Morris Vig – Hockey Nut

In response to my blog post on the Columbus Blue Jackets Stanley Cup playoff game that I attended this week, Cady Enoch sent me a Blue Jackets jersey to wear in-world. Not bad!

(Note the hockey mullet, a “moo-lay” for the French Canadians!)

An incredible night in RL

I had the pleasure last night attending one of the best single-night sporting event experiences in my life – Game 4 of the Columbus Blue Jackets-Detroit Red Wings NHL Stanley Cup Playoff quarterfinals at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

Now, I’ve been fortunate to attend plenty of big time sporting events – the NCAA basketball tournament, tons of top 10 college football games, a college football BCS bowl game, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, an NFL conference championship game in sub-zero weather in late January, even the Super Bowl…so an elimination game in the first round of the hockey playoffs wouldn’t be that big of a deal, right?  Right?

My friends, you would be dead wrong.

(More after the fold…)

Man in Black

Quality social events in Second Life

In response to a request from Doubledown Tandino in the prior post, here’s a brief rundown of my past works on the importance of quality social events to the Second Life experience:

• The Best Second Life Arts Event Ever
• Vig’s Unified Theory of Second Life
• The importance of a quality social experience in SL

If nothing else, I’m consistent.  And I still stick to my Unified Theory of Second Life – for what it’s worth:

The technical quality of the user experience in Second Life ™ is inversely proportional to the social quality of the user experience.

Long story short – if there’s a little lag, avatars are probably more likely to be having a good time.  Because if there’s no lag, that means there are few avatars around to share the community experience.

Music crowds down in SL? What to do about it?

Doubledown Tandino has a provocative post about the lack of attendance at Second Life live music events.  Check it out here. Here’s a brief excerpt to whet your whistle…

While participating in a SL forum I frequent, the conversation came up about performers and venues not being able to pull a large crowd as well as what is expected (especially with MORE people logging into SL these days). Over the past month, many performers noticed and are noticing a dramatic drop-off in the crowd numbers. Musicians and DJs that were easily pulling in 30, 40, 50+ people to their shows, are seeing 5, 8, 10 people show up now.

…

The question I have been asking myself in the past weeks is: Why has there been a dropoff in live music attendance?? And the answer I keep coming back to is: over inundated, unoriginal, same stuff day after day after day is not going to draw MORE of a fanbase.

OK, I’ll bite.  I’ve been saying for a long time that the main indicator of success in Second Life is a demonstrable community of interest.  Communities need support from institutions, like media, to sustain and grow the very community it serves.  Community building is a self-fulfilling prophecy…and, for a while, it worked real well.

The demise of the online newspaper, “The AvaStar,” started breaking up the tight(-ish) social network during which the ties that bind at least felt the strongest.  The unfortunate illness and subsequent retirement of Phoenix Psaltery from the Metaverse Messenger appears to have crippled that online newspaper, moving it from a weekly to monthly(-ish) publication.  Without a common “language,” a common place for people to go for their inworld news of note, the binds weaken and then break.  Self-fulfilling prophecies go both ways, you know.

When I don’t know what’s going on…and I don’t know that there’s a great musician playing – or that there’s an art show or fashion show – and end up not doing any of the above.  There’s one less potential  participant in the community.  And at least one more disappointed artisan/performer/designer.

So how do we turn it around?  That, my friends, is the $1 million Linden question.

Oyster Bay, 8 April 2009

This is where it all happened for me – where I finally figured out what I was going to do in Second Life and became a meaningful part of the community of avatars. I attended an event at the OLD Second Arts land in Shepherd last night and was overcome by a sense of wistfulness and nostalgia.

And now I understand that the land is back on the market. Yeah, it COULD be rebuilt again…but is that what I want? It’s expensive and time consuming, and the surrounding parcels represent SL mainland at its wildest.

Guess I’ll just sit for a while…
posted by Morris Vig on Oyster using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

“Second Life and the future of the music industry”

With a title like this, I HAD to check it out…

We are organizing an exhibition about Second-Life & the Future of Music Industry. The music industry is in crisis – you’ve heard the news. But in the virtual world of Second-Life, an alternative music economy is emerging. Already, real musicians are making a living by playing exclusively in Second-Life, and music labels and clubs of a new kind are created every week. We have spent 3-months researching the new musical trends in Second-Life, and we’re bringing them to you in the form of snapshots, sounds, videos, interviews and more. Come discover what music could become in the next 10 years.

Place: Harajuku Design Festa Gallery 2F, Tokyo (Japan)
Date: April 10-12, 2009
Hours: 11am-7pm
Info: aucouturier@gmail.com

As those who know me know, I’m a bit of an inworld music afficionado.  If the organizers get the top tier acts to be part of this event, it will be something special.  Need a hint as to who I mean?  #1: Start with Doubledown Tandino.  #2: Look below…

"Komuso plays Planet Mongo" by Juko Tempel, from Flickr

Thanks to JeanSnow.net for the lead!

Appreciating the blog love…

Thanks to Doubledown Tandino for the mention of this little “offshoot” in his blog.

If you haven’t seen DD play live inworld (check on his blog, his Twitter feed or his Plurk timeline for dates/times/locations), you’re missing a treat.  He’s fun, funny and has a GREAT sense of musical taste that matches his skill in mixing.   In my mind, there’s no better DJ on the grid.  Combine that with his openness to innovation and being a standup guy…and you’ve got a winner on your hands.

(Ladies, I think he’s single, too!!)

Opening night at Calli’s newest exhibition

Tonight was the grand opening of the spring rotation at the rebuilt Gallery at Shengri-La, featuring the always-great photography of Callipygian Christensen. In addition to the four levels of portraits, landscapes and MUCH more, Calli and I spent a little time catching up on things SL and RL. If you stop by, make sure you IM Calli to let her know what you think!
posted by Morris Vig on Shengri La using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

The coolness that is Bay City (Imaginario)

Gotta love this piece by Marianne McCann on the positive recent (re)developments of the Bay City-Imaginario sim.

Mari’s thoughts echo what I’ve been saying about Second Life all along.  It’s not about the builds.  It’s not about the technology.  It’s about the communities that are built by the builds and the technology.

Those that build genuine communities in Second Life, win.  Period.

Way to go, Mari!