Entertainment – Page 6

January 30, 2014

The Big Question About That Eve-Online Battle – Was Porky Gorky Involved?

The Eve-Online mega battle that led to the estimated loss of £181,000 worth of virtual spaceships and goods has been making the news. Some of the figures being bandied about are a tad misleading because they are talking about the value of the inworld game currency of ISK. The thing with ISK is that it’s not like Linden Dollars, they can’t legitimately be sold for real money, but they can be used to buy Plex, which in turn can be used to pay for game time and other services.

If you’re familiar with Cloud Party coins or Kitely credits you may have a better grasp of this. Anyway, back to the main question, was Second Life’s Porky Gorky involved in the battle? Back in July 2013 Porky talked of his love of Eve-Online on the Second Life forum:

The only other virtual world I have committed to over the years is EVE. 9 years nearly in both EVE and SL. In SL pretty much everyone I have known is gone. In EVE I can name at least 20 people who have been very active for over 7 years and still are now. I think that says allot about the EVE and CCP’s ability to retain users when compared to LL.

When I read of the news of the battle in Eve-Online I thought of Porky …… yes that did disturb me too. However the Hydro Homes building legend is a fan of the game and having been involved for that long, he may know a thing or two about the value of a Titan ship.

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January 23, 2014

2 Broke Girls Episode Includes Second Life Jokes

I’ll be honest, I don’t really watch 2 Broke Girls on the television, I’ve watched the odd episode and it seems to be on the telly a lot during the evenings in the UK, along with the Big Bang Theory. I’ve watched far more episodes of the Big Bang Theory.

However news reaches me via a post over at SLUniverse by Brenda Connolly (AKA Connolly) that a very recent episode of the show included references to Second Life. I mean really recent, like this week! This is backed up by an update on the wikipedia page : Second Life in popular culture which also references the episode. Actually that page is missing references from The Big Bang Theory.

Anyway, there were apparently a few references in the show. One exchange related to a character called Han (not solo) who missed an arranged visit to one of the characters because his Second Life wife was having a baby. The character complained that he had had fake sex nine months ago and not told anybody …. I guess you had to be there!

According to the SLU thread there was a further reference regarding the traditional don’t you need a first life before you have a second, ho ho ho. Anyway, this does exemplify that Second Life is still a popular and relevant enough name to be made fun of. There’s no such thing as bad publicity …. usually.

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January 17, 2014

Catch Up With Season 2 Of The Blackened Mirror

Blackened Mirror poster should be here — The Blackened Mirror Poster

Season 2 of The Blackened Mirror is currently taking a mid season break, which is good because it gives people time to catch up with the series before the next episode is aired. So far three episodes have been aired, a further three episodes are scheduled to start from Sunday January 26th.

For those of you who don’t know, The Blackened Mirror is a machinima based series filmed in Second Life. The show is written by Da5id Abbott and directed by Saffia Widdershins of Prim Perfect fame. treet.tv also happily put their name on the credits.

I’m a big fan of storytelling in many forms and The Blackened Mirror certainly uses the Second Life well as a means of telling a story, but credit has to go to Da5id Abbott for scripting that story.

To get the best from the show you really need to visit the website. The news section in particular is an excellent resource as it gives you background and information on the episodes. The episodes themselves can also be viewed from the episodes page, there you will get a little bit of blurb about each episode. I’ll embed the first three episodes below the cut.

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December 18, 2013

Gor Film Shocker!

So there I am browsing late night television, you know that period when you’re thinking about going to bed but channel surfing to see if something might keep you awake a little longer as it’s not quite time yet. You’re not in the mood to watch anything meaty.

So I flip to TCM Movies and there’s a film called “Outlaw Of Gor” on. Hmm, sounds like a horror film. Within a few seconds I realise it’s not horror, I mean the acting and outfits are horrific but it’s not a horror film. Then I think “No it can’t be”, then I realise “Yes it is”. Yes I’m watching a film based on bloody Goreans! They made films of this stuff and I say films because when I check the information of this movie I discover it’s a sequel!

The film, also known as Gor II, doesn’t hold my attention for long. I’m not alone here as it comes in with a score of 1.8 out of 10 on IMDB. This isn’t like a Gor sim in Second Life, which from my brief visits were more Medieval/Fantasy in their productions. This film is more science fiction, which rings a bell as I’ve read that these gor books are science fiction.

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December 5, 2013

How Video Games Created The Virtual World Star

Due to the wonders of modern technology I was able to watch Charlie Brooker’s How Videogames changed the world last night. Well using TV On Demand Catch Up anyway, nothing dodgy. The show charted the rise of video games and in particular 25 titles that were considered hugely influential in the direction the gaming world took.

The show featured contributions from people inside and outside the game industry, the contributors included Peter Molyneux, Jeff Minter, Will Wright, Tim Schaefer, Neil Druckman, Ron Gilbert, John Romero, Nolan Bushnell and Rhianna Pratchett. Quite an impressive line up.

Now obviously being a list show people will disagree with the list, but here it is:

Pong
Space Invaders
Pac-Man
Manic Miner
Elite
Super Mario Bros
Tetris
The Secret Of Monkey Island
Street Fighter II
Doom
Night Trap
Tomb Raider
Parappa The Rapper
Starcraft
The Sims
Grand Theft Auto III
Shadow Of The Colossus
World Of Warcraft
Wii Sports
Call Of Duty 4 – Modern Warfare
Braid
Angry Birds
Minecraft
The Last Of Us
Twitter

Hold that thought. The show didn’t really touch upon virtual worlds such as Second Life, but it clearly showed how the foundations were laid to create the virtual world experience.

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