Mitsubishi Corporation

How odd? When I visited this sim last night, it was part of a cluster that was surrounded by ocean. Skipping back today, to pick up a landmark and check a couple of things, I find it has moved - and is now nestled up in one large conglomerate of sims built by Japanese builders, MeltingDots. I'm guessing this is a temporary measure while they reposition on the grid - or something - since otherwise they are making one large, indigestible land mass, mashing together the islands of their various clients. I hope, by the time you read this, that these Mitsubishi Corporation sims will be back in splendid isolation.

As their website informs us: "Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) is Japan's largest general trading company (sogo shosha) with over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide. Together with its over 500 group companies, MC employs a multinational workforce of approximately 54,000 people. " Its origins are in shipping, when the first Mitsubishi company was founded in 1873. It added coal-mining some 8 years later, using the coal to power its ships. From there it further diversified into logistics, shipbuilding, finance, and vehicle manufacture. In fact, it seemed to have interests in just about every commercial marketplace. Continued diversification led to the founding of the Mitsubishi Corporation in 1950.

As a large and successful corporation, it is good to see it taking "corporate citizenship" seriously. One of its main contributions is support for the Global Coral Reef Conservation Project, with research bases in Seychelles, Okinawa and Midway. It is this Project that forms the foundation for a 6-sim presence in Second Life. Most of these are 'low prim' ocean sims, but a couple of them provide the substance of the build - a couple of tropical islands and a coral reef.

Newcomers should start on the MitsubishiCorporation sim, which has a nicely executed orientation zone, constructed as a series of interconnected huts, built on stilts out over the sea bed. After completing this you are led, via a park area, to a faintly Polynesian beach house, where you can discover some facts about coral. Emerging from the beach house you then arrive at the beach itself. Here you can help yourself to free scuba diving gear before heading out into the sea. Just offshore will reach the coral reef, replete with clown fish and other piscine inhabitants.

Beyond the reef you come to the second island, which also features a beach house, where you will find links and a gallery of information about the Conservation Project. While the 2 islands seem to be largely complete, the remainder of the site is still somewhat bare. I assume the intention is to extend the coral reef into the empty sims, as it is still quite small at the moment.

This is an attractive and diverting site - though I hope it will grow in coming months, as it is a little spartan at the moment.

It also shows off another possible meme in Second Life - the use of the virtual world to promote your 'corporate citizenship' credentials. I mentioned another such site a few weeks ago, and I'm sure there are others that I have simply missed or mis-filed.

Anyway, more of that another day - time for some piccies, I think:

MeltingDots - Some Work in Progress

This is more a "note to self" than anything else, but while pootling about in Second Life, sticking my nose into this sim or that, I often come across a few places I think may be of interest (if and) when they finally open to the rambling public.

Today's clutch all appear to be under construction by Japanese build company (and Second Life portal site), Meltingdots:

• Fujitsu - the Japanese computer giant - has 3 sims
• Avex Trax - a Japanese record label - has Avexisland
• Mitsubishi - Japanese maker of just about everything - has a single sim
  

They have already opened Virtual AKIBA, a 2-sim site that is basically a hoverboard track. Get your board (it's free!) and have a go. There is also a huge silver screen, showing adverts for a number of Japanese companies. Beyond this, I don't really have a clue what the "AKIBA Project" is all about.

Closer to their home base lies a cluster of sims, including "Walker Orientation." This would appear to be Meltingdots' own orientation zone, which I intend to have a closer look at soon. It is open to the public, and I have had a cursory tour, but not enough to warrant a post. Why "Walker"? Nope... sorry... no idea.

Melting Dots and Hot Suits

A few sites you might want to keep any eye on here. Nothing open to the general public yet, but Japanese virtual worlds construction company Melting Dots are building:

• 2 x island site for Fujitsu, the global ITC company, headquartered in Tokyo.
• 4 x island site for Kadokawa, a publishing and movie company.

And not so far away is the (closed) island of "ARMANI via Manzoni". I wasn't too sure how to interpret the "via" in this, but a bit of digging turned up this snippet from the New York Times travel section, on shopping in Milan: "Armani/Via Manzoni 31...This is Giorgio Armani’s personal mall, which fills an entire block. In addition to the requisite Armani clothing stores, look for Armani Libri (books), Armani Dolci (chocolates), Armani Nobu (Japanese food) and, for an unforgettable lunch, Caffè Emporio Armani."

Evidently a virtual shopping mall is coming to Second Life for people like me, who are never likely to stump up hard currency in the real shopping mall.

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Oh, if you are twitter user, you might be interested to know there is a twitter group for SecondFest, which kicks off this coming weekend.

Spaceship Suruga

I seem to be on something of a Far Eastern riff this weekend. Here's the latest in this medley of Oriental delights.

I reported a while back on Suruga Bank's then new island in Second Life (as well as name-checking Korea's Acid Crebiz), and have checked back from time to time to see if it was open. Last night, while rambling in the general vicinity I thought I'd give it a pop - and this time I was able to gain access. If you look on a Satellite Map view, the site looks completely black - and there seems to be a good reason for this. The entire site seems to be contained within a huge expanse of blackness. There is no terrain as such, rather a number of coloured discs and something akin to a space station, floating in space against a backdrop of stars. The effect, to my jaded eyes, was refreshingly new and exciting.

A teleport system will take you each of the 3 disks. On two of these you can watch videos, including (what looks like) an introduction to Visa cards and their benefits. I would like to know a bit more about this, since I am off to Tokyo at the end of the month, and have read that credit cards are not widely used for payment. The video goes some way to supporting this assertion, since it does seem to be "Credit Cards 101" - fun though! It made me chuckle a couple of times.

The main theme of the build is "d-labo" (dream laboratory) which links with this website. As far as I can tell, this ties in with the opening of Suruga Bank's new branch (if that is not too small a word) in the prestigious Tokyo Midtown tower. It looks like "d-labo" is either the project name, or the name of the company designing and managing the build in RL. Certainly the Second Life "d-labo" shows many of the features to be found in Real Life. The builders in Second Life seem to be the busy Japanese virtual worlders, Meltingdots (who offer their own portal into SL here). But enough of the blather - to get the idea of the place it is best to view the pictures:


The guy in the video is spouting the virtues of Visa cards.


I think the main aim of this sim is to promote Suruga Bank's opening in Tokyo Midtown. You may argue - largely successfully - that Second Life is not an ideal promotional channel. But be that as it may, I really like this build. It shows a lot of humour and imagination, while also looking to address the client's brief of co-ordinating the SL channel with other promotional channels. If some can explain to me the subtleties of the d-labo website, then I would be grateful!