Daily Breakfast #118
My avatar in Second Life in front of Curry Castle
Today: My first steps into Second Life; the wonders and the darker sides of virtual worlds; the Da Vinci Code movie gets a prequel; different opinions about the DVC movie; Star Wars in 3D coming next spring!! The new MacBook - very cool and very hot at the same time!
Music in this show:
Mountain Top - by Boo Boo Davis
Links in this show:
What’s your SL name?
I was disappointed by Angels and Demons, I read it after reading Da Vinci Code. I thought the plotline was pretty much the same as Da Vinci Code, lots of plot twisters, but not that much story.
angels-and-demons-the-5-minute-review.html
second life scares me. I barely have time for my first life. I know I’d waste a lot of time in the game. I’ll stick with my nintendo.
Hi Father,
I just joined SL actually so if you want look me up
Shamus Matzerath
I’ve been on Second Life for a month now, wandering the countryside as my avatar Gonzo Mandelbrot. If you go into SL expecting a “game,” you’re likely to be diappointed. SL should really be termed a “metaverse.”
The “people” in SL are pixellated representations of real people doing virtual things in a virtual world. At this point, these things consist mostly of building neat stuff and then making it do things through the use of SL’s native scripting language. Much of this is pure geek stuff, but the broader potential of SL is beginning to manifest itself.
For instance, I’m now involved with the Second Life Library, which recently acquired a full island for itself and is in the process of developing a reconceptualization of library services to fit the alternative reality of the virtual world. What’s interesting about this project is that it’s being driven by a group of real-life librarians. One of them, Greg Schwartz (SL name: Plenatneutral Fackler) is the Supervisor of Electronic Services for the Louisville Free Public Library, and does a weekly library science podcast called Open Stacks. The leader of the library project, Lori Bell (SL name: Lorelei Junot), is Director of Innovation for the Alliance Library System. I’ve signed on with the group to help with marketing.
The experimentation we’re doing on SL’s Info Island has implications which could make themselves felt for the delivery of information services in the real world. As was implied in today’s Daily Breakfast, there is similar potential for using SL to communicate a message of faith to an audience that might not otherwise seek it out. I’ve already used my own bit of land to build a floating meditation platform complete with a little Christian shrine. I have, in fact, been toying with the idea of developing a Second Life monastery.
One final point… you may have found SL a pretty empty place in part because of the time difference between Europe and North America. SL runs on Pacific Time which, as I recall, is about 9 hours behind your time zone in The Netherlands. Also, you have to learn how to look for people in SL. The learning curve can be a little steep but, if you take the time to learn the systems, you can meet many interesting and engaging people.
Shaun Lynch, St. Lazare, Quebec, Canada
aka Gonzo Mandelbrot
I am glad you brought up the Rottentomatoes collection of reviews. As I listened to the criticism you received, I was saying to myself “well, that is just silly, check out the reviews at rottentomatoes.com!” So, I was glad when you brought it up.
And, I think the public response is generally higher for two reasons. First, Dan Brown has a lot of fans, and those who loved the book will WANT to love the movie as well. Second, the general public generally has pretty poor taste!
Enjoyed your “thought of the day,” today especially on “fear.”
How wonderfully small the world has become: a Catholic priest in the Netherlands quoting in a podcast the best American fiction writer, Mark Twain, on “fear” and it inspires a woman working on her computer in a hotel room in TN (I’m at a conference…)
Ah, the Internet. How small the world continues to become.
Peace.
Father, what you need to do is walk into the “adult” area in your priestly garment. Would be interesting to see what people would do. Also how about opening a virtual confesional for the sins the virtual characters commit.
I haven’t listened to this podcast yet but there’s a very dark side to Second Life. A large portion of the Second Life world is devoted to extreme pornography and virtual anonymous XXX avatar activities and chat. The Developers have made no serious attempt to screen these areas off from the rest of the world - most likely intentionally since it attracts so many users. I would warn people against playing it until the Developers clean up the place or enforce a strict separation between the XXX “Mature” areas and the other areas, by not making the mature areas open to all. Second Life I’m sure has destroyed many marriages and in my opinion is the most dangerous game on the internet.
Dear father Roderick,
You talk about the book Angels and Demons from Dan Brown, but the story sounds to me like the one from Dan Browns book Bernini mystery. Could it be that Bernini mystery is the title in Dutch?
