Tech -- Culture -- Humour
We’re really pleased to feature a guest post from Ariella Furman (SL: Ariella Languish), who has been producing machinima for a number of years (you can view some here).
When I used to take the train home from school everyday, I would admire how the lighting outside would seep over the windows, until they were a golden hue and it was too bright to see through them. It was like all the people, ending their active work days, would be lost in a tunnel of celestial yellow skies. You couldn’t help but smile, no matter how bad your day was.
Many real life filmmakers will argue, “Light is shadow.†Light is what makes shapes and colors have their quality. It has substance, texture, mood, etc. It has more dimensions and beauty than any other thing I know.
Light is not all grand, however. When on a film set, what always takes the longest and the most time tweaking? The lights! There are so many options. There are so many ways to tell the story. Simply by putting the main character in a sea of shadow, you can change the whole dynamic of what you’re conveying to the audience.
Second Life once had a world with limited shadows. We could change the color and tones of the light, but it was meaningless without seeing the light react with objects. Now, with two new Shadow Viewers out from KirstenLee and BoyLane, we have the world of lighting at our disposal.
We machinimatographers are luckier than the poor director of photographers in the real world, however. Our lights change with a few button clicks. However, I don’t think it will make us lazy. It just means that setting up our shots will probably be more time consuming. You now not only have to set the actors, but also wonder about how they will react with the world around them.
We’ll have to answer questions. Are they troubled? Do they see the glass half full, half empty? Even the shadow of their figure trailing behind them – if it is small and opaque, it means they have a direction and are confident. If it is long and dull, it probably means they have a whole journey ahead of them and that they are troubled about their direction.
Does the building they enter have pillars? If so, do those pillars seem to have long, never-ending shadows that paint the floor in lines of blacks, making it appear like they are entering a jail cell rather than a building?
So, in conclusion, filmmaking is 90% talking about what you’re going to shoot and setting it up but only 10% actually shooting it. Let’s face it, back in the day, machinima was a cinch! Now that we have dozens of creative options to tell the same message, most of our work flow will probably be decision making. Less machinimators will want to just “wing it†if they want a professional product.
Let’s face it, machinima just became way more similar to real life narrative filmmaking. This means the world and more to many of us.
1. The official Linden Lab blog is showcasing elite graduate business school INSEAD’s presence in Second Life. When I jumped in for a look there were INSEAD reception staff on duty and not a bot in sight.
2. Via James Dellow, a new study is out on children and virtual worlds. The full presentation / report is here and is an extremely useful look at the area from a solid empirical basis.
3. Not a lot of use to Australian readers, but 3D chat world, Club Cooee has gone into open beta for US-based customers. One of the more amusing claims: With low system requirements and a small 3 MB client, Club Cooee runs on almost every desktop computer or notebook. The application works with Windows Vista and Windows XP operating systems.
Given the growth in use of Macs in the past 2-3 years, let alone Linux and other open source options, companies are going to start getting visible push-back from their customer base with ridiculous claims of Windows Vista and XP equating to ‘almost every desktop computer or notebook’. Add the iPhone into the equation and the claim looks even more farcical.
“It was the year 2050 and the City was under attack. We held out as long as we could, those of us who had chosen to stay behind. We kept our vigil in the dark, all the lights out, excepting only the dim illumination from our monitors, both for reasons of conservation and safety. At random periods, the missiles came in on trajectories we were barely able to track; those of us with the best reflexes and eyesight were on duty bringing those missiles down, before they were able to explode against our shields, or, worse, take down yet another part of the City.
In the end, the City fell, though I continued on.â€
“Armed with the best in winter garb and a snowboard, I hurried swiftly to my destination. Even all the snow flying through the air and the powder obscuring the snowboard at my feet could not make me falter; I darted to and fro, left right left again, leaping over obstacles – fallen trees, wandering livestock – all the while pulling wicked stunts with the board. Flips backward, rolls to the front, high, higher into the air I leapt, twisting, turning, hot dog, man!
Time is running out …!â€
“I levelled the dart at my target. ‘Breathe,’ I thought to myself, ‘Breathe slow.’ The goal is within reach, I’ve traced the parabola that the dart will follow in my mind a thousand times already – I know this, I can do this. Through the steel walls, bounce off the back, down the chute and through to a glorious finish. ‘Watch the bombs,’ I told myself, ‘Watch the bombs!’
But the bombs weren’t even the biggest problem here.â€
“So upon my return from my missions, I checked the date, checked my spending account. Spendings – up 200%, a satisfactory result. But the date, oh, that mendacious date! I couldn’t believe I still had five days to wait before my eleventh birthday, the day I would also get to choose a pet of my very own to care for! Oh, the sheer unfairness of it all!
‘Patience,’ I counselled myself, ‘Have patience.’
Because getting older is cool when you’re ten; losing your cool? Not so good at any age.â€
Welcome to Super Secret! A world for tweens (that age when getting older still actually seems like a good idea) where the overarching goal is to grow up and have cool new responsibilities, and get neat stuff to play with.
Entry to the world is easy — almost too easy. Though it is stated in the Terms of Use that users must either be over 18 or have parental permission, little information is required to get in. Fortunately, the creators of Super Secret have made it an especially safe place for kids to be. Interactions are limited by several mechanisms: “super chatâ€, essentially regular instant messaging, can only be engaged in with parental consent, and is monitored by humans and by computer; “simple chatâ€, in which the user selects a phrase from a list, is available to all; gift giving, in which an item is removed from the user’s inventory and given to another user; and gag-gift giving, in which a practical joke of a specific nature is played on another user.
