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I suspect there is now a new way to characterise the population Before now, you were either left-handed or right-handed, you could either roll your tongue or you couldn’t or you loved marmite or you hated it….now it would seem you either love MMOGs and spend half your life playing them, or you can’t see the point in them. And if you need to ask what an MMOG is, then you are most definitely with me in the latter group.

Massive multiplayer online games or MMOGs (also sometimes called massively multiplayer online role playing games, MMORPGs) are a range of games played with many others – often thousands and even millions of others -  via the internet. They seem to come in two flavours – either based upon gnomes, trolls and slaying dragons and other beasties or a virtual form of real life, that seems to be nothing like real life as you get to decide for yourself just how beautiful and sociable you are.

As I say, they don’t work for me. In fact the only comment that seems to come to mind when I think about these games is…why? But this lack of understanding may not be my fault. The traditional users of MMOGs are between 18 and 35, and although they are allegedly popular with women, with approximately 30% of players being female, as an older woman (just slightly older), I am not the target demographic. When it comes to online games, older women, or so I have read, ‘enjoy playing short puzzles and logic games’.

'Calvin Klein has announced plans to launch a virtual fragrance'

Whilst these games may not appeal to my natural tastes, as a business and management academic, there may be more professional reasons to give them further thought. These games appear to be offering organisations a new channel to promote, and perhaps eventually distribute, their products and services. Adidas, Toyota and Dell have all created content in the MMOG Second Life. The clothing store, American Apparel, have opened a store in this virtual world, where players can buy items for their virtual alter ego, and Calvin Klein has announced plans to launch a virtual fragrance. 

These virtual worlds have also been identified as a potential laboratory for social scientists such as economists. Economics is an area where it is notoriously difficult to test theories and compare outcomes of different actions. Whilst simple experiments can be set up in classrooms and labs, unless you have a small country at your disposal, it is very hard to set up situations with stakes that the participants really care about or which involve large numbers of individuals over long periods of time. The virtual worlds created in MMOGs meet these criteria perfectly and could provide powerful test beds for new ideas on fiscal or monetary policy or areas of social policy. Indeed, the academic credibility of these games is already established, with one professor in the US securing funding to construct a virtual game world to try out such experiments and Brunel University appointing the UK’s first professor of digital games, whose area of study include MMOGs.

So, perhaps there is something in these games for all of us after all……or perhaps I should just stick to the short puzzles and logic games!

Further reading

• Virtual world, real millions - the Money Programme investiagtes the millions of people opting out of real life and signing up to "live" in computer worlds
• What makes an entrepreneur? - take a test to discover if you’ve got what it takes
• Join the discussion - What do you think of Second Life and World of Warcraft?
• Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games by Edward Castronova, published by University of Chicago Press
• Tomb Raiders and Space Invaders by Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska, published by IB Tauris
• Understanding Digital Games by Jason Rutter and Jo Bryce, published by Sage Publications

About the author

Elizabeth Daniel is Professor of Information Management at the Open University Business School where she undertakes research and teaching in the fields of e-business and information systems. Elizabeth also undertakes consultancy work for a number of blue chip and leading public sector organisations.

Blogging about

Money Programme

Get the facts behind the big business and finance stories from around the world - and down your street.

All companies need to have some high-growth businesses mixed in with the slower-growing ones, although the ones that are high-growth and the ones that are slow-growth can change dramatically over time. That is one of the problems that all companies have, that nothing ever stays the same. These changes can arise from all sorts of things but for companies selling chocolate two obvious things to think about are fashion trends and dietary preferences. Luckily, these trends will probably be different in different parts of the world, so that geographic spread (i.e. selling your chocolate to a variety of different countries) is a good idea and part of the portfolio spreading of risks.

'chocolate sales might have peaked in Western countries'

Supposing that the Western obsession with ‘Size Zero’ means that young women in developed countries don’t buy chocolate any more? It might make perfect sense to move into the chewing gum market because these same diet-conscious young women might want to chew gum all day to keep from feeling hungry. There is also the obesity problem in rich countries and the rising criticisms of food companies for marketing fatty foods to children. You can see why chocolate sales might have peaked in Western countries while chewing gum has lots of growth potential.

Personally, I love chocolate and hate chewing gum. So are they just completely different customer groups? Is that how it works, like cats and dogs, so that people are either cat people or dog people – chocolate or chewing gum? Either way could be good news for Cadbury. If it really is like the difference between cat lovers and dog lovers, then Cadbury will be trying to gain new, extra customers from a different market segment and a lot of them will inevitably be Wrigley customers at the moment. If the same people often buy both, then Cadbury would be trying to sell a new product to their existing customers. At the moment it’s a product that those customers have to buy from a competitor company (Wrigley) because Cadbury don’t sell chewing gum. Bars of chocolate and packets of chewing gum are both small, quite cheap items to buy. They are sold from the same kinds of outlets. You can see why Cadbury thinks it knows how to do this.

