So what happens when someone from Amsterdam is a fan of the 1930’s to such an extent that they dress and decorate their home in the style of that era? That’s right, they come to Second Life and build a 1920’s Berlin roleplaying location with future plans to build a sim in the style of 1940’s London….. wait, what? Well all is revealed in The Drax Files episode 2: Jo Yardley  (embedded at bottom of post) which takes a look at 1920’s Berlin and the voice of the 1920’s Berlin Project, the very enthusiastic Frau (Jo) Yardley. The result is yet another stunning example of good promotion of Second Life by Draxtor Despres.

The 1920s Berlin Project

Travel back in time to this big city during an amazing era. Wander down Unter den Linden, explore the dirty old back streets, see a movie at the cinema, visit the museum, enjoy cabaret, dance the Charleston in a small Tanzlokal or at the gay Eldorado club in this role-play sim with a 1920s dress code (freebies provided).

Visit in Second Life

The epsiode is largely narrated by Jo Yardley, who doesn’t have a television or mobile phone in her own home, but does have a computer from where she brings her vision of 1920’s Berlin to life. Draxtor Despres and those involved in this production have done an excellent job of bringing 1920’s Berlin to video, to such an extent that initially I didn’t realise it was Second Life!

In this episode Draxtor once again uses inworld footage as well utilising already made outside footage of Jo in Amsterdam to show the person behind the wares in their real life environment, which brings home the message that the person behind the avatar is real. I’ve mentioned before how good a medium this is for promoting Second Life and how it would be good if Linden Lab got in on the act. I’ve also pointed out that there are issues such as editorial impartiality for Linden Lab that Draxtor and others don’t face, so it’s trickier for Linden Lab but I hope they are taking note of the positive nature of these videos. They are at least aiding the promotion by blogging about it.

In this episode Jo talks about her love of the era on which her sim is based, the style, the architecture as well as how she’s a fan of such dress sense outside of Second Life too! Jo also does look scarily like her avatar, no no no, stop right there, she’s not seven foot two with gravity defying double D boobs, neither is her Second Life avatar, which probably explains why her RL self looks so similar to her Second Life self.

Drax is put firmly in his place by the very talkative Jo, who exemplifies how wonderfully creative Second Life can be and how Second Life offers the flexibility to build and build again, creating other themes if one wishes, which Jo seems to be doing with plans to build 1940’s London, as long as she doesn’t invite Dick Van Dyke to do a cockney accent it should be in safe hands.

The important thing to note with this episode is that 1920’s Berlin is a roleplaying sim, so this takes a look at the sort of thing that many find difficult to pull off, making a roleplaying sim pay its way. Jo explains that she has renters, some of whom have been there for three years as well as social gatherings, dances, book readings and there”s even a daily happy hour and they’re happy, it’s a lovely place to be, happy that the fire is real the barman is a she and being Second Life that means it’s happy hour again and again and again, what a good place to be ….. oops going off on a tangent, In short it’s a community thing.

There is also good use of other footage of Jo in Amsterdam, the real Amsterdam that is, not any sim in Second Life and as I said earlier it’s this mixture of Second Life and real life footage that real makes these videos work so well.

Again Drax has done something here that shows Second Life in a great light and Jo’s enthusiasm for the platform really helps, another good job all round.

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