Stagecoach Island

I’ve been looking around on Second Life quite a bit and also Wells Fargo’s Stagecoach Island lately. I’ve got to say, I’m liking both.

The Second Life client seems more sophisticated than Stagecoach Island’s (which I believe runs on Active Worlds). The graphics are far more elegant and there are definitely more things you can do.

But I’m not sure the two should be compared side-by-side.

I once asked the question on whether companies will have their own branded universes or will they all be on Second Life? I guess for some, it can be on Second Life, while for companies such as Wells, it simply makes more sense to have their own universe.

Spend two minutes on Stagecoach Island and you will immediately figure out that this was all about financial education. They give you $50 to start with and you can blow that on jetski rentals or a weird do, or you can deposit it into an ATM where it will earn interest. Unlike Second Life where there are tons to spend money on, Stagecoach Island gives you a lot of opportunities to earn money by answering finance-related quizzes.

While Second Life will easily convert your US dollars into Lindens, money is hard-earned on Stagecoach Island. Some avatars I’ve talked to say it takes 4-8 months to earn enough money to buy land and build on your property. Kinda like RL, I guess. Money is hard to come by.

Same reason why it just doesn’t make sense for Stagecoach Island to exist within Second Life (apparently they used to be on SL). If the goal is to educate WF’s customer base about their finances, how exactly do you do that in a place where people spend hundreds of dollars on things that might arguably be considered pointless (avatars, outfits, “virtual” houses), and probably on credit too?

So anyhow, I’m enjoying Stagecoach Island quite a bit. But here’s my wishlist:

1) I don’t think I’ll have the patience to wait 4 months to earn enough money to build on Stagecoach Island. So maybe making “mortgages” available on SI would solve it? It would still be educational for the consumer, right?

2) More opportunities to earn money. There seems to be millionaires on SI. Maybe they can start hiring n00bs to give them a head start.

3) It looks like there’s a limit as to how many houses you can build on SI. But as people continue to play, the money continues to earn interest. Other than building there doesn’t seem to be other places to spend money on. I’m not talking about malls or clothing. Maybe a stock market. Or maybe small start ups? Heck. Virtual VCs!

Ok that’s it. I’m stopping at Virtual VCs.