Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

The first to appear was Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Rather than show the real Second Life, they created a fictional virtual world that was LIKE Second Life and then extrapolated wildly on a criminal case which had occurred earlier in the year. It was all about sex and violence, which apparently is as much a description of this virtual world as it was about Law & Order. Much can be said about this instance but I found much more interesting the two real uses of the virtual which followed later in the month.

CSI: New York

CSI: New York used SL as a major promotional tool for this episode. Four sims with a variety of episode-related games and activities were built in-world, the episode was not planned to conclude until this Spring (so that the activities could continue in SL), a unique SL browser was made for those new to Second Life designed to promote these activities, and made-for-TV commercials aired to promote the CSI-in-SL connection. Finally, during the broadcast, human guides were available upon arrival to the CSI islands to help people out.

The episode itself used impressive use of machinima - 20 minutes or so in total I heard. Sometimes It was pure machinima - our TV screen becoming the character’s computer screen - sometimes it was simply in-scene - in which we watched the characters at his computer going into SL, and sometimes, for no clear reason, the character would stand in front of a wall-sized TV image of SL, as if one would actually do that. The machinima showed places and characters most likely created by CSI’s partners on this project, the Electric Sheep, and was really impressive; however, at times, it depicted things not actually done in SL, such as a Roman amphitheater battle scene, to depict it as more of an action game.

The story was about a murder victim who was a heavy Second Life user. The detectives needed to go in-world in order to track down this avatar’s contacts and locate the killer. In the end, all of the people in-world were murdered - it turned out a hired killer had targeted an elected official active in SL and stole the identity of the first murder victim in order to entrap the poor fellow in real life.

During the episode I went to CSI island and tried to talk with people during the episode. It was rather boring - not much engagement there. And I found the activities not that engaging. Then again, I don’t watch CSI so maybe I am the wrong audience.

The Office

Everyone who cared about Second Life knew about the CSI episode in advance; few people were aware that it would appear the next evening on the Office. I DVR the Office each week so I was all set when a coworker notified me by text-message four minutes into the broadcast. I went right to my recording and fast-forward to the first of three SL appearances in the episode.

Dwight, it turns out, is a Second Life fan. “Last year my life was going so well I decided I wanted a second one. And it turns out, in Second Life, I am also paper salesman.” Second Life was shown three times. Twice showed Dwight at his computer, which cut to images that were pure machinima. Tim was teasing him throughout. The third appearance was Tim speaking with Pam, his love interest, about how silly Dwight was, revealing by accident his OWN avatar. He said it was designed to “follow Dwight” but as he spoke with Pam and grew more embarrassed it became clear that Tim too had gotten sucked into Second Life. Second Life apparently is not just for dweebs who watch Battlestar Galactica. End of joke. End of story.

The first machinima shown depicted Dwight’s avatar taking off to fly from a standing position. Rather than WATCH a detective, it challenged ME to be the detective. What was Dwight’s avatar name? Where did his avatar travel in-world? To whom was he speaking? This was not some fictional CSI space, this was Second Life itself and I knew how to contact people in-world.

So during the live episode I logged in, friended Dwight’s avatar, then looked at his favorite locations. Each description thanked the locations for allowing them to film there. The first location had a name similar to the office park shown in the first machinima shot and I teleported over. I walked into an office reception area and told the person behind the desk that I was there for my interview with Dwight Schrute. Surprise, surprise - so were the other half dozen avatars in the space. The place was a real location that real-world companies rent in Second Life to have office space. It was not a set. And the person behind the desk said that Dwight was there filming last month and they looked forward to seeing the episode.

It turned out that not only had the Office filmed in “real” locations within Second Life, they used places that Dwight would actually go to and did not tell those locations when the show would air.

Now THIS was fun. And it was fun commenting on the show with the other East Coasters who were watching the same episode.

I went back into Dwight’s profile and found his groups. One was for Dunder-Mifflin, the characters company in the show. I joined the group which gave me access to the past Notices, where I read that there was a “back-lot” party that would start at the conclusion of the West Coast feed. Fun! I didn’t stay up that late but visited it the next day, where I found a version of The Office’s office.

CSI vs. The Office

So, what were some of the major differences between how both shows used and depicted Second Life.

How was SL explicitly defined.
CSI: Tech Guy: “It’s not a game. It’s a social network within a virtual world.”
The Office: Dwight: “It’s not a game but a multi-user virtual environment. In Second Life, there are no rules. There are no winners or losers.” To which Jim responds, “Oh, there ARE losers…”

How SL was depicted in the show
CSI: A simulation, a game
The Office: A social network, a place for work

How SL was depicted as used by the character
CSI: Dating/sex and games that don’t actually exist
The Office: Place for personnel expression, a playspace

How SL users were depicted in the show
CSI: At first, tech nerds, then fringe business people, then “establishment”-types seeking illicit sex.
The Office: At first, weird sci-fi nerds (Dwight) but attractive to a “regular Joe” once in-world (Jim) for personal expression.

The Genre of the Machinima
CSI: A fictional scene - constructed sets, props, characters, costumes, etc. Filmed on designed sets.
The Office: Au natural. It was almost a documentary of things found in-world. Filmed on location.

Target for the promotion
CSI: Newbies. For people NOT in SL. Promotion was explicit.
The Office: For fans already in Second Life. Promotion was hidden to be uncovered (had to investigate clues to learn of the party).

Take Aways

Media Integration
Both examples, but specifically CSI, are clearly attempts to associate their “brand” with the “latest thing” to seem hip and to target those demographics. More importantly, as Henry Jenkins describes so well in his recent book Convergence Culture, we are in a period in which the top-down corporate-heavy media producers and their experts creating their products are being increasingly forced to respond to the consumer-creator driven participatory cultures so well emulated by Second Life, a world created by its users. These are interesting attempts from the top down to integrate the two in a non-threatening way.

I would say the results of CSI’s experiment has yet to be seen, but can be measured by the extent to which CSI brought new users into Second Life who first use CSI island but then go beyond it to all of Second Life but associate its participatory affordances with the CSI brand. And I would say the Office’s experiment, albeit at a much smaller scale, has already succeeded. It made me identify with Dwight! I even known wear his Beat Farm t-shirt that I found at the in-world version of The Office.

Public Framing of Second Life

How is the public viewing, or being told to view, Second Life and virtual words and what will that mean for the development of its educational uses? While images of sex and action/fantasy gaming marked depictions in both Law & Order and CSI, The Office’s depiction was quite different. Dwight was still a paper salesman in Second Life and where does he visit when he goes in-world – to an office park! Second Life, from this perspective, is not about sex or escapist gaming – it’s an extension of the real world.

The more the public views Second Life as a place to extend their real life – like a telephone – the closer we get to it being viewed as a place for real world education.