New World Notes

Watch It This Weekend: The Drax Files: World Makers Meets SL's Live Music Scene in Episode 5

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

If you're looking for a little light viewing this weekend, the latest episode of talented machinima-maker Draxtor Despres' ongoing series is up and ready.  

The Drax Files: World Makers offers you a look at the faces behind the avatars that have made he virtual world of Second Life what it is today. From builders, to designers, and even bands like Engrama, the subject of newly released episode 5:

How to Understand Technology Trends -- Ignore Personal Preference, Focus on Sales & Usage Data

I've been writing about technology in various forms for about 10 years, and while I make highly arguable opinions fairly often, there's one reliable principle I can strongly recommend -- avoid this often unspoken, but all too common assumption:

"Since I don't like or use it, it will fail."

That, or its opposite, equally flawed assumption: "Since I like and use this, it's going to be big." I've learned this the hard way myself more than a few times, and when I read posts about technology trends today, it's an assumption that keeps coming up -- made by both writers and their readers in comments -- over and over again. Actual examples from actual articles I've read over the years, re-phrased to protect the identity of the silly: "Online worlds are weird and boring, so they must just be a niche." "My kid loves his Sony PlayStation 3, so I think it's going to take over the market." "Cheap smartphone games are lame, so they're just a passing fad." (Actually, the CEO of Nintendo basically expressed that last opinion a couple years ago, so it's no surprise Nintendo is currently floundering.)

Speaking of mobile games, I thought about the "Since I don't like or use it, it will fail" assumption while reading over the comments to this post on Linden Lab's move toward making mobile products. The existing data consistently suggests that mobile/tablet sales and usage keep growing strongly, while desktop PC sales (Linden Lab's main platform, for Second Life) remain stagnant. But point this reality out, and you're sure to get resistance from adamant desktop PC lovers. That's no surprise:

Making "Molotov": How The Man Behind The HBO/Cinemax Special Created His Avatar-Based Documentary, And Why

When Douglas Gayeton began creating the documentary short that airs tonight in the US at 8pm on Cinemax, he wasn't even sure what people meant by the word "machinima".

"I had heard the term," Douglas told me last weekend, "but didn’t even know what it was.  I thought it was a Second Life culture."  In 2006/early 2007, the Dutch production company Submarine had hired the seasoned filmmaker to create a documentary about Web 2.0 culture, specific topic unspecified.  But his wife Laura had just given birth to their first child, and he was loathe to leave their goat farm in Petaluma.  (Laura runs a popular organic goat milk ice cream company-- a story in itself.)  "That’s when I realized I could stay in Second Life and not have to leave the house."

The result was "Molotov Alva and the Search for His Creator: A Second Life Odyssey", and the story of its viral ascent into a major cable network was covered here.  Since writing that post last year, I should say by way of full disclosure, Douglas and I have become friendly.  But I was enthralled by "Molotov Alva" the very moment the first part aired last March on YouTube, and having seen the whole film since, that sense is only heightened: dizzying, funny, profound, it's a fever dream vision that perfectly captures the essence of Second Life.  (I'm hardly its only admirer.)

In creating it, Douglas more or less invented a new technique to shoot machinima, waded through 100 hours of footage, and wound up with a movie that challenges the very definition of "documentary".  After the break, he talks about that, the surprising (and spoiler-laden) plot twists that were added at the last moment, and where Molotov goes from here.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: TASRILL SIEYES

Maria Rimbaud told me that Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase" had taken on avatar form, and so naturally, I had to know more. 

When I finally caught up with Tasrill Sieyes, the Resident who had made Duchamp's legendary painting come alive, I found out this abstract avatar was only the beginning-- or rather, the summation in a long career of abstract avatars as a medium of expression.  And, of course, a furry with octopus arms. 

After the break, my profile of Tasrill, avatar artist. 

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: SLADE ONIZUKA

For the last few years, Slade has been a renowned crafter of exoskeleton-based avatars; we fell out of touch for a time, but while doing interviews for the book, I caught up with him in the legendary city of Nexus Prime, in his ornate apartment jutting out of the city in mid-air.  Onizuka told me about his new avatar, the identity he's trying to project with it-- and its role as a shield from certain aspects of SL culture.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: CIRR MARAT (TSL)

CAM-501 in Mainframe

I first spotted Cirr Marat showing off his teen grid space station, so when I noticed he'd sent in a submission to my Teen Avatar Expo, I lept to check it out.

"This is the second version of the avatar I made since a few months after joining [Teen Second Life]," Cirr Marat, 16, tells me.  "It has the 'official' name of CAM-501-- Corvian Automated Mechanoid 501. The 'Corvian' part came from old plans for a multigadget that never came to fruition, and 501 is just an arbitary number. It's a robot bird. Not a robot fish or a robot fly, as some people seem to think, but then, the bird parts aren't really that obvious.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: KAZUHIRO ARIDIAN

I first saw Kazuhiro Aridian at a corporate car promotion, of all places, where she teleported before me as a dark and metallic blur.  When she fully materialized in all her horrible splendor, my jaw went agape: entirely incongruent on a sunny island shore, Kazuhiro was a human avatar whose whole body had been fused into a multi-function, robot exoskeleton.  (As it turned out, I wasn't the only one who had noticed her.)  Embodied in such an alien form that was so lovingly, almost erotically detailed, there had to be a story behind Aridian-- and the person who made her real. 

So naturally, I wanted to know more.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: CHAV PADERBORN

Chav in Babbage Square

I spoke with Chav Paderborn, a pigtailed waif who fends for herself with an abacus computer and an informal support network of fellow urchins who make their way in places like Babbage Square (direct teleport here), a smoggy, steampunk city resembling a Victorian London that never was.  When I found her, I noticed her profile biography read thus:

"Chav Paderborn was found in a street in 1801 was found in a street in 1801 and put to work in a factory where she was bonsaied to remain forever small enough to crawl under looms. In 1832 Chav led a worker's revolt that burned the factory to the ground and since then has walked the streets of Second Life unionising workers, freeing slaves, and scavenging for scraps."

Naturally, I had to know more.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: ROLAND UDAL (TSL)

From the mists of the Teen grid, a warrior rides through:  Roland Udal, elegantly detailed and loaded for bear.  He tells us about creating his avatar after the break.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: AYEAKA REINSCH (TSL)

Ayeaka Reinsch, 16, offers her steely avatar "K9U.exe" for the Teen Avatar Expo.

"K9U.exe," she tells me, "is the product of a boredom-induced doodle at school during a lecture... In these screen captures, I am in Sand Box Island 4, roughly 500 meters into the air. I custom-built the surroundings for 'camera purposes.'"