Exploring Second Life

Future Melbourne 2051 Website

2008-01-03T18:43:00.000-08:00

The class work presented as a website;
http://www.melbourne2051.com

Evil Melbourne Images

2007-11-22T18:47:00.000-08:00

I have finally had a moment to post some images of the Future Evil Melbourne project, with a full website coming this weekend, what can I say - brilliant work by everyone involved. Thank you.

Evil killex death bots(made from recycled trains)

The store of the future, at one stage it was going to be a whole block of them

You should obey or you will be spiked

Looking along Flinders

Looking back down including a Hare Krishna bot

A week of classes, getting there!

2007-10-23T19:15:00.001-07:00

This week all three classes continued with the building of the projects.

IST I attended on Thursday morning as per usual, the Flinders Street Station is looking fantastic, and a few of the other features such as the 7 Infinity are great touches. I am really looking forward to seeing the end result, it's all starting to come together.

I also attended the two WM1 classes in Second Life only, a first which was a bit of an experiment for us. Stefan was still on site in the real world, and I was on the Vic Uni island in Second Life, flying around chatting to people and trying to help them. I could probably muse on the implications of all this for days, so I will just list some brief thoughts in point form.

Advantages
- I got to work from home! With proper broadband!
- I found I could chat to more people at once in the virtual world, multitasking via IM, dropping items onto peoples profiles.
- I communicated with different people than I would usually talk to in class, I was getting less caught up with individual students.
- I think a good example is often the best advice, and having me working from home is perhaps a good demonstration for the students.

Disadvantages
- Hard to know how people are reacting, or even if they are listening
- Being less caught up with individual students may also mean some are not getting the help they need
- It's difficult to explain the more basic skills in Second Life, a lot of students still needed someone there to lead them through various tasks.
- Attendance, as soon as the real world teacher left, so did all of the students, I was last to leave the virtual environment.

Other notes
- Having a virtual assistant seemed to work well, however doing the classes 100% virtual seems like it could have a few issues. The major one seems to be making sure that students know how to build and use Second Life before commencing the virtual classes.
- 100% virtual classes where students were at home seems like it could possibly work in the near future considering the lack of decent computers or internet in the classrooms.
- A professional issue - pay. Would this come under a teaching or non teaching pay rate? It was certainly much easier than trekking across town for a class, however considering a lot of teaching may be virtual in the future would being paid less set a bad precedent?

The Space Station is taking shape, with Chris taking the lead and building the main structure. David has written a story for the Space Station which is nothing short of epic, it can be found here;
http://davidatflinders.blogspot.com

The St Albans stadium is also coming along very nicely, Vicky is doing the main structure and a few of the other builds look great, locker rooms, a scoreboard, and nice chair work by Eoin.
Vicky's story is also being used, http://wmmvickysblogs.blogspot.com
More updates and images to come....

Posting about the Future Melbourne project on Evillagemelbourne.com.au

2007-09-25T21:49:00.000-07:00

I just posted about the project here;

http://evillagemelbourne.com.au/viewtopic.php?p=434#434

Please feel free to add your bit!

Here is the post;

Hi all,

I have signed up to let you know of a project we are working on and will be submitting.
I will post this under the 'Big Idea' section as it seems to cover many of the topics discussed.

I work as a teacher at Victoria University in the field of virtual reality and in particular Second Life. One of the class assignments is for the students to create a small 'town' with it's own past, culture, secrets, characters, landmarks etc.

The Gaming class at the beginning of this semester chose to build a futuristic Melbourne, without being aware of this futuremelbourne.com.au project.
The town is currently under construction(after 10 weeks of learning and planning), and will be completed in 7 weeks.

The town will only actually 'replicate' a small area of Melbourne, around Flinders Street Station from Swanston Street to Elizabeth.

To quickly summarise what the town is about, it's a fairly evil kind of post apocalyptic Melbourne, which is very creative but also makes a lot of comments about todays society.

