Through role-playing, Second Life users created the Arizona town of Sigil set in the period 1860-1890. Sigil was the first, and most-developed Second Life Western role-playing simulation. Make note that it was a simulation of the West, not the Arizona town itself; Sigil was a fictitious town created from the imaginations of users to represent the American West. One of the most interesting aspects of Sigil was that users were in complete control of the town’s environment – participating in its growth, and ultimately in its demise.
While Sigil was the first Western role-playing simulation within Second Life, its existence was predated by the Machinima movie “Silver Bells and Golden Spurs.” Many of the costumes worn by users within the film appear in many of the photos I have from Sigil, naturally expanding my critique of Sigil to the origins of these items. Directed by Eric Call and Linden Lab, “Silver Bells and Golden Spurs” (SBGS) first premiered at South by Southwest in 2006.
Machinima films are movies made in virtual worlds using real-time 3D engines unlike professional 3D software. In the case of SBGS, the entire set of the Western town was created specifically for the filming and Second Life users became actors as the video was recorded. The Second Life Herald reported that actors used a pre-arranged sequence of animations, making it distinctively not role-playing.
Without further delay, here is Silver Bells and Golden Spurs:
Protecting your online identity isn’t limited to our real lives, but our “Second Lives” as well. Linden Lab recently announced that they’re going to charge users to customize their SL first and last names – the “virtual equivalent of vanity plates” according to the AP. Does it matter if my avatar shares my real name? Not likely, however I’m sure I wouldn’t be happy if there was a SL Dave Lester running around causing trouble. As unlikely as it seems, I’ve run into people I know in real life “in-world”, before knowing they were on SL at all. These occurrences feed into my larger and perpetual question of “how do I represent myself virtually?”
As part of researching Sigil I’ve contacted SL users for stories and photos they’d like to contribute to the online archive. The attention I’ve recently given to data-mining tools like Evolution is not only borne out of a concern for my own online identity, but more importantly the people who are helping me with my research. What can I ethically publish online? How am I ensuring that I protect the online identities of those who are assisting my research? These questions are paramount in my editorial decisions regarding what does and doesn’t get published. Continue reading →
Evolution is a data-mining tool that searches archived information including cached websites, DNS records, phone records and IP email addresses. This information has been on the net for a long time, however the goal of Evolution is to map this information together and visualize a person’s online activity. The web version is in beta and client not yet downloadable, but this project has some startling possibilities that have me concerned about privacy.
Searching someone’s name, you can see that they own a domain name. A whois search will give that person’s home address, which can then be used to search for their home phone number. Searching their email address, you may find out they use a certain alias on several websites, where you may uncover other accounts and websites they use to find out where they work, or who they’re dating. If they have a myspace or linkedin page, those have been cached as well – don’t forget their blog too! You don’t need Evolution to do these things, but it promises to make this all possible with one click. Continue reading →
Over the past year I’ve been studying the Oregon Trail computer game and looking at the manifestation of cultural ideas and history within computer simulations – notably the inaccuracies in representing gender roles and race within the game. A natural outgrowth of this research has brought me to Second Life where there are “Wild West” simulations. In these role-playing sims, characters act out different roles as if they were in the American West in the late 19th century. The users who enter the sim are then in control of the narrative, and effectively control the way the “West” and history is seen within the game. I would like to introduce you to Sigil, a now retired simulation that I have been studying.
Sigil is a prospector’s town in Arizona that due to geography also became a route through which the express train towards the pacific and new US territory is bound. The resulting boom from local mining operations and the maintenance of the station has led to an era or prosperity and a place to begin an adventure in the Wild West Frontier. – (from Official Sigil Roleplay Guide)
This town did not exist in the Arizona desert, but at a server farm located in Linden Lab’s California headquarters. They had their own virtual newspaper, church, nearby Indian reservation (Indians may later attack you – more written on that in a future entry), doctor, train station, and US Marshall office. A series of Second Life users ran the town by roleplaying, including the sheriff, deputies, doctor, priest, native americans, bandits, marshall, and others. Sigil was set in the period 1860-1890 Arizona, self-described as
a mature roleplay enviroment based on the films of Sergio Leone and the music of Ennio Morricone. Inspiration can be drawn from films such as Once Upon a time in the West and The Good the Bad and the Ugly
Subsequent posts will begin to dissect the history of Sigil, the meaning of ideas I have shared, and a series of primary documents from the simulation (that will become part of a web-based archive). Special thanks to many Sigil residents for their help in my research thus far.
As many of my visitors have noted over the past several months, there hasn’t been much activity on my personal website for some time – here’s a recap:
In January I moved to Washington, DC to pursue a fellowship at Georgetown University working on the Crossroads Project. Much of my time has been spent developing the American Studies Web search engine, recently released in beta.
Although I stated online that I was going to publicly release the results of my Oregon Trail survey, I have decided to withhold any final conclusions. Several individuals who were interested in learning about the results have contacted me; I encourage you to do the same but at this time it would be inappropriate for me to publicly disclose these results. Recognizing weaknesses in my own online survey methodology, I need better data to definitively draw any conclusions. With that said, I’m very surprised by the results and success of the survey. Expect an improved Oregon Trail survey to be conducted in the future!
Speaking of surveys, I’ve begun development on an online survey tool called Surveylicious. Recently I was contacted by graduate students who wish to do online surveys connecting to Facebook (Hello Jim from Stanford!); Surveylicious establishes this connection similarly to how my Oregon Trail survey worked, using the Facebook API. Fortunately, the API is now in stable release so the session problems I encountered should no longer be an issue. I’ll be blogging a lot about the development and methodology of Surveylicious.
The first weekend of May I graduate from St. John Fisher College with a degree in American Studies and minor in Information Technology.
Beyond studying the Oregon Trail computer game, several months ago I began documenting and analyzing “Wild West” computer simulations in Second Life. I am working with users in Second Life to archive these environments, many which no longer exist. Once I gain full permission to distribute these images, text, and objects I’ll post them for others to study.
Notice the new URL and feed – I’m now davelester.ORG.
