Silly me, I used to think that you won Second Life by skillingskillingskilling learning to build, beating the bosses in sandboxes while showing off your kewl gear purchased at the avalon island, camping at town hall meetings with Lindens, leveling up, leveling up, acquiring first the calling card of a telecommuter Linden...then an office Linden...then even Philip's card...winning a big quest (building contest) and being allocated free Linden land or winning a half or full island to build a game or something...then, the heady trip to California, the job interview...and walla, you are Lindenized (TM) and must *never, never, NEVER tell your original resident alt name!).
Along the way, of course, like the features of other power games like WoW or Ultime Online, you can get special features and open up your own server (well...in SL...get a closed, off-the-map, hidden private island, or start your own alt or keep an alt in high-profile business even while being a Linden, with access to internal knowledge of the BLOTTD, heads-up on the next patches, and connections!).
You might then begin to play Strategic SL with the heavy hitters -- getting a real-life media hit here, getting a real-life building contract there, leveraging your IRC buddy lists. Even I have managed to collect some 25 points in Strategic TSO just by showing up and logging on and going to SL Future Salon (oops I gave you a walkthrough AND a cheat there but heck, I need to level the playing field!).
Partly, it's just sheer dumb luck. I got the 5 points for the Pathfinder bear before Pathfinder figured out he hated me. I even *gave it back to him* in protest over the NolanNashstalking thing, a forums joust, and then later he apologized for letting me be mauled on the forums and sent it back (like I said, sheer dumb luck - I'm not going to get that lucky twice!).
Another time I picked up Philip Linden's calling card for a whopping 15 points. Some days, you just get lucky! I'm probably the only person in the game who triple-negrated Philip Linden audaciously for his wrecking of the GOM AND impudenly tp'd to him once, leveraging the p2p2me of a more favoured son whose card I had, who probably got Philip's friendie the honest way, and said bluntly, during the first hour Philip logged on and was all happy and giddy about p2p in the new patch: "Philip, p2p sucks, the sims are all set to 128/128 default landing points so you teleport into a wall or water or peoples' pose balls, plus, everyone will start ptp2u'ing on your HEAD!!!!".
"Whaa...???" he queried. "Give me your friendship card, and I'll show you!" He gave it to me -- like I said, 95 percent of Strategic SL is just sheer "being in the right place at the right time" and having enormous testicularity.
I backed off to my own home, then p2p'd into his favourite club again RIGHT ON TOP OF HIS HEAD.
"Oh," he said.
Strategic SL is so much fun... I won't reveal all my other points I've collected, in part because some are secret and in part because the HUD counter thingie doesn't work right yet. But...
ALL OF THAT IS FOR NAUGHT NOW.
Because while I was busy in RL, they got a new game patch (these patches are invisible to non-strategic SL players and can only be perceived as a tendency to grid-crash and grey-square more that month).
THERE'S NOW A WHOLE NEW GAME WITH ALL NEW RULES!
That its, sure, we can go on playing that old Strategic SL, like chumps with paper and pencil and Dungeons and Dragons. We can just not download the new game patch, but then, the Lindens can't promise absolute tip-top optimal performance!
So, back to the skill-grind...the levels..the bosses...the long AFK pauses and the hurrying home from work to see if your sim that you left in a macro with a rock on your enter key is so red he died...or worse, skipping work to camp a rare monster with loot who is spawning...like Lawrence Lessig spawns at the Free Culture meeting locations sometimes...
Strategic SL 1.5 isn't completely out of beta..not all the bugs are out, but I think you'll find that the graphics, the interest level, the immersiveness, are all really stellar. For those of you who don't have the graphics card horsepower to play (you'll need to be a master in RL of CAD, PSP, Maya, and have a RL architecture degree from a university somewhere between the 30th and 60th parallels), well, too bad for you.
In fact, you're not likely to get any cheats, walkthroughs, hints, potions, helms, or swords from anybody tethered, as Sherry Terkle very aptly put it in a talk she gave in Second Life, to the virtual world. In fact, the more *untethered* you are, the better!
I'm still working on the hacks (I need find more 13-year-old kids to put to work on this), but let me at least tell you the score: who is winning Second Life (Strategic 1.5)?
