Comcast is the largest cable-television company and second largest ISP in the United States of America. You would expect their distinctive values to flow through to their Second Life venture, though I'm not sure why that involves a steampunk fizzy drink laboratory, racing games, and candy-colored signs.
Join us for this Comcastic(!) experience after the fold, along with two video premieres (Machinima and the Chemical Brothers), Playboy, musical solstices, architecture and design, another protest letter, and a couple slices of gender bias (one celebratory, and the other perhaps not so much.)
Metaverse developer Millions of Us have escaped their formula and really excelled in overall design and assembly of Comcast Island. The place is hip and cool... for all of maybe five minutes, or until you see the name "Comcastic!" for the third time. The build is broken out into several distinct sections. A laboratory, an entertainment center, a jet ski dock, a race track, a jetpack platform/race, a set of viewing platforms, and an expo center.
The whole site oozes technical skill and quality execution. There's subtle and sophisticated gimcrackery here of the sort you haven't seen in SL before. That's the good news.
The Mad Science theme of the laboratory is nice - I have a personal bias towards Mad Science - but between that and the Soda Rocket at the entry (more on that shortly), I feel like the place is oriented around selling fizzy drinks to minors. In fact, that was what I was pretty sure they were trying to do for the first little while.
The more we explored of the site, the more confused the message seemed to get. From the standpoint of technical achievement, it really is well done. Scripting, building, texturing-- superbly executed with only a few flaws. Where, though, is my interaction with Comcast? This isn't a brand presence, it's a sponsored MoU theme park with Comcast's name on the brass plate by the gate.
One of the races was actually rather fun, though if you're planning on participating in any of the races, the quality of your hardware will have the largest impact on your experience. If you can't support long draw distances, the quality and speed of your Internet connection isn't going to noticeably improve your experience here.
I could see this build being really popular with the teens (I'm sure it would go gangbusters on the Teen Grid, despite it feeling more targeted at tweens), but I really question the entertainment value of it on the main grid. Maybe I'm just old and no longer hip enough.
I tried to get in touch with the folks from MoU about the concept and targeting of the site, but did not receive a response before we went to press.
* Disclosure: Millions of Us is an "SL Partner" to New World Notes.
Mixed Reality Happenings
See the new Chemical Brothers music video premiere
- The premiere of new Chemical Brothers music video "Do it again" at the Illusion Factory tomorrow. [Pixel Pulse]
- Oyster Bay Sculpture Garden and Aquarium (SLURL) is premiering “Spring 2007 @ Oyster Bay” a new Machinima by Kronos Kirkorian, on 21 June. [Morris Vig]
- Britain's Design Museum is giving a series of talks in Second Life about architecture and design. [Dirk Singer]
- Playboy opened in Second Life this week with quite the splash of media coverage. [Second Life Insider]
- The European Festival of Music is to celebrate the Solstice in Second Life. [Second Life Insider]
- A new open protest letter to Linden Lab, about 'that post', has garnered 344 signatures so far.
- Second Pride 2007 launches their own website and selects their target charity. [Pixel Pulse]
- The Gendar HUD [sic] is a new social network addon that allows you to rate people as nice or nasty, and whether you think they're really girls or boys. [Pixel Pulse]
Got a mixed reality tip for Tateru? E-mail her at [email protected]. And visit her blog.
Tat,
I did go, I did visit, i did patiently peruse around for a reason or for any reason but I did not find any, not even that the build would fit the teen(s) demographic model or perhaps just in a tangent sort of way.
So I boringly reiterate the obvious: these builds have no focus, no clear message, the "guided message system" borders spam.
I'm open-hearted when corps, well aware it's a lie, say they're looking to experiment and gather feedback with their presence in SL. But the naked truth is that either the client or the builder/marketer or both have it blurred, to a degree that leaves me speechless.
Posted by: starcomber Vig | Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 12:28 PM