A two world machinima I did this week exploring the themes of a cross-world quest for love, mixed-reality and online game relationships. The song ‘The Soul of Icarus” was composed and sung by Gary Hayes © Cubrisound 2004 and a special thanks to my co-star, SilkCharm for her patience and WoW’ness. There are some nice Flickr film stills here too! and I am really spoiling you now a selection of video sites with the film on here – YouTube, Metacafe, Google and Blip.tv

“Come to the edge. We can’t. We’re afraid. Come to the edge. We can’t. We will fall! Come to the edge. And they came. And he pushed them. And they flew”. – Guillaume Appollinaire

Credits:

• Filmed in World of Warcraft and Second Life sims:
• CityScape from NBC and Marni created by Gary Hazlitt.
• Medium rez download (85MB MP4) available here.
• Machinimatography and editing by Gary Hazlitt © JustVirtual 2008

“And once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return…” – Leonardo Da Vinci

As a belated follow on from the previous article you may recall Polly and Steve about to get married. Well a couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of committing the event to video and subsequently editing it and adding some of my music. The YouTube embed I think captures the key moments of the three hour event as two people give their vows of love and commitment in front of friends and family. I copy below some textual elements from the video (which deliberately scrolls past or is on screen for too short a time – you are encouraged to hit pause on the first three busy text screens). This opening statement is from Annie Barnard who ran the proceedings

Greetings to all of you that have gathered here today to acknowledge and celebrate the love and joining of the hearts of Scubasteve and Pollyanneke. They have invited all of you, friends and family, to witness their declaration of love and commitment. They have asked me to pass you a message today … They would like you to know that their friends are a big part of second life. They know that you are all here for them and helped keeping them together in the hard times. Second Life is never easy for relationships but with good friends like you they know they will make it. I am sure that you, dear family and friends know far better than I do just how strong their love for one other is.

Often people feel that when they meet it is by chance. However, I do not feel this way and for Scubasteve and Pollyanneke meeting was not by chance. They met each other in a pond building area in April 2007. together they like to laugh, explore second life, find places to ride their horses and making a nice home at Vero Beach. Alone Scuba likes to come up with surprises for Polly and Polly like to find cozy spots for them to come back together to visit. Polly likes to call scuba ghost and subca like to call Polly Muse. Their persistence and determination to not be over come the forces from within and outside SL that would otherwise stop them from seeing each other had made the relationship resilient and magical in every sense of the word. One day they will even find the answer to the ultimate question in every avies mind can sluv conquer lag? Only time will tell.

This text is the actual statements and vows during the actual ceremony, again captured in the video, but may be too fast for some to read as it crawls across the screen in the romantic middle section.

Steve: Pol.. from the moment we met my sluv for u has grown and grown and together we have overcome so many hurdles together and now that we have a beautiful son together, my life is truly fulfilled, u are and always will be my sl babe we are synergy and u are truly wat sluv is all about. Everytime i see u it takes my breath away and leaving u each day is so so hard ur my angel, my ladyhawke and i’ll be ur Navarre together forever… eternally aprt. I so sluv u Pol

Polly: Oh Scuba i so sluv and adore you. You are so patient and kind especially when i am trying to build You make me laugh all the time… more than anyone I have ever met sl or rl. I adore every single second i have with u and i want to be with u forever. I so so sluv u

Annie: Scubastive and Pollyanneke, as you slip on your rings, notice that they are a never-ending circle, as your love is for each other. The rings have no beginning and no end. They come together as a symbol of your love for each other. Polly, please repeat after me…

Polly: I, Polly. take you Scuba, to be my husband. I promise to love and support you, to honour and respect you, to make you laugh, and to explore with you not only the beauty of this world around us but the beauty that lies within your heart as well

Steve: I, Scuba, take you, Polly, to be my wife. I promise to love you and support you, to honor and respect you, to make you laugh, and to explore with you not only the beauty of this world around us, but also the beauty that lies within your heart as well.

and the final decree from Annie telling the SL world that these two are now a couple…

Annie: Scubasteve and Pollyanneke, you have declared your love and commitment in front of your friends and family today. If you agree with this union of your hearts please respond by saying I do.

Polly: I do

Steve: i do babe

Polly:

Annie: Scubastive and Pollyanneke, as you have declared your love and promises today, and by the powers vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife. Fill each day with love, laughter and light. Dear friends and family, I am honored and pleased to introduce for the first time as Husband and Wife, Scubastive and Pollyanneke.

It was a great celebratory event for all concerned and since then Steve and Polly have been contacting me with more information on their plans to use Second Life as a force for change in many worlds. The text below is from both of them detailing how one area, namely SL couples adopting Real Life children will work and some scripting help they will need. Good luck to them and this initiative.

As a couple in SL, Pollyanneke Pera and Scubasteve Canning decided to have an SL baby.
what we deicided to do though was to make a real life difference in the third world
by sponsoring a child through World Vision. In this was, we share the joy of having
a virtual baby together, but also are making a real life difference to a boy in India.

