And thus, my heart did a pitter patter.

If you don’t already know Will Wright, then you’ve probably been away on a deserted Island for the last 20 years. Will is Legendary in the gaming industry. He is to games what Star Wars is to Cinema. Iconic. The driving force behind the bestselling game of all time, The Sims, has joined the board of Directors at Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. Those of you who watched The Phoenix Hour last week saw me present on the stage with the Sims signature green gem over my head throughout the show, and many wondered why! Well, there you have it. I had the honor of working indirectly with Will as part of his “Community Created” television series Bar Karma which aired on Current TV earlier this year. As one of the first beta members of what was then codenamed BlackOps, Will and his production partner Albie Hecht solicited many ideas from the 20 or so of us writers before the project went public. He interfaced with us regularly and was wonderfully charismatic and fun to post back and forth with on the forums. I’ll admit it, I did indeed submit a synopsis for the show based around a virtual life. The synopsis didn’t go carry over into the public community, but I am proud to say that I gave the characters on the show their names and backstories! I’m grateful to Will and Albie for having had the privilege of being a part of such an innovative project.

Of course, we’re seeing a lot of Sim-Side weight joining the Lab recently, along with the immeasurably talented Rod Humble, who had been an Executive Vice President and Head of The Sims Label at EA before joining Linden Lab as the new CEO, replacing interim CEO (and Founder) Philip Rosedale, who replaced his replacement Mark Kingdon. Read that out loud and slowly. Mr. Humble has already made advancements with leaps and bounds with Second Life, and his passion for the platform has given it the reinvigorating it desperately needed. It’s nice to see Will and Rod playing on the same field again. It certainly will make for an exciting future for any Second Life-centric participant, or even the observer.

I’m writing this remotely as I’m enroute to Boston, but send them all, and you, my well wishes! Have a fantastic Halloween!

I’m so excited to be returning to podcasting after a good long holiday from it! Already I’ve had some fantastic conversations with the cast of the animated webseries Beaver Ridge, and a lovely chat with Tony Dyson, creator of the legendary R2D2 of Star Wars fame who I had the privilege of jurying the 48 Hour Film Project with this past September!

As well as some fabulous chats, you can expect the first episode of my comedic web series to premiere later this month. After Ever After is the riotous story about some familiar Princesses in retirement who are desperate for the spotlight again. You can also see me featured in a sketch with original Apple fellow and bestselling author, Guy Kowasaki in a few weeks!

Watch this space!

Predictions are fun.

But I’m no psychic. At least, not according to my past attempts at making predictions. Or, perhaps, given I’m not 100% wrong 100% of the time, I can say I’m halfway there.

Last year I made some pretty audacious prediction on the direction of Linden Lab in the future, and some of them were pretty “out there” and shockingly, some have come to pass. In this post here, where I pondered the future of my favorite online place, I wondered where we might be in 2015 and quite surprisingly have found that in a mere 11 months since those late night blog ramblings, in some instances, we’re already there or are close to that destination.

A lot of speculation has been made about Linden Labs new experience, which is currently shrouded in secrecy. Some have suspected that it’s a mobile application, others thought that with CEO Rod Humbles background it may be a new gaming experience, or an addition to Second Life. I find it interesting that this revelation comes on the heels of Dizzy Banjo’s guest post on New World Notes suggesting that Second Life needed to branch out rather than continue to grow roots. Ultimately saying they needed a new product to ensure sustainability and longevity of the current product. I read that entry and seriously considered the concept, and eventually concluded myself that Dizzy was absolutely right. Zynga didn’t stop at Farmville. Blizzard didn’t stop at World Of Warcraft. Linden Lab has gone, in gaming terms, an epic 9 years without a new product. While Second Life has indeed evolved quickly and provided more bang for your buck, it does seem true that it has reached a crescendo at some point, slipping in – and then out of mainstream consciousness back in the hype of 2007.

Second Life has a stigma. Yeah, It infuriates me, I’ll admit it. Everything from Life 2.0 to National Geographic has focused on the sensational and salacious. That is is how most most mainstream has come to define SL, by what they’ve seen, read or heard on television. It’s the nature of our culture, I suppose. The gawker in us. It’s been tough to redefine Second Life, because, as I mentioned before, it lost it’s identity and was instead assigned one by the media… that’s what the mainstream ran with as it made far more interesting documentaries and news articles.  Forget that the underbelly of it makes up roughly 2% of the whole organism that is the virtual landscape. But we love to turn up our noses at the first opportunity, especially in America. Ask the commoner on the street what they know of Amsterdam and they’ll likely respond that it’s full of marijuana addicts and uncontrolled drugs. That’s what they’ve heard. That’s what Fox News reports. That’s what our American filmmakers make docu-style films about. That’s also an absolute falsity. In fact, when polled, more Americans have admitted to marijuana usage than Dutch citizens. More people in the USA are treated for drug addiction each year than in Holland by a whopping number.  but, we know it as that “place” where drugs are allegedly rampant. And San Francisco is that “gay city” and Mormons “all have 15 wives.” Wrong, wrong wrong. But nobody cares. They don’t care to be re-informed, or to bother investigating for themselves. They’d rather turn up their snout and curl their upper lip in disagreeable disgust. This is why Second Life is “that Sex Palace.” And we’ll be hard pressed to ever change that image.