To read the full background, as well as dozens of ideas, here is the Creative Director of the projects class blog;
http://atomictophat.blogspot.com/

My class blog can be found here;
http://oztron.blogspot.com (this is for several classes and projects)
With links to all of the IST Flinders Class student blogs on the left hand side.

Below are some images of what the students are building so far.

Flying limousines, the choice of the future rich

A tram under construction (no textures) - there will be a tram drag race feature

Flinders Street Station under construction

Post apocalyptic train under construction

'Killex' turnstiles for the station

A 'Killex' death bot ticket inspector

This entire environment will be online and interactive. It will be completed and open to the public in seven weeks and will have a website which will explain how people can visit as well as a lot more background about this particular Future Melbourne.

If anyone has any enquiries please feel free to post here, as we will be checking regularly, or alternately you can email me at dale (at) oztron.com.

Story for St Albans Stadium - WM1

2007-09-20T18:15:00.001-07:00

An almighty roar went up from the crowd. The mighty Victorian Blues had done it again.
It had been 5 years since State or 'Sheffield Shield' cricket had came to St Albans, after the MCG had refused to drop it's ground fees despite a failing economy.
Now, in 1938, the stadium was flourishing. Fans from all over the state made their way down to the ground each weekend, eager to escape the depressing reality of modern life.

Jesse Jones was one such man. Raised in nearby Brooklyn, he loved nothing more than coming down to the St Albans Stadium for a beer or two on a Sunday afternoon. This was his church, where, as the saying goes, he healed his heart.

Jesse worked in the nearby wool factory, bailing wool by hand 14 hours a day, 6 days a week, for barely a threepence. It was a tough way to earn a quid, but one that he had learned to accept pretty quickly. Unemployment in the local area was as high as 90%, and only the foolhardy would dare knock back any form of work.

Jesse headed towards the train station as part of the heaving mass which was squeezing itself out of the stadium. The platform was packed, the trains running late as usual. Several people were nearly bowled over by the force of the wind as the V-Line steam train came belting through without warning or stopping. An tiny old italian man, one of Jesses neighbours, was selling some fruit from a cart towards the end of the platform.

Jesse was always hearing about about 'those Italians.' 'Eyeties' the guys at the factory called them, complaining about their jobs being taken, and wondering what they thought they were doing here. “It's not their bloody country mate,” Bob, one of Jesses mates would lament, “My father fought those bastards now they come here.”

Bob's father had actually fought alongside many Italians, but there has never been any need to let the truth get in the way of prejudice.

Jesse himself didn't really care. They seemed to just want a better life. None of them had taken his job yet, and he reckoned if they ever could they probably deserved it. The old gentleman with the stall would give free fruit to all of his neighbours, including Jesses family.

Unfortunately most men were not like Jesse.

Gathering around the fruit stall and the little old Italian man were a group of youths, intoxicated by both alcohol and victory. They were demanding to know who won the cricket. “Who won mate, come on who won, you shouldn't be in our country if you don't know who won,” said a tall blonde boy with a pencil thin mustache. “Go back to your own country,” chanted others.

Jesse approached the group before having second thoughts and slowing to a halt. Was it any of his business, he wondered?

The tall blonde boy lashed out, kicking the old mans fruit stall towards the tracks. The old man protested, but it was to no avail. The other boys in the mob joined in, pushing the old man back and the cart forwards, until it toppled onto the tracks, it's valued cargo falling amonsgst the rocks and rubbish. People dived on the tracks, grabbing apples, oranges, tomatoes, whatever they could get.

Jesse walked over towards the old Italian man, who was looking in disbelief at the mob of people down on the tracks taking his fruit away, wondering how he was ever going to pay his supplier, and if he would ever be trusted with a cart of fruit again.

As they stood together a rumble began. People down on the tracks started looking left and right, trying to figure out which direction the train was coming from. The more nimble jumped back up onto the platform.

