Been a strange, busy day today. After a games console launch at Reuters (a news agency in this world) I then got caught up in an bio ceremony for something called Christmas, on the NBC island. I was later then on the VIP list for an amazing performance by DanCoyote and the Skydancers over on Learning Island (I will talk about this amazing experience in the next post).

Yea things are getting busier this time of year but back to the ceremony. The Rockefeller Center (a famous square in a bio city called New York) is one of the most amazing builds I have experienced so far and it was great to catch up with SNOOPYbrown Zamboni, In Kenzo and others ice skating at the start, on a rink next to a great coffee shop. An accompaniment to this, a live band, namely Jaycatt Nico and Frogg Marlowe, playing some great piano, guitar music and interesting songs. There was NBC branding everywhere.

Here I am checking out the relaxing piano music as DestroyTV wanders around again broadcasting anything and everything to the bio world (pic at end) - she gets about a bit! The snow-avatar was dancing by the way as the snow fell around us. It was a bit chilly, and luckily there were free gift boxes with scarves and wooly hats scattered around. Thanks to Aimee Weber for those winter warmers and who, along with Beddazzle studio, built the amazing city scene.

There was a countdown to the switch on of the Christmas (still dont know what that is) lights and In Kenzo and I decided it needed some angels on the top, so we naturally volunteered. Not sure a green and black angel was keeping with the spirit of the event, but the avies 30m below seemed to like it.

After the ceremony we were encouraged to go and explore the Top of the Town, Rainbow or Peacock Room (?) at the top of the Rockefeller Tower. It was a long way up and many didn’t make it as the elevators were not working properly and most avies can’t fly above 200m or so.

Having jet wings helps a lot and here I am 250 meters up gasping at the view of the most famous of bio city nightscapes. One thing that was also very very strange here was reflections. You can see in this picture the walls and tables all have a mirror image in the floor that moves as you move. It is so odd to see things reflected like this. On investigation I discovered there is an inverted replica of every single item under the floor which is semi-transparent, but that would spoil the fun if I told you that

Back down on the ground that band sang a few Christmas Carols (still no nearer an explanation) and there were some rather cold women hanging around for presents.

and finally what the bio world saw through the website - there is me waving in the background. Thanks to anonymous for sending me that through the digi/bio portal.

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life (using inworld email, wp postie and a crontab)

Categories: Architecture, Bio World, Environments, Events, Second Life, Sent In-World, Virtual Tourism, Virtual Worlds
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There, that got your attention, in true call-to-action style! I went to an interesting panel discussion today down at the Electric Sheep tower about ‘alternate reality games’ in our world. There was an eclectric crowd such as one (devon1234 Allstar you know who you are) who insisted on setting off fireworks at the beginning (pic above), people wearing cubes on their heads and the omnipresence of DestroyTV, the sexy camerawoman broadcasting video (not just stills as in my other post) to the bio world at destroytv.com.

There is a link at the end of this post to a bio site run by SL’s Future Salon that explains the speaker’s connections to bio world games and those strange recorded ’speech’ things, avies in a podcast? Still beyond me how this works. Anyway back to the event, panelists were skillfully moderated by Electric Sheep’s (ESC) own SNOOPYbrown Zamboni as they tackled the complex issues of running alternate reality games here in Second Life. Among the other panelists (shown in the images below) were Zero Grace, Adrian Vanalten, danhon Giles and Aip Pomegranate I believe, although they kept using their alternate names a lot, confusing? Anyway to the discussion.

Zero Grace (who is also known as Tony Walsh apparently) did a nice text introduction about ARGs while the audio was fixed:

“Over the last 12 years I’ve worked as an artist, writer, and designer primarily with web-based sites and games for the youth market. In the last few years I’ve been involved more heavily in game design. I designed game play and wrote storylines for two editions of Xenophile Media’s ReGenesis Extended Reality Game based on the Canadian TV series ReGenesis. and I was a game designer and writer on the Xenophile and Double Twenty co-produced ARG “The Ocular Effect” based on the ABC Family TV movie “Fallen.” My work in alternate reality gaming over the past couple of years has involved a heavy broadcast component and combines some traditional elements like puzzle design and interactive storylines with non-traditional elements like interactive video and working with gaming hooks embedded into broadcast TV.”