It makes perfect sense that Linden Lab would devote some resources into company growth rather than platform growth. I’m sure they’re not abandoning Second Life, after all, despite the misgivings some may have, the people who know better have still made it a very lucrative product for the company. By any measure, Second Life, to even exist as an online platform after nine years is a triumph, a success story! Consider that Blue Mars folded almost immediately after release, as, ahem, I predicted here. There.com, once the only comparable platform (Very loosely) to Second Life closed it’s doors in 2010 after 7 years in operation. Raph Kosters other opus, Metaplace, closed after just 3 years, but went on to redefine itself as a development platform for facebook which met with success, as some of the products developed on it were acquired by Playdom. Second Life is far from floundering, it stands quite strong to this day and has yet to find a worthy opponent or comparable, even with so many offshoots built of the open source, everything else pales in comparison. The reality of Second Lifes Virtual Reality, despite what television says, is more magic than mayhem. But, it’s been branded, quite like a cattle, or a regrettable tattoo you got when you were drunk of some ex boyfriends name. It’s hard to wipe off.

But for a moment, taking a look at the net culture of today (not 8 years ago) we see that so much has changed during Second Life’s own life. Social Media has been introduced in a booming way. Online gamers aren’t just 19 year old nerds with no life, they’re Mothers and Grandmothers. They have a web identity, an avatar, and they’re leveling! But they’re on Facebook and Pogo and not in Second Life. That still staggers me. I’ve often wondered why anyone would choose, specifically, to have an experience in a 2-D flash game and forgo the beauty of Second Lifes 3-D possibilities. And therein, my friend, also lies the answer. Second Life isn’t an experience. You, the user, have to self motivate to create the experience of what you want it to be, yourself. For many, perhaps too many. it’s too much to wrap their head around.

For example. Tomorrow you can go to Wiffelpuff, Indiana in the USA.

Why? You don’t know.

What will you do when you get there? You have no clue.

Obviously people are there. People are all over the world. Do you care?

Think the drive will be worth your time? The Magic 8 Ball is uncertain.

Instead you’ll see what’s on televison. Easier.

Second Life isn’t easy. It’s not a game, but it can be. It’s not a social network until you build your friends list. In truth, it’s everything you want it to be, but the challenge is making it embody that, and that task is monumental for a user. Said it before, there is no bridge between install and experience. It’s the psychological hurdles that the user can’t overcome. A great many simply don’t know what it’s for.

If indeed Linden Lab is creating something new, they’ve got 8 tremendous years of learning under their belt, and a captain at the helm with a firm hand on net culture. We users who have adopted it, myself included, need to let go of what we want Second Life to be, because each person you ask has different benchmark, and very different expectations and demands which makes us the most challenging customers to satisfy. Every one of us has an intention, a goal, and most of us with an opinion think nothing of flapping our lips (Guilty!) to tell them whats wrong,  how to fix it and where to take it. That is because Second Life has achieved something that few other platform has with the user that have adopted it; It’s become personal. Personal for that singer giving concerts; That dressmaker slaving away in photoshop to pay their rent; For that developer who created that hot new product; For that teacher; That charity. Our world, our imagination. And in our world, much like our real life, we don’t bother peeking over the fence much to advocate what someone elses self-appointed purpose for it all is. Everyone is carrying their own plaquard representing what Second Life is to them. They’ve self motivated, and self advocated. Most net citizens are too busy having an intended experience to worry about making one themselves.

With the lessons under their belt, perhaps we’ll see something more expected. Second Life is revolutionary, years ahead of it’s time. The world at large has demonstrated it may not be ready, or maybe it needs to take the branding iron into it’s own hands and get a facelift to remove the wrinkles. But a new experience could be that bridge from one thing to the next. Linden Lab is the only company I can think of, reasonably, that has poised itself to introduce people to a past product by inventing a new, more accessible one to ride the coattails of. If you build it, they will come, said one famous film. In this context, they didn’t really, did they? So maybe instead of building a structure in the middle of a cornfield in Wiffelpuff, Indiana, we should build something more relatable to the general public, but this time in a populated area, with premade roads, structures and experiences! And maybe some signs pointing to Wiffelpuff..

…So the world knows we’re still an option.