As the city trained finally arrived they all scrambled on to the outbound tracks, two dozen people narrowly avoiding death.

Three seconds later, without warning, the next Vline train for Ballarat came through.

Report from Monday Meeting for IST Future Melbourne Project

2007-09-19T01:12:00.000-07:00

Today Johnny McPherson and I took a trip to the City of Melbourne Council House to meet with the following people;

David Mayes (Manager Strategic Planning and Sustainability)
Sandra Wade (Team Leader Integrated Urban Policy)
Alister Campbell (Policy Planner)

It was an open discussion about the Future Melbourne Project they are doing with the Age, combined with Second Life and the project we are working on. We went in saying we didn't want anything yet other than to share ideas and perhaps see how we can work together. They were very interested in Second Life and keen to see what the class comes up with.

What has come out of the meeting is that the class will be presenting it's 'Evil Melbourne' ideas to the people from Future Melbourne at the end of the year.
The purpose of this is to generate some publicity for the class project and members, add a news article to your portfolios, as well as gain the experience of presenting your creative ideas to others.

Learn more at http://www.futuremelbourne.com.au

Classwork and some homework!

2007-09-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

We started off by discussing the project again - yet more new ideas;
- The stadium is old, from the 1930s
- Depression, Not many houses, factories starting up, lots of ppl escaping from troubles using sport, Bradman, Phar Lap

Today we looked at making guns in Second Life.
The purpose of the exercise is to learn about how objects can be deconstructed and reconstructed to suit our own needs. We learnt how to take the script, sound and bullet from one gun (popgun) and put them in our own, making small modifications when necessary.
Each class member then made their own gun and bullet. (See blogs for photos)

HOMEWORK

Each person must write a linear story based around our 1930s St Albans Stadium (500 words minimum). The story can take any form you choose, however spelling and grammar are important! Please use spell check, and feel free to email me draft versions if you would like any assistance. These stories will help us form a historical background for our project, and can be included on the project website.

The stories are due at the start of next weeks class (Friday September 21st) and can be posted to your blog(feel free to edit them continually online).

Project Underway

2007-09-13T03:47:00.000-07:00

Today we started the project, with the group led by Johnny establishing a rough blueprint for the area based on it's dimensions, then each individual person working on their specific area, as will be listed in their blogs.
I called the Council to follow up on the Future Melbourne idea and have a meeting with them next Monday at 2pm to discuss the class project.

2007-09-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

From a friend;
A great free holo-emitter

WM1 Class Flinders

2007-09-11T00:53:00.000-07:00

Today we started off by making guns and bullets using the popgun script as done previously. Some interesting results included an ice cream cart gun, horse gun, couch gun and more.

The purpose of the gun creation was to learn how we can modify objects and scripts to come up with something entirely new.

We finished a bit early due to several people needing to leave early, so homework before next week will be to research the following ideas;

- Shuttle/ships (Tinny, Nath)
- Costumes Area (Dimitri, Simon)
- Holodeck (Nelson)
- Gun shop (Will, Garrick)
- Biodome (Arthur)
- Elevators (David, Parv)
- Evil Lair (trapdoors) (Jay, Ed)
- Bar (Rene)

Something

2007-09-05T22:59:00.000-07:00

Popped up on the forums, reminded me of the project....

Todays IST Flinders Class

2007-09-05T18:31:00.000-07:00

Today we started off by going around the class and briefly describing each others story.
Some great plots and themes, all should be posted on student blogs by tonight.

We then looked at the importance of creating PLATFORMS, and being creators not consumers.

We continued our research into Future Melbourne, with each student looking into one particular area of the assignment.

