We’d heard about a new virtual world modeled after Manhattan’s Lower East Side a few months ago, so we were excited to check it out when it debuted this week. The alpha site, created (we hear) by MTV and hipster bible Vice Magazine, is eerily similar to a 3D Google Map of the neighborhood. From the homepage:
“What you are witnessing is a ridiculously-realistic virtual version of New York City’s Lower East Side, a.k.a. the place where every angst-ridden, music-loving teenager (that means you, or maybe you a few years ago) dreams of running away to. This teensy neighborhood is so brimming over with cool bands, fun hangouts and bars, and pretty people that it can take about ten years to come out the other side once you move here.
So vLES wants to send you there now to give you a head start. You can create a little person and then walk right into faithfully recreated virtual versions of legendary LES venues and see real bands play. And if you’re in a band (and who isn’t), this is where you can get yourself heard. vLES is going to be so totally the opposite of boring, you don’t even know.”
In vLES you can visit all your favorite Lower East Side hangouts–much less gritty since it’s been gentrified. Our own Roboyouth went breakdancing at Cakeshop the other night (he also blogged about it on Y Pulse here.) You can meet other members through an SNS component, but just as the LES thrives on indie rock, so will this virtual world.
Don’t get too excited, but this is going to be a little something called “fun”. Whether you’re in a band or just a big music nerd, we made this site for you. We have your maximum musical pleasure in mind (that sounded a little gross, but seriously, we do). So get in there and make a personal profile for yourself or for your band. Or both. Yeah, you should do both!
So far bands include Bloc Party, Chromeo, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Cold War Kids. You can listen to their songs with
a built in audio player, see what they are listening to, and “hook up” with them. There are concerts and “video nights” at places like Arlene’s, Pianos, Mercury Lounge, and The Annex and an in-house Zine called “Lowlife.” With the heavy focus on music, it looks like they are definitely aiming to over the MySpace audience.
The appeal of virtual worlds is growing rapidly as we move towards web 3.0. What started as the domain of, well, you know the type, has entered the mass consciousness (following the popularity of online gaming). Gartner reports that by the end of 2011, 80% of all active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will participate in one. MTV has launched several VWs so far aimed at every segment of their audience: Virtual Laguna Beach, The Hills, and Pimp My Ride with others in the works for MTV Cribs and Logo.
Now: hipsters. But will this fickle clan embrace it? The handlebar moustache-grooming PBR-swilling set themselves? (No, not PBR, that’s so last week, what are we ordering now?) That’s besides the point. The audience is the kids in Ohio that want to be like them. Once again, MTV and Vice have commodified cool. And their package is a whole lot more attractive than MySpace and less sketchy than Second Life. The fact that the site is well-constructed and easy to navigate–though still a bit rudimentary–gives them a big leg up. They own all the real estate on the site, so branding opportunities like FH Youth did with Cingular in Virtual Laguna Beach abound.
As of the end of March, MTV was reporting publicly that their Laguna and Hills projects have drawn a total of 600,00 registered users, 85% female, average age of 20. Interesting that MTV is not attaching their name to the site (aside from Viacoms). Perhaps they assume (and rightly so) that the Cakeshop crowd is so over them. But just as MTV didn’t give MOG the brand treatment–and look at that success–it seems they are onto something.
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