the sheep for going on half a year now, it really seems he's more a mole for millions of us.
plus, I mean come one: coke has done some great things for other nations, like south africa under apartheid! Think of all the white people they used to help!
Does this mean that every time uri criticizes some company in sl he should be giving full disclosure that he's a mouthpiece for coke, crayon and mou? Or will he just hide under the idea that tabloid blogging isn't serious journalism, or that it is new journalism like amanda congdon with Dow? Can't wait to see.
Oh and by the way, overcompensating as a blogger/journalist by criticizing a contest you were paid to participate in is journalism conflict of interest 101. Unless you plan to refund coke, you should really just remain quiet because nothing you say on that score can be taken seriously, tongue-in-cheek aside. You lost your voice there, unfortunately.
Posted by: Black Pot | April 27, 2007 at 11:41 PM
Actually Uri, I never said or approved that quote, but that is a WHOLE other topic I now get to look into. Leave it to the Herald to bring some drama into my life. I am not the founder of ESC, by the way; Sibley Verbeck, our CEO, is the founder.
The open source scripts of the contraptions are not intended for the mass audience, but rather the vehicle community in SL. You don't need to care about scripting to have fun with either the new flying car or the gadgets dreamed up by Kage, Kanker and Calum.
btw, I don't mind it when Uri criticizes Sheep projects. There's usually more to the story than gets presented, and his conjecture like in the above story is invariably wrong, but we're always trying to get better.
Posted by: Giff / Forseti | April 28, 2007 at 11:49 PM
Forseti, I have asked some questions of you over on the SL forums, if you wouldn't mind taking a look at those. They are in the "automated burglary" thread.
coco
Posted by: Cocoanut Koala | April 29, 2007 at 01:22 AM
P.S. I'll save you some time there, Forseti. I stuck that quote into google and got:
http://automotive.eventsquarterly.com/?p=104
Source seems to be Nissan. I think you would need to take up the innacuracies with them, rather than Uri.
coco
Posted by: Cocoanut Koala | April 29, 2007 at 01:49 AM
I wasn't referring to Uri regarding the quote Cocoa. I knew he didn't write that quote, but I didn't even realize it existed in the Nissan press release until I saw Uri's post.
Posted by: Giff / Forseti | April 29, 2007 at 02:18 AM
I'm part of the Virtual Thirst team at crayon and because people were asking about items such as rights and the prize in this thread I wanted to share a video that The Coca-Cola Company has posted in response to these questions.
It can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JhJPgHDSeQ if curious.
Posted by: C.C. | May 02, 2007 at 11:12 AM
Lewis Nerd I completely agree with ya dammit!! :)
Well said!!!!!!
Posted by: Pompo Bombacci | July 15, 2007 at 12:48 AM