Peter - flying vehicles
James F - Graffiti
Joel - Graffiti
Huggy - Nukes and weapon systems
Jay - Vegan Oasis
David - Vegan Oasis
Adam - Scripting
Johnny - Armour
Lil - Gameplay
Kenan - Ninjas and Cops
Chonny - Gas masks
Jason, Ray - Train stations
Jeffrey - Trains
Leah - Stations, toxic stuff

My own area of research was into the Ages Future Melbourne project, with the possibility we could submit something to their competition.

http://www.futuremelbourne.com.au/
http://www.evillagemelbourne.com.au/

The talking points used by this project could perhaps be used in our own as they seem to generate the right kind of information;

• talk Business
• talk Culture
• talk Destination
• talk Environment
• talk Global
• talk Knowledge
• talk Living
• talk Moving
• talk Public
• talk Service
• talk Sport

It is also interesting reading through the evillage site and seeing what other peoples ideas for the future of the city are, including a wide variety of experts.
Perhaps the future Melbourne could be used as an example in our town of just how wrong it all went.

A Job in the North - Story for IST Flinders Project

2007-08-31T05:45:00.000-07:00

My story for the IST Flinders Future Melbourne project.

A JOB IN THE NORTH

Winston looked at the HUD on his visor display as he crossed the Queens Bridge. It was 7pm. The smog over the Yarra was starting to cool down, the air finally breathable. People were emerging from their pods, up for the night and heading towards the few open businesses which were back up and running after the wars. Most people chose to stay in their pods, where they could live in virtual environments which far surpassed the current reality in Melbourne.

A savage battle with Sydney in 2050 had left the town in ruins, and much of what remained after that was wiped out with the Great Yarra War of 2051, fought between the North and South of Melbourne.

Winston was born on the South of the Yarra, and had fought in the war killing people he knew, the families of his old friends, feeling pleasure as they died. Now he had to go North, and face those same people again.

Even as he passed through the usually rough ticket scanners at Flinders Street Station, this was what was on Winston's mind. As the probes scanned and prodded him checking for his ticket and any unauthorised snacks, all that was on his mind was the new job he was starting tonight, as a concierge in one of the main virtual worlds, NorthG.

NorthG was a multinational gaming consortium which had bought out the entire suburb of Brunswick, building their headquarters in what used to be Parkville. After the infamous Sydney Road battle very little remained of the previously vibrant inner city community, and the locals were happy to trade the rights to their town for necessities such as food, water, medicine and utilities. NorthG moved in, helping Brunswick survive, however since that time, Brunswick suffered heavy attacks from jealous Southern groups such as the Frankston Militia.

It was into this hornets nest that Winston was taking a train. In the North he was a hated Southerner, if anyone found out he would be dead in hours - however he had a job to do.

As he boarded the train his eyes scanned the standing crowd from left to right. Who was a Southerner? He doubted anyone other than himself. No-one else would be that stupid. Still, a job was a job, and in the current economy there were few who would turn any work down.

Most of the passengers were dressed poorly. He was glad he had deliberately dressed down for the day, buying old Chinese labeled clothes which were only available in the North from his local tobacco dealer. He felt bad wearing such a cheap and common suit, but his usual hand made threads from his tailor in Toorak would have him spotted before he even arrived.

As the train approached Parkville the smog started to clear slightly, to the point where Winston could even make out the Sun, a faint glow from space peeking over a cloud through the deep purple haze. The only people visible were the NorthG Security Force, dressed in their distinctive bright orange uniforms, stomping around the wastelands of what used to be the Melbourne Zoo in the blurry shadow of the NorthG complex.

It was this orange army which Winston feared. It didn't matter if he was innocent or guilty, if they found out he was from the North, he would be lucky to make it out alive. Winston held no personal resentment towards the guards, they were just doing their job. He just hoped that they let him through so he could do his.

The train arrived at the NorthG station, and Winston shuffled towards the doorway, pushing through the crowd of NorthG workers pushing their way onto the train, finally escaping from the long day shift. Lucky bastards, he thought, and walked through the tunnel leading from the station directly into the monolithic grey NorthG complex. As he approached the light at the end of the tunnel his conscience started to stir, but he knew there was no going back now. His pace quickened, by the time he reached the reception hall he was practically jogging.

