Over the past few days I’ve been sent two really interesting machinima that don’t really fit our Weekend Whimsy slot.

The first is a detailed tour of the Macarthur Foundation’s island in Second Life, created by Draxtor Despres. The Macarthur Foundation is a US-based philanthropy organisation working worldwide, with a well established pedigree in funding virtual worlds projects:

The second machinima piece comes from Pooky Amsterdam, and it’s a two-part interview with MUD pioneer and games researcher, Richard Bartle. There’s some awkward moments and some glitchy audio in the interview, but that’s well and truly outnumbered by Bartle’s insights into a range of topics. I found his explanation on the wider societal motivations for creating a MUD fascinating (essentially he was railing against the propensity of British society at the time to judge people too quickly and the MUD provided an opportunity for people to be themselves):

Part 1:

Part 2:

Over to you on the Bartle interview in particular – were there any new revelations for you or points you disagreed with strongly?