As I write this I’m sitting in Second Life, and on skype doing sound checks. My film Harbinger, along with films by Cecil Hirvi (Who organized this, thank you!) Laney Voom and Cisko Vandevere are showing in a section of the festival dedicated solely to Machinima. Currently they’re talking about virtually built sets and the power and advantages of leveraging Machinima to tell stories. During my sound check, I can hear myself coming back into the theater where the studio audience will ask questions after the film plays. I sound more massive than I’m accustomed to sounding, even with my biggest wig. This is an important step for Machinima, as each and every day, people like Cecil Hirvi are giving the medium much more awareness to audiences around the world. It’s also an amazing nod to Second Life, the platform in which many of these diverse films were made, because Second Life, even 8 years in, remains still the premiere platform for virtual film development. Not only is it the ONLY platform to give the artists and storytellers who create there the intellectual property rights to their own work, but it is also the platform that allows the most creative freedom. It has never been surpassed in it’s excellence in this context.

So keep your finger crossed that my own voice doesn’t swallow me up and I end up going.. er duhhh. I have to hurry my dog, Tutu, to the neighbors to be babysat because, it is true, in nearly every podcast or appearance I’ve done, she absolutely MUST share her two cents. Can you imagine her barking at and deafening a crowded theater?

Welcome back! The podcast returns from Hiatus for the fall/winter season with some great new guests and we’re off to a great start!

I recently had the pleasure to talk with my good old friend Chantal Harvey about this years upcoming 48 Hour Film Project wherein filmmakers from across the globe go on a kamikaze journey to make a short film in two days. The highly creative, super intense competitions, whose winner shows at Filmapalooza, has captured mainstream attention and launched careers.. and for the past 5 years, this competition has included Machininima. A one time competitor, Chantal Harvey switched to the other side of the camera as an advocate for Machinima and took on the role as producer for the international teams signing up to leave their mark. Each year, a panel of jurors reviews each submitted film and choose how to distribute the various awards distributed. The 48 Hour Film Project has been lauded as a brilliantly devised boot camp for both novice and advanced filmmakers. Last years winner, June Falkenstein, won for her brilliant World of Warcraft horror machininma, “The Lake.” Previously she had directed Walt Disney’s “The Tigger Movie.” The lead judge for Machinima last year was award winning filmmaker Peter Greenaway… and this year, Chantal welcomes Tony Dyson, creator of cinematic icon R2D2 for the Star Wars saga. Tony is responsible for crafting perhaps one of cinemas most recognizable figures, as his little whirling, twirling bleeping and booping robot rode into the history books along with George Lucas with one of the highest grossing films of all time. But that’s not all on his laundry list of accomplishments. Tony Dyson has worked on effects alongside other cinematic icons, including Superman and James Bond.

It is an honor to have him join the Machinima community and I’m tremendously excited to watch and learn from the feedback he’ll provide the artists who participate this year. If you want to put your talents to the test, all it takes is a little inspiration and a lot of coffee. Enjoy the show!

(((*TEMP EDIT*))) I didn’t listen before i posted and came back a couple days later do so. Something happened to the audio and i sounded like i had od’d on testosterone. New file coming!

Go sign up for the 48 Hour Film Project

Visit Tony Dyson’s website

Visit 48 Hour film producer Chantal Harvey’s Blog

Visit Tony and Chantals production company

Once upon a time, your own Miss Phay created and co-produced a reality series with Metaverse television that pitted 7 virtual residents against one another in a weekly game of skill and strategy. Each episode, players met with a mentor in any number of areas including photography, architecture and filmmaking who was at the top of their field. the winner was given a development deal with Metaverse TV and I would assume the role of their mentor. The series was called “I Wanna Be A Celebrity,” and the winner was one Lucy Eberhart.

Lucy has done many things since her win, including working in production on the Metaverse TV variation of  The Late Show” and also developed her own advice series titled “Lucy Listens.”

It’s been a long journey for Lucy, but it has all culminated in the destination she’s triumphantly arrived at today. Her new series has debuted to rave reviews, and i am absolutely floored at the brilliant exevution…

“The Real Desperate Housewives of Beaver Ridge” sounds like a simple, expected spoof of two franchises embedded in our conscience, but but if it’s just a spoof, then Celine Dion is just a singer.

Lucy has forged new territory with her unscripted comedic romp through a southern trailer parks with some highly unusual (and hysterical) occupants. The show, which is currently airing it’s second episode, features an outstanding cast of performers who manage to leave me in stitches every time.

It’s difficult to do comedy using avatars, and even more difficult to deliver coherent comedy that an audience laughs out loud watching. But this is possibly one of the greatest series ever to come out of Second Life and possibly one of the best machinima comedies I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching.

