A Multi-World New Year Wish

This is a little trailer-style video greeting card I put together with clips from Second Life, Craft, InWorldz, ReactionGrid, Twinity, iClone, Frameforce, FriendsHangout and Frenzoo. I hope that you and yours, in every world, have a healthy and happy New Year.

The Problem with Second Life as a Game

The announcement that a game-industry veteran was chosen as Linden Lab's new CEO rekindled a long-standing controversy in the Second Life community about games. It boils down to two main questions:

• Is Second Life a game?
• Should Second Life become a game?

Before I give you my answers, please take a moment and consider your own opinion . . . 

Really.

Please read no further until you check-in with your own thoughts on each question. You'll get a lot more out of this and have more fun if you follow the rules. Hmm. Maybe I should change the design of this post so you have to type in your own answers before proceeding. I could give you a nice badge as a reward. It would kind of like . . . let's see . . . a game.

Second Life is a game in the same way that Microsoft Word is a program for writing game articles. Yeah, it can be used that way, but Word is a document platform that supports anything one might want to write about. And Second Life is a 3D virtual environment platform that can and does support a multitude of uses. At this very moment people are using Second Life for a diverse variety of purposes such as business meetings, recreational shopping, concerts, digital sculpture, sensual encounters and of course, gaming.

So the problem with most discussions around Second Life and games is that they focus on a particular way the platform is used, rather than on the underlying platform itself. Its like the story of the blind men and the elephant.

Why Parodies Are The Most Useful Virtual World Predictions

Peering through a glass darkly

Raph Koster wrote a long and thoughtful post last February asking, Are Virtual Worlds Over? Although it was mostly an analysis of the current situation, the theme got me thinking about all of the year-end predictions about the future of virtual worlds. They come in two main genres: comedic parody and serious prognostication. I've written my share of both. Upon reflection, I've realized that the parodies are not only the most entertaining, but also the least fictional and most instructive.

Truth is, we have no freaking clue about what virtual worlds are going to morph into over the next year, little alone the next decade. One problem is that we tend lump them into a single, isolated analytical box as we try to imagine the future. But no one uses them in that way. For instance, even in a gated world like Second Life, the impact of social networks, extra-world instant messaging, media sharing, the blogosphere and pervasive networked connectivity is significant and indivisible. 

Although it's possible to come up with definitions that isolate virtual worlds from other technologies, as Raph wrote, "A lot of the praxis around virtual worlds — and indeed, games in general — has been co-opted by social media." This convergence is only going to expand and accelerate as modalities such as augmented reality, mobile computing, new controllers (such as Kinect) and the 3D web bleed into each other. Although analysts and their critics will continue to slice and dice things into neat categories, it's more a reductionist intellectual exercise than a path to wisdom and holistic insight.

Another factor that makes serious prediction an oxymoron is that technology is moving so fast on so many converging fronts that viewing any particular instance in isolation is going to lead to bad conclusions. When we throw in all of the new technologies over the coming years that we can't anticipate, the probable accuracy of long-term predictions based upon our best analysis is in the ballpark of Psychic Network readings. At any time, maybe tomorrow, some new technology or business model might pop up and change the game. 

On the other hand, parodies use the form of predictions to shed light on absurdities within the current situation. The best of them wake us up to aspects of the environment that go unnoticed within our fish-in-the-water mentality. They challenge our habitual way of looking at the virtual world, not by logical argument, but through satori. 

The problem with serious prediction is mostly in the inherent pretense. Thinking about the future is great fun and can stimulate interesting conversation and lead to insights into our current situation. It can also spark ideas that move us to take action that actually shapes the future. Sometimes even for the better.  But predictive pronouncements put blinders on our eyes rather than opening them to greater insight. Because they work to reify the mental models of the future into concrete beliefs.

How Punditry Kicked My Artistic Ass This Year

Effects are perceived, whereas causes are conceived. Effects always precede causes in the actual developmental order. 
Marshall McLuhan

Maybe my next art show should be called Botgirl's Punditry Circus . . .

I ran a few reports to evaluate how this year's blog stats compared to 2009 and to see which posts were most popular. I was happy to see that readership is up by around 15% (unique visitors) and pageviews increased more than 45%.

But I was bemused to discover that none of the top ten most viewed posts were about identity, machinima or art. Instead, seven were analyst-style pontification and three were issues-based parodies.

Interesting. Maybe I need to consider changing Brand Botgirl®. I heard a rumor that Dusan might be looking for a change. Wonder if there's a place for me at Metanomics.

