May 24
Boys and their Toys
Between May 12 and May 14, the Brussels’ expo hosted the ITEC 2009 trade event.
ITEC 2009 is dedicated to defence, training, simulation and education. When you want to have an idea how big the business of virtual reality and simulation training has become, I guess this was the place to be. If the holodeck of the Starship Enterprise ever gets made, it will be probably be showcased here first.
Simulation technologies are a big dollar. Lockheed Martin, Agusta Westland, Saab (!) and Krauss-Maffei (who manufacture the Leopard tank) all had massive exhibitor stands on ITEC. Militaries from developed nations all over the world are investing heavily in simulation technologies for training purposes. Some futurists even claim the battlefields of the future will be virtual.
The event itself was, without a doubt, controversial. The Belgian press called it a weapons fair, politicians of the socialist and green parties objected angrily against the presence of ITEC in Brussels and were refused access when they wanted to take a look for themselves. The Belgian peace activist organisation Vredesactie even went ‘undercover’ to report on the fair. Their protests were legit and called for in many ways, but unfortunately there wasn’t any room left for nuances in the press reports.
As our main interviewee that day, Dr. Albert ‘Skip’ Rizzo, stated very simply: ‘War sucks…no question about it’. However, a lot of the technologies in which the military complex is so heavily investing these days, will eventually find their way to the civilian world and will make our lives better and safer. Some of them have already arrived. Truck simulators are used to train future truck drivers to increase their driving experience, give them greater control over their vehicle and eventually reduce road accidents. Medical students receive surgery practice in virtual worlds, making medical training more accessible and less expensive. The more training a future surgeon receives, the smaller the chance for serious medical errors in their professional lives. Clinical psychologists have adopted simulation technologies, not only to effectively treat returning veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but also to treat children with autism as well as people with severe phobias and psychological traumas.
Not making a case for war here. It’s a given fact that all these investments in the military complex could also go straight into developing peaceful applications. But that’s just not the case and it hasn’t been for centuries. I guess the point here is that things are just not as black and white as some claim them to be.
We’re closing in on May 2009 and the film is on track.
It only seems days ago that we returned from California, US of A and it was a trip well worth it. Our brand new tripod was heavily damaged in cargo (big thanks to Georg and Michael from Transylvania Express!), customs in Washington was a real pain and (let’s be honest), the food was terrible, but all this just diminishes in comparison to all the amazing people we interviewed, the places we visited and the encompassing presence of the Metaverse in both LA and the San Francisco Bay Area.
So we’re back with hours of footage and dozens of interviews to transcribe. That’s the fun part of documentary making…
A few months ago we finally received the green light from the Flanders Audiovisual Fund to officially start production. In layman’s terms that means a big wad of money to complete the rest of the film, something we’re of course incredibly pleased about.
That was the past, so now the future.
The coming six months the project will shift to highest gear. More shooting in the upcoming months, editing, animating and in-world capturing, sound design and final post-production. All this in order to reach our deadline of December 2009, the delivery of the 52min version of Inside the Metaverse! Somewhere in early 2010, our co-production partner Lichpunt will air the film twice on Belgian television (once on Canvas, once on Een). Around that time the feature version of ‘Inside the Metaverse’ should be ready to hit the festival circuit. Perhaps still far into the future for some, but a tight deadline for us!
Many people have mailed to ask when the trailer will be posted online and when and where the film will be released. The official trailer of ‘Inside the Metaverse’ won’t be posted online until December 2009, but please keep an eye out on the blog for more updates, screenshots and info.
You can also show your support by joining the Metaverse Facebook page.
Next stop: Korea!
In the second half of March 2009, we are visiting the LA and San Francisco area. We are looking for people that are actively involved with virtual worlds and virtual communities, that live in this area and who have a fascinating story to tell. We are interested in residents of social virtual worlds (Second Life, There, IMVU, Virtual MTV) , MMORPG players, but also those involved with augmented reality projects and lifelogging.
We are looking for people who fit one of the following profiles, but we are by no means restricting our search to these profiles. If you have an amazing story to tell and think you can offer an important contribution to this project, please don’t hesitate getting in touch!
1. Adults and teenagers for who virtual world technologies have had a liberating effect; for who virtual worlds and online social networks have/had a positive effect on their lives; escape from isolation, increased self esteem, increased communication skills,…
2. People for who virtual world technologies have had a negative effect; addiction, sleep disorder, compulsive behaviour, divorce, stress, bankruptcy…
3. People who have found their life partner in a virtual world.
4. Cyber prophets: The first religious spaces in the Metaverse have opened. Representatives of various religions spread their virtual message. For some of them, virtuality itself has become a religion.
5. Artists working with virtual reality, including Machinima creators, musicians, video and performance artists, etc.
We are not interested in sensation. People who participate in this project will be treated with respect and dignity. One of the aims in making this film is to show the world that virtual worlds are not only about the sensational topics we so often see in the mainstream media.
candidates can contact us by email: info AT insidethemetaverse.com
or through Second Life - name: Stephen Vilas
Mar 14
Last Wednesday, I attended “Buy Buy Art“, a symposium dealing with the ambiguous relation between art and capital. Venue of choice was the cultural centre Vooruit in Ghent. I had only been notified the night before that Julian Dibbell had been scheduled as one of the speakers during this event. Julian has been following and reporting on life within virtual worlds since the early 90’s. Apart from being a freelance writer for Wired and the New York Times, he is also the author of ‘My Tiny Life’ and the more recent ‘Play Money – Or How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot’ (the latter didn’t exactly go unnoticed during the symposium, mainly thanks to a limited edition of the book, folded and manually bound by the author himself…).
