.branded and User-Generated Virtual Goods Panel - VGS 2008*
at the virtual goods summit today - looks like its going to be an interesting conference - good crowd of attendees. also, i am impressed with the number of women at this conference - way higher than the norm at tech conferences. wonder why? are women in tech all in virtual worlds?
first panel up today: Branded and User-Generated Virtual Goods
* Brian Balfour, Viximo
* Lee Clancy, IMVU
* Amy Jo Kim, Shufflebrain
* Sean Ryan, Meez
* Moderator: Margaret Wallace, Rebel Monkey
funniest thing to come out of this panel was a comment by sean ryan of meez. apparently, the women in meez wanted their avatars to look more like they do in real life. however, the default body type was thin. they received alot of feedback for more fuller figures and changed the options to included more plus sizes. they still get comments that the plus size isn’t plus enough. but for men, these issues do not really arise - the most common body type for men is “Buff”. hilarious 
interesting financial fact: imvu is an english only, US based product, but about 40% of their revenue is international. perhaps the era of focusing only on US visitors is over?
overall sense of the panel is that branded goods are not in high demand as people think. users do not really want the premium branded items yet. and if you are creating a promotional item, it should be free.