Exploring Second Life and OpenSim worlds
In part two of Molotov Alva and his Search for the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey, Molotov Alva realizes that he is becoming just as trapped by his possessions in his Second Life as he was in his first life, and so he embarks on a journey to find the creator of it all. The complete series consists of ten episodes.
This is episode two. You can view the remaining ten episodes at www.cinemax.com/molotov-alva/index.html.
This is a Second Life machinima (video) that grew up to be a television series on Cinemax, Molotov’s Dispatches in Search of the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey. Initially created in Second Life in 2006 by filmmaker Douglas Gayeton, the machinima premiered on YouTube, making it the first YouTube video to be purchased by a major television network
Molotov Alva, the title character, is a resident of the suburban town of Petaluma, California, who one day falls out of his "real" existence in California into a virtual existance in Second Life. The ten part series consists of his video "dispatches" chronicling his attempts to create a life in this new world, so memories of it don’t slip away into oblivious as his memories of his "real" life have.
This is episode one.
This is a machinima that everyone can enjoy, whether you’ve never been inside Second Life or you’re deeply involved.
"What is Second Life?" compares being active in Second Life with taking part in an urban community garden. It’s a comparison I hadn’t thought of, but there’s a lot of validity to it. If you’re wondering what people see in Second Life, this machinima will give you some idea. If you’re an old hand in Second Life, you’ll probably still enjoy watching it.
aCardinal Sin has to be the most cleverly named business proprietor in Second Life! When I first visited his Basilica Cardinale Cathedral Church Supplies site, I thought it had to be a joke, or a goth enterprise. It’s not. Cardinal Sin has written, "While I often take on the appearance of a priest when in-world, I am not a priest ‘in real life’. I am just a regular person with a love for religious beauty!" He’s apparently not even Catholic – he also writes, "I create religious vestments and church supplies for various religions; currently I am focussing on Catholicism."
Falling from grace is not the only way a visitor should fear falling here. The Cathedral sits high in the sky, with only a small unfenced lawn in front, where rain was falling every time I visited. If you step over the edge, you’re likely to have a very long fall to whatever awaits you below!
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When you first enter, you are in Cardinal Sin’s Cathedral. It’s not a functioning Cathedral – Cardinal Sin explicitly states that he is not a priest, and that he does not perform weddings here, though people are welcome to get married here on their own.
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To the right of the Cathedral, in the West Wing (Cardinal Sin has a knack for naming!) you’ll find the business end of the Cathedral, where you can buy anything you might want, whether you want to set up a complete Catholic church or simply to worship. In this picture, a prospective customer tries one of the devotional animations sold here. Is there really enough business outfitting Catholic churches in Second Life to support a business like this? Judging by some of the other customers I saw while here, I suspect that some customers have other motivations. |
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One customer I observed shopping here belonged to a bevvy of slavery & bondage, vampire, and goth groups, while another, who claimed to be a priest who wanted to set up a Catholic Church in Second Life, said something about adults and children, asked me my ag,e and when I told him, he replied "legal" and teleported away. Judging by his profile, he is no priest. Gothic and other motivations aside, devout Catholics and Catholic priests will find an assortment of well crafted devotional items here. If you’re a Second Life member, you can teleport to it at slurl.com/secondlife/Braunworth/109/121/584. |
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aI’ll admit upfront that I’m not a wrestling fan. It’s well produced theater that provides photographers and videographers with dramatic shots, but little else about it appeals to me. Nonetheless when I learned that there was a Digital Championship Wrestling Federation in Second Life and that it holds wrestling matches twice a week, I was curious enough to check it out. After watching a match, I found that like RL wrestling, I still don’t understand its appeal, but also like RL wrestling, it offers a photographer an opportunity for some dramatic shots.
Today’s match was between four wrestlers, Waroop Bravin,
Ari Lane,
Celtdan McMahon, and the current champion
MikeFreeman Straaf. Each wrestler was introduced in a dramatic fashion worthy of televised wrestling, walking out from a huge video screen that towered over them. In the first picture on the right, you see wrestler Ari Lane walking out from the video screen.
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In this picture, Waroop Bravin (left) and Celtdan McMahon slug it out early in the match. Ari Lane (foreground) and MikeFreeman Straaf lie immobilized.