Answer: some of the same people -- hey, maybe its *the very same* people who won old Strategic 1.0:
Barnesworth Anubis
Amani Moselely
Quidel Cela
Bill Stirling
Ben Linden
Cory Linden
Siggy Romulus
Cienna Rand
Porky Gorky
Cadroe Murphy
Michael Richard
Laukosvargas Svarog
Baron Grayson
Angstrom Kivioq
Ace Cassidy
Jimmy Kirkorian
Xandi Mars
Ingrid Ingersoll
Enexile Matador
DavidDM Therian
Apollo Korvin
Dee McLean
Ante Flan
Chrystin Hathor
Dane Zander
Cory Edo
Cienna Rand
See, Strategic SL is not about getting to be a Linden. That is so 2005! That is so yesterday's newspaper! Strategic SL 1.5 is getting a RL job in SL -- but not just one of those sheep-dip jobs, a job from the REAL big places! Like Microsoft! Or...if not a job...at least having your work shown in their space so that really important people like the ebay guy can see your work.
As you can see, it's an interesting mixture of old FIC like Siggy, newer FIC like Ingrid and Cory Edo; Lindens (well it's just their freebie stuff), excellent crafters whom everyone recognizes like Baron Grayson and Dane Zander, people with unique looks or inventions like Cadroe Murphy (the circle form), Ante Flan (the crashing waves), and what you might call the Indigenous Adapters look -- Lauk's tree house.
Eric Rice in RL (Spin Martin in the game), is a very kewl guy. I had never heard of him, but that means nothing, as I'm very far from kewl myself. People I talk to haven't heard of him, either, and so I try to explain, well, he's this guy on the Internet. Who has podcasts and stuff. They seem perplexed. Well, he has like tekkie news on his blog and kewl stuff, I supply, helpfully. Still bewildered. Well, I finally say, he's important, trust me, because he has MAKE magazine on his island. What's MAKE magazine people ask me? Well, it's just the kewlest thing on 3 legs, please, I inform them, witheringly. OK, I'm told by my interlocutors, who still aren't impressed. Well, look at THIS I say! I mean, is that a kick-ass build or WHAT? (Rez Menoptra is a RL architect, who has a graduate degree in architecture, works with his wife, Endira. They have a RL business contracting with clients to do virtual projects, includin SL builds).
Well...he brought Microsoft into Second Life, DER, I finally explain in exasperation.
How, you ask? Well, I'm not sure exactly, so I'm trying to piece it together from clues, not having gotten the memo myself. Microsoft came into Second Life on little cat's feet, Tony Walsh reports in Clickable Culture. Zero and Walker were first on the story, so I'm merely following their well-blazed trail.
Not being real estate peeps, however, neither Z or W thought to look under the hood at the land, the objects on it, the build, etc.. I noticed that the island where they are has a land group with all new people in it no one has ever heard of -- well, those are probably the 10net.com staff or something. Maybe Linden alts, who the hell knows. The group has no tier in it -- but as my betters have patiently explained to me, islands don't *have* tier. They just get billed $195. They don't go up and down levels, etc. Duh. I knew that. But didn't think of how it would work in a group. On Democracy Island, I see one owner, for example, and wasn't sure exactly how groups do own islands -- and how you can distinguish between a group owning, i.e. with one person paying that $195 per month on their card, and having the island just deeded to you from another entity, say, Azure Islands' Nexus Nash or Dreamland's Anshe Chung. Or...LL. Interesting to contemplate! Surely, Microsoft would buy their own island?
Clearly, the stealth-entry of MS was carefully planned. Well, maybe casually tossed off kinda like Eric's elaborately-casual hairdo (his website informs us he's one of the hottest geeks on the Internet (his splash page has a quote from Fashiontribe saying, "Geeks just don't come any hotter!"). I still remain loyal to Philip's geek-hot hair first, of course.
I suppose if you're a large entity in RL and you want to enter sim-life, you have several routes you can go, and take any meandering paths combining some or all or none of these, although usually some of them are required for the really big mega-projects:
1. Hire natives for mere kopecks and have them do all the weed-whacking and wild-pig-hunting for awhile (these are enthusiastic fanboyz or people willing to be paid in Lindens or nearly-nothing in US dollars that translate to more in their home countries).
2. Hire sherpas (these are more sophisticated natives or regional experts, i.e. little Internet start-up firms who got in during the beta) to do more complicated heavy lifting and path-clearing and building, plus laying of campfires, and who need U.S. dollars for payment and lots of time off to go to gaming industry conferences and drink with Urizenus Sklar.
3. Hire gentlemen explorers (these white guys cost more but are still willing to scramble with very light go-bags and hit the ground running) -- these are more the RL-beyond-SL types with companies that do not rely exclusively on virtual worlds to survive but already have their own business without them; be prepared to be put on hold or to be told that "gosh, my offline IMs must not be clearing the servers".
4. Hire gentleman scholars (this would be someone like Edward Castranova who starts billing even for the time it takes for him to open and delete your email and schedules phone calls from even CNN only on alternate Tuesdays).