Perhaps I’m a little biased. I have watched Lucy grow and evolve into the creative powerhouse she’s proven to be. I’m so proud to have her stand alongside me as one of the only other machinimists in our platform to create a progressive comedic series with consistent characters.

make sure you visit Metaversetv.com to catch the show, of which, I’ll add, I reveled in the chance to play an aging strip club owner with a southern accent and sharp tongue.

I had a wonderful 8 month hiatus. I dabbled here and there in voice acting for various machinists, like for the award winning filmmaker Matthew Hahn and in the epic new mini series “Ring of Time” – a machinima by Shirley Martin, based on her novel of the same name. Aside from shooting a Short promo for Linden Lab, which I simply could not have managed into my schedule without the wonderful help of my friend Chantal Harvey, I have not filmed a frame of my own work since last October’s “Harbinger.” This is not the first time i’ve taken a breather, obviouly there was a year in between the finale of the first season of DiVAS and the premiere of the second season.

I’m backwith a full plate, including the last three episodes of DiVas season 2, the  unveiling of my new series “After Ever After” and a revisit to “Harbinger” territory.. It’s great to be back in the film world refreshed, revitalized and replenished.

You’ll have to immediately forgive me. I recently got a tablet. This wonderful device was not made for people with fingernails. I will type badly, and i may sometimes appear to suffer bouts of Tourettes as auto-correct attempts to lovingly guide me. I am still learning the settings and promise to do it soon, especially since yesterday i called my mother a giggle fart while telling her goodbye. I quite like the unexpected, predictable nature of auto-correct, so i may just leave it on for the lolz. Worse than ever b, i never know what I’m going to say. And auto correct is pretty persistent.

So, lots of folks are talking (still) about how to make Second Life an accessible platform. Over the years many suggestions have been made, and the great company driving this unique bus has tried but often failed to get the real world to get “It.” Unfortunately, therein lies the crux. “It” is something different to everyone. For some it’s an education platform; For others a social device or a development tool or creative platform… and even still for some it’s a business endeavor. So, what is Second Life. What is the definition of this elusive “It” that seems to alienate mainstream audiences?

That’s part of the problem. Second Life doesn’t know what it is. Instead they’re letting you decide, which is great in theory and loks good on paper, but in practice, it’s self sabotage for any company to completely lack the ability to define itself to an audience as a salable product or platform.  Linden Lab needs to forget about the past at this point and begin with a relatively existential question. “Why am I here?”

Frankly, that’s what most first time users are asking themselves. When there doesn’t seem to be a reasonable answer, they leave. Just like I do when i walk into a room and forget what I went in there for. The reality is, Second Life is no longer in it’s infancy. It’s about time they develop an independent identity. Are they hocking vampires? Are they selling real to virtual transitions of identity (I’m taking to you, Draxter and Keiko.) We’ve all seen the hybrid avatar/real face ads which creep me out to this day. Draxtors ad still makes him look like a freshly paroled serial killer. That was genuinely not a stroke of marketing genius. Not sure I’d wanna play with that guy or be a vampire, although some might!

I remember sitting at a roundtable with Linden Lab a few months ago when Chantal said to them she thought they should change the name. Toxic and I, as well as the Linden Lab participants fell silent. I remember my eyes went all buggy and thought “Well, we sound like a trifecta of nutbags now!” Until they replied. “We’ve considered that.” Apparently, they have, as now I’m seeing it across social networks as people speculate just what Second Life should be called, if not Second Life.

Surprising, yes! But I have to ask myself.. is the name really the problem? You can put the Words “Homing Pigeon” on a bag of Potato chips but when you open it up, it’s still just a bag of chips that many still don’t find appetizing enough to buy again.  It’s not the ambiguous title of the product that invokes fear. It’s the ambiguity of the purpose the product possesses that causes folks to log in, and then right back out without a reason to return. While anyone can come into Second Life, few can get past the self motivation to push onward. They don’t get far enough to even ask themselves what “It” is before exiting. If you ask the media, it’s a virtual sex palace. If you ask a musician it’s a concert venue. If you ask the storyteller it’s an artists escape, to the educator a remote classroom… everyone thus far has undertaken the daunting task of defining their own Second Life from the start. Nobody is given a purpose or a persuable. They have to make their own. That’s to close to real life for most of us. We have already gone on that “search for purpose” in our own lives. Choose your own adventure. Pilot your own destiny. Captain your own ship. You’re in control. For some that search and accountability was hard enough the first time around… And while most would love a Second chance to do things differently, does anyone want to do it again virtually? It took me 6 years to find a purpose in Second Life. I couldn’t build to begin with. then with the addition of sculpted objects, I really, really couldn’t build.  I can’t sing, I’m not a qualified educator, I’m not proficient with photoshop or textures. I accidentally stumbled upon film and learned I could apply my real life skills and interests virtually. Truthfully, the finding and defining of a second identity is taxing and for many, too outlandish and unexpected to consider. Second Life hasn’t figured out yet how to market what they’ve got in their hands and their attempts have been poorly constructed. For a minute, lets remove the veil from the Avatar/real ads we’ve seen and replace the caption with “Hate who you are in first life? Try again!” Or, perhaps it’s saying “Kiss anonymity goodbye, advertise your real self to thousands of strangers online today!” So many were already uncomfortable with the direction Linden Lab seemed to be going with suggesting people disclose their real life identities while in a virtual world. Some did gladly, especially business people like my friend Deb aka Flimsey. It was a choice she made. It’s a choice we can all make, but I still find the blanket of false security troubling. I maintain that if I wouldn’t tell a random person in a Yahoo! chat group my real name, I’m certainly not going to in Second Life, and while I’m all for options and diverse interests, it was an element that scared many people away. In viewer 2, your first life information on your sidebar is proposed to you for filling out BEFORE your Second Life profile which is below it. That doesn’t happen in any other platform where you’re represented by an virtual avatar in an anonymous world. Second Life is not Facebook.

