Over the weekend I attended the “Machinima Expo”, a virtual event in the online world of Second Life. The Expo was essentially a virtual film festival with several theaters screening films throughout the day, panel discussions with voice-chatting avatars, a “live” musical performance, award ceremony, and various exhibits. When I actually begin to think about the festivities, I realized the amazing degree of media convergence present in this online space that I had totally taken for granted. The Machinima Expo was promoted on a website (http://www.machinima-expo.com/) , which contained a special link called an surl. Clicking on this link launches Second Life and teleports you to the location of the event. Here, the convergence of internet technologies with the medium of computer/video games is apparent. Second Life itself also integrates a huge amount of other media into its world: there is live voice communication (which used to belong exclusively to the telephone), text messaging, “live” musical performances, and video streaming. All are technologies that have converged on the computer via the internet, but have also found their way into online gaming. It is also interesting that the film screenings in Second Life sought to emulate the experience of real world film spectatorship. These screenings took place in virtual cinemas, complete with posters advertising the event and seats in which the avatars could sit to watch the film.
The convergence of these media technologies in Second Life were made possible by Linden Labs, the company that created the virtual world. Thus, there was definitely a commercial impetus for this phenomenon. In fact, it is part of the business model----Second Life promotes itself as a creative space that facilitates a wide variety of social and multimedia experiences. Nonetheless, unlike most online games, Second Life is a world that is constructed almost entirely by the free labor of its players. Thus, the theaters and exhibits of the Machinima Expo were built by Expo organizers after renting virtual land from its current owner. This labor functioned primarily for the users, but also benefited Linden Labs because people wanted to enter Second Life in order to attend the virtual event. This is a great example of the symbiosis between the users who supply the free labor and the corporation that makes the technologies available---both parties benefit from the arrangement. However, this model of free labor in Second Life is complicated by the existence of Second Life’s rich market for virtual goods and land which users can buy and sell for actual cash.
Virtual Concert In Second Life:
No comments:
Post a Comment