trees are people too

I have been pondering the bizarre nature of advertising and consumerism in sl, after discovering that large ad agencies were investing time and effort into advertising their client’s wares on second life. I can understand the allure – advertising, and eventual purchasing, of goods in second life is fabulously cheap, compared to the real world.

According to Second Thoughts, a comprehensive and actually very entertaining and insightful blog on second life happenings, companies such as Reebok and adidas have long been using advertising in sl to promote their products.

Purchasing a pair of Reeboks in sl will set you back about 50 linden dollars (approx. $0.20). Not exactly the profit margin one might be hoping for, but I guess it might be worth it, considering it also will cost them next to nothing for advertising, renting a shopfront, creating the product itself (done in seconds by skilled modellers, I presume) and getting exposure to thousands of potential customers, be it in either rl or sl.

As the post points out, the majority of users are not so concerned with their appearance that they would need to pursue Reeboks or Adidas as a cure to their virtual sneaker fashion crisis. But apparently there is a comparatively small section of the population (say one million sl’ers, and rapidly growing) who take their sl fashion as seriously as their rl fashion, and are prepared to invest that $0.20. Now, $0.20 x one million = $200,000 and it is all starting to make sense. While it’s possible the transition into sl may not be as successful for all products, it’s clear it’s a new channel and market that advertisers will be sitting up and paying attention to.

As for the consumer, well… sucker, or no? Just the concept of purchasing a pair of shoes made out of pixels makes me want to laugh. It couldn’t possibly be as satisfying as purchasing a pair in rl, could it?? But then again, as a friend in second life so eloquently put it, it is a cheap way to fulfill an addiction to retail therapy. In sl I can afford almost anything I want. I might have to give I a go.

And meanwhile these brands are on to a winner, because what’s at the top of my mind now? I fresh pair of Reebok kicks. dammit.

so, last night i had somewhat of an epiphany. I missed IM2′s second life ‘happy hour’ yesterday due to another class, but I decided i’d pop in anyway (albeit late) and just check if anyone was still around.

There had been some building going on (more cheezels in the sky, I see) but it still looked pretty remote and desolate, with not much action. But not long after I arrived I met a few more RMIT’ers, Pineapple and Pyewacker. Although they weren’t from IM2, they were extremely friendly and helpful, and thus began my first real ‘engagement’ in second life.

These two were hot. Both had invested significant time and effort into their avatars (which looked wild) and were experienced sl’ers and builders. They taught me how to drink coffee, build small objects and use my camera, and it became glaringly obvious that I was going to learn how to use sl far more efficiently by watching, copying and practicing, rather than reading about it in articles. In fact, that is exactly how Pineapple described it (forgive me, I’m smitten) – she was modify, Pyewacket was transfer and I was copy. This was how I could learn sl. And they do say the best way to learn is by copying.

Suddenly things were beginning to make sense. As Pyewacket asked me, “have you ever wanted to be anything? A fireman? A dancer? A pig farmer?” I could be and could build and modify anything here. What seemed daunting suddenly seemed really exciting and liberating. But this was just the beginning.

Pineapple gave me a flight feather, which allowed me to fly many metres higher than a normal sl being, and took me to see the ship that she had built in the sky. And that was that. I was hooked. An amazing, creaking mishmash of collected and modified objects, Pineapple had built the most amazing home in the sky, complete with small side vessels, bars, galleries and a hot tub, where I was permitted to soak while they gave me tips on where to go and how to beautify my avatar (apparently un-primmed hair is immediate evidence of being a newbie).

Now I know this sounds like a cheesy fantasy novel, but suddenly I started to realise not just the allure of second life (the ability to live out all of your fantasies and be whoever you want, wherever you want) but also the ability to create and to communicate. Everything about Pineapple and her buildings was a carefully and beautifully orchestrated narrative dictated by her. And it was kinda magical.

BUT, enough gushing for now. Let it just be said that this could become dangerous because I feel I could get easily addicted, and this is just the first meaningful exchange (they taught me how to dance!) On a more practical note, I now feel incredibly inspired to build, modify, texture and develop my own buildings, sets and concepts. I just have to work out how to do it.

Thinking about:

Size – what would translate well into a 60-90 second story.
How much do I want to include?
What kind of narrative works for this time and this medium?
Digital storytelling – the simplicity of the story, stripping it down to the essence of the story.

Dean showed us a couple machinima. Anna and Red vs Blue.

In our own machinima, we need to starting thinking about universal themes: love, friendship, death, hardship, heroism, redemption. The use of music, the use of silence, composition (derived from cinema, but for a small screen we will have to restrict this) the use of colour and form…

Dean mentioned machinima festivals, the future of media in machinima and that gaming, which uses this medium, is now more prolific than the film industry. I’ll investigate this a bit further this week…

ok. I am creaking my learning cogs into action. While I may not ‘get’ second life itself, I feel as if I may have begun to grasp what Jenny is trying to get at with it’s application in IM2. We are just continuing with media production, but will be implimenting it using this new medium, machinima. (Unfortunately not as close to Mech-anime as I had hoped, ha!)

Just when I was wondering what all this had to do with second life (which, as astounding as it is, does not seem quite as ‘cutting edge’ as it sounded 4 years ago) Jenny pointed out that this was just an easy and free way to access a games engine, which we can then use to ‘build’ our productions. It could be any engine. My rudimentary understanding of creating machinima is that you need a powerful piece of software – such as those used in games (think Halo, World of Warcraft) – that allows you to create real-time graphics. It’s come pretty cool stuff actually, now that I am getting the gist of it, and I was surprised at how impressed I was with the short machinima film that Jenny showed us in the lecture, Silver Bells and Golden Spurs.

Right now, however, we are still all stumbling our way awkwardly through this seemingly never-ending landscape of terraformed grass and stuttering graphics. I am trying to work out how on earth anyone would have the patience to stay in second life long enough for it too start to mean something, to formulate meaningful relationships and legitimate businesses, but in the meantime I am feeling somewhat more reassured by the fact that we are using sl as a media tool, rather than a social tool. socially (thus far, at least) I have found it somewhat…banal. Rudimentary? oh god, that is probably a reflection of my social nuances, however.

meanwhile, where to go for a good time in sl? A bit of research here and here seems to indicate that places in sl are categorised as such: Games, buildings, stores, gathering places and other. i just want to go somewhere to dance. Clubbing in second life, i’m sure, will be an exhilarating experience.

Gah. Wot a boring title. I can’t think of anything witty.

This semester sees us in second life, so I could call it starting in second life. Or something equally extravagant. I am not sure how it is going to work out. Initial attempts suggest I am no more successful at maneuvering social situations in a virtual world than I am in the real world, but perhaps I am just getting the hang of it. Responses to me joining the virtual world have ranged from howls of horror to blank stares to great (alarming?) enthusiasm, so I am interested to see what will happen.

I need to check out:

Machinima
More machinima
Second life
Motivate me

First class tomorrow. Um, second life, here I come? apologies for dribbling as well, I feel surprisingly rusty on the blog.