We want to share that experience with other couples in SL who are thinking about having
a SL baby together. That way, thousands of needy children will benefit as a direct
result of couples in SL. Here’s what we are proposing; Couples in SL who want to have a baby (and there are thousands of them) currently can do so through a couple of options….

1. they can get a scripted object that comes with an hud to interact with the mother the object will whisper phrases such as need changing or feeding etc.
2. they can ‘adopt’ a child which is an adult who role plays as a child for a couple which a monthly fee is paid to the ‘adopted child’.

The concept of an SL child is a means for a couple to share their ‘sluv’ for each other
on a higher level. However, our thoughts are that this could be better served by
making a difference in the real world. Hence we felt that a donation to a children’s charity
would go that step further in making a difference. In that same vain we wanted to give
something back to the couple in return for their donation. The best way is a symbolic
gesture such as a scripted object not unlike the scripted SL babies that currently exist.

Specifically, it would work like this.

1. Couple goes to a SL ‘maternity hospital’ and chooses a baby. the amount would be the equivalant of $40 US. when the couple touches the object to pay, the money is transferred to the charity via a URL link. The charity can then convert the Lindons into US currency or if possible the money is automatically converted via a Lindon exchange and the US dollars deposited directly to the charity. The URL for the donation is http://www.christianchildrensfund.org/donate/donate.aspx more specifically, we have chosen the Child Alert Emergency Fund from Christian Childrens Fund.
2. When the donation is made, the couple recieve a scripted baby object as a symbol of their genoristy and sluv.
3. The couple can choose to go back to the ‘hospital’ in a few months for a ‘check up’ this would give the couple more options for their child such as being a bit older, the ability to walk etc. this would require another donation to the charity to occur.

Therefore, we need some scripting help with this project. firstly to provide a scripted baby object, then the URL link to convert the payment into US dollars which would automatically go direct to the Christian Childrens fund. Finally to provide additional scripts for the growth and walking etc.

This is the organisation that we would like the money to go to.

• Christian Childrens Fund. More about this charity at http://www.christianchildrensfund.org/content.aspx?id=104 The specific fund within the organisation would be;
• Child Alert Emergency Fund. Wars and natural disasters create emergency situations that put already vulnerable children in grave danger. The ChildAlert Emergency Fund helps CCF act quickly to provide for the immediate needs and long-term recovery of children in emergency situations, whether natural or manmade. Recently, our Child Alert Emergency Fund has provided resources to help thousands of children affected by the Asian tsunami, the India earthquake, Sudanese refugees living in Chad, and other emergencies in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Afghanistan.

This is purely non-profit but a way in which thousand of children can be saved through scripting in SL. IM Pollyanneke Pera or Scubasteve Canning if u can help us to help thousands of needy children.

Posted by Gary Hazlitt inside Second Life © 2007

I have been meeting the neighbours. One of the first ones I met was Heather Steadham. She has created a lovely Japanese (a bio style apparently) building enhancing the bay and a sky deck with grand piano for those romantic evenings as the sun sets. But Heather has a secret. She has a few ‘associates’, as she likes to call them, simultaneous and alternate personas that are driven by the same ‘spirit’ – inextricably connected in this world. Sounds strange? On their sky deck I met up with Heather, Max and their alternate furry personas on Sunday evening to find out more. I started by asking when this real time, parallel, duality began.

Heather Steadham: Hmm. I’d have to say about a month ago or so.
Maximillion Steadham: Essentially, Heather was the first to come to SL. She found that among other things, people were much nicer to female AV’s than to male and were much more willing to help out.
Heather Steadham: The female AV has many more friends than the male side. Females from my observations are more willing to assist one of thier own before they would assist a male.
Maximillion Steadham: We can get different responses to the same question from the same person depending on our outward appearance.

They refer to themselves at the start as avs and talk about an unknown force simultaneously controlling them so I dug a little deeper.

Maximillion Steadham: I’d have to say our mannerisms and speech / typing styles. They are very similar to each other. The same entity or controller as you call it, operating two AV’s as one unit. Sometimes it is mind boggling as to how it can be done. We also have additional personas that we can assume.

Some people may find this parallel ‘sibling’ type existence a little odd so I asked a little about their relationship.

Heather Steadham: Think of it as good side / bad side. We’re still trying to determine what our relation ship is…and I’m the bad one. :> They sometimes ask about our relationship… We are delibrately elusive. When pressed, we will respond that we know each other and are exploring further relationship possibilities. There are also times where I will dress completely different from Max as well.
Maximillion Steadham: We leave it as “associates”

Given the obvious connection between the two of them I asked how both would feel if one of them developed a relationship with another av and started to lose contact with each other.

Maximillion Steadham: That is her choice, much the same way that I am also free to develop other relationships as well. We normally take things one day at a time and keep options open.
Heather Steadham: The depth of other relationships is something that gets determined as time goes on.