But with all of the problems Second Life has endured solely by benefit (Or curse?) of being first of it’s kind, it’s had to traverse uncharted territory on it’s long, long journey, upon which it still hasn’t found it’s destination. It’s had to battle things no other product has before. Let’s face it, Second Life is more than a platform, it is an often (poorly) imitated never duplicated pioneer in it’s own right… And the biggest challenge above and beyond all else has been figuring out what it is.. and more importantly, who we are that use it. Before Second Life can be embedded properly in the mainstream, it has to be able to sell itself… but as what? What name can better define define a product after 8 years when the lack of purpose or interest hasn’t changed beyond our virtual boarders. Growth occurs with ongoing interest. Second Life’s evolution can be measured in milestones of progress that improve the world cosmetically… lights, flexing prims, sculpts, mesh. Nothing has changed in the base infrastructure detailing how a common user interfaces with the world and finds a reason for being there.

So yes, a name change appears radical. But, I’m of the mindset that Linden Lab needs to be even more radical than simply changing the label. They need to change the contents of the package. Provides a user an experience and let them evolve by passive learning. learning by necessity, not from big signs telling them how to rezz a prim. The way to achieve this is by inducting them via an experience itself. The half-hearted attempt at this was the Vampire campaign. “Come and be a Vampire!” They said.

Okay, you log in, where do you get fangs? Who is making farting noises? I have buy money?  How do I get off this Island, Skipper!?

No bridge from click-thru user to actual experience. They have to self motivate to find out how the hell to be a vampire. It’s not getting people to Second Life that is the problem. It’s getting them to stay. It’s giving them a reason to stay.

Currently you’re dropped in, ugly as a dog and screaming. Helpless. Confused. Afraid. Overwhelmed. These are not words that describe a positive first time user experience, but they effectively and accurately describe Second Life to the mainstream. It’s time to reinvent.

Time to make Second Life a fun, engaging place to be, not an intimidating dark forest.  Linden Lab needs to be brave and be extreme f they want different results. This mechanism is great for us who’ve given it our own purpose, but logically, as a business it can’t grow if it can’t adapt to the mainstream. They’ve let everyone else define it, but Second Life never found it’s own legs once it was set to sea. It never charted it’s own course. Some might say this was very brave, and truly, it was.. but after 8 years, if Second Life is ever to be more than what it is today it needs more than a facelift, it needs total reconstructive surgery beginning with the insides. Quite simply, it needs to work as a reasonable person expects it to. When you can’t chat with groups or communicate with people, or change clothes without an hourglass, or open a notecard, rezz an object without an asset server attack, there’s a massive disconnect. Second Life need to stop trying to be everything to everyone and focus internally on being one thing that everyone wants to be a part of. Demystify Second Life to the rest of the world.

All of that lies in more than just a name.

A Meeroo

Like the dozens and dozens of articles, editorials and reviews about Meeroos out there, I bet you’re expecting me to start very much in a similar fashion and tell you how it all began with virtual Chickens, and then came bunnies and every farm animal known to mankind as this “Pretend Pet” craze swept the grid. Well, I’m not. There’s actually a much, much bigger picture.

