Open Forum: Why Is Second Life Machinima Waning?

Visually, Second Life has never looked better or been more versatile than it's ever been before (assuming you have a high-end machine), but apart from an occasional gem like the airborne travelogue above (highlighted by Iris recently), I haven't seen much excellent Second Life machinima in many, many months. You go to the YouTube feed for Second Life-related videos, you get barraged by SL griefer videos, Linden Dollar scammer videos, the occasional Linden Lab-sponsored video, random SL footage videos, and other effluvia. But far as actual, formal, narrative machinima which takes full advantage of Second Life as a platform, selections are getting pretty sparse.

Don't get me wrong, there are exceptions:

Just last week, one of my favorite SL machinima makers messaged me, telling me he (or she) is just finishing a new video (which you'll hopefully see here). And there may be some I've missed in recent months. But a machinima of the quality of Lainy Voom's 2009 classic, "Stolen Child"?

The Stolen Child - WB Yeats from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.

No, I haven't seen anything like this in years. I'm very open to the possibility that there's a master out there working in the shadows -- and if so, I'd love to know about them -- but I'm thinking this sub-genre needs a strong boost to find a new audience.

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[Iggy]

Why are chain stores and new apartments displacing NYC's funky, independent stores? We saw this locally, in Richmond's Fan District and Cary Street, too, as gentrification displaces the pioneers, skate rats, and artists.

Why do artists and creatives anywhere leave a neighborhood they once reclaimed?

They got priced out.

I'm sure Hamlet has watched this very process unfold in San Francisco, as anyone but the very wealthy has to pack up shop. First Russian Hill, then the Haight and North Beach, eventually even the Tenderloin?

In SL, at $300/month, why stay when the "neighborhood" has waned in size and influence on the larger culture beyond it?

A better question would be where have the talented makers of artistic machinima gone?

I'm cranking Lyric Lundquist's "Sideways Time," one of the finest machinima I've ever seen. I show that to non-SLers in the art scene here and they say "now THAT is cool."

[Issa Heckroth]

machanima was always a niche within our already pretty small niche. I have no idea where they all went, but it only takes a handful of people to drop off for it to become noticeable.

[Pathfinder]

Iggy: "A better question would be where have the talented makers of artistic machinima gone?"

Exactly.

Here's an investigative journalism idea: Go to YouTube and find the 100 most viewed machinima videos. Identify which platform each creator used to make the machinima. Survey each of them and see if they ever used SL in the past. And if they *did*, dig deeper on why they're not using it *now*.

[Pathfinder]

Forgot to clarify: find the 100 most viewed machinima videos *that were uploaded in the past year*. ;)

[Metacam Oh]

I havent been in SL in a while so maybe mesh has changed this a little bit, but any machinima involving talking people looks stupid and it is very time consuming to make it not look stupid, the lip sync, the ken and barbie doll hands and fingers etc, it does limit the kind of work you can do. I mean is it worth it to spend hours in post production fixing these things?

[getmoneygetpaid]

Its funny you snipe at so called greifer videos. Look at the view count on some of them, tens of thousands, some even a hundred thousand. It pays to be in griefer videos with youtube. I myself document the crap at korea 1 and violet sometimes casually and I scrape 2 grand a month or better in adsense just from incidental views. Who cares about fine machinima..lol

[Eddi Haskell]

The answer is simple. There are not enough new machinima artists to replace older ones who have either dropped out of Second Life, or have become a bit bored with it as a platform. Virtual Worlds are bound to grow in the future, and the number of machinima will increase as a result. Linden Lab can easily increase machinima activity by sponsoring contests (it does not take much to make a Second Lifer happy), and offering artists visibility on their own platforms and web sites. Linden used to be more active in content creation by its users, but eliminated much support when they decided to operate Second Life as a cash cow to fund other operations. Maybe things will change now -- if they start investing in their users again.

[val]

wait two months

http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/2014/07/transcending-borders-launch-of-uwa-art.html

[Machinima Person]

I can tell you, personally, why we disappeared from second life because our Linden lab. Didn't protect people. Why would we want to support somebody like that, but gladly it is changing.It would be nice for them to take some interest again with their very serious about getting people back

[JayR Cela]

My thought's on this issue are....

I have viewed some excellent machinima over the years created by some very professional artists, these folks are not fools in the sense that they realize LL does not respect their Intellectual Property right's, and the wording of the current SL Terms of Service, being what it is. These same said individuals are merely doing what any highly intelligent person would do, they keep tabs on SecondLifes current state of affairs, and in the mean time they go elsewhere. OpenSim or their own personal or privately operated grids.

Just my 2$ worth of thoughts.

JayR Cela :(

[Toxic Menges]

I've not been around for a while. I wouldn't consider myself a machinima artist, but I dabbled and made a few pieces. Real life got in the way for me, getting married, buying a house, moving into the new house not having internet for 3 months (was horrendous). Time is the key, things change, also the disinterest of the lab in machinima has been frustrating in the past. I love the craft of making machinima, and think Second Life is a valid platform for it. I have just received my DK2 Oculus Rift, which I know will get me back into SL.. I want to explore the possibilities of mixing machinima with experiences/games within SL using the Rift. I will be back, and I hope I will make something that people will enjoy. My mantra has always been to make it for myself, a happy side effect is the enjoyment of others.

[A.J.]

A lot of good answers here, but I wouldn't limit it to just Machinima.