5. Hire the World Bank (under the guise of helping to educate the natives, this clumsy entity will leverage more funding than the hired guns in 1-4, but will drown some of the villages it purports to save with the new dam it builds).
6. Hire the Chinese, Russians, or Indians (competent, quick, motivated, hungry, good DSL lines, low-cost, and -- they'll have a cousin who is in the ministry that holds the keys to your visa AND your construction permits).
7. Hire the British (savvy, kewl, expensive, but...without what the Germans call luft, of lift-off power, so...you hire the Germans after the natives have slaughtered the first team of British, often handing them their engineers' heads literally on a platter like they did those telecom dudes in Chechnya. Then, after the Germans, Spanish, Belgian, and maybe a few Georgians and Kyrgyz have been shot...bring in...
8. Hire the Americans -- expensive, loud, crushing the competition, brash, wrecking as much as they create. When the dust settles and everything's been bought out and merged and reconfigured and repurposed, you'll be ready to...
9. Hire a small international Portugese-Polish-Slovenian-Chilean training firm that specializes in fixing up people problems and training even skilled professionals to adapt to new environments ROFL.
10. Getting the Congress of the United States to pass a bill mandating your virtual world in every public library at the taxpayers' expense (we're not there...yet : ))
I'm thinking Eric fits in somewhere between 2) and 3). I don't know whether he just decided to come in there on his own, or whether they hired him, and how that worked, but I'm thinking...he didn't have a huge budget because...
..it's all prefabs on Microsoft's 10 Island.
Prefabs, you say? Well, yes, prefabs. As in Barnes' Pre(fab)ulous homes! I don't know if this was strategic or accidental, or both, but if strategic, I think it's brilliant. Instead of splashing on to shore in big army boots, backed by gunboats, waving around bayonets and blasting Bruce Springsteen in the background, you sort of work your way in, "empowering the local talent." You scour around the world, shopping, shopping. You talk to people, learn who's in, who's out, who's hot, who's not. You hang out and watch stuff. You go to events like the Future Salon or the Thinkers and you see what people are wearing, and you click on their picks. You pick up Ingrid's furniture, and then by clicking on her picks, you get to the rest.
Eric Rice's picks are a little novella of their own (like anybody's in SL!) -- and a taste-making industry influencing little SLYSPACE all their own (still trying to think up what to call the SL avatar's myspace thinger):
MechMind Industries, Midnight City, Multiverse Records and Radio, Nexus Prime, Nexus Prime AGAIN (Tyrell Corporation), Slackstreet Business District, Special Occasion Shops, Swell Second Life's Men's Clothes, the GNUbie Store.
Like the balloon's that formed with whoever you came into contact in TSO, the picks tell a lot about a person's networking in SL.
Well, are you starting to get it a little bit better now? Aimee's sim, FlipperPA's land in Indigo, and the mysterious Tyrell Corporation (the group Tyrell in FIND GROUP shows the founder as "nobody" (!) because they are long since excised from the resident list, I guess, and the members are all charter members you've never heard of who are probably Linden alts and such).
Actually, even with 200,000, all of us in SL are probably separated only by three degrees of separation, not six, as in RL, so I'm pleased to see that Eric Rice, this really kewl Internet dude, shopped at Special Occasions like I did once and maybe talked even to that same girl I did! So, like, I'm one link away from him! Plus, frankly, I knew Ingrid before HE knew Ingrid! I go back all the way to TSO with Ingrid! Uh...Erm...ok, that was the best I could do, sorry, since I cut Barnes' card : (
So...10 Island then has a rather, well, hmmm...eclectic look. There's Barnes' Sea Wave house that I like to pride myself on being the first to show off inworld back in the Refugio club days...perched on top of Blanc Noir's module (Blanc being Cubey Terra's alt for doing module thingies). Porky Gorky is probably an alt, too, and he has contributed something blindingly white in the Adam Zaius style of toilet-tile production. Bill Stirling who is very good with textures, fences, walls, etc. for these kinds of island looks was a must. And of course, how can we do without Ingrid's Home Store furniture. Ingrid's card was cut ages ago, I routinely clash with her on the forums, and she's quite mean to me (so I dish it right back), but gosh, I can't imagine Second Life without Ingrid's furniture! Nor can you! I just bought the Bali set, have you seen it? I have spent ages trying to get *just that shade* of olive green and can't do it. She probably has a secret formula patented for that RGB number combo, but each time I stop in my office, I fiddle on Toast's pot for practice, trying to get *just that shade*.
A friend with a more discriminating artistic eye than I visited the 10 island and pronounced it "a crap build".