So now war has been declared. Cadbury is going to compete directly for Wrigley’s customers head-to-head.

'the big retailers are very important in this battle for market share'

Competitive strategy can be great fun. You can think of it as a war game or a game of chess – depending on your preferences. In terms of competitive strategy, Cadbury will be attacking Wrigley as the market leader in chewing gum. Instead of tanks and guns they will be battling it out with brands (established versus new), marketing campaigns, customer loyalty, discounts to retailers and fighting over shelf space in supermarkets. The big retailers are very important in this battle for market share. Whose chewing gum will they want to sell: Wrigley’s or Cadbury’s? And anyway, why would anyone want to buy chewing gum from a chocolate company?

I think I’d rather go down the gym.

Futher reading

• Competitive advantage - how can companies gain the upper hand?
• The chewing gum war - the two dominant players are fighting for their market shares
• Join the discussion - do you think Cadbury will suceed in the chewing gum market?

About the author

Susan Segal-Horn is Professor of International Strategy at the OU Business School. Susan's research focuses on international service industries and service multinationals, and she has published a number of books.

Blogging about

Money Programme

Get the facts behind the big business and finance stories from around the world - and down your street.

Charlie can’t wait for the first of July. It’s five years 3 months and two days since his last pint of Old Brewery Bitter. He’s not been in prison or exile. Nor has he signed the pledge. He’s just got old and little frail. And with the advancing years his childhood asthma returned, tightening his chest remorselessly. He’s able to manage alright in the fresh air, or his own home, but the smoke in the King’s Head has become unmanageable. 

He had his first (legal) pint there on his 18 birthday. But after 62 years – minus the five he spent in North Africa – he’s had to pack it in. He can still taste the hops if he closes his eyes. In just a few weeks he’d be able to taste them again - for real.

"he’s noticed his football has suffered from the smoke"

It will probably be Mike who pours his much anticipated pint for him. He’s a student nurse at Newport Uni, just down the road, but does four shifts a week at the King’s to help fend off his mounting debts. Been doing it for nearly three years now, and he’s noticed his football has suffered from the unwanted – but unavoidable - second hand smoke. The regulars who sit at the bar are selflessly devoted to sharing their spare carcinogens with him. 

More alarmingly he is also well aware that the atmosphere isn’t just capable of lowering his game; his first year epidemiology course told him that its also lethal. Somewhere in England, one of his fellow bar keepers dies from it every week. But there’s not a lot he can do about it; he needs the money. And the sneering suggestion that he should get a job elsewhere is as useless as it is insulting. 

The man from the Brewery has tried to reassure him that the new ventilator will sort the problem, but Mike isn’t convinced. It does make the place look better; getting rid of the visible parts of the smoke. But his nursing course has also taught him that it’s the unseen bits – which the fans can’t touch - that really do the damage. It’s like protecting a miner by taking away his canary. In any case, what good is sucking the muck out if there’s a bevy of smokers busily puffing it back in. You wouldn’t try to empty the bath with the taps still running. 

Trudy, Mike’s girlfriend, is also counting the days. She likes to go down to King’s and have a drink with him as he finishes his shift; then they can walk home together. But the smoke is a pain: a hair wash and complete change of clothing every time. Oh for the day when a quiet drink doesn’t turn you into a kipper. 

"the boss wouldn’t have dared go completely smokefree on his own" 

Even the boss is getting excited. He sees real opportunities in winning back old customers – Charlie isn’t the only reluctant absentee – and getting new ones. He’s not big enough to have separate rooms and wouldn’t have dared go completely smokefree on his own. But now the Government is taking the pain, and he can think about catering, may be getting a coffee machine and families are a possibility.   

Some of the regulars, though, are unhappy. They feel persecuted, and mutter about bans, civil liberties and this being a free country. 

Well they are right; this is a free country. Charlie’s five years in North Africa helped see to that. And it will be that bit freer come the first of July, not least for Charlie. Cheers.

Further reading

• Smoking cigarettes - even today, there are people who argue about the risks of tobacco - it's little wonder it took 400 years to get conclusive evidence of the dangers.
• Why do people smoke? - even many people who are fully aware of the health risks involved still enjoy lighting up.
• Cigarettes - find out what lies inside every packet.
• Will the smoking ban kill bingo halls? - The Money Programme investigates.
• Join the discussion - do you think the ban should be stopped to help business?
• Institute for Social Marketing
• Social Marketing: Why should the devil have all the best tunes? by Gerard Hastings, published by Butterworth Heinemann
• 'Understanding adolescent beliefs and intention to smoke: the effect of antismoking information' by Nina Michaelidou, Haider Ali and Sally Dibb, presented at Advances in Consumer Research Conference, Sydney, July 2006

About the author

Professor Gerard Hastings is Director of the Institute of Social Marketing (ISM), a joint venture between the University of Stirling and the Open University. The Institute conducts research into social marketing campaigns that seek to change the behaviours of individuals and society.