During that chat, a lot of ideas were covered, and Raph briefly touched on how he thought offer-based marketing was a big new trend at GDC. Here’s the chat log, edited for relevance:

SL: Kim Chihuly: so fremium and microtransactions – any other new busines model stuff from GDC?
Raph: Yes! offer-based marketing
Raph: Huge new trend
gracemcdunnough: Raph, explain?
Raph: Offer-based marketing: where users are offered discounts/coupons/special access to partner programs, and referral revenue is paid to the oeprator
Raph: Reports from companies exploring this is that it has resulted in a 30% or so increase in their revenues
WorldMaker: Isn’t offer-based marketing entirely too 1990s Web 1.0?
SL: Dave Zeeman: Sounds like those “Get a free XBox 360!” ads.
SL: Adri Saarinen: Oh man, Offerpal was all over GDC
SL: Dave Zeeman: only in reverse
gracemcdunnough: Bounties, those were popular in the early web days

Full log here (Requires Metaplace beta account)

So I tossed “Research Offer-based Marketing” into my notebook, and forgot about it for a few days. Upon reading it again, I hit up good ol’ Google for some info. Probably the best article I came across was this one at VentureBeat. Good stuff.

How does this apply to my own interests, Listy in particular? Well, I’m always interested in marketing ideas – that’s just how I am. I’m particularly interested in marketing that doesn’t inconvenience the audience. No annoyance, etc. Given that, this seemed like a pretty good idea – I get revenue, user gets two somethings instead of one.

Now throw in virtual currency. What if the premium services on your web app cost a specific amount per month in virtual cash, and you can pick and choose the services you want (rather than free/premium boolean style)? Each service costs a little bit, user’s pages can have tip jars (tie it into twitter, even: @listybot: tip @tkstudios 100), users can buy points, or get ‘em via free offers.

It’s a pretty fun concept. A bit more complex than just having paid accounts, but definitely much cooler, and more importantly, much more fun. And fun’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? I mean, besides functionality and usefulness and a hundred other factors…

Some people are overly enthusiastic about Metaplace’s potential: MPMillionaire, for example, thinks it’s the next Google. It’s not the next Google, that comparison doesn’t really make sense. Google is about data, and MP is about experience and immersion.

What is it? It’s the content, it’s the browser, it’s the server. It’s another way of viewing the web. It’s what VRML tried to be, it’s what big metacontent apps like Second Life wish they were. It’s a supplement to how you experience an enormous wealth of information.

What Metaplace is, I think, is quite possibly the most accessible rich multiplayer experience available. My understanding is that shortly after open beta it’ll be embeddable in any site. This means you can have your own personal MMO. You can have virtual locations that people can walk through. You can do pretty much anything with a virtual world, then embed a window into that world on any website.

Picture, for example, a recruitment page for a university. As long as you have Flash and a login (MP accepts several ID providers), you can jump into a virtual world right on that page. Enter the world and you see buildings to represent different programs. Say you’re curious about a certain program. You walk to the building you want and you’re wisked off to the area for that building. There’s a representative inside—a real live person in a lecture hall setting, taking questions from anyone who shows up. They ask if you’d like to see a video for the program, and with approval they launch a video. It’s streaming from YouTube, into the projection screen on the hall’s stage. You can set up web links as piles of paper on the stage: One links to a PDF of your brochure, the other pops open an information request form.

Sounds cool, right? That’s not even an imaginitive use of the technology. Imagination is your limit, here: if you can think of it, and can put the effort in to develop it (or hire someone who can), it can probably be done. You can set up a world like the one mentioned above in maybe an hour, starting almost the second you sign up.

The really cool things, the things that’re going to make it really explode?

There’s almost zero barrier to entry, technologically or otherwise. The client they’ve developed is awesome, but you can develop your own – MP has done a great job of demonstrating that a Flash client can handle rich content provided by the worlds and reduce the entry barrier at the same time: If Flash is installed, you can jump into a Metaplace world with almost no effort.

There’s also almost no entry barrier to building new worlds. This is where most web based virtual world experiences fall down; it’s too difficult to create content. In Metaplace, a few tutorials bring you up to speed to the point of being able to build decent worlds in maybe 10 minutes. It’s insanely easy. Everything in your world is a link to a web resource, either on the Metaplace servers or hosted on your own.

The Metaplace team genuinely care about the application. When I asked about how their cashflow works, the overall responses seemed to imply that it’s a secondary concern. They seem to want to make sure it’s the most awesome experience out there, above all. All of the developers and artists can often be seen chatting with beta testers new and old. These folks love what they’ve created, and love what the beta players are creating.

So, the question is, will Metaplace really expode onto the web scene?

If I were a betting man, and it would seem by my recent life decisions that I am, I’d bet on it.