But, I disagree. It's not a crap build. It's not a build, technically, but an erm...potpourri. It's an indigenous campsite that the sherpas/gentleman explorer have laid out for their first reconnaissance mission. It's not crap. These are *our people*. These are the people that we, as the worlders of Second Life, can be proud of. These are all those people who came in here and worked for nothing in their spare time to perfect their craft and get really good. Now, to be sure, some of them also slept their way to the top, possibly, or simply go on the IRC channel a lot, but that doesn't mean they aren't talented!
I do have to chuckle that when I first visited 10, to come to this much-ballyhooed party of theirs, I didn't see anything from Siggy Romulus. Whew, that was a close one, sez I! Today, when popping in, I saw that ghastly basket-weave gazebo was up...and I'm sure that nasty turd-brown shingled beach house isn't far behind! Somebody probably put a bug in Spin's ear that you cannot have FirstIsland without a Siggy.
Oh, I forgot to explain what FirstIsland is. FirstLand is those 512s that you get for free with the $9.95 like a bag of chips on the bus to Atlantic City? Your first land is always in some crappy newbie hell surrounding by spinning pink dildos lagging the sim, and the objective in your first skill-up of Strategic SL is not only to get out of that hell-mouth of SL by selling the plaguey thing, but getting a Linden liaison to visit your land over some 3- or 4-way border-blocking griefer issue so that you can get that all-important first Linden calling-card you need to get on your way up the levels.
In fact, frankly, nowadays, I find people are *deliberately getting their friends to block them on 3 sides* just to speed up that first calling-card giveaway. Jeez. In my day...oh, never mind, let me explain some more about 10.
FirstIsland is what the Lindens give you for free, or what you get with your government grant and 501-c-3 status for $950 instead of $1250, or which you write off as "server storage space" (I wish I could get my clients to buy THAT one on my expense accounts! "Uhh, yeah, sure that $195 a month in server storage space are all big reports and digital photographs from Uzbekistan.")
Cienna Rand is there with some kind of graphics thing...there's a sculptured, rideable horse by Dee (who early on decided that if she was going to compete with Starax, it would be by picking one animal, and doing it WELL!)...and then some very new talent -- can't be sure whether by an alt or a genuine newbie.
All these years, we've been to those god-awful town hall meetings in Pooley-Brampton? And we sit around that awful campfire with these pointy sticks with the one lame marshmallow on them. I don't know about you, but *my* marshmallow, even being virtual, is getting a bit soggy and is long past the sell-by date.
No fear, this new guy, named Angstrom Kivioq, has made a plastic bag of marshmallows. I was thrilled! He's also the same guy who made that Starax-like white sculpture of a fist on the beach clenched at the sky. It was Tony Walsh who pointed out that this was really the only iconic reference to Microsoft. Unfortunately, the marshmallows aren't copyable or for sale, but I suspect not all the MS people worked the game levers yet.
I went to their party, and found nobody else was there but me and them. I rapidly realized this wasn't a kewl party if I was at it, sheesh, I mean, how lame can it get??? But silly me, figuring if it was on the events list and was Microsoft and blogged by Tony and Mark, it would probably have not only 40 avatars, but Hamlet in his blindingly-white Jesus suit. I got there early to just get my ass on a chair before the sim split up, and went AFK.
When I awoke, a girl was trying to get her animations to stop -- you know how that happens when you get a drink of beer but then the damn thing won't STOP??? Four or five of the other MS operatives were spread-eagled in Appearance mode struggling with the sliders.
A guy in a bear costume/skin that itself was what I might tactfully call 'a sim lagger' helpfully told the kids that they should get out of appearance mode, as it was lagging the sim!
I gave some of them some newbie help cards and chatted but nobody was paying any attention to anyone else because people were crashing, relogging, struggling. You know, SL.
I hung around for about 20 minutes clicking on stuff and trying to strike up conversations with people with funny names, then gave up lol. I'm sure the party got started right after I left!
Well, so that's Microsoft. Are you starting to fill in the dots? Yes, they need to put out more freebies -- they've got a lame t-shirt and nothing clickable! Come on, this is Microsoft, not the Shelter or Prok's Seafood after all, surely they can make interactive scripted clickable thingies? Call Cristiano -- why wasn't he in on the ground floor on this one?
And the activities have to have more em....content than just beer drinking and appearance-mode spread-eagles -- and I'm sure that very, very soon, there will be very kewl industry bleeding edge conferencing and podcasting and all that good stuff, only more likely out of the Slackstreet Business District that Spin built on another island.
