We are down to the last three contestants in the Big Brother event that has been running in this world since December 1st. For those who don’t know there is apparently a popular show in bio world where people are locked together for weeks on end in a house and then one at a time voted out, until there is one winner. I have been visiting Kingdom of Media Island every two days or so over the last four weeks to track who and what is going on. The running of the event has left a lot to be desired, especially as regards promoting it effectively in this world, but with a prize of an Island (paid up for a year) most contestants were happy to overlook the rather weak production management. Going back in these last few days (Thursday is the final evictions) it feels quite sad and empty – all those early housemates are now gone, and there is a sense that the friendships that have developed may dissipate once those thrown together are far and asunder. Luckily my two favourites Golda and Lillani (on the horses above and who I talk to lower down) are still in there, with the third being Madlen Flint. In my opinion it is a two horse race, but Golda and Lillani don’t rule out Madlen’s chances. Here is the final voting board.

There have been some great moments in the house of the past weeks. One that stood out was when all fifteen collaborated on a wonderful christmas scene in the picture below and the result was put up for charity. To quote Lillani at the time “I think this charity thing is worthwhile…probably one of the best things I’ve been involved in in SL”.

There were also some great times when the sim was actually full to overflowing and all the contestants were lobbying for votes. Some played it straight and got together groups of friends of friends, others tried dirty tactics and slurred others in the competition and some even resorted to buying votes. Lillani’s blog covers much of the intrique over the past few weeks.

The contestants had to stay inside their ‘glass pens’ for eight hours per day. Some improved themselves getting good at scripting and building, others sat around complaining but most were very friendly to all the visitors that passed by. Warda on the left (in the pic below), the ‘shapechanger’, was very friendly but sadly she was on a different time zone and missed most of the ‘voting’ crowds, so was evicted early.

There were some characters too like Diva and Simone who knew how to woo the crowds, but some of their tactics I think rebounded on them in the end. Others like Simon Walsh, in his wheel chair, had to bow out for other reasons. It was interesting how each persons character came through and developed as we, the audience, got to know them. A friend in the bio world has put up some of the photos I took, on flickr.

Golda is the only furry in the running and it is no surprise she has managed to last out the weeks as her supporters are very active in getting votes and she is one of the most friendly ‘rats’ you are ever likely to meet.

I asked her how she will feel when it is all over

You: Seems like a long journey
Golda Stein: It has been. I am afraid i’ll go through culture shock when I get out of here, a lot of people have had that problem

At the moment, as you can see from the horse picture at the top, Golda and Lill are together in the same room.

You: Will they be putting you in different pens?
Lillani Lowell: Split me and Golda up? No way!
Golda Stein: We are together by choice
You: I think you both should win half an island each
Golda Stein: But that wouldn’t make for good television

I noticed while I was there earlier that Lillani was surrounded by demons, Goths, Gors and other in that ilk, and naturally wondered if there had been this world ‘identity’ groups who were now congregating towards the three that are left.

You: So the Goth vote has come through! Who do you think your core fans are Lill a mix of certain factions of SL
Lillani Lowell: I think I have a wide mix of factions. From Furries to Goths to Goreans……
You: I wonder if that will now split. Won’t all furries go for Golda? and all Goths Gors etc: for you? Or is this about personality vs identity group?
Golda Stein: Gary, lil has loads of friends all over, and i would expect them to vote from their heart
Lillani Lowell: People vote for a billion different reasons. Some because they know us…. some because they were brought to vote. I don’t think any one reason stands above any other.
You: But I am interested if there are allegiances between types that would be interesting in this last stage as we have a three way between SL identities
Lillani Lowell: It’s a difficult thing to unravel, Gary. But really, you can bet…. the core of the vote…. comes from the loyalty and closeness of one’s friends.

An earlier shot of Lillani riding one of her scripted reindeers – what happened to these BTW?

Almost on cue we started to talk again (it has come up in many conversations with all the contestants) about how things could have been improved.

Lillani Lowell: I think if they had wanted to make BB a little more interesting…They should have streamed it to a website. And let the (bio) world vote.
You: I actually thought that was the plan but never happened, would have been great
Lillani Lowell: Well, Fox Diller has a system for streaming live from SL to websites. I’m wondering if Big Brother will do another.
Golda Stein: i think they need to find a different format, there are too many holes here
You: There is the possiblity that anyone can start something like this as a new format. Perhaps one of you guys on your new island!
Lillani Lowell: Well, again…this isn’t the first time someone has done a contest like this. Fox Diller did his own SL ‘House’ a couple years ago. He gave away 4,000,000 L as the prize. About 14,000 USD at the time. SL wasn’t as large back then.

I asked about the voting numbers which are in four figures and wondered how many are doing multiple votes:

You: I wonder if in fact only 20 real people vote – each with 100 avies
Lillani Lowell: LOL, that wouldn’t surprise me. I don’t know how people keep track of so many characters. I barely have time for me. There’s only one Lillani Lowell…. if I split my time, I lose money and I’m not rich enough to afford time off yet.

As you can see from the above the ‘build’ assignment this week is to make an object of your choice that symbolises your new ‘dream’ Island. In the above and final picture below someone has built a very nice motorbike, someone else a lighthouse and a third one a female, symbolic monolith. It is anyones guess whose is whose, I have my idea. The big finish is next Thursday and I was curious to find out what goes on during New Years eve and day.

You: What are the rules for new years eve here are you allowed to drink champers? Or ahve the day off?
Lillani Lowell: No day off I imagine. I’m wearing all white New Years. I wore all red Christmas Day. A nice, big red Christmas dress. Very classy.
You: Now thats what BB should be about Classy dressing
Lillani Lowell: Hehe, classy dressing would kick me out. I’m 99% catsuit.
Golda Stein: and I like my jeans and T-shirts

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life

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Now for excuses. I only had about five hours to do everything and the frame rate of the video was quite slow on the day for some grid ‘bug’ reason but I went ahead regardless. Half way through the production, which shows some of the magic of this place, I suddenly thought of having some parallel text that gives a perspective of that bio world – how society is unfairly distributing wealth, people are dying and how natural resources are depleting. The statistics I found were very depressing but I put them in as they added an important counter-balance, although you see some of this raised in this, Second Life world.

I think the video really works on four distinct levels:

1. A celebration of the world of Second Life
2. That this place has the potential to also raise serious issues
3. There are many things we should learn and take heed of from the bio world
4. That many bios are escaping into this world and letting their own ‘real’ world degrade

I would be interested to see what you think of the video as it was done in a bit of a rush, but I enjoyed all the flying around and of course you get a sneak preview, in many of the scenes, of Marni (our new island) and my new house which I have nearly completed – but the quality of the video doesn’t do it any justice, wait for some great pics in the next post.

For some light entertainment I have been training lots of avies and taking them on tours of the world. We had some fun last week when after various lessons in filming, building, lots of trips we did a short lesson in avatar changing – so a bunch of TV folk posed by the decorative ‘seasonal’ tree on Esperance for the obligatory group photo – not a crowd you would want to meet on a dark sim! (I’m the large black dragon BTW)

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life

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)