Other lessons learned in virtual worlds development

Other basic lessons when developing an enterprise virtual world (for business):

• Avatars matter - as far as connecting to a virtual world. Visual appeal yields visceral emotional responses, which are part and parcel of our emotional connections with others. Without this, virtual worlds are largely stale.
  
  (And let's not even talk about the on-boarding time to get your avatar customized.)
  
  
• Avatars don't matter - to the extent that once you have established a connection, you have a foundation on which to collaborate.
  
  
• Content is king - There has to be something to do in a virtual world. Whether games, events, a maze ... there must be a draw to keep people coming back.
  
  
• Context is key - The most effective virtual worlds are little more than contextual virtual spaces. The more context to a world, the more reason for someone to join and engage.
  
  
• Value is subjective - socialization is the basis of the most popular virtual worlds. The necessity of business is to produce meaningful work product (innovation). Collaboration begins with socialization, but it never ends there. If you are only in it for the friendships, how much value are you adding to the business?