But...don't worry. Yes, MS is here. No, they're not going to buy up all the islands...yet. They're not going to flood your village. They're just going to prefab you to death and make SL fashion faux pas like putting Barnes on top of Cubey and Lauk next to Porky Gorky. But...it's SL. Be thankful they didn't make a big spinning pink dildo.
too long to be read in the time it takes to sip my morning coffe.
*drop it in the trashcan* nothing personal
Posted by: Kyreh Abattoir | 05/01/2006 at 02:48 AM
Whoa, I barely could skim this, since I'm headin out the door to do a road trek from Silicon Valley to Hollywood today... But I'll ping ya later and post some insights. :-)
Posted by: Eric Rice | 05/01/2006 at 12:53 PM
Hi, Eric, erm, yes, I'm sure you're busy! My own road trek usually takes me only from like My Building to My Kids' School to My Jobs but occasionally I get as far as like, Rochester, New York. Or even Cambridge or Washington, DC on a good day : )
But that's what teh Internets are for...
I look forward to hearing your insights and the story about the Barnes/Blanc configuration!
P.S. There isn't *really* a Strategic SL 1.5. It's just pretend.
P.P.S. At least, that's what we tell the newbies : )
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 05/01/2006 at 01:11 PM
Hi, Khamon, I thought this was one of my better Star Trek episodes! Actually, I'm more of a Fugitive fan, like the one on the ship to Alaska? or with the baby? or Suzanne Pleshette? http://www.innermind.com/myguides/guides/fugitive.htm
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 05/01/2006 at 04:04 PM
Just for the record, I don't have a graduate (master's or phd) degree in architecture, just a B.Arch, which is a 5 year undergrad, actually. As does my wife :) And ty for the correction, quite nice of you :)
Posted by: Rez Menoptra | 05/01/2006 at 10:31 PM
Rez, let me note that in listening to you for more than an hour yesterday, and having a fascinating convo, I must have said ten times: put a comment on my blog for the exact title you need for yourself. So I'm glad you did it!
You were mentioned in passing -- and I was glad to add in Enira who I had left out unintentionsly -- merely as an example of inworld architects who seemed far more credentialed than the list of the top SL "architects" we have like Maxx Monde or Lordfly Digeridoo or Barnesworth Anubis.
My point was to mention a RL company that had RL work unrelated to SL. You hastened to explain that you weren't an architect per se, i.e. in real life you need a license. OK, correction made. Now, you're saying you don't have a graduate degree, but just a B.Arch. OK, we've now established beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you're not a real architect, you just play one on TV -- I mean, on Second Life.
We talked about soulless architecture and architecture with heart, and how credentials aren't everything.
OK, not architects then, but...are we supposed to call you builders, or do you need a license in SL, too!
The point is, even though evidently there is much more in your chosen field where you could get even MORE credentialed, the university degree, and the RL experience and clients you have, indicate that y ou are simply operating on a different plane than a Barnes or a Lordfly.
Now, was that worth drawing so much attention to yourself, that you are a) not a RL architect b) without a graduate degree? Because the original purpose of this comment was not to exaggerate your credentials or leave out your wife, the original purpose was to contrast a RL company with actual RL credentials, with a variety of customers and now working in SL, too (and I may be even misrepresenting that degree of "variety") -- and those indigenous artisans who are only within SL and in RL are like, cashiers at Rite-Aid or something.
Now, do you see how pointless it is to put corrections like that in blogs? They just raise more questions and draw attention to more things. You talked to me so long, and I take it on good faith, that I felt I had to put some correction. But blogs are blogs. They aren't the Congressional Record of The New York Times. You can correct in a comment usually.
So let's focus on the real issue raised here, shall we? Is being an architect/builder/PSP jocket/prim wrangler in Second Life so different than any kind of graphics work in "RL" (which itself is going to involve the unreal world of fashion designs, cartoons, advertising campaigns, etc. and obviously not merely design of utilitarian things like train stations and hospitals). Are there special skills required?
Do you think there will be some kind of certification/licensing process for "an SL architect"?
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 05/02/2006 at 01:19 PM
How it all came to be.
When I first joined SL in September 05, I spent time doing the exploratory thing, hopping from James to Myrtle to Palulop, before deciding to get my first island... why? I'm a digital media type, and artist, a storyteller. My RL work is content--sometimes good, sometimes bad-- it's important to just do it. I just wanted to use SL to write a book, not own two islands, a record company, and consult to large companies.
When I created my sim, I was surprised to hear such praise, considering that yep, I use pre-fabs! I'm not a builder. Not ready yet. I'm just now starting to play with baked in texturing. I don't necessarily have the time or patience to build, especially there are plenty of talented builders out there. I like the stuff Barnes and Lordfly and Makaio do, as well as some of the stuff from the Aphex designers, Seigmancer's towers, and Rem's pure white builds.