He thought of his mother, his father, his friends back in the South. He thought of the man who had hired him for this job the week before, and of the liquid explosives that man had strapped to his torso. Finally he thought of his beloved wife, who had been killed during the Great Yarra War by a NorthG missile whilst pregnant with his first and only child.

Winston reached under his jacket and pulled on a nylon cord.

THE END

Todays Class - IST Flinders

2007-08-29T07:27:00.000-07:00

TASK ONE

Using pen, paper and cameras, we will explore the proposed area(Flinders St station). Look at it from a new angle, explore everything(legally!) as if you were exploring a new location in Second Life. Go to places you(and others) would generally never go to and look at things from a new 'point of view.'

As you find a new 'point of view' - answer the following questions.

What is already there that can be used somehow? Objects, buildings, textures, people, businesses etc...
What could be there in the future - how will the overall future theme effect what exists at the moment, and what will replace it?
What would you like to see?
What wouldn't you like to see?

Also;
What area would you replicate? Where are the boundaries? How will this be handled?
Keep an eye out for different forms of writing for the project below.

Answer these with pen and paper for at least two different 'points of view,' then post it on your blog along with any photos.

We will then discuss our ideas as a class, each person answering each of the three questions and sharing what they learnt. We shall discuss once again an overall vision for the city with guidance from Johnny and Adam, taking some more definite notes about ideas.

TASK TWO

Each person then writes a linear story based in the futuristic Melbourne (500 words minimum). The story can take any form you choose, however spelling and grammar are important! Please use spell check, and feel free to email me draft versions if you would like any assistance. These stories will help us form a historical background for our project, and can be included on the project website.

The stories are due at the start of next weeks class (Thursday September 6th) and can be posted to your blog(feel free to edit them continually online).

3d Studio Max tutorial for reference;
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=185426

IST Flinders

2007-08-22T19:51:00.001-07:00

T-shirts, Clothing, Weapons

Ideas WM1 Flinders

2007-08-21T01:43:00.000-07:00

In this lesson we will be creating some t-shirts that can be worn, and given to friends within Second Life.

Download a free t-shirt template for photoshop (made by Robin Sojourner) from the following location.
http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/RSWTShirtStart.html
(Please note the terms which include donating to charity if you wish to sell the shirts.)

Open the template file in photoshop, it's a simple case of replacing the images and text with your own.

Possibilities include bands, art, sporting teams, and sayings. Try googling some suitable images or logos.
The file can then be saved as a TGA if transparency is required, or a JPG if it is not (simpler for beginners).
A more detailed explanation can be found here; http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/RSWTShirtLong1.html

See articles below for some examples.

We then created something to wear and learnt how to attach it to our limbs - there was a wide variety of outcomes, tattoos, top hats, bats, balls. This is Jay on his way to becoming a Tinman;

And a couple of beauties from David;

We then had a discussion about the class project once again, unfortunately Enoka had left the class but I hope she can return and have an impact on the class, she has had some great ideas so far.

What the group has generally agreed on is;
A Space Station
Which can then feature a wide variety of things like;
- Shuttle/ships
- Costumes Area
- Holodeck
- Gun shop
- Biodome
- Elevators
- Evil Lair (trapdoors)
- Bar

WM1 St Albans

2007-08-17T02:43:00.000-07:00

Today(as with IST yesterday) we got a little bit more serious about building, learning how we can drop scripts into objects we have created to make them behave a certain way.
The first half of the class we designed objects using the rotation script, I don't have a picture of the best creation which was Chris's bulldozer type vehicle with spinning rollers and a transport script dropped in, very nice work.
The second half of the class we all designed a t-shirt each, again some fantastic results, but the network crashed towards the end so we didn't get a chance to take many snapshots, but they were all good. I look forward to a group sl snapshot next time I am out there.
Checking now a lot of the blogs don't seem to be very up to date.

