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Moriash Moreau: My Second Life
Thursday, October 11, 2007
 
Not Dead Yet
No, I'm not dead, and I haven't quit... Although sometimes I honestly wonder why. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing with myself here. As it stands, the only thing I do in-world lately is tend to my shop, so I can cash out my profits and defray the cost of staying in SL another month. And then I log out. Obviously, there's a fundamental flaw in my overall strategy here. I desperately need a new project, or something else to get enthusiastic about again. Just existing in SL for the pure, dubious pleasure of existing there is no longer sufficient. The perty scenery just ain't cutting it anymore.

In the meantime, more beating-of-the-dead-horse blog filler! Here are some more Plywood ideas that never came to fruition. I re-discovered them whilst sorting through ancient e-mails in my "SL-Ideas" folder, in a vain attempt to solve the aforementioned dilemma. Some of the concepts came from discussions with Will Webb, friend and neighbor in Louise sim. Some are my own. I think they could have made decent strips, but I always felt like the PPP series was a bit of a cop-out. Can't come up with a real storyline? Do another PPP filler! Ah well. If anyone wants them for their own comic endeavors, feel free.

Plywood Players Present: ER - A few avatars dressed in medical outfits, sitting around looking bored and playing cards. A critically injured avatar gets wheeled in on a gurney. Just as the ER crew is getting ready to leap into action, he *poofs* and teleports home. They sigh and sit down again. "Do you have any threes?" "Go fish."

PPP: CHiPs: "But, officer! I couldn't see the stop sign! The texture hadn't rezzed!"

PPP: Titanic: Lots of drama leading to the "unsinkable" ship disappearing under the waves as it attempts a sim crossing.

PPP: Howard Hughes: Something with Howard Hughes, his obsession with the Spruce Goose, and the fact that it's 33 prims, and can thus never be physics enabled.

PPP: Mission Impossible: The MI spy does his dramatic revelation, attempts to unmask/change his avatar back, only to find out that he forgot to make backup copies of his original appearance. There's also the deal with their true identities being displayed over their heads, but we already did that one.
Comments:
i've been wondering why skilled scripters and skilled costumers havn't gotten together to "stage" set plays in-world. hell.. the dialog could even be scripted.
 
...And skilled set builders, and directors who understand the limitations and strengths of SL (probably the rarest skill of all).

I've wondered about completely scripted performances myself. A completely scripted puppet show, in which the only thing the player does is donate his avatar as a puppet (and perhaps jiggles his mouse occasionally to keep the av from going to Away mode), is certainly viable. But, of course, few people would be interested in such a passive project, much less patient enough to pull it off.

People have tried live theatre quite a few times in the past. There have been some successes. However, the vast majority of the efforts die of, well, Drama. I've been tangentially involved with a couple of failed attempts, anyway, and that seemed to be the primary culprit. Ego and misunderstanding kill them in the early planning stages.

I think what many people who might otherwise be interested don't seem to understand is that acting in SL has little to do with actual acting. It's more akin to puppetry or animatronics. So, right off the bat, 90% of the people who want to act live on the stage are, frankly, unqualified. Their experience is in RL acting.

However, now that Voice is in, a true attempt at live theatre could be made. A team of skilled voice actors and SL puppeteers (whose job it is to maneuver the avatars on cue and operate props) could be quite amazing. Assuming, of course, you could get the audience to shut the hell up long enough to pull it off.

That being said, there are tons of machinima efforts, many quite successful. It's not live drama, but it's in the same general ballpark. I think that's where most of the dramatic efforts are being directed now. Machinima has the advantage of allowing do-overs in the event of technical failure, griefers, etc. etc. A huge plus in the modern grid.
 
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