Degrassi: the Next Generation, a hugely popular and well-respected Canadian TV show for teens, will soon have its own space in the virtual world vSide.
Degrassi is a nice match for this platform because it is already a well-established brand with a decent online presence. vSide will use the DOT Grill from the show as the hub in the virtual world from which users can access each other as well as cast members. It should translate to a 3D world seamlessly, and should be a nice way for Degrassi fans, including Live Journal’s Terry Jo, who wrote about the vSide Launch, to interact with one another.
vSide is an all-encompassing “three-dimensional social entertainment platform” that boasts the ability for users to create avatars, design and furnish apartments, and have parties with virtual friends.
April 10, 2008 at 10:08 pm
When I was first becoming immersed in my metaverse experience – 1) projecting into the world as an avatar identity, and 2) marveling at how the experiences were like living in a soap opera, more engaging than television but not completely real, either – I got all kinds of ideas.
I noticed how some people put a lot of energy into create an avatar and a roleplay. These avs would always show up with new, cool clothes and toys and perhaps something really cool to participate in (game, sim to visit, gizmos). Other people were brilliant at chat – dialog, jokes, anecdotes.
It occurred to me that an avatar, or group of avatars, could be made to be more interesting with a team behind it – like a troupe of actors in a play, sitcom, or soap opera have writers, directors, stage hands, set designers, make up and hair, etc… politicians have handlers, speech writers, opinion wags, and so forth; these people can be hyper-interesting to mere mortals and this could be translated to virtual worlds as well.
I have seen some role play sims based on books and movies, but these are separate from the actual authors or production of the RL version… fan sites, as it were.
What kind of other fusion might be used to engage the characters, setting in story lines?
The CSI effort looked like an artifact of that people could visit and solve a mystery that looked about as engaging as pouring piss out of a boot with the instructions on the sole. I don’t watch the TV version, and frankly didn’t delve much on my sim visit (OK, it was halloween, i was a kid skeleton riding a horse down the CSI streets, using my laser beam eyes to set fire to the Cisco signs and some ESC guy shot sheep at me with a cannon, so I can’t say it was a wasted trip)
What if avatars in a cross-over connection from a sitcom/soap opera where pseudo actors, with a team behind them giving them sets, storyline, wardrobe, direction, and dialog lines in a way that the viewers have a more active part?
April 11, 2008 at 12:53 am
Pais -
That reminds me a little of the meta-novel in Caledon that Hamlet posted on some time back:
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/gaming_the_system/index.html
Basically, you sign up for a role, are given a script, and are teleported to the location for the scene to be played out. Not quite a tie-in to a media property but the idea of roles etc. that are formatted and have a broader story is intriguing and is part of the thinking behind Adventure Island.
May 14, 2008 at 10:22 am
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May 15, 2008 at 3:45 am
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