Nissan Retools
Writing by Green Guy on Thursday, 26 of April , 2007 at 4:43 am
The Orignal Nissan Build has Become a Famous SL Marketing Flub. Is the New Project Any Better?
Readers may recall our criticism of the Nissan build last October. It was our view that the build failed to take advantage of the social nature of online worlds and also failed to show any sort of imagination — a giant vending machine dispensed scale models of Nissan Sentras in a world of flying saucers, dragons, and yiffing little furries.
Now Nissan has teamed up with the Electric Sheep Company with a project that raises new questions. According to an April 25 press release from Nissan North America (NNA), their Altima Island will contain lots of strange new builds. Quoting our friend Giff:
“The new Altima Island is an automotive amusement park for all types of avatars,” says Giff Constable, founder of The Electric Sheep Company. “Each contraption was purposely built to transport avatars into a mesmerizing world that perfectly balances pseudo- and real-world features.”
More specifically, there will be a number of virtual contraptions designed and scripted by Kage Seraph, Kanker Greenacre, and Calum Clifton. The kicker is that NNA is open-sourcing the scripts:
“Nissan wanted to provide the Second Life community with a unique, hands- on experience,” says Steve Kerho, director of interactive marketing & media, NNA. “By sharing these open-source codes with everyone, we’ve given them the opportunity to learn and interact more in Second Life and ultimately, within Altima Island.”
Editorializing now, I think this is definitely a step in the right direction, in that it addresses the creativity issue. The problem is it only highlights the creativity of the Electric Sheep. What I want to know is what the *Nissan* engineers would come up with if unconstrained by the laws of physics etc. There are also worries about the social reach of this project. I wonder exactly how many people they think they are going to touch by open sourcing some advanced scripts. This smells a little bit like Nissan went to the Sheep, and said we don’t want another disaster like the Sentra thing. That thought fell down the hole of the group techie-think at ESC, and out popped this idea: “We like to script so *everyone* must like to. Or anyway, the important people and non-idiots like to.” On the other hand, maybe the new builds will be fun. And we are all learning here. Baby steps.
The NNA press release (which is way way over the top by the way — “Nissan Pioneers the Second Life Universe with Unique Innovations” WTF???) is below the fold. (Hat tip to Dustin Dwyer at Michigan Radio.)
Nissan Pioneers the Second Life Universe with Unique Innovations
All-New 2007 Nissan Altima Launches in Second Life Using Hands-On Technology to Fully Engage Consumers
NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 25 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) announced a ground-breaking collaboration with its partner The Electric Sheep Company, the leading creator of 3-D virtual world content and solutions. Through their novel efforts, Nissan will be the first automotive company to provide Second Life residents access to the open-source codes used on the Altima Island contraptions.
The Altima “Scriptyard” and contraptions were created by master builders Kage Seraph, Kanker Greenacre, and Calum Clifton; three renowned Second Life scriptors, one of whom was recently nominated at Linden’s Extraordinary Avatar Exposition for the “2006 Metaverse Notable Avatar” award. Designed to engage and entertain both expert and novice gamers, Nissan will be sharing the secrets to their extremely sophisticated codes so all levels of gamers can learn from the best scriptors in the field and in turn, build their own designs.
“Nissan wanted to provide the Second Life community with a unique, hands- on experience,” says Steve Kerho, director of interactive marketing & media, NNA. “By sharing these open-source codes with everyone, we’ve given them the opportunity to learn and interact more in Second Life and ultimately, within Altima Island.”
Visitors to the Altima Island are first greeted with an impressive 20- story monolith, crowned by a flying Nissan Altima. Encircling the monolith are six clever contraptions based on the 2007 Nissan Altima’s unique features. For example, Second Life gamers can experiment with the Xtronic CVT(TM) Avasphere — a smooth-peddling, all-terrain hamster ball inspired by Altima’s virtually gearless Xtronic CVT(TM) (Continuously Variable Transmission). They also can drive a replica of the Altima above the island on a special gravity- defying Nissan Sky Track.
“The new Altima Island is an automotive amusement park for all types of avatars,” says Giff Constable, founder of The Electric Sheep Company. “Each contraption was purposely built to transport avatars into a mesmerizing world that perfectly balances pseudo- and real-world features.”
Nissan Altima Island arrives as a follow-up to Nissan’s successful launch of the popular Sentra Island — known for its vending machine, loop-de-loop and driving simulators — where over 20,000 virtual Nissan Sentras have been obtained to-date.
About the Next Generation Nissan Altima
The Next Generation Nissan Altima offers Nissan’s advanced Xtronic CVT ™ (Continuously Variable Transmission), a choice of the award-winning VQ- series 3.5-liter V6 or powerful 2.5-liter inline 4-cylinder engines, and a long list of technology and comfort features — including standard Intelligent Key with Push Button Ignition, available Bluetooth(R) Hands-Free Phone System, Bose(R)-developed audio system with nine speakers, dual-zone automatic temperature control, RearView Monitor and a voice activated touch-screen navigation system with real time traffic updates.
About Nissan North America
In North America, Nissan’s operations include automotive design, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at http://www.nissannews.com/.
Source: Nissan North America
CONTACT: Scott Vazin of Nissan, +1-615-725-5238,
scott.vazin@nissan-usa.com; Melissa Trivino of Edelman, +1-323-202-1894,
melissa.trivino@edelman.com; or Jeremy Miller of TBWA Worldwide,
+1-212-804-1162, jeremy.miller@tbwaworld.com
Web site: http://www.nissannews.com/
Category: Main
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