Pets are not new to the virtual world of Second Life. As far back as you can research you can find little creatures that animate and make noise. The difference between these cosmetic pets and what followed is the breeding aspect. Simple, yes? It’s the birds and bees pixel style as you put one and one together to make a special little third edition to the family a week later. And if you were fortunate, in the secondary market that popped up, that baby may possess traits valuable to another player. It’s a bit reminiscent of trading cards. You buy a pack, flip through your deck, trade off or your sell your duplicates that another player needs and covet the rares. For some it was a lucrative business, for others a time-passing hobby. The concept of virtual breedable pets was no different really except that they functioned on a subscription based fee, veiled cleverly as food. It was passive gaming at it’s best. It was the greatest slot machine device ever created. You paid in, pulled a lever and then walked away for 7 days until you could come back and see if they landed on a winning combination – if the infant was salable, or a losing combination – if it was a dud. Pretty rudimentary, no effort required, no time investment involved. For some it worked, for others, not so much. It worked and became a big business because it was new to Second Life. Facebook wasn’t yet infested by Zynga-centric app enthusiasts tending their farms. Every future great thing begins with simple ideas.

The recently introduced Meeroos have brought the first interactive, social application-like experience to Second Life. Complete with guilds (Or, fellowships) collections to complete, rewards for interacting with other players, an expansive mystical lore to accompany them, trivia, and, of course, breeding taken to the next level with personalities that must be complimentary and a whole slew of genetics to be discovered, the Meeroos take the idea of social activities from the gaming kingdom of Facebook and drops it right into the 3D world of Second Life. And it’s already had such an impact that virtual job opportunities can be had simply by petting a players Meeroo for virtual bux!  A whole sub-world of Meeroo fans playing together and working together to demystify the mystery of the Meeroos world that the makers, Malevay Studios, have cloaked in secrecy.

Meeroos themselves look like the subject of a Disney film or children’s books. You can just imagine Mattel creating a line of plushies, or finding a Meeroo in a Happy Meal toy from McDonalds. They’re fantasy creatures that have no counterpart visually although some have tried. I’ve heard it called a Fox+Rabbit, a Meerkat+Kangaroo, a Cat+Prairie Dog or any cutesie combination one can imagine. In fact, it is hard to pinpoint exactly what a Meeroo is except to concede that it’s simply – and undeniably – adorable. And it provides the ever evolving virtual culture a completely new and original experience to be had in their online time. Gone are the days of the level pulling gamble-gaming as avatar inhabitants come to expect more from their virtual playtime and actually become smarter consumers, seeking more fully realized and immersive interactive encounters.

Meeroos join the already established KittyCats virtual pet. KittyCats are an impossibly precious virtual cat with bright gleaming eyes and animations that could melt even the coldest of hearts. It’s difficult to choke back the inevitable “Awwww” factor when you see a newborn kitten emerge from it’s box for the first time and zip across the room, or take a break from playing to lick it’s heart-shaped paw. The company behind these sweet critters, Pampered Pets, have introduced an exemplary form of stylized branding that rival anything the real world boasts. KittyCats effectively occupy yet another factor that will pull over those farming crops on Facebook, and that is the ability to adorn your special furry friend with all kinds of accessories, from bejeweled collars to sparkling tiaras.

It’s only a matter of time before people start asking themselves why they’re bothering with their flash 2D applications when they can drop into Second Life and enjoy an experience with an asset in three dimensions. And it’s exactly what Second Life needs to reinvigorate the economy and the players who have grown disillusioned with staggering around looking for something to do, or someone to do it with. Experiences like Meeroos and KittyCats  create more than just an economy boon, they create communities and they stimulate growth of the platform. That is – if they overcome the tremendous obstacles Second Life throws at them.

Players in Second Life have to rely more on the stability of Second Life than they do the developers iof the games they play. When the platform tanks, the by-product service providers suffer considerably. KittyCats crash and Meeroos poof when Second Life’s temperamental asset server (Or, in the famous words of this famous Blogger, Asshat Server) fails which creates an enormous, albeit unnecessary workload on the independent creators who have their own customers to satisfy. This is the only thing truly holding Second Life back from being a valid, viable development platform for real world  experience creators. They’ve got grand ideas and the means to make it happen, but Second Life is alarmingly unstable, and few companies will want to put the fate of their success in hands of a company with as many outstanding, unattended (Years long) bugs and rampant theft as Second Life boasts.

copybotted meeroo

So, it’s evident that people within Second Life are aware of it’s potential, or rather, future potential, but the Lab has not expressed interest in it’s own readiness or willingness to surrogate professional developers by proxy of the Second Life platform. Wherein content creators and experience makers could be their greatest allies, they’re unfortunately the ones on the chopping block and receiving little to no support. One would expect the economic stimulation and promise of user growth to be enough incentive for the Lab to react strongly, and they still may. If they do, the future of Second Life could be a vastly exciting place to be no matter your time-killer of choice. It seems appropriate at this time to stand back and say, “Okay Linden Lab, 8 years in and you’ve so far not broken through the invisible ceiling to Mainstream awareness. Concurrency is stagnate. Now it’s time to let your very own users give it a swing with your support behind them.”