Additionally, Super Secret is free to join. However, you must pay a subscription to be able to advance beyond the age of 13. Users can continue to access the world for free regardless of age, but will not be able to unlock secrets or purchase some items available only to older characters. It should be noted that only USA credit cards are being honoured at this point, though the ability for users from other countries to subscribe is supposed to be in the works.
The main way to earn money (“Spendersâ€) and to gain age points (which advance the character’s age) is to play the mini games available both through the user’s card deck, and throughout the locations that can be visited in-world. There are over 20 games available when you begin, and many more can be found or purchased. Each game tests the reflexes and the ability to learn and adapt, and a knowledge of a little physics doesn’t hurt for some of them, either. If the casual mini games in Free Realms aren’t quite casual enough for you, then Super Secret’s will likely fit the bill.
Aside from this, there is a world to explore, filled with objects of worth to find, quests to fulfill, and secrets aplenty.
As an adult, I found the world to be safe and engaging, and the mini-games to be compelling enough to inspire persistence. The only thing I found to be slightly odd, coming from adult virtual environments, was the lack of public communication between users. Were all the kids trying out the world too shy, too confused, or busy to speak up? Perhaps there were many adults testing out the world, embarrassed to be asked, â€What grade are you in?†– I do not know.
If I was 10 again, or around that age, I’d be pleased to get into Super Secret as my first or second virtual world. If I was a parent, I’d be keen for my child to access it. And as an adult, I think I will indulge in the guilty pleasure of popping in every so often just to play the mini-games.
Linden Lab is now in the final legs of adding a new content category to its virtual environment, Second Life. Being added to the existing PG and Mature categories is the new category, Adult, which permits some content which has hitherto not been permitted in Second Life. The new content category is anticipated to go fully live in July.
Of particular interest, though, are the keyword lists and also age verification. Linden Lab is going to be maintaining a secret list of keywords, the presence of any of which in any descriptive text will prevent that item from appearing as a search result to those who have not (a) undergone age verification, and (b) do not have Adult search results enabled. Accounts which have not undergone verification will not be able to access Adult regions at all, or to enable Adult search results.
That list is being kept a closely guarded secret. What that essentially means is that it’s pretty trivial to determine which words are on it, and some users have already done so. The list may change, but it is a matter of only minutes (and a little database pummeling) to determine the exact contents of the keywords list.
Linden Lab have chosen to keep the list a secret, so that people will not be able to work around it. Unfortunately, by its very nature, it needs to be about the worst-kept secret around. It would be kinder to the database just to publish the list, so that people don’t have to brute-force a solution — because they will. I fully expect to see a public and frequently updated list online that publicizes the Adult keywords list before long.
But hey, you’ve got to age-verify for that, right?
That involves either going through the Identity-Verification system that Linden Lab has engaged Aristotle for (which has proven to be unworkable for many, or of otherwise dubious utility), or putting payment information on file on your Second Life account.
Yes, it’s really that simple. So simple, a child could do it. Literally.
What payment methods, exactly constitute verification of age, exactly? According to a spokesperson for Linden Lab, “Any payment method we currently take. PayPal accounts used on XStreet SL will need to be Verified PayPal accounts.”
Last time we looked, credit card providers expressly prohibited the use of credit cards as an age verification mechanism in their merchant and payment-processor agreements. That makes this somewhat of a dubious stretch, contractually. However, Linden Lab outsources payment processing, so while their payment-processor might be at risk of reprisals from card-companies, there’s probably no real barrier to the Lab using credit cards as an age verification mechanism.
Aside from the fact that possession of a credit card nowadays is independent of age, prepaid credit cards are available to all ages (some major card companies are issuing prepaid cards to infants), and regular credit cards are available to anyone old enough to hold a job flipping burgers or sweeping floors. In fact, there may be more minors with cards that are indistinguishable from traditional credit cards now than there are adults with them. But there’s always your mum’s purse if you’re hell-bent on tradition.
Linden Lab, however, is out of the liability loop on all of this, so long as they do not make public statements warranting the effectiveness of their age-verification system, or statements that the users are in a legally safer position than they were before. Either could land the Lab with some expensive and embarrassing lawsuits the first time little Suzy gets caught out with Adult content.
In October 2008 we covered Superstruct, a forecasting MMO with some very real-world aims: to determine the challenges facing humanity in 2019.
This week, the group behind Superstruct, The Institute for the Future (IFTF), released some initial research as part of its ongoing mission to use the MMO as a means of communicating key global challenges. The overview is:
For the past five months, IFTFs Ten-Year Forecast Team has been analyzing the collective body of Superstruct work, in light of other major perspective essays on new forms of governance, networked citizens, geoengineering, and superstructed realities. We have focused our Superstruct research on the following question: What is the next major evolutionary phase for human organization?
And today, we are pleased to share with you the first round of findings.
These Superstruct findings are the first in the IFTF Annual TYF Superstruct Series. With these we present to you the first 50-Year Scenario, “The Long Crisis” and the “Superstruct Strategies”, 7 actionable strategies that emerged during our game analysis. Over the next few months, we will be publishing additional Superstruct maps and perspectives online. You will be able to follow the series and download all of the research at our 10 Year Forecast RSS feed
You can download the 5.2 meg PDF of the research here.
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