When people say, "Did you build this?" It's important say, well, no, I'm an 'arranger'.
The Microsoft sim (which really, is it REALLY microsoft? It's an island for the community surrounding a consumer techie video podcast called on10 (we sooo want to take the easier story.. 10 = Microsoft; 10 = sim in SL, ergo OMG MICROSOFT IS INFILTRATING. heh. we bloggers are so cute) was a first start. They are new to SL, and equal to others, will learn and evolve and see opportunities. The conceptual playing field is leveled. It's ethereal and beyond version numbers.
I had a very very short period of time to work with (like three days)... Design for SL is no different in designing anything else. Use whatever works. And with design, it's art, and people will like it or hate it. You just gotta take an 'eh, who cares' approach to criticism.
Anyhow, I spend lots of time evangelizing SL to folks, like the blogosphere and podcasterspheres-- since it's not about what Second Life IS, but what it REPRESENTS.
We are the consumer/producer generation. We do DIY. We collaborate and remix and expand and grow. Multiverse Records started years before I existed in the matrix, and hopefully will exist well beyond. It's a perfect platform to try and revitalize and change the aging music label industry.
So, I'll agree with #2 and #3 :-) however you'd need to add something about revolutionaries. Those of us with berets--- the chameleonistic types- the strike teams that can be gentlemanly, exploratory, revolutionary.
And when we're all done being superstars, we gotta pay it forward. Teach someone else. Most of my Slackstreet sim now is becoming more for-the-community than for me; the Shalida sim is a place to explore new ideas (ie., hiring Rez and Endira to build the conference center), and I'm sure, the many more sims to come after this. There's a world of change coming, and while some of the founding fathers and mothers will be part of that change, so will their descendants.
:-)
ER/Spin
PS On a side note, as someone who owns 25% of Jessie as a revitalization project, I read over on Hamlet's blog that I live in the same corner as Baccara Rhodes. I'm not even a year old in world, so I had no idea who she was until I pinged her and said hi. This is how it works. We evolve.
Posted by: Eric Rice/Spin Martin | 05/02/2006 at 05:03 PM
Eric,
I really didn't like the tone of your blog. I'm sure it came about because you didn't like the tone of my blog, either.
You seem to be lecturing me, in this over-confident, embullient tone, as some sort of "youthful force" who is "taking over from the old fogies."
Why? I belong in this world just as much as you do. My RL or SL ages can only partly account for my own sense of belonging and my oqn critique of you and your culture.
And I'm no "founding father or mother" who is hopelessly out of touch or behind the times, because I came to SL in September 2004, long after the early adapters had already taken over and gotten their free 4096s and free sims, and I travel around the world constantly and see and experience a great deal, always trying to find new things.
You seem to have some working picture of yourself and your cohorts as creative, artist, cutting-edge, in the know, at the cusp, etc. and the rest of us needing to "catch up": "There's a world of change coming, and while some of the founding fathers and mothers will be part of that change, so will their descendants."
Some? Who gets to chose? You? How much change? And who gets to contrl it. You? And what army?
I'm sure you obtain a lot of feedback in RL and SL that keeps that picture alive for you of yourself at a cutting edge, leaving those old mothers and fathers behind in the dust.
But other people simply see the world and its evolution and the destructive revolutions swirling around it very differently. It's not just yours. Linden Lab may own it. You and your friends may have ridden the gravy trains to get in with them and get to the top with Microsoft, etc. but it's something far bigger than all of you and all of us and it's *ours, too*.
I use prefabs too. I used all these *exact same* same prefab artists before you were even a gleam in Philip Linden's eye. I'm not against prefabs. *I'm an arranger, too*. It's that kind of place. Not just the technically proficient get to be arrangers, literally, figuratively, financially, technically, personally. We all do.
But I do confess to being confused that something like Microsoft or 10 doesn't commission something grander and more original. I was thinking perhaps it had to do with an actual conscious policy of "working with the natives". But evidently not.
This sort of expression, "We are the consumer/producer generation. We do DIY. We collaborate and remix and expand and grow" -- well, frankly, it just leaves me very cold, this "royal we". It's the kind of inane expression for which your generation apparently wants to be known? Isn't ANY generation a "consumer and producer"? Didn't generations ago, our ancestors um, produce potatoes...and...consume them?
How DIY can it be when you just take everybody else's stuff and remix? This is my problem with the expropriative Marxist-type of ideology of Creative Commons. It's the usual lefty grab from Washington to Moscow. Take from old dead white guys who can't complain. Give to young live brown boys, remix, celebrate then resell it for a fortune. No judgement. No editorial intelligence. "It's all good".