@Sillycrazyme: ‘Angels and Demons’ is the original name of the novel. In the Netherlands, probably to tap into the hype surrounding the Da Vinci Code, they translated the title as ‘Het Bernini Mysterie’. Mysteries probably make more money than Angels or Demons.
Ronald is correct in pointing out that there is an abundance of “adult” content in Second Life (SL), and that it is not well managed in terms of protecting those who do not wish to be exposed to such goings-on. But, having said that, it is equally true that there is a wide range of more wholsesome opportunities for play and friendly encounters.
I’ve heard SL described as being like Legos for adults, and that matches well with what I’ve experienced there. Most people seem to be focused either on creation — of buildings, clothing, furniture, avatar animations, etc. — or on chatting. While there does seem to be a dominant proclivity for creating and clothing avatars in a provocative manner, I’ve generally found their behaviour is unrelated to the nature of their appearance. In other words, I’m had many experiences of meeting provocatively clothed avatars who do not otherwise cross the lines of propriety in any way.
Of course if you want to seek out people who prefer to disregard lines of propriety, you’ll find them easily enough. But I don’t personally find their presence offensive or annoying. Frankly, I really don’t get the whole concept of avatar sex; I don’t find it prurient and disgusting so much as sad and pathetic.
As both Fr. Roderick and Ronald have coreectly pointed out, this is not a world for kids. It is, however, a world where there could be tremendous benefits to be derived from informed Christian witness. Just as SL provides an anonymous environment for sexual behaviour, it can also provide a non-threatening opportunity for exposure to many aspects of spirituality. Where many might feel intimidated about walking into a real life church, they are more likely to be willing to experiment with such an experience in the virtual realm of SL.
That’s why I’ve set up, on my own property, a spiritual meditation centre, with a Zen garden at one end and a little chapel at the other, with a prominent crucifix. I even have a Bible there in which I copy the daily readings from the Catholic lectionary. I’ve called it Campivallensis, which is the Latin name of my home diocese of Valleyfield.
For SL to become a progressively safer environment, it is essential that people with wholesome interests band together, create meaningful content, and gradually restrict the influence of those who are looking for XXX entertainment.
I’d be happy to serve as a native guide to anyone who would like to tour some of the more edifying aspects of SL. Just look up Gonzo Mandelbrot.
Gotta agree on SL, it gets boring real fast. I just log on every now and then and hang around the castle for a bit, but it’s usually the same crowd.
BTW the cooling paste is for between the CPU and the heatsink, not in between the CPU and the motherboard. That would really get messy :). Found a tutorial at
about.com. I am sure there are plenty about for those wondering what this is about.
Good evening Father Roderick, I think you have spent too much time to the DaVinci code movie. I agree that the book is by far more exciting than the movie, in regards to Angels and Demons, I think I liked more the version by Tomb Raider (LOL) I disagree with you with your review of the Narnia’s movie as well. Anyways, don’t spend more time on this subject, really there are way too many important things to talk than the DaVinci code.
Dear father
I found an interesting site about Second Life:
http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/
It contains a lot of sceenshots and teleport addresses.
So maybe there will be a SL follow-up some day in your show….
Anyway, keep up the good work !
Dear father
in your show you asked your listeners to give some tips regarding Second World. Here are 3 suggestions:
1. You could do a soundseeing tour within SW. Wouldn’t it be great to share your virtual experience with your listeners. The geeks among us would just love such a show.
2. You could produce a litte movie clip. More about that can be found here: http://secondlife.com/showcase/machinima.php
3. You could visit one of the bautiful churches:
-> secondlife://Kane/139/17/
-> secondlife://Big_Easy/129/238/
-> secondlife://Mocha/128/212/
Building on Steph’s suggestion of a soundseeing tour, you might want to consider using Skype to do a soundseeing tour accompanied by some of your listeners. That might afford you the opportunity to present a more balanced perspective on Second Life, and show it to be a less barren and lonely place than you apparently experienced previously.
….and there it is: “Second Cast”, the ultimate SL-podcast.
http://www.secondcast.com/modules/news/
people that get wrapped up in all those role playing games are just weird to me…
Justin, I assume you intended to express that you do not understand the appeal of role-playing games; you are in no position to make value judgements about people you don’t know and have never met.
@Fr. Roderick: thanx!