Stunning unpredictable artistry is becoming more of a rare bird in SL. Those people with some guaranteed return, either monetary profit or a dedicated audience, are producing respectably in measured amounts.

But everything now has an fuzzy expiration date and LL is quietly retreating back into oblivion after delivering the Que sera, sera death blow.

"The future's not ours to see" isn't fertile ground for development.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I made a music video for an SL artist and started a second. While I was shooting that one, I got a notice from You-Tube that the rights for the commercial backing track for the first vocalist, allegedly free and clear, were in dispute and they were going to take all the ad revenue (I was, of course, perfectly free to spend thousands of dollars on a lawyer to recoup a few paltry bucks from that project).

Meanwhile the second video kept getting hung up on technical glitches that would render hours of work totally unusable and disputes with actors (not the artist, just the cattle) who felt that since we couldn't afford to pay them, they were under no obligation to take the project seriously. Absent performers made editing the video a continuity hell.

I walked away. If I ever do another, I'll insist on all-original music with signed physical paperwork, and use bots instead of residents. As for Second Life, it's got the best variety of costumes, props and locations, but I can't afford to do anything but shoot on friends' lots. I might just do second-unit work here and build a decent sound stage in a more affordable world. Or, more likely, I might say fuggetaboutit and go back to projects with a better productivity-to-headache ratio... like Battlefield videos.

[2014]

I've made a handful of videos, and scrapped way more than I completed. Here is why I stopped:

1. SLs camera constraints make for bad filming, smooth camera movement is next to impossible.

2. frame rate on SL and how it's recorded by Fraps or the other recording program I use don't jive well together, you end up getting jumpy and glitchy looking footage.

3. When filming, having SL on ultra settings with shadows, and having my recording program open, my processor screams like a hungry baby, even on a very high end laptop.

[Adeon Writer]

As less creators need to log in to make content for SL, so there is less creator in world to film it:

Dump in the content for the consumers, cash out with the profits. Thus is mesh.

[RULosingHair]

Hardware and software are moving targets!

Garry's Mod 13 Machinima

I'm Different - The Defective Turret
http://youtu.be/fKURvGuWOso

[RULosingHair]

SL Bar Association on LL TOS 2.3 changes

Relevant presentation slide
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152637550504201&set=p.10152637550504201&type=1&theater

LL pursues predatory Intellectual Property Piracy, now it's out by California attorney!
https://www.facebook.com/events/470143959789507/?ref=51&source=1

This is an Audio and Transcript of the presentation given by "Agenda Faromet" at the August 2nd 2014 SL Bar Association presentation on the July 2014 Linden Lab Terms of Service Section 2.3 revisions and on the changes to the Second Life Skill Gaming policy http://modemworld.wordpress.com/slba-tos-and-skill-gaming-presentation-1-july-2014-tos-update/

[RULosingHair]

Why would a bona-fide use case want to use a predatory vendor like SL?

Competitive Benchmark >
Garry's Mod 13 Terms of Service
http://www.garrysmod.com/terms/

[Marx Catteneo]

My opinion on this matter... i wrote back in december 2013 and nothing much has changed since then. (well a few minor changes to be completely honest)

It's not too hard to make static objects look very good nowadays but when an avatar enters the scene and starts talking it becomes comedy even if you don't want that.

SL as it is now is great for filming art installations but to make an actor based cinematic work is close to impossible, so we have to watch out for other platforms to work on, the only advantage of SL is that it has a huge collection of props and locations and many actors already logged in, all this has to be provided by oneself in the alternative machinima platforms and they all come with their specific problems as well.

I think in the future, classic 3d animation and virtual world machinima will grow together much more than they are now and will become the (industry) standard, but i sincerely doubt SL will survive long enough to see that day and from recent publications it will definitely not be updated in the machinima problem fields, maybe SL 2.0 or HiFi will solve the problems if not there will be another tool some day.

http://justpaste.it/MachinimaManifesto

[ole]

i have no idea what waning means but i made a movie. http://youtu.be/4Qw3X0qI46s

[Spiral Silverstar]

Someone say SL Machinima?

https://vimeo.com/groups/slmachinima

[jjccc coronet]

I enjoy making crappy videos of second life the reason they are crappy is because second life looks dated now compared to main stream games the texture quality has not improved so Sl video always looks old the only way i can make SL look better is to do hyperlapse https://vimeo.com/103884140 video which is made of individual frames then each frame is manipulated to look cool then turned into video its slow time consuming and when you upload to face book the thumb nail is so small no one sees it same on google plus bring back up to date video made by the machinima community and put it on sl web site

[RULosingHair]

NIce discussion about Change

Second Life Machinima on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/56475496379/permalink/10152592661341380/

[Pepa Cometa]

I've started being interested about machinima just two months ago.
https://vimeo.com/100346856
I am watching some good machinima made some years ago and I like very much some machinimers who are making beautiful videos. I wish much people feel attracted by that creative, nice and fun world. It is great sharing it :)

[LaPiscean Liberty]

I like your blog Hamlet, but your way off base on the Machinima Article. There is a ;lot of high quality machinima coming out of SL. Simply look here http://aviewtv.com and http://slartist.com

[SaveMe Oh]

Should I answer to this bullshit?
Better ask why SL blogging from Hamlet is waning.
Better go here: http://savemeoh.wordpress.com/
https://vimeo.com/savemeoh