I'm more than 150 percent certain that when you say "we evolve," you mean yourself and people you like and superstars you stumble on that fit your outlook, like Bacarra Rhodes. Not people who don't perceive reality as you do.
But who is "we"? And what is evolution?" I evolve, too. And I'm not "we" with you, and surely your hortatory "we," telling me "like it is," doesn't include me. I'm here to keep affirming that. It's important to keep the world (worlds) free for everyone.
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 05/02/2006 at 07:34 PM
Tony, I think the Harvard and $18000 bit wasn't in an article about Harvard, which is why it's not being found, but it's in an article on CNET, which you may have referenced, about the New Media Consortium, which includes Harvard, in the piece called "Second Life Dreams of Electric Sheep".
http://news.com.com/Second+Life+dreams+of+Electric+Sheep/2100-1043_3-6056759.html
My ISP is down and I can't do all the searching I need to do - but this article talks about ESC getting $15,000 to do the NMC private island. I distinctly recall a figure of $18,000 for Harvard mentioned elsewhere in passing but I could very well be wrong. The fact is, something in that range was very likely paid, as indicated in this article.
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 05/02/2006 at 07:37 PM
Eric, and some more thoughts:
1. Paying it forward for the "community". Well, what is the community? They're your likeminded digital artist friends, I guess. The people who are the groovy ones on the groove train, too. Perhaps there's enough of them buying whole islands and doing interesting art that they make up a kind of Provincetown now. I'm thinking that's one what the platform creaking heavily under the weight of "developers" and "users" as the Lindens call them, will get its world back. The aggregate of all of you socializing, going to each others' live music events, sandbox doodles, parties, conferences, etc. will make up a world. It won't be other people's world, just like a West Village or a Provincetown isnt' everybody's world, it's Bohemia, but that's fine, that's normal and it may help the urbanization of SL which is a very provincial and insular and jealous place.
As for this line: "The Microsoft sim (which really, is it REALLY microsoft? It's an island for the community surrounding a consumer techie video podcast called on10 (we sooo want to take the easier story.. 10 = Microsoft; 10 = sim in SL, ergo OMG MICROSOFT IS INFILTRATING. heh. we bloggers are so cute) was a first start. They are new to SL, and equal to others, will learn and evolve and see opportunities. The conceptual playing field is leveled. It's ethereal and beyond version numbers."
Well, I take my cue from my betters, like Tony Walsh, who distinctly described on10.net as Microsoft. Who registered the domain, who pays for the site, and who issues the paychecks for this entity? I mean, this isn't a community of people selling avatar clothing to make a living, it's Microsoft's postcast thingie arm.
I don't think I've misrepresented anything here. MS came to SL *this way,* and it was *no accident, comrade*. It was the logical, and probably effective way. If they had come in and put stores in every mall selling miniature computers with Windows imitations on them and their logo so that avatars could use them as those hand-proppers that people started making and buying in SL to make their inane air-typing more coherent, then it would likely be ineffective -- like the McDonalds' stuff in The Sims Online that sat in the corner with cobwebs, unused, the laughingstock of the whole gaming population because the hamburgers didn't green up the sims' hunger points.
So I'm a sim, and I confess to my hunger points just not greening up on the 10 island. But it's not for everybody. I'm not the demographic it's for. I'm just a crank.
I'm still thinking about the concept of SL as a leveler, or having a conceptually level playing field. Yes and no. In one sense, you're just one more island . One more event on the crowded list. Thousands of people went to play tringo, and didn't come to see your prefab arrangement. In fact, I'm going to help generate more traffic for you, dude, because I tipped off A. Kivioq there that he needed to make the marshmallow *copyable*. You're about to see a tremendous upsurge in traffic just for that. ROFL!
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 05/02/2006 at 07:52 PM
I normally don't like to comment, but since I won twice I figured I would have to accept the honor! Thank you!
Posted by: Cienna Rand | 05/03/2006 at 12:31 PM
Oh, did you win BOTH on the Microsoft *and* the Harvard island, Cienna! Congratz! WTG!
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 05/03/2006 at 03:27 PM
I'm still trying to work out what my 'RL job in SL' is and how I managed to win :P
I have absolutely NO skills in programs such as Maya and such - and any small bits and bobs I picked up with photoshop and poser were by reading 'how to' files on the internet and playing around :) I don't even use any 'Second Life Skills' in my real job... and my lack of being in world for more than a couple of hours over the span of a week I guess shows where it's priority is on my list of 'real life things I gotta do'
If I'm known for anything right now in world - it's probably for teaching Second Life how to swim and making swimming in pools possible.
