PHOTO BLOG - NATASHA - WEEK 6

 TENNESSEE WHISKEY COUNTRY CLUB

I came into this location because I saw that in was inhabited by about 20 residents and it had been some time since I was around other residents. The first two signs were worth noting. First, The Tennessee Whiskey Country Club sign is almost a rip off of Jack Daniels labelling. There is definitely a strong relation and maybe the users were not able to use the name. This makes me realise that the Shell store seen in my last post did not state "Shell" either, it was just an identical copy, which might be a way to dodge any accusations or illegal use of IP. Secondly, there was a sign stating "Happy Birthday" to a female avatar which was located in different parts of the place. This made me think that the reason for so many people being at this club was for a "personal" party. 

Interestingly, the branding "theft" continued, there was a beer coolie that looked exactly like the Corona branding, as well as beer that clearly said "Budweiser" which is an actual brand of beer. Also, the iconic red colour and white font of Coca Cola was seen too. This is a little bit ambiguous and only makes me want to research the rights that VR can have for certain things, as it could count as advertising. And advertising on a platform such as this could be very beneficial for big and small companies. I think that there should definitely be some research conducted on the effectiveness of

advertising (if this specific use is defined as that or not) in VR spaces, I do not believe it is redundant. It might be helpful to note that the brands that I have encountered so far have actually been iconic, well-known companies that are ubiquitous. So this "theft" may not even be questionable at all.

I decided to join this avatar's birthday party even though I wasn't invited. It was helpful that there was an object that was coded to make my character dance when touched, although I noticed that this coding was only strong when close to the object. If I strayed then the dancing seemed to lag (though that might have been because my laptop battery was dying), but I still think that there are methods used in SL to keep people engaged at particular locations; these types of programming are actually very clever and I think I undermined SL by not realising that there was so much thought and effort put into presenting an immersive community and world.