If Rod had an alt who spent a lot of time
Inside of Second Life just hanging out
In clubs and chatting with his friends
Would he still think the same or see things different
And yeah, yeah, Rod is great
And yeah, yea, Rod is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
What if Rod was one of us
An AV like one of us
Just some pixelated dust
Living in a Linden home
If Rod had an alt what would it look like
If he lived anonymously
Would he ditch the toga for some fashionista
And be correct anatomically
And yeah, yeah, Rod is great
And yeah, yea, Rod is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
What if Rod was one of us
An AV like one of us
Just some pixelated dust
Living in a Linden home
Living in a Linden home?
Or in one of Wizzy’s domes
He could look like Sharon Stone
And go to Zindra and get boned
Agnes Sharple
Botgirl Questi
Bumblebee (Wendz Tempest)
Canary Beck
Carissa Arthurine Somerset
Eva Marie
Fuschia Nightfire
George Coghill
Ironyca Lee
Jeremy Owen Turner
Joseph DeLappe
Kathleen Cool
Katie Vizenor
Krista Hoefle
Kristine Schomaker
Lizzie Gudkov
Aero Bigboots
RMarie Beedit
Marmaduke Arado
Isabella Medici
Nadya Tolokonnikova
Nathan Shafer
Pixel Reanimator
Ravanel Griffon
Scarlett Luv
Strawberry Singh
Tabitha Raincloud
Toni Tyldesley
Trilby Minotaur
Vanessa Blaylock
Xue Faith
Yordie Sands
“Every Linden should be required to have a non-Linden alt and have to spend a minimum of 1 hour per day inworld, as part of their job description. ” – part of a comment by Whiskey Day at botgirl’s blog.
I think Whiskey was right on. The ability to see life from your customer’s perspective is always a good idea.
OMG Botgirl, fantastic! Thank you so much for taking time out from your own blog and your many virtual worlds activities to contribute this post to I Rez!
This is such an inspired remix project: taking “found” footage and music, composing new lyrics, recording and remixing the whole thing. The fun of watching the video is both the contemporary references to VR politics/dynamics, but also the way they resonate with ideas from so many times and places in our shared culture.
Besides clicking on your author link in the post above, or in the I Rez Blogroll to the right, they can also find your blog here:
• Botgirl’s Identity Circus
Thanks! Glad you like it. I love to do remixes and mash-ups. And not just because I’m lazy. 😉
Who knows or says they spend no or little time inworld? I agree with the need for that, to feel how it feels to be a customer / user instead of an offline manager, but how can we know they are not? Just curious 😉
It’s certainly possible that many Lindens are spending a lot of their after-hour time hanging out in Second Life in alt accounts. That’s not the feedback we’ve heard, but as a alt in Second Life, no one knows you’re a Linden. 😀
Yes and I bet they want it to keep that way. I would . . 😛
I’d go further: why don’t Lindens actually make a point of being seen inworld with their avatars? Specifically at occasions such as major cultural events (say, at LEA openings they sponsor). This seems incomprehensible to me. Are they afraid? Ashamed? That they may be simply too busy with higher requirements doesn’t cut it much for me.
I remember hearing someone say, maybe it was Qarl (ex-Linden), that Lindens stopped showing up in public because they always got hammered by people. I think it’s kind of a chicken and an egg thing. If Lindens were commonplace on the grid, they wouldn’t be a big deal. They’d be no more enticing than a salesperson walking around Best Buy.
I agree that it would do a lot of good for Linden representative to show up at major events. Again, since anyone at an event can then message the person, it would probably be a challenging role.
it’s funny Marma, you don’t really expect to see Sergey Brin or Vic Gundotra answering posts on Google+ (hahaha, well *I* don’t expect to see that since I’m banned from G+, but I mean “legitimate” users probably don’t expect to see it) Although I understand that Steve Jobs used to answer his own email… but I can’t imagine he answered ALL of it…
Anyway, there’s 2 different kinds of “presence” here:
Marma’s point, I think, is that they ought to represent – I agree
Meandr@’s point, I think, is that they ought to understand the user experience – I also agree
As BQ sez, we can’t really know how much “lurking” they do or don’t do, but it’s felt somehow like not much.
Back when T. Linden dumped Viewer2 on us, it felt to me like someone who neither understood nor respected the user experience was trying to tell us “how to live our lives.”
Then again, to be fair, I think I’ve failed to appreciate how smart and engaged peeps at The Lab are. We can hate Google for being the corporate behemoth that it’s become, instead of forever remaining the idealistic project of a couple of grad school dropouts that it once was, but you really can’t deny that Google is a massive amalgamation of a lot of the smartest people on the planet.