Had to return this Sthap but I admire your focus!

Thursday IST at Flinders

2007-08-17T02:26:00.000-07:00

Today we got a little bit more serious about building, learning how we can drop scripts into objects we have created to make them behave a certain way.
The first half of the class we designed objects using the rotation script, with some great results.
Elemesh Merlins chopper in particular was an amazing first effort, topped off by using a flight script from another free object.
The second half of the class we spent discussing and finalising all of the ideas for the town (Futuristic Melbourne) - more to come on that as I dissect the photo of the mass of notes filling the whiteboard over the weekend. Johnny and Adam will be directing the project, Johnny came up with more ideas than I can remember! A few things discussed - Sydney Ninjas, Super Toilets taking you underground, a giant squid in the Yarra(which mutates you), Flying transport, blocks of 7-11s - and the whole place is run by evil vegans - I do like that!

Tuesday WM1 Flinders Class

2007-08-14T04:28:00.000-07:00

Today we took photos in real life and snapshots in second life, which we then uploaded into the SL environment to learn how textures work(examples below).
We then started some basic building, with an emphasis on using WHOLE NUMBERS and making sure our work is millimetre perfect.
Some handy shortcuts;
CTRL L - Link
CTRL SHIFT L - Unlink
CTRL D - Copy (or hold shift and move an object)

Employment Opportunity

2007-08-14T04:27:00.000-07:00

Avatar: building an online 3D world in Teen Second Life

Youth mentor assisting secondary school students accessing and getting involved in a Teen SL project.

Some information about the project is available at www.art.tafe.vu.edu.au/avatar
Minimum 4 hours per week at $25 per hour
Starting in a couple of weeks
Requirements: Be interested and proficient in the Second Life, have a current drivers license and a vehicle to go to various locations, be interested to work with young people, able to do at least 4 hours per week until December
Contact me for further details

STA Class Video from Mobile

2007-08-12T05:36:00.000-07:00

St Albans - Learning to build

2007-08-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

We began with a short discussion about the Sports Stadium project, and using it for a portfolio piece at the end of the year.
Some points;
Seats, color co-ordinated
Color scheme
Advertising
Building Materials
Changing Rooms
Stadium Lighting
Scoreboard
Field/Flags
Corporate Boxes
Toilets
Ticket Booth
Cand/Hot Dog/Kiosk
Bar/Club
Boxing
Concerts
Footy
Cricket
Soccer
Quiddich
Brand New Game
Hockey
Flying
Shooting
Car Racing
Boats
Horse Racing

The final verdict was a stadium which can change to host several sports, as well as an original game which we will create as a class, possible involving something like riding a horse and shooting a ball around.

We then took photos of ourselves in Real Life and Second Life comparing the two, then uploaded the RL photo into Second Life to learn about textures.
Everyone then had to build a basic house, with emphasis on keeping the numbers whole and simple to prevent problems. Some quite decent builds came out of it.
More to come including video soon.

Remember
CTRL L - Link
CTRL SHIFT L - Unlink
CTRL D - Copy (or hold shift and move an object)

Some footage of the IST Flinders Class (From a mobile phone)

2007-08-09T02:27:00.001-07:00

Atomic Johnnys Idea

2007-08-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

A product of Johnnys very significant imagination - Melbourne in the future.

Pictures in SL - IST Flinders

2007-08-08T19:54:00.001-07:00

Putting those images into Second Life

2007-08-08T17:58:00.001-07:00

We then uploaded our photos and displayed them in world, as a simple example of how to upload a new texture and apply it. Damion (I kill them all) Barzane came up with some very nice stretching of his own image to build a house.

Pictures of life

2007-08-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

Today we started by taking a picture in real life as well as a picture in Second Life, to discuss and force ourselves to think about the difference between our RL images and SL images.
We discussed there being two sides to the argument, some thought that avatars were a way to hide and not really you, whereas the alternate view was that they can be a more true representation of people than their own physical body, which they cannot change.
People were also (generally) much more self-conscious with their photos than their in world snapshots - but then spent more time on the in world snapshots. I am not sure what if anything that suggests.
Some great results, and I think most people were forced to think about their self-image from a totally new perspective.