Anyway, here are links to my ten most popular posts:

MY TOP TEN POSTS OF 2010

  1. A Simple Plan to Solve The Second Life Retention Problem

  2. What Does the Silent Majority of Second Life Think?

  3. Avatar Life Insurance Company Launched

  4. "Dolls for Decency" Response to Nude Barbie Ban in Second Life

  5. Why Cost Isn't the Reason for Second Life Land and Population Woes

  6. Second Life New User Experience: From Banner Click to First Rez

  7. My Take on Linden Lab's "New Direction" for Second Life

  8. The Graver Danger Uncovered in the #Emeraldgate Affair

  9. Browser-Based Strategy is Essential for Virtual World Growth

10. The Problem of Alts in Second Life and a Proposed Solution

More Scintillating, Scandalous and Surreal Predictions for Virtual Worlds in 2011

• Rod Linden will redirect the entire Second Life development team to work on adding Simlish to the chat translation capability.

• The endemic lack of response by Linden Lab to customer trouble tickets will be ruled a Denial of Service Attack by a California court.

• WikiLeaks will reveal that the Houri Region in Second Life was a US intelligence terrorist sting operation. All 72 virgins were male FBI agents.

• In a surprising admission @wallacelinden will disclose that the reason that he retweets so infrequently is that he misread Linden Lab's "no retreat" policy in the company manual.

• An ugly breakup of a Second Life couple will spill out into a social network flamewar.

• In response to Minecraft's popularity, a stealth Linden Lab project will deliver an 8-bit client to massive public and critical acclaim.

• Prominent virtual artist Chrome Underwood will sue his human counterpart for divorce on the grounds of cheating on himself with his own alts.

• The Church of SecondLientology will merge will The Church of Botgirl Questi, and be renamed  Botgirl's Church of SecondLientology. By the end of the  year, it will not only be the fastest growing religious organization in Second Life, but also make F.A.C.T.net's list of top cults.

If you missed yesterday's batch of predictions, you can find them here.

Botgirl's Top Ten 2010 Predictions for Virtual Worlds

• After a short honeymoon period, Linden Lab will make a series of decisions over the first quarter that turns the Second Life community against new CEO Rod Humble. @SecondLie will rechristen him Limp Rod Linden.

• A new religion will develop among the Second Life avatar expatriate community, leading John Lester to change his name to Pathfinder Prophet.

• Botgirl and Night will get a development deal from Marvel for a Night and Day comic.

• Following a decision in the Ozimals vs. Amaretto case, Crap Mariner will decide to fill the void and launch a virtual pet cat business so that Nardo will live forever.

• A 3D Second Life client will be released for the iPhone. Sale of tinies will go through the roof, as will lost hours in RL businesses due to increased "bathroom breaks".

• The story of a bizarre event related to virtual world obsession will be virally distributed around the world via both the internet and traditional publications. Second Life bloggers and social networks will express outrage (while being secretly jealous their names weren't mentioned.)

• A well known Second Life avatar who vanished from the grid in 2010 will reemerge after her RL husband decides not to pursue a 2012 U.S. presidential reelection bid.

• Hamlet will be laid off from Blue Mars due to budget cuts caused by languishing population growth. Fortunately he will pick up a new gig as an embedded journalist in CityVille.

• Linden Lab will announce a new technology project with a catchy code name.

• Prokofy Neva will retire the FIC list after a conversion experience and virtual baptism by Pathfinder Prophet.

We Is The New Me - Wallpaper

Here's a revised We Is The New Me image and a link the 1900 X 1200 Wallpaper version

We Is The New Me

This image above reflects a curious state of consciousness. When I posed for this photo with my brother and sister alts, there was a sense that I (Botgirl) was me and that Majic and fourworlds were they. (God knows where my sense of human identity was at the moment.)

I know the dummies aren't alive, but they certainly live in my consciousness. Jeff Dunham

We were each in a separate Second Life client. Each had full rights to move items in the sim, but I was the one moving elements around to set up the scene, shooting the images and saving them to disk. Even so, I could ask Majic or fourworlds for their opinion on something, and they would reply with an answer I could not have anticipated and did not plan. Although I am me at any particular moment in time, my perception over time is that me is we and that all me's and we's are ultimately empty of independent existence.

