Microsoft's historic first
by Tateru Nino 
Apr 25th 2008 at 1:15PM
Filed under: News items, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds
"Once again we are poised to make history for Microsoft by holding the first ever full-fledged Launch event in Second Life." -- MSDN blog.
In order for this statement to be in any way factual, we'd have to assume that they are redefining 'first', or 'full-fledged' or perhaps the mysteriously capitalized 'Launch' for marketing effect.
The other possibility is that the historical part is that it's Microsoft's first time doing such a thing in Second Life -- in which case the statement isn't actively false, only highly misleading.
Having pushed their initial launch into Second Life pretty hard, it seemed to be something of a failure, with competitor Sun Microsystems well ahead of the Microsoft effort in the overall engagement stakes.
Nonetheless, Microsoft is having another run up at it, and if there's one thing Microsoft does well, it's iterating towards success.
The launch event is going on in Second Life on 26 April on Microsoft Island, and the event calendar is here, but you will need to have Live Meeting installed for all of the demos.
Yes, that's a picture of Bill Gates up there. We've redefined Microsoft's CEO for marketing effect.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Patchouli Woollahra said on 2:33PM 4-25-2008
I suppose it depends on what your definition of 'is' is.
/btw, I did not have sexual relations with that woozl.
//it depends on what your definition of sexual relations with woozls is too.
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Samantha Poindexter said on 1:31PM 4-25-2008
"The other possibility is that the historical part is that it's Microsoft's first time doing such a thing in Second Life -- in which case the statement isn't actively false, only highly misleading."
I'm not averse to poking fun at Microsoft or clueless marketing claims in general, but in this case I think it's pretty clear that this is the intended meaning.
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Tateru Nino said on 2:32PM 4-25-2008
We ran it past a few people, and nobody we asked interpreted it that way. Honestly? We're not sure quite what they intended by the statement. Besides, as near as we can tell, this is Microsoft's second full-fledged launch in SL.
Nacon said on 4:53PM 4-25-2008
I'm sure it doesn't matter if it's a first or not but surely they want to create more hype attention grab.
In other words, they wanna herd some more noob-cows, weither they're a walking "destructional" path freak or not. ;)
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Toneless Tomba said on 7:33PM 4-25-2008
We are the biggest company to ever enter SL so that's historical first!
No that would be General Motors.
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Okay, but we are the largest and most profitable company to enter SL!
No that would be Toyota.
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Then we are the largest tech company to enter SL!
No that would be Dell.
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Umm..... Well we are the largest tech company that is the most profitable and created the most intensely advanced operating system ever to enter SL?
Ding Ding Ding! WE HAVE AN HISTORIC FIRST PEOPLE!
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Gwyneth Llewelyn said on 11:59PM 4-25-2008
Ah, make fun of Microsoft, but for one, I'm very pleased to see that Microsoft has not given up on Second Life yet.
Although they might grumble a bit once they figure out that LL's ToS on trademarks was based on... Apple's own ;)
Speaking of which, Apple and Yahoo continue to be the most reluctant tech companies to even admit that Second Life exists. Ironically, it was through an official Apple site that I found out about SL, ages ago.
And Google's stance on SL is... ambiguous. The unofficial statement is "we have no clue what to do about it", which, coming from Google, is probably worrying. But more worrying to Google shareholders I guess ;)
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Tateru Nino said on 12:43AM 4-26-2008
Although they did remove their unlaunched Xbox island.
Damien said on 10:47AM 4-26-2008
The Xbox Island. I recall it was next to PS3, Wii and maybe some more game islands - is it possible that someone was simply hogging the island name in hopes of a buyout, as has been done on the web?
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Vanessa said on 1:53PM 4-26-2008
It's telling that even though there's been a clarification in the linked post's comments since about the time you published this here, you not only didn't update your "rant" to reflect this but you act like it doesn't even exists with statements like "We're not sure quite what they intended by the statement".
http://blogs.msdn.com/zainnab/archive/2008/04/13/heroes-happen-here-launch-in-second-life-april-26th-2008.aspx#8424770
"Everyone who reads my blog knows I’m a no BS kinda guy so it looks like the verbiage I used was confusing. I want to set the record straight, of course: We are setting Microsoft history not Second Life history. There have been plenty of launches for products on Second Life. Actually, there have been launches for Microsoft products as well but there has never, in Microsoft's history, been an all-day event with three full tracks in Second Life. This is what I am most proud of."
It's also not the "MSDN blog", it's a Microsoft employee's personal blog.
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