I was looking at Yordie Sands wonderful blog over the weekend, and was impressed to find her post of this cool talk by LL board member Will Wright. It honestly hadn’t occurred to me that peeps there could be so smart or so big picture. I think I really wasn’t giving them enough credit.
http://yordiesands.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/returning-to-the-real-world-reprise/
yes Vaneeesa, my point is all about representation — I find it incomprehensible that no Linden (not an alt) ever attends a prestigious SL event, specifically in the arts area (such as an opening by Bryn Oh, their flagship artist).
Erm, I have never come out about this, and at the risk of committing career suicide, I confess I have been a Linden alt for the past 3 years. Ever since I was dragged to Governor Linden’s mansion under cover of Windlight 3AM and underwent extensive “re-grooving”. Know this: we care about and love you madly Residents, well most of you anyway 😛
Seriously Botgirl, another super work, I wonder if you would consider teaching classes at Builder’s Brewery on video production?
p.s. being referred to as a resident makes me feel like I am in an asylum 😀
We are all Lindens!
I really, really suck at teaching (INTP) but have been romancing the idea of creating a tutorial on down and dirty machinima using an iPhone or iPad.
The genius of this asylum is that the “residents” don’t even appreciate that they’re in one! You did take notes on the video, didn’t you, Moni?
Furiously scribbled some on a napkin with my #2 pencil 🙂
Hi Botgirl! What a fun video! It really cracks me up! And it’s so true! The game-masters call the shots and we’re their little dolls, as much by our own doing as theirs probably. Funny thing, I think you just meant it to be funny, and it really is, but even though I’m not really religious I’ve always loved that Joan Osborne song and I loved the show Joan of Arcadia and your funny video with the small struggling people was kind of bittersweet for me. Amber Tamblyn is such a great actress, she had such a quality on that show. I’ve also been to one of her poetry readings and she totally knocked me on my ass. I still remember the first line of the first poem she read, “War is god’s way of teaching Americans geography.”
You probably weren’t thinking of all that stuff when you made your video, or maybe you were. It seems like you have an intuitive way of working that makes a lot of connections across so many threads of our lives. Anyway, I don’t think we’ve ever met, and I’ve been buried in RL so I haven’t really been in SL or blogging, but I saw your post in email and I wanted to say welcome.
— Liz, aka Aero
Thanks. I had the idea for the song days before the video concept. After considering shooting something in Second Life or using another animation tool, I decided to look at some old scifi and monster movies and see if anything resonated for a remix or mashup. I chose this particular movie about thirty seconds into watching the trailer. It has a very mythological feel to it, especially when just viewing the visuals.
So in the song, the lyrics are implying one story line and kicking up internal images while the video is telling a different story. My hunch is that the combination of the parallel narratives is what gives the music video a unique resonance that seems to illicit interesting and unintended (on my part) meanings from the work.
And like you said, my main intention was just to have some fun with the Rod/God thing.
Yes, criticizing and hammering is an easy way to go. Sometimes OK, sometimes we are just spoiled children who don’t accept less than the best. Even when an environment is free to use such as Google and Second Life. I do not say we just have to accept all, but some modesty is needed as well when we don’t get all we want 🙂
But when promises are made or users are deliberately being misinformed and used for only their own benefits . . . hmm that asks for a good protest yes 😀
Vaneeesa invited me…, actually insisted that I should reply to this post. (she has opportunities to blackmail me 😉 ).So here is my comment to this video, and to the previous comments as well:
HALLESLUJA, PRAISE THE LAG!! 😉
.)
Lagachakra is the Bodhisattva of Avatarian Patience. When trouble strikes, simply repeat her mantra and you will find peace:
Lahga Crahsha Bodhi Om
http://botgirl.blogspot.com/2008/06/introducing-newly-revealed-member-of.html
Oh wow, don’t you just love The Internet!? Botgirl wrote about Lagachakra in 2008 June, a full 10 months before I ever even showed up on the virtual shores, and for my whole “life” I’ve never been aware of her till this very convo brought up the link to this secret knowledge. I feel my online experience will be so much more satisfying now.
Also I never realized before that what used to be called a Bodhisattva, is today called a “Good UI/UX”
As for Mr. Moo, while I am grateful to see your comment here, I’m afraid it’s very disingenuous and I’ve had no choice but to leak 6 incriminating photos onto The Net. Perhaps if you chant Lagachakra’s mantra they will get lost to search thru poor tagging…
I loved this one on your blog, Botgirl. Had to love it here too!