We do not exist as individual selves, immutable, unchanging and discrete. Ultimately, there is no self in the mirror staring back. We are all mutually defined. Robert Thurman

I don't see philosophy as a means to discern the objectively true nature of existence. Reality is far too vast, complex and multidimension for even the clearest logic to capture. But is is a very useful tool to expose subjective, conditional and limited views for what they are. If we let it. And for me, the same holds true for the experience of virtual identity. I've been leaning more towards art than prose recently here for that very reason. Because a single image can simultaneously disclose a multiplicity of dimensions for those with eyes to see.

Merry Christmas!

Sex Sells: My Top Viewed Videos of 2010

For all my pretensions at high-concept art, my top three videos on Vimeo this year were all pseudo-vintage erotica created by shooting and processing Second Life on an iPhone. Wait. That is kind of high-concept art, right?

Murder or Suicide?

"Was it murder or suicide?" Botgirl asked, as much to herself as to her new partner (who was who knows where at the other end of the conversation).

"Don't be so dramatic" Majic replied, "For all we know she's sitting on a beach somewhere sipping a cold drink."

"Well, she's vanished off the face of the multiverse without a clue," Botgirl typed with stacatto clicks. "So she's as good as dead here."

"That's a narcissistic way to look at it, isn't it?" Majic half-teased.

"Maybe," Botgirl sighed, gazing into space. "Which is why I ask, Was it murder or suicide?"

Thanks to Crap Mariner for 100 Word Story inspiration.

Majic at the Sex Club: Pranking, Research or Performance Art?

My first alt account was Majic Questi. I created her a month or so after my own rezday, mostly to play around with chatbot technology. Over the years she's appeared in some of my favorite videos and comics, and was the main attraction at the popular "Cuddle With a Bot" exhibit at last year's Botgirl's Identity Circus show. I now consider her to be my avatar sister, dependable collaborator and virtual BFF.

But there's a hidden aspect to our relationship that I have not shared until today:

I used to take Majic out to sex and BDSM clubs and read along as people tried to pick her up. Needless to say, some of the conversation were priceless. It really brought to life how imagination and projection play in our perception of identity, and how resistant mental models are to error correction based upon new information. Although Majic's responses were often nonsensical, it often took people a long time to realize they were interacting with a bot or a jokester and give up on their attempts to get her on a poseball. They would go from flirtation to frustration, lust to anger, amusement to exasperation and back again, sometimes a number of times over the course of a conversation. Very interesting.

I guess some would call it pranking, griefing or a TOS violation. I like to think of it as psychological research and performance art.

Being Somebody With No Body

At electronic speed, which is the speed of light, we are disembodied beings. On the phone, or "on the air," we are instantly present, but minus our bodies . . .  Marshall McLuhan

I wasn't concerned at first when I tried to login to Second Life yesterday and saw an alert that's usually displayed when trying to get back inworld after crashing: The server is logging you out. Your account is unavailable until (time). But after a few tries over the space of ten minutes I began to get concerned. Like a good crowdsourcer, I jumped over to Twitter and posted:

"I'm showing up as logged in to Second Life when I am not. Account compromised or not? Support ticket just sent. Anyone else had this happen?"

I got a couple responses referencing the term "ghost" and a link from Chuck Baggett with an explanation of the problem and a step-by-step solution. In short, the last server I was on before exiting Second Life wouldn't let me go and held a ghost instance of me in its digital clutches. The fix seemed to work and all is well for the time being.

My brief NBE (No Body Experience) got me thinking again about the relationship between physical appearance and identity. I'm going to post later this week on the topic, but for now I'll leave you with this fascinating (and somewhat embarrassing) anecdote:

I've rezzed into at least a dozen virtual worlds over the last couple of years and the first thing I always do is create an avatar that's as close to "Botgirl Standard" as possible. 

Virtual Worlds, Burnout and Serendipitous Joy

Chatting it up in Craft

I've had dozens of conversations this year with people who have lost enthusiasm for Second Life after two or three years of engaged participation. Although the stories vary to some degree, I think that behind the loss of enthusiasm is the loss of beginner's mind. We lose the initial sense of wonder as we fill our fresh and open minds with habit and preconception. Our initial naive openness gives way to jaded judgements. And in many cases, the virtual side of the candle we've been burning at both ends must be capped before the whole thing goes up in flames.

I've experienced all of the above. In fact, I hardly ever just hang out in the virtual world anymore. These days when I rez it's almost always to work on a project or attend some specific event. So when I went to check out Craft, a newish grid catering to the virtual art community, my intention was to take a quick look around for project fodder and then get out of Dodge. What actually happened was that I ended up bumping into a few interesting people and had a great time chatting.  And it brought back viscerally the mostly forgotten sense of serendipitous joy that was the hallmark of my first months in Second Life. What a wonderful gift.

