Rock, Paper, Shotgun is not a publication that devotes much time to Second Life. They are mostly a PC Gaming publication. They did interview Rod Humble, but that seemed to be more to do with his background with Electronic Arts and The Sims, more than it was to do with Second Life.
However this week they have taken an indirect look at Second Life, courtesy of Draxtor Despres and his video series; The Drax Files : World Makers. In an article entitled : The Drax Files Are Good Documentaries About Second Life, they take a look at The Drax Files : World Makers. The cover shot is a picture of Draxtor’s back looking at a screen with Rod Humble on it!
Author Graham Smith obviously has good taste because he enjoyed the episode about The Dwarfins! He also enjoyed the episodes about Elie Spot and Abramelin Wolfe. However he also points out that Second Life is flawed in some ways too :
Obviously every one of these episodes is putting a positive spin on Second Life, making it appear as if the virtual world is all about unfettered creativity and the magic of people and community. That’s lovely, but perhaps won’t be apparent when you first connect, struggle with its still-clunky interface and stumble into a blandly decorated building aggressively advertising sex toys and trashy clothing.
Quite, but the power of The Drax Files has been to go beyond the trashy clothing etc. and highlight the many positive use cases of Second Life that aren’t highlighted by the mainstream media. However as someone pointed out to me not long back, Linden Lab haven’t exactly given the mainstream media much to chew on over the years. The Drax Files changes that slightly.
The Drax Files are of course now sponsored by Second Life. Linden Lab have promised editorial impartiality will remain and that’s good because as we can see, The Drax Files can open doors to an audience who are not Second Life users, people who have forgotten about Second Life. People who poke fun at Second Life even, as Graham Smith points out in his article :
Second Life is too easy to make fun of, be it for the failed gold rush when advertisers gambled on the future of the metaverse or for the sleazy commercialism that still defines many in-world locations. These things, while true, make it too easy to dismiss the creative projects you can find within that world if you know where to look.
The Drax Files: World Makers, a series of documentary shorts available on YouTube, is useful assistance in knowing where to look. Created by ‘machinima journalist’ Draxtor Despres, each episode mixes Second Life and real-world footage to profile some of the people devoted to making interesting things within the long-running MMO.
This is mostly true and although many of us disagree about the view many have of Second Life, those views exist and continue to exist. The Drax Files exemplifies how positive publicity about Second Life can create a buzz of sorts. The Drax Files episodes are real, they feature real Second Life users, they aren’t airbrushed and faked. They also feature real life footage and manage this in just five minute episodes. This is powerful stuff and it works.
Hopefully Linden Lab themselves will give the mainstream media more to chew on over the next few years too and then maybe it won’t be so rare to see Second Life related articles in Rock, Paper, Shotgun.