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Celtdan McMahon (left) and Waroop Bravin still battling it out. |
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aI wish I knew more about what I’m writing about today, but all I have to go on is what I can see.
What I see is Althekra, a beautiful reproduction of what the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah apparently looked like before the current modern era. It’s a beautiful reproduction. The builders have done a magnificent job. The buildings look authentic, and the streets are narrow as they probably were in the days before automobiles. A few house businesses, but most are vacant.
What little information is available in the sim that might explain it is in Arabic. It was frustrating. I wanted to know more!
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To one side of the town, there is an open square with two rows of stalls for vendors; you see one of them in the picture to the left. Just behind the buildings in this picture is, incongruously, a dance floor with a dance animation ball and strobe lights. The ruined building in the next picture stands on the other side of the square. There is doubtlessly a meaning to it, but without being able to read Arabic, I don’t know what it is, though a large smear of blood on the pavement stones nearby and some photographs suggests a connection with the terrible events in Gaza. |
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In Hindu tradition, Nataraja is a cosmic dancer whose dance leads to the creation of the universe. This is the basis of the machinima, "The Great Dance – Myth of Nataraja".
The machinima’s producer, Gary Hayes (Gary Hazlitt in Second Life) says of it, "Nataraja is both the destroyer and the creator of the universe. He dances away the destruction of a world of illusion followed by the creation of a world of enlightenment." Hayes has a long list of achievements, including being Director of Australia’s Laboratory for Advanced Media Production.
I think you’ll enjoy this. If you question the creative potential of machinima, this may persuade you.
If you are in Great Britain, you can see this machinima in its world premier live screening at moves09, an "international festival of movement on screen", April 23-28, 2009 in Manchester and other locations in Britain. The link for the festival showing of Myth of Nataraja is here.
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Architecture is one of the fields where professionals are finding Second Life to be a very productive tool. One residential construction company using it for designing real life houses is Madison, Wisconsin‘s Crescendo Design, whose founder Jon Brouchoud (Keystone Bouchard in Second Life) has collaborated on the design and construction of several high profile projects such as the virtual U.S. House of Representatives and writes an architecture blog.
This machinima shows an example of Crescendo Design using Second Life to construct a model house in Second Life based on real life architectural plans, accompanied by the inspiring music of Beethoven‘s Ninth Symphony.
In the early days of Second Life, a common criticism was that its avatars were ugly. This Japanese machinima demonstrates that it’s not true today, and shows some of the possibilities for designing your Second Life avatar, both male and female. Even if you’re not Japanese, you may get some ideas for improving your Second Life style.
Rent an adobe bungalow on a Puerto Vallarta beach, pray in a Jalisco cathedral, buy Mexican arts and crafts, or ride on a donkey-drawn wagon – it’s all available in Second Life‘s Opera Joven sim, which reproduces some key parts of Jalisco, Mexico.
Opera Joven is a Jalisco cultural non-government organization (NGO) that was founded in 1999 in Guadalajara and has been staging cultural events in Jalisco. Two years ago Opera Joven made a major commitment to Second Life, where it has created this sim and where it stages cultural events such as operatic performances. You can learn more about Opera Joven’s activities at its website, www.operajoven.com.
You can tour this recreation of Jalisco either by a train (the only train I’ve ridden that goes underwater without a tunnel!) or by donkey-drawn wagon. If you want to ride the train and you’re a Second Life member, click slurl.com/secondlife/Opera%20Joven/146/46/21.
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The picture to the left is the interior of Catedral de Guadalajara, the cathedral in Jalisco.
The sim has many well marked maps with teleport links situated around the sim, but there’s a disappointing lack of notecards about historical and cultural features. In most cases, the best source of information about a spot is to right-click on the land, which in some cases, such as the Cathedral, will provide additional information in the land description. Second Life members can teleport to the Cathedral by clicking slurl.com/secondlife/Opera%20Joven/155/169/21 |
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The picture to the left is Tlaquepaque, Mercado de Artesanias (Mexican Handcraft Market) where you can buy assorted Mexican arts and crafts. There is a new restaurant next door, and a small museum (Museo del Estado de Jalisco) upstairs. Second Life members can teleport to the market by clicking slurl.com/secondlife/Opera%20Joven/77/178/22 | ||