Browser-Based Strategy is Essential for Virtual World Growth

According to the latest Pew Generations Report, virtual worlds have less participants than any other online niche surveyed and are experiencing no growth. It's pretty pathetic. Virtual worlds were not just trounced by social networks and multimedia viewing, but even by religious information sites and online auctions. After seven years in the public eye, it's clear that neither incremental technology improvements nor new ad campaigns are going to dramatically increase the virtual world market in the foreseeable future.

After reading the report, I'm more convinced than ever that browser-based access to virtual worlds in conjunction with social network integration is the most credible light at the end of the tunnel. The way to move virtual worlds from their current isolated backwater into the integrated mainstream is by making them as seamlessly accessible and usable as every other category in the Pew Report. This will also require mobile-compatible clients, since mobile internet use will surpass computer-based use within the next few years.

As much as we love to hate Farmville, its success proves that typical Facebook users will flock to virtual environments that are embedded within their social networking experience. But they're not going to download and install a heavy-weight client. And they're not going to care about the 75% of the current functionality cluttering the UI that is outside the basic chat/play paradigm. It's likely that most people will just want to pop in for 3D chat, a fast social game or a live event.

I am NOT advocating getting rid of heavyweight clients or changing the user experience for the joyously immersed, or any solution that requires public association of an account with a human identity. My future vision is of a multi-client universe where users can access virtual worlds through a wide range of applications and devices. Although browser-based users could access any place on the grid, there would be special sims tailored to games, events, etc. optimized for the Facebook crowd or mobile users who may have limited functionality or bandwidth. I think this multi-dimensional paradigm would offer a great opportunity for community scripters, builders and entrepreneurs to reach a vastly greater market, perhaps one that is integrated with Facebook's payment system.

Finally, I think that OpenSim Hypergrid technology (or something like it) is the way ahead for those of us who want to continue to push forward the old-school Full Monty experience. An integrated system of grids owned by small businesses, non-profits and private individuals will not have the kind of financial pressures that necessitate the kind of growth that investors in venture-backed companies demand.

Time will tell! For now, here are a couple of tables from the Pew Generations 2000 Report. Grab a copy yourself. It's a free download and well worth a read.

 ( From Pew Generations 2010 Report)

GROWTH

 (From  Pew Generations 2010 Report)

Trippy Little Video Shot During Test of Local OpenSim Server

As I was tinkering with settings on my new OpenSim server, I was inspired to capture a little cloud video and team it with some Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Avatar Rezzed at 30,000 Feet in RL on OpenSim Server

With an OpenSimulator server now installed on a laptop, I'm no longer limited to strictly virtual flying. I have a lot to learn (and a lot of content to either create or import) before it's going to be much more than a novelty, but it was really cool to be rezzed at 30,000 feet. Since I had nothing better to do, I also shot some video I'll edit and post here later this week. For now, here's a fast clip that caught some turbulence.

Why "Avatar a.k.a Human" is More Boring Than The Reverse

There are two main dimensions of virtual pseudonymity. The first is keeping one's human identity secret from the virtual community. Most of the benefits of virtual identity stem from this aspect of pseudonymity, because you can recreate yourself at will, free of any preconceptions based upon age, social status, gender, etc. To each their own, but I think that those who totally conflate their avatar and human identities are missing a great opportunity to push the boundaries of their self-conception.

The second aspect of virtual pseudonymity is keeping virtual identity from one's human circle of colleagues, friends and family. Although this sometimes is a response to a genuine threat to a career or a relationship, I think it mostly stems from either embarrassment about being one of those Second Life freaks, or simply not wanting to explain the unexplainable to the uninitiated. I get that. I really do. But I think that to fully reap the positive benefits of one's avatarian dimension, you have to claim it within your mundane human world as well.

Every avatar has a human counterpart. That's boring. But most humans do not have an active virtual identity. That's something worth sharing.

Botgirl's Top Five Tips For New Avatar Bloggers (Whiskey Day's Blogger Challenge)

Whiskey Day's InWorldz Blogger Challenge this week asks us: What advice would you give a new InWorldz Blogger?

After more than 650 blog posts on the avatar experience, I'm probably as qualified as anyone to play pundit on Whiskey's question. But my guess is