Below are some links to some RL images uploaded for students.
http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/6747/09082007784cm6.jpg
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4812/dsc00266px7.jpg
http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/6237/dsc00267ib9.jpg
http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/9141/dsc00040xs4.jpg
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1768/dsc00041td1.jpg
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/6902/dsc00042oi9.jpg
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8612/dsc00043rq8.jpg
http://img467.imageshack.us/img467/3170/dsc00270sg8.jpg
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/2826/dsc00044dn7.jpg
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/2300/spa0293bm1.jpg
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2421/dsc00048qr5.jpg
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/7729/dsc00049yv0.jpg
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/6243/dsc00050nh9.jpg

WM1 Flinders Class One in Second Life

2007-08-07T02:45:00.001-07:00

Todays class we started looking at Second Life, firstly joining(troubles once again) and then travelling to three different locations and writing reviews.
Once again we saw an interesting range of places.
After this we had a discussion about possible ideas for the town, in particular themes and PODs.
Some ideas;

Health Retreat
Theme Park
Prehistoric
Cartoon
Space/Aliens
Futuristic
Medieval
Spanish Colonial
Historical Tombs
Graveyard/Spooky
Get Smart
Changing Land (Magic Faraway Tree style)
Depression
Ghetto
Gangster
Underground
Western
Ancient Times
Sudan

Another good idea was to combine several of these themes. The changing land is a great and original idea.
We finished up by building a bucket each, just an introduction to building tools and seeing what people could come up with themselves.

*Details to remember for Jay on WOW
Wasabiman
Oceanic Servers PVP Server
Jubies Thos

First WM1 Class St Albans in Second Life

2007-08-03T02:09:00.000-07:00

Today was my second trip out to St Albans, and the first opportunity for a class in Second Life.
We started out by trying to sign up, but as luck would have it, Second Life has closed off new accounts, so slowly and after a few phone calls to 'borrow' friends usernames and passwords, we got everyone logged in. Once logged in the lag was quite bad, creating quite a few operational problems, hopefully it was just one of those days.
Once in world, due to the limitations with building, editing characters or doign anything too delicate, the first assignment was to (as below) travel to three seperate SL locations and do a quick report including it's name, likes and dislikes, snapshots, and whether it was worth another visit.
The purpose of this is to gain an understanding of the scope of Second Life, and as a group gain experience in what can and has already been done, and how things work.
We then took a moment to chat about the classes ideas for their town, which was a tropical paradise like city island. We discussed some of the limitations including 'prims' for each parcel and the size of each island, and then continued to discuss more specific ideas.
- Submarine
- Resort
- Racing
- Lifesaving
- Hovercraft
- Jetskis
- Boats
- Cocktail Bar
- Sports Arena
There seemed to be a lot of discussion about the sports arena, with replicas of Telstra Stadium, the MCG, Rod Laver Arena, Aquatic Centre, Motor Racing/Motorcycle Tracks. The vocal consensus after discussion seemed to be the MCG, so I called them just out of interest to try and set up a meeting with their marketing people. I left a message and will try to arrange a meeting out of interest.
In the short term, the most realistic option seems to be if we could make something similar, like the ACG - to avoid licensing issues, and also potentially have a great portfolio piece which the class could then approach real venues like the MCG or Rod Laver in an attempt to get real paid work.
A new concept would also give us more creative freedom, and time is a constraint for any larger project.
The other issue is how a story and secret can be incorporated into a build such as this.
It's all still open at the moment, I am looking forward to more discussion, absolutely nothing is concrete, it would be good to explore a few more ideas in depth(perhaps some of the ones above).