Referring back to something Max said about ‘additional personas’ I found out that the two of them go deeper into the rabbit hole by as well as the parallel existance they have alternate personas that they use. They both regularly transform themselves into ‘skunks’. Yes indeed. I asked why and what did it mean.

Heather Steadham: Heather in human form is generally a warm and friendly person. Max knows if I am “in skunk mode” to tread very carefully…or it could also mean that I’m involved in a construction project. The skunk makes an appearance when the need for “being left alone” outweighs the need to be sociable.. i.e.: when building or taking clases. Not wanting attention. That skunk appearance would be a mask I wear to be left alone rather than to interact with others.
Maximillion Steadham: When she is in her skunk persona in public, she is also not entirely “happy” that day. So, when she is in “skunk mode”, I serve as a guardian / protector of her emotional state. It also helps in public when she is in skunk mode to have a much larger human present to ward off criticism.

I had met both of them a few days ago at a popular furry club and found them dancing together so I asked about their relationship in their transformed state.

Maximillion Steadham: Yes. Heather and I have been to several clubs where they are furry / human tolerant. Depending on Heather’s emotional state that day, I can appear as a gray, mature skunk, like a father figure to her or as a black skunk similar in appearance to Heather. The transformation is mostly to ward people away from Heather. The difference being either paternal/familar or as a trusted associate.

As part of the interview Heather implied that she prefers Max as Skunk, making her feel more comfortable as that persona, which I think surprised Max. This lead to a discussion about their relationship as regards money.

Maximillion Steadham: There is also the disparity in the division of wealth between our personas.
Heather Steadham: I have the income. Max is my trusted employee.
Maximillion Steadham: Not really. I control her funds at her request.
Heather Steadham: I have a tendency to buy on impluse and consult Max depending on the amount.
Maximillion Steadham: Essentially, anything over $500 requires my assent to purchase.

They both demonstrated how they dance together and talked about clubs they go to, so I prodded again on the question of how people perceive their relationship

Heather Steadham: We normally will visit blues/ rock / and slowdancing clubs on the weekend. Max has a list of the ones we can be found in. But we could also be two friends just having an enjoyable time, free from drama.
Maximillion Steadham: It’s up to the other people present to ask. We don’t volunteer our relationship.

I politely requested that they transform into their ‘skunk’ mode to ascertain if their indeed was a personality shift and to see how they related to each other but more importantly why the need to wear the mask.

Heather Steadham: This is my general appearance in public when I am in skunk mode – elegant, but also ready to spray you if needed. I would considered Heather’s more wild, but shy side – if that makes sense. In this state, I’m usually emotionally vulnerable..They are more suprized to see me as a human than a skunk. This is the persona most people see me with. The skunk came out after about two weeks of first moving into SL. When I lived in Seogwipo…any male AV would stop by and check out the female AV who had taken some time and pride in making her appearance as elegant and functional as she could. It detracted from being able to educate myself or just relax at home. It has its functions. I can maintain an eloquent appearance, but at the same time keep the general male populace away from me.
Maximillion Steadham: We are observed holding hands many times, and it keeps the furs away…they tend to have a higher “leering” factor than the humans do.
Heather Steadham: If Max is right next to me in a fur area, it is generally assumed that we have a relationship – and we are not bothered in that way. Incidentally humans in fur areas are generally looked on as newbies without the funds to make the transformation to fur, furrys tend to have the overactive sex drive.

I mentioned that when I first met them there was a crowd on their big black decking and they came up with the ruse that Max was tired due to being recently serviced. Now I see how it works. The simultaneous existance of the Steadham’s ‘from just one mind’ is rare in this world. I must admit to doing the same on many occasions and have started a ‘group’ called the SIMULs which has a growing membership. One of the attractions is the real time, duality of being, whether dual gender or creature or whatever and communicating with individual avs without their being aware. I asked Heather for her reasoning.

Heather Steadham: That is what also keepspeople from guessing we’re the same. If we are here at the same time…kind of hard to say we’re ALT;s. The typos occasionally give it away too. I can fool people, but if Max is just hanging around, it give the illusion away sometimes. If I “occupy” Max, there are less questions.

It was great to see fellow simul’s operating smoothly and obviously enjoying the complexity of dual, triple and quadruple, real time, parallel identities. We did talk much more about the gender differences in this world and how a female av is treated more favourably, freely given more ‘gifts’, has more friends and generally at a social advantage. I am sure we will see an increase in the numbers of simuls in this world as it affords multiple perspectives on the world, which is impossible in the bio world I understand. It is easy to point out that this may be verging on dissociative identity disorder but I see it more as acting and multiple, simultaneous, in-world role playing. Being able to communicate as parallel identities allows me and others to understand more about how others relate to a wider range of person or creature that stands in front of them and that understanding increases your own self awareness.

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from Second Life