I dedicated the previous post to ‘Deeper’, John Seabrook’s report of his escapades in the virtual community of The Well in ’92 –’94. Julian Dibbell’s ‘My Tiny Life’, though only published in 1998, is an equally interesting account of another text based virtual community of that era, LambdaMOO.
For those interested in reading it right here, right now, the book can now be downloaded for free from his personal site at www.juliandibbell.com
Julian’s presentation during the symposium was a brief introduction to virtual worlds, with an emphasis on virtual economies. Topics ranged from Ted Castronova’s (now almost legendary) essay on the GNP of Everquest II to the goldfarmer’s phenomenon in China. Nothing new for those who have been following the developments of virtual worlds over the past couple of years, but I did have the feeling it was a very captivating, new topic for the majority of the attendees. Always a good reality check, especially now that some narrative decisions for the film have to be made. It’s crucial not to take things for granted. No matter how fast virtual worlds are evolving, no matter how many scholars are devoting their time and thoughts on new research and no matter how deep blog communities like TerraNova might delve: at the end of the day, we’re still dealing with a topic a lot of people have never heard anything about, the occasional media attention on Second Life or game addiction aside.
The next day, we met Julian for an in-depth interview, which, I am convinced, will become another major contribution to the film. And for a change, it sure was fantastic to do an interview on my own turf. I wonder when the first conference on virtual worlds will find its way to Belgium?
Jan 25
History repeats itself. That we know or like to assume.
I just finished reading DEEPER: My two-year odyssey in cyberspace. It’s a rather entertaining account of the early days of the Internet by John Seabrook, a staff writer at the New Yorker. The book focuses on that period in the early 90’s, just before Mosaic, the first Web browser, opened up the Internet to the masses and renamed the Net into the Web.
Seabrook writes mostly about the sense of community there was in these early days, long before the commercial world walked in and smelled money. In those days, the Internet was mostly text based. No fancy graphics, no podcasts, no streaming video, no slick websites (although even the arrival of HTML didn’t automatically mean the arrival of interesting designs. I’m sure plenty remember the horrendous web pages of the 90s, a style that turns some already nostalgic these days). The author describes what it was like to exchange (but more importantly receive!) emails and talks about life in newsgroups and IRC channels. About how new and exciting this unexplored territory was.
There seems to be quite some parallels between those early days of the Net and the developments we see these days with the Web 2.0 and online virtual worlds. Although virtual worlds have been around for quite some time as well (at the end of the book, there’s a short chapter about The Palace, an early VRML bases online world) we are still in the early stages of this technology. The sense of community, present on the newsgroups of the 90s (esp. THE WELL, text based newsgroup server), seems similar to what we are experiencing these days with the Web 2.0 boom. The seeds for a many-to-many medium was very much present in those days though its breakthrough seemed hampered by the introduction of the World Wide Web, which remained a one-to-many medium for the decade to come.
And yes, the focus on the addictive nature of new technologies was as much an issue back then as it is now with virtual worlds and gaming in general. The Internet was the new boogey man in the 90s and remains to be at the beginning of the new millennium. Not surprisingly, the self confessed Net addicts of the 90s embraced their addiction and put it to their advantage.
John Seabrook compares his online endeavours to those of his g great grandfather. a pioneer-adventurer who headed west in the late 19th century in search for gold. They both crossed the frontier into the unknown, one physical the other digital. And one slightly more risky than the other. But perhaps the comparison between the present developments of the Net and the gold rush of the 19th century is a more precise one. Because isn’t a virtual gold rush something we are experiencing even more now, with the increasing popularity of virtual worlds with real cash economies? In the early 90’s, Internet users went into unknown territory of cyberspace, in search of…they didn’t really know. In search of real time communication with people all around the world, in search of knowledge, in search of the group mind as Seabrook describes it. More than a decade later, Internet users are moving into virtual worlds in order to become entrepreneurs, try their luck and make money. The virtual gold rush seems a fact.
We finally started shooting.
Jozef and I just got back from London last night where we attended the Virtual Worlds Forum, a 2 day conference focusing on the present and emerging business opportunities of virtual worlds. The speaker list for these two days was impressive and hence, an excellent opportunity to start shooting a number of key interviews for the film. It certainly was exciting to finally meet the people who’s research I’d been reading and who’s projects I’d been following.
We managed to get some in depth interviews with the following people: Aleks Krotoski (The Guardian), David Orban (Questar), Corey Bridges (Multiverse), Betsy Book (There), Ginsu Yoon (Linden Lab), Richard Bartle (University of Essex), Robert Lai (CRD China) and Frank Campbell (Mindark). Many different opinions and many diverse views on the future, but always with great nuance and never black and white.
I haven’t managed to review the 7 hours of interviews yet, but from what I’ve seen so far the setup looks good and Jozef, the DOP in charge, has certainly squeezed out some nice shots. The sound recording wasn’t always that easy, due to a lack of quiet spaces in the venue and a rather annoying heating system squaling like a trapped animal about every 15 minutes. Nothing too serious though.
With this footage, we can definitely compile an impressive trailer.
