The much written about Starwood/ W Hotels / Aloft Hotel in the Second Life virtual world will be removed after a ten month experimental existence. More about it here. There is also an announcement posted at the hotel. This is a telling event about how hard it is to mimic real world venues in virtual spaces. I made it a point to visit this space a number of times as I wandered about SL, and after the grand opening it was usually empty. I never saw a Starwood employee there, having a person greet you would have been useful. Though beautifully designed, I wondered, OK, what is next? Do people check in? Sleep? What? There is still quite a gulf between the virtual and real worlds. Simply replicating aspects of the real world is not enough, and often not even useful except to prove that the empty spaces can be created.I am assuming that Starwood got the design experience they wanted out of the experiment. They have annnounced the ground-breaking of a real-life version of the virtual hotel.
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