Faketown

Today I came across the MoMB blog, or Museum of Modern Betas. (http://momb.socio-kybernetics.net/). In their latest blog post (http://momb.socio-kybernetics.net/beta/faketown), the MoMB informed me of a combined social networking site called Faketown (http://www.faketown.com/). Faketown is a blend of a social networking site and an internet game. In Faketown, players can create characters and avatars to symbolize themselves in order to interact with other players to buy, sell, and trade “virtual products”.

This got me thinking. Even though the products are being exchanged virtually as opposed to real life auction sites like eBay, are they still conversing about real life products? I decided to head on over to the Faketown website and search for my answer. I am aware that the only way to get the full scoop on this site would be to sign up for the game, but some observations on the home page led me to believe real products are being talked about in this fake town as well as made up products.

For example, the main site has a section called “Featured Creations”. Some of the feature creations listed include Apple, PC, and an iPod (all real products). This brought me to the conclusion that the real life products involved in this game are all benefiting from word of mouth promotion. Although the basis of the game is make believe, it still involves real people chatting about real products. People who do use these products take their experiences with them from real life and share them with others playing the game. Opinions of others are likely to promote products and lead another person to a purchase decision.

What do you think? Do you feel that other people’s opinions about a product are more effective than regular advertising? Do you think the unconscious word of mouth promotion in this game will be beneficial to some companies? Leave your opinions in a comment!