Todays IST Class

2007-08-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

In todays IST Class we firstly visited and reviewed 3 places each from within Second Life.
We then brainstormed more ideas.
Some more ideas;

Choose your own adventure
Funhouse
Pinball Island
Trampoline Island
Aquarium
Forest tree houses
Specialised
Snow
Cloud City
Heaven Hell - Costumes?
Neon London
Futuristic Melbourne
Horror
Dinosaurs
3d prims
Arcade
Murderball
Spaceship
ZeroG
Roman Style
Combat soccer (commentary/ads)
Staff costumes
Racing
Takeshis Castle

SECRETS

Matrix
Freebie Room
Crystal powered city

We finished up with everyone building a bucket, canoe, dolphin, or something of their own choice.
Homework was considering seriously what the theme of the island could be.

Reviewing places

2007-08-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

The first location I visited was Ocean Sunrise.
I liked the trees(nice palms), they used some nice saturated rich colors, and nice waves.
I didn't like the land style, and the sand was a little boring, it needed more shapes or perhaps some grass.
I would come back if I needed a new style of palm tree.

WM1 STA Class Blog

2007-07-27T05:01:00.001-07:00

http://wm1stalbans.blogspot.com/

Aftermath Snapshots from IST Class II

2007-07-26T01:27:00.001-07:00

It all started out nicely.....(killer tankbot to the left by Sthap, terrible name to remember, but nice builds)

A Parthenon, or the beginnings of one...

The chaos

Some nice chairs from Pimpin 'Elemesh' Pete

Can you Digg It?

Underwater at the end....

Yes - it's Tankbot - pretty damn good.

This is really big....Atomic Johnnys tower of something.

Lils water features at the bottom of the tower of something.

Sebastiens mega fast construction.

Another overview of the chaos.

Big eggs.

Carnage. Yes the car is in the air.

It's her second life - Chantelles ocean view condo (sorry how do I spell Shonny?)

Tankbot.

Cage city.

The creepy phone. It sing sing sings.

Brainstorming Ideas for IST Plot

2007-07-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

Pirate ship
Theme Park
Mutant/Minion/Fights
Kill them all
Human Body
Underwater
Chocolate Land
Safari/Zoo/Farm
Harry Potter
Virtual Melbourne
Alpine (Snow, caves, igloos etc)
VU Building
Net of future
Alice in Wonderland
19th Century Aussie Town with droids
Extreme Sports
Online Festivals
Stoneage/Medieval
Creative Platform
Evil Lair/Battlezone
Second heaven and hell
TV World
Art Gallery/Museum
Bot band
PC Land
Coluseum/Parthenon
Historical
Supermario/Family Guy/FF/WOW/Simpsons
Shopping mall/arcades
Comic book world
Space station/Moonpad
Alien Planet
City of the Future - Cultures of the past
Lego theme
Abbatoir/Torture
Mansion
Racing
Fashion House
Neverending disco
Garbage dump
50s B Movie
Musicals/Theatre/Concerts
Gangster town

WM1 City Class Blog

2007-07-24T06:04:00.000-07:00

http://wm1city.blogspot.com/

First class at St Albans

2007-07-19T22:59:00.000-07:00

First class out at St Albans this week, went well, another intro to augmented and virtual reality which seemed to be fairly well received.

Must check out Kate Grenville writing exercise.
'I remember'
'No letter e'
'Conversation between 2 avs'
'Write for 10 mins, no judgement'

IST Class 1

2007-07-18T20:24:00.000-07:00

Class one went very well, did a bit about the past and future of multimedia, linear versus interactive, signed up for our blogs and second life, where we looked at creating our avatars and general commands.

First class in WMM

2007-07-17T01:53:00.000-07:00

First class completed for WMM with Stefan on Tuesday afternoon. All went well.

We spoke about writing for multimedia, the tasks of writers these days, multimedia, and future directions it might take. Discussed various bgs and assessment, WMM website.

Remember to add Zeno to the island!