Asked by a social summit attendee to comment on the relatively short life of virtual community Second Life, the Social Gaming panelists initially threw up their hands. Finally, Wild Tangent's Bill
Clifford took a shot at it, noting that it was probably "ahead of its time," and that there was a considerable "barrier to entry" for both users and marketers.
Clifford provided a pretty vivid
anecdote to illustrate just how much of a barrier (or as the case may be, lack thereof) Second Life represented for some brands.
Clifford described a walkthrough the Second Life team did of a
mock-up of a "branded retail store) in the virtual community, and while Clifford and his clients were walking through the branded retail experience, he said something awkward happened.
"An
avatar dragging a woman by the hair walked right through the branded store," he recalled, shaking his own hair, and noting, "I'd never seen anything like that."