When the 90 minute panel really got going there were lots of issues and questions that kept coming up:

• How to devise a ‘game’ that truly plays against and parallel to the consensus reality of our world vs just a ‘treasure hunt’, and if this world is enough in itself (what a question!)
• How to make money (Linden dollars obviously) from running these games
• How hard and time consuming it is to develop a rich and deep narrative and keeping it going
• How to keep control of the ‘game’ as many players take it to areas you never considered possible
• How to make the media in this world, video, sound, text, im, chat, objects, outdoor media, role playing avies etc: etc: work together seamlessly - merged media.

The audience as they do were asking lots of parallel questions and comments (which I find intriguing as a parallel narrative) to the slightly ‘from another world’ audio. One that stood out was from Matthias Eisbar who in relation to a game where a player was set-up to play guitar in front of everyone, talked about the 4th wall and players trying to get behind the mask.

” There are serious privacy issues for any actors though everyone wants to pull back the curtain but breaking the 4th wall like this - sometimes the idea that it’s a game gives people the excuse to cross lines - what if he gets hit by a car getting the guitar?”

InKenzo also raised a point about writers for ARG’s

“writers must be embedded and fluent in ARG worlds….it will not work with two separate teams.” and on linking games “for ARG developers, why must it be competition? there are ways to float between worlds here and there’s no shortage of ways to link games”

I haven’t quoted much from the panelists themselves as they will be on the recording coming up at the Future Salon site which has more information from the bio world here.

Tomorrow looking forward to my friend DanCoyote Antonelli’s SkyDancers 2007 - I have a VIP seat at the 9pm performance, now wheres my glad rags

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from Inside Second Life - using OpenSource - SL Mail, Postie & Cron

Categories: ARG, Bio World, Creative Collaboration, Events, Game Design, Role Playing, Second Life, Sent In-World, Virtual Worlds
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Life is nothing but a game. We decide on the ‘way’ we want to play it, which rules set by others we choose to follow and how we respond to victory or defeat. I have been away from Esperance island for a week leading a ‘future media’ conference on another island called Tasmania. As part of that conference Rock Sonic (a great writer avie) and I created a game for the participants, a quest, part truth, part fiction but something to inspire them to give a presentation based on their own experience of the gameplay. I made a part of it on Esperance that I talk about below.

Benvenuti to the final resting place of the famiglia Zanchetta.
To find who you are looking for, make your way to the archway.
But please walk lightly on this land. The spirits are weary and do not like to be disturbed.

“Through the Divine Arch”

It is great fun creating simple games in this world. I have done a few quests that are cryptic and play on our reality here, but for team building exercises creating something in a couple of hours is possible. Objects (that contain sounds, clue notes, triggers etc) can be built quickly and also match the story environment. This one was about granite mining so of course the guides, which I called Sentinals, were animated granite monoliths. Each one guided the four teams to the next challenge. The game was not that complicated. Follow a route to a graveyward. Find a specific grave to get the final instructions to the last clue in this world. There were some hurdles to overcome, such as a team split, a thick fog on the graveyard and a shark guarding the last clue. Some music and sound effects placed strategically around the route added atmosphere. Everyone I spoke to enjoyed the twenty plus minute linear gameplay though.

“Across the Bridge of Deth”

ATTENSIONE!
The Mists of Time are here to protect those that rest within.
Find the grave of the ancestor you are looking for and click on it.
But take care not to click on the wrong grave.
The spirits do not take lightly to being awoken before their time.

“Into the Graveyard”

“and the mists of time”

Buongiorno.
You have discovered the holy site of my remains.
But the key to my death is not found here but in the watery grave where I lost my life.
Walk to the sea and turn left. Follow the coastline towards the sun.
Turn left at the boat with blue sails.
Tis a long walk so make haste.

“the long walk home”

“the leap of life”

Bravo. You have done well.
Now you must cross the Bridge of Life to where the Lamp Post stands.
There you will find a diving board over the water, my secret lies in the treasure chest below.
Jump in if you dare, but LOOK OUT for the cause of my demise.

“the final choice, the final clue”

Finally for some of the projects on the conference we created quite a few interesting projects in this world that I will talk about - without revealing too much as they are very, very cool and a bit secret for the moment.

Posted by Gary Hazlitt inside Second Life

PS: This simple game is still available on Esperance for a few weeks. It is part of a much bigger game, but you will probably find the misty graveyard element fun as a standalone element

Categories: ARG, Creative Collaboration, Environment Design, Events, Game Design, Games, Humour, Second Life, Sent In-World, Training, Virtual Worlds
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