Posted by: Siggy | 05/03/2006 at 04:56 PM
Yes, those are great swimming thingies, I've been meaning to get them and feature them.
Your RL job in SL? Why, the forums, Siggy. The forums. You are in media in RL. And you use that expertise to rule the waves of the forums, too. You've learned that using shock-jock radio talk on the forums, as crude as can be, is a hit every time with Jeska and Torley. Every time! Never been disciplined ONCE.
As for the prefabs that Spin put out -- it doesn't mean that every single person who has a prefab out is the one with the RL in SL -- that's not at all what I said. He's the one with RL in SL, not them. He's the bridge. He's the arranger!
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 05/03/2006 at 05:51 PM
prok, the reason it is important for rez to make the distinction isn't to lessen your arguement. it is because impersonating an architect, or any other professional, is against the regulations of the respective assocations (thus against the law). it's also pretentious.
Posted by: jauani | 05/03/2006 at 11:21 PM
We already heard about all that. I was already lectured about that. That it's "against the law". Well, that's overstating it quite a bit. The professions in RL have a real hammerlock on things. They didn't always have that hammerlock -- experienced people used to pull teeth or pull out babies without any special licensing. They built buildings, too, without special licenses, and some of them were a lot better looking than the stuff people build with licenses now.
I'm not for overstating all this "illegal" stuff. There isn't some fascistic All-World Society of Architects that will come swooping down on me or Rez and jail us for violating some perceived law.
You may chose to argue about this inanely for days if you like. Being against regulations of professional societies, i.e. pretending you're a lawyer when you aren't, can get you fined, exposed, even made the target of a more serious law suit. But usually, to reach the test of litigation, it would have to involve some damages somewhere -- tort. Saying you're an architect in a virtual world is not going to get you arrested, no fear there.
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 05/03/2006 at 11:59 PM
yes, if you tend towards pedantic absurdity, what you say is perfectly fine.
Posted by: jauani | 05/04/2006 at 02:06 AM
Well of course you overlook the fact that I'm not in radio - nor a DJ - so I guess your 'shock jock' analogy falls flat on it's face... Moreover in the media I work with images and sound, not writing - so it doesn't work from that angle either.. even for you Prok - thats a pretty wild wild stretch. If you have to reach that far to make some kind of speculation, don't you think you may be on the wrong track?
and I'll put to you what I put to cocopants.....
.... It's public knowledge that I've been received a warning before (so there goes your primary assertion up in smoke) - but beyond that I'll leave to your speculation.
Alas - a lack of evidence doesn't make a speculation fact, just ask Ikarus about that.
Posted by: siggy | 05/04/2006 at 04:57 AM
Gosh, you're doing a literalist tekkie thing again, Siggy. Of course it's exactly the right analogy. Shock-jock is foul mouthed talk on the radio. On the forums, that's just what you engage on. It doesn't matter if you're in TV in RL, the point is, you understand media and you know exactly what you're doing to influence the public discourse, put your stamp on something, and keep control over it.
It's interesting that you're now telling us, after bragging on the forums so often about being "in media" that you don't write the copy or narrate, but move the pictures around on an editing machine. Very different kind of work -- but still influential. And still a perch from which to understand media.
I find it interesting that some of the worst forums abusers like Weedy and you have something to do with broadcast media. And those fighting your undue influence and impunity on the forums have experience in print media (Cocoanut and me) as well as broadcast media (me).
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 05/04/2006 at 01:23 PM
interesting theory prok. your were a forum abuser and you are also involved in media. i do see the pattern too.
Posted by: jauani | 05/04/2006 at 02:39 PM
So we can say your RL job in SL is writing these far fetching conspiracy theories?
Whats your place on the list?
And as for the rest - I've always said that I work in TV News - and have always said that I'm a photojournalist and editor.
Which means I go out and get the stories and then do all the production work to put them on air.
So yes - I am in the media.
But saying thats my 'RL job in SL' and saying that it applies to the forums - man that is a stretch.. nearly as far a stretch as saying you and Coco are 'fighting the good fight'
Posted by: siggy | 05/04/2006 at 06:08 PM
And once more for the hard of reading:
A lack of evidence - which by the way is against your precious SL Forum guidelines to post anyways - as to disciplinary action doesn't automatically equate to proof of 'impunity' - of course you'll choose to skip over it, but I'm reiterating the point for your viewers, who the point won't be lost on.
Posted by: siggy | 05/04/2006 at 06:11 PM
I don't think it's a stretch at all. I think it explains a lot.
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | 05/04/2006 at 09:57 PM