The Drax Files – Page 6

June 5, 2014

The Empire Strikes Back As Linden Lab Sponsor The Drax Files : World Makers

Linden Lab have announced that they are proud to sponsor The Drax Files : World Makers. When I read this blog post I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if a million voices suddenly cried out in terror.

I’m told that during the meeting to finalise the deal Draxtor was told : “You may dispense with the pleasantries, Draxtor. I am here to put you back on schedule.”

Ok ok on a serious note, this does not look like a bad deal at all. The Drax Files : World Makers is an excellent series that gets to the parts Linden Lab have never ever been able to with their video promotions of Second Life.

I’ve said this often enough but one of the reasons Draxtor Despres has been able to do this is because he has an editorial impartiality that Linden Lab do not have. Linden Lab have been accused of playing favourites in the past, indeed at times they have clearly played favourites, but generally, they need to have an air of impartiality. Draxtor doesn’t, so it’s somewhat reassuring to read in the blog post :

This sponsorship has no impact on Draxtor’s editorial independence; we’re not taking control or trying to dictate what stories are told or how they’re presented in the series

The importance of this production to Linden Lab though, and probably one of the reasons for their sponsorship deal is highlighted within the blog post regarding the revamped Second Life homepage. There’s a trailer from The Drax Files : World Makers on the new homepage. As Hitomi Tiponi over at SLUniverse said : “Great to see that Linden Lab are sponsoring this series. It is the best advert for Second Life.”

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May 2, 2014

The Drax Files Episode 19 – Virtual Chemistry

This post is not about Fantasy Faire, I repeat, this post is not about Fantasy Faire! I do make one or two non Fantasy Faire related posts during Fantasy Faire and in this case I’m looking at yet another excellent episode of The Drax Files : World Makers, in this case; Episode 19 – Virtual Chemistry. I will, in traditional fashion, post the video at the end of the post.

In this episode the star of the show is Wendy Keeney-Kennicutt from Texas A&M University, who is very enthusiastic about teaching chemistry in Second Life. There are some very good reasons for this and they are reasons that may surprise some people.

One of those reasons is that students who engage with Second Life report that they enjoy this aspect of their course, in some cases they enjoy the virtual labs more than the real labs because there are less distractions in a virtual lab. I must admit I’m surprised to hear this but maybe it’s because someone in a virtual lab feels more in control of their environment and that the environment is less hazardous.

Another advantage of teaching chemistry in Second Life is that Second Life is a 3D world and Chemistry has a lot of interests in shapes of molecules and understanding their 3D nature, which a 3D virtual world can demonstrate admirably. Then there are interactive periodic tables, at this point I was tempted to run screaming from the video, periodic tables are the stuff of nightmares, however I persevered in the name of truth and justice.

Yet again we see the use case of collaboration being highlighted regarding Second Life with Wendy pointing out that people don’t need to be physically next to each other to build together or examine each other’s work.

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April 2, 2014

The Drax Files: World Makers – Episode 18 Singing Like A Canary

Episode 18 of The Drax Files: World Makers is out and has thrown a bit of a curve ball by coming out on a Wednesday instead of Friday! Then another curve ball is tossed in by having two people whom live in London speaking with North American accents! I’ll post the video at the end, which is my traditional style with these videos.

This week’s episode features Canary Beck and Harvey Crabsticks who are engaging in immersive theatre within Second Life. The video follows Drax’s tried and tested formula of mixing inworld footage and real life footage, with a youthful looking Canary and Harvey walking the streets of London. Canary Beck is seen wearing a striped dress, which she manages to just about pull off …. wait wait wait, come back, I don’t mean she pulls her dress off! I mean stripes on film isn’t always a good mix.

The video features a behind the scenes look at their forthcoming inworld production of Paradise Lost, in which we do see Canary with her dress off, but tactfully done. The production features 43 roles, played by 8 avatar actors.

Harvey talks of how the actors in the production are real people, something sometimes missed when it comes to virtual world productions, he also mentions that the audience are real people too, again something oft forgotten.

However this episode also shows the advantages of virtual world productions, whereby they can quickly pull 12 sets together and also encourage the audience to view the show via certain camera settings, giving the production team more opportunity to have the show viewed in the settings they feel best befit the production.

However that isn’t to say an inworld production is easy, there are rehearsals and a few hundred hours worth of script development in their production of Paradise Lost. However one of the beauties of virtual world collaboration is again highlighted when it comes to working together, they don’t need to be in the same building to work together and although they are both in the same city, they find it easier at times to meet up inworld to avoid the trials and tribulations of travelling across London to meet.

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March 14, 2014

Draxtor Despres – A Dish Best Served Independent

Second Life’s public image could be revolutionized through a PR campaign with stories like those in the Drax Files. http://t.co/niVgJRBx66

— Botgirl Questi (@botgirlq) March 12, 2014

Botgirl Questi recently tweeted the above and whereas I wholeheartedly agree that Second Life’s public image could be revolutionised via such a campaign, I would hope it would be one done without Draxtor Despres and I say this for totally selfish reasons.

The Drax Files and The Drax Files Radio Hour are absolutely superb mediums of promoting Second Life. However one of the reasons Drax can reach the parts other mediums cannot reach is because he’s editorially independent. I doubt this would be the case were Draxtor working on behalf of Linden Lab, rather than working on behalf of his love of Second Life.

An example here is that Drax will soon be talking to Emily Short who was a lead developer of Versu. Linden Lab have of course, very disappointingly ditched Versu, but I would certainly fear that a Linden Lab sponsored Draxtor Despres would be unable to engage in an interview like that or with any other former Linden due to a conflict of interests.

This works in other ways too, for example on The Drax Files, Drax has interviewed content creators, would he be able to do this were he sponsored by Linden Lab? I ask this question because I feel a lot of content creators would cry foul about Linden Lab playing favourites by promoting certain content creators if Drax was endorsed by Linden Lab. However as Draxtor is independent, he can interview who he likes, when he likes and not be questioned over his choices. This allows for some superbly positive interviews and Draxtor delving into all sorts of areas.

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February 28, 2014

The Drax Files Episode 17 – Zachh Barkley Oh Ho Ho It’s Magic

Oh ho ho it’s magic, you know, never believe it’s not so, was a suitable introduction to my post looking at the work of master Wizard Zachh Barkley during the wonderful Fantasy Faire 2013 and it’s a suitable introduction for this post too because Draxtor Despres’ latest edition of The Drax Files features Zachh Barkely. Zachh is the owner of the Second Life store The Arcanum. I’ll embed the video at the end in traditional style, along with a bonus song!

The episode opens with Zachh, who is much younger than I realised, in his room. Behind him a sign reads “Wizards Only Beyond This Point“. Zachh told me he’d been participating in Fantasy Faire since 2009, which was the first Fantasy Faire. He admits to have been pretty young when he entered Second Life as an apprentice wizard.

The episode features action of The Wizard in action, casting spells, flying … on a broomstick, might be a question mark over lore there! Zachh claims that his brand is the biggest producer of magic in Second Life and if you don’t agree with this you may find yourself under a spell until you do agree … ok I made the part about the spell up!

Zachh explains his early exposure to game development, how he collaborates with other users in Second Life to bring his ideas to life and he also uses the LSL Portal, which is a much under promoted resource when it comes to Second Life scripting. Seriously, the LSL portal is choc full of goodies for people who want to script.

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