Entertainment – Page 12

November 27, 2012

Flufee – Why Did Nobody Tell Me About This?

The Alt-Zoom Disco, DaBoom 2003.

So there I was rooting around Governor Marley’s Linden’s mansion when I found myself in the basement and found pictures and notecards from 2003. My how the world has changed. I actually thought that might be The Governor in the picture, but closer inspection suggests not. Second Life is a very big place, I mean there I was thinking I’d travelled the world and the seven seas when I discover Meshinima and Flufee!

Seriously, how have I missed this? Flufee, for those whom don’t know it, is a Mesh avatar, possibly in love with a prim lady, exemplifying improvements in Second Life since 2003 and using other backdrops for adventures! I thought I’d spotted Flufee partying on the grid, but it seems I’d saw something completely different!

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November 24, 2012

The Future Of Machinima Looks Bright

Over at Venture Beat, Dean Takahashi has a post about one of the discussion panels from the Machinima-Expo. Dean was a panelist on the discussion, there’s a video in Dean’s article of the discussion. The future for Machinima looks bright, but will it ever make a mainstream breakthrough? That seems to be the crux of the issue.

Dean concludes that he is seeing little evidence of Machinima going mainstream but with lower costs for producing Machinima and an active indie scene, it looks sure to grow in popularity. This year’s Machinima-Expo does look to have been a roaring success, so from that point of view, the future does indeed look bright.

Machinima of course goes way beyond Second Life, there are apparently new tools for film making coming from Valve and the Unreal 4 Engine for game developers, the ability to make better Machinima is conntinually improving.

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November 23, 2012November 23, 2012

Comedy In Second Life Is No Laughing Matter

There’s an interesting thread over at SLUniverse asking about comedy clubs in Second Life. In theory comedy seems a decent fit for Second Life, voice is available, streams can be arranged, you don’t need to wake the neighbours with your guitar strumming, as live musicians potentially do, yet, there seems to be a void and that thread points out some harsh realities. These realities aren’t only an issue for comedians of course.

One issue is material, whereas a comedian can tour a country with a set that audiences will only see once, a regular comedian in Second Life has less of a geographical challenge, I mean we can all teleport to where they’re performing and once we’ve seen a set, why would we keep going back to see it again? Basically we go to them, rather than they coming to us. Ok this would work well for one off shows, but it’s difficult to keep it as a regular slot.

Another issue is the sound of silence, or rather the lack of live laughter. Comedians will probably thrive on laughter, that’s an indication that their set isn’t bombing, in Second Life, that’s not going to happen. A barrage of on screen lol’s, text heckling and people telling each other to turn off their animations or gestures is likely to be distracting for the performer.

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October 29, 2012October 29, 2012

Telling Tales

I was listening to Digital Human on Radio 4 on the way home from work this afternoon and this week’s edition was about how storytelling is changing, rather interestingly one of the people interviewed claimed that storytelling is taking a step backwards to older times with people telling stories they’ve heard from others in different mediums, similar to how stories would move from place to place as people travelled but now travel can be a digital step, rather than a physical one.

A lot of the episode was about something I’ve never heard of called Slender Man, which has apparently got a large following. However another part of the episode involved Alison Norrington, who has in the past used Second Life as part of a transmedia storytelling project, that was back in 2007 so it isn’t new. Transmedia is using different formats to tell your story, each one delivering a unique piece of the project, so for example, in Alison’s case she used blogs, emails, Second Life, YouTube etc. to tell the story, rather than having the whole story on each format … I think I’ve got that right!

I don’t think Alison is in Second Life anymore, maybe The Blarney Stone was too much drunken debauchery for her, but the project and use of Second Life was an interesing concept.

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October 27, 2012October 27, 2012

Are CBS Clamping Down On IP Infringements In Second Life?

Over in the merchants forum Steve Atlanta has created a thread claiming that CBS are clamping down on copyright violations within Second Life, the thread can be read here. CBS have every right to do this, being as they own the intellectual property rights along with their partners.

If you’re selling Star Trek material without permission from CBS then you’re treading on very thin ice. Where matters are always a little more complicated, is when you’re producing items for roleplay. Insignias are probably out of bounds and you should have a disclaimer that you’re not official somewhere in your covenant or parcel, but general roleplay is usually good for the franchise and is usually encouraged.

We’ve been here before, Battlestar Galactica roleplayers in Second Life felt the wrath of IP infringement and were then given the green light to carry on as long as they played by the rules. I seem to recall a similar issue with Dune roleplay.

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