But wait! They tried this once, with Bunnies, just last year, didn’t they? The front page of the Sandbox newsletter advertised Ozimals sent to customers of Second Life… but where did they go wrong? They advertised a controversy ridden struggling brand to users already in Second Life, the majority of whom had already turned their backs on Ozimals, the company behind them (Most, after they generally compromised virtual ethics and branded many players “cheaters, publishing a list of their Avatar names and branding them with a Scarlet letter in their community). Had the internal decision-maker who put that campaign together had their finger on the pulse of the platform they worked for, they would have known that was a detrimental PR mistake. They probably know now, considering the backlash that followed. It was a bit like heavily advertising that the expletive loving, Jew hating Mel Gibson is performing at your Kid’s bar mitzvah. Not a great idea.

But those days are behind the Lab, and we’ve seen many changes since then. The man I adore, Rod Humble who knows what gaming and virtual communities are all about has come on board as the new CEO and the first thing he did was reach out to chat with the community and get to know them. He appears to understand the importance of the experience customer want, but he may or may not understand that Second Life’s user-created definition can be too broad or challenging for most mainstream users and they need some direction, some absolute purpose for being there, and something “fun” to do within the first few minutes or they’re lost. Already, users have traversed the terrain from Facebook to Second Life for the first time because of the Meeroos. I spoke with a 55 year old Woman, OlWolf Resident, who had seen a wall posting and had somehow scaled the unfriendly mountain that is the beginner experience just to get to them. It shouldn’t be that hard, if you ask me.

But the past is best left where it is at. The Future of Second Life is what matters, and as the face of it shifts just slightly, one can hope that if Second Life makes itself attracting to more experience creators, more customers will certainly follow the trail of breadcrumbs. That’s what Second Life needs; New consumers for our Avatar decorators like Fashion designers, skin and hair creators; more awareness and exposure for virtual musicians and machinimists. Remember that film, Field of Dreams and the saying it made famous by it. “If you build it, they will come.“  Well, it’s been built, but that wasn’t enough of an attraction if new players couldn’t participate beyond idle chatter and dancing at a club. So let’s try that again, Linden Lab…

“If you support them, more will come.“

I had the honor of attending the grand opening of the Month of Machinima, an event curated by the official committee of the Linden Endowment for the Arts created by Linden Lab in an effort to support artists and content creators. This was really exciting for me, as a machinimist, because I believe it is more than simply another event – it’s a milestone, and a huge step forward in a direction we’ve always wanted to go but never have… toward collaboration with the Lab. It was quite a significant turnout, with filmmakers and enthusiasts arriving to show their support. Lab employee and freshly dubbed Machinima Darling, Rhett Linden provided us an inspiring opening speech, soon joined my my own dear friend, Chantal Harvey, whose very name is synonymous with machinima. There is no doubt in my mind that this event, like so many other Machinima related events both in and outside of Second Life, is a consequence of her unfailing advocacy and evangelism for the art.

12 films, and every single one of them were thoroughly enjoyable. They were as diverse in expression and encompassed so many powerful and even moving elements of storytelling, some narrative, some visually. They captured what makes the virtual platform fun, enigmatic and viable as a quality storytelling device. I would recommend anyone go watch these film. Sit back, relax and see what we’re capable of.

That said, there was no theme in place this time around, however, there was a strict 3 minute time limit on all films submitted. Films that surpassed that limit were not included in the showcase. Ultimately, 12 films fit the criteria, out of some 87, that were submitted for the committee’s consideration. Apparently, the committee received a lot of haranguing about the restrictive time limit – which, admittedly, leaves me and more than half the filmmakers from our platform on the cutting room floor. But, we live in the era of the YouTube attention span, so I understand why the time limit was put in place. In response, in June, they’ve increased the time limit to 6 minutes…. but it gets worse.

They’re also imposing “Themes” – which is another content criteria that the films have to meet to be considered for display. Now, if you know anything about filmmaking, you’ll know that we don’t create our films around specific criteria involving time and theme, unless it’s for a contest of sorts. Unfortunately, the two factors are so entirely stifling that I believe the vast majority of filmmakers won’t be able to participate. If they’re fortunate enough to fall beneath the time limitation, they may not fit the required theme… if they are fortunate enough to have a ready made film that adapts to the monthly film, well, it may be over that months imposed time limit. I’m much more forgiving of a time imposition than a Theme. In fact, I personally find the theme factor nearly offensive, especially when you consider what they are, take a look.

• Theme for May 2011: None
• Theme for June 2011: Mixed Reality (SL machinima has to be part of the mix)
• Theme for July 2011: Games in SL
• Theme for August 2011: Design and Architecture
• Theme for September 2011: Seasons (in your life, the four seasons–get creative)
• Theme for October 2011: Four elements
• Theme for November 2011: SL Events
• Theme for December 2011: Endings, conclusions

Now, let me be fair. I get what they were trying to achieve… but it simply doesn’t work this way. Themes are for events – for the Birthdays, for parties, for topics of discussion even, not for art. I find it terribly condescending to machinimists. I don’t think they will tell artists who provide other types of content throughout the coming months that they can only show works painted in blue. Or that are only 1 meter high. It’s ridiculous really, and simplified to the point of ambiguity – so much so that when I asked, I was told “The themes don’t really matter, we’re not overly strict, the themes can apply to anything is some way or another…” and I thought to myself, “What the purpose of them then?” I the themes are simply there for us to have to tiptoe around and rig up some methodical word swing to make a film about a serial killer fit into “Ending, Conclusions” just because someone dies, it’s a little preposterous, and almost comes off as a failed attempt at simple control, as though they’re providing themselves a clause to opt out of showing a film they don’t like, and will certainly cite theme compliance. It’s inappropriate, and an unnecessary measure that wreaks of amateur organization. We’re not school children – we don’t require lines to color in. If you want to celebrate our creativity and our celebration of the platform, don’t attach a weighty burden via excessive time constraints coupled with a ridiculous theme. You’re dealing with artists in a non-competitive format. Don’t make it overly complex lest you alienate 80% of the filmmakers on any given month due to the restrictions.

There’s no reason for the themes whatsoever. They don’t lend themselves, for the most part, to our films, and our films shouldn’t have to be contorted to fit the requirements. The time limit is one thing, a necessary evil even that even YouTube imposes upon eager uploaders, although they recently raised the upload time limit to 15 minutes. But YouTube isn’t telling you that your films must be under 15 Minutes AND include baby kittens if you want to upload a film this month. If it weren’t for the ridiculous themes I would be more forgiving, but really, “Four Elements?” Either be direct or chuck the themes altogether, don’t ask creators to manipulate their vision by asking them to tell you how a film on a Space Station takes place in an environment with celestial asteroids boasting… um minerals! That’s right! Yeah. Yeah?

The reality of the MoM is that it doesn’t lend itself to the vast majority of films created by users of the platform. Unless the stars align and someone comes in under the time limit and reasonably fits the theme, we’re being asked to turn virtual cartwheels to be displayed or authentically celebrated by the committee. Quality films showcasing the power of Second Life will never meet the criteria. Although much disdain was expressed at the process of implementation and the words “Don’t worry, everyone will have a chance come around…” All  could think of is… when? Not in 2011, at least not for any of my films – which effectively mix reality, but will most certainly fall outside the time regulations.

I was given many examples of how a film can fit the theme. Seasons (September) for example, can be literal seasons or seasons of life, cycles of evolution, someone who changes profoundly throughout the story, a prim that shifts it’s shape…. and as I recoiled from this, it amplified my point that the themes have no place. If we can distort or adapt any films “meaning” to fit a theme, then most certainly they’re far to ambiguous thus not serving any real purpose – except to be exclusionary. It is, in effect, redundant. You can ignore the themes altogether if that’s the case and say your film about your new body physics tutorial with bouncing boobie is really Design and Architecture (August) of the Avatar! It’s borderline embarrassing and a huge faux pas when it comes to implementation and execution of an event intended to celebrate works of Machinima.

Someone on the committee got over zealous and clearly didn’t understand how we make films, or how strongly we marry to their own themes and suggestions. That’s why they are art. We don’t make films with their themes in mind. We make them with our themes in mind. The cumbersome themes will only ensure the MoM will not be taken seriously or be given the credibility the committee hoped it would. If they had kept the varying time limits but rid themselves (and us) of the obnoxious themes, it would be regarded as a far more prestigious curated event. However, if Sam’s video of him on roller skates gets in while Sally’s emotional, epic and awesome film didn’t because of the theme alone, it’s a loss for the whole community. And more people will be off to Youtube to praise Sally than will watch poor Sam’s two minute long trek down a sidewalk on wheels in Second Life.

Sadly, the integration of the Month of Machinima provides a rather gross disservice to SL based filmmakers, and if one is looking for stand out talent and spectacular examples of films from the platform of Second Life, your best bet remains YouTube or one of the other video amalgamates we all haunt when looking to quench our Machinima thirst.

So, from my perspective, the gesture is appreciated, LEA committee, but you lack the fundamental understanding of artists, which is required to have any effect on your community and fails to generate any desire to see what you plan to showcase due to your restrictive, exclusionary limitations. It may by some whirl of words fall into one of your themes and beneath your time limits… but that doesn’t mean anything else. When you had the opportunity to leverage Machinima from around the world, created in Second Life, to showcase in a curated format the very best most imaginative and technically profound content you dropped the ball by asking us to play your silly theme game.

OFFICIAL SITE: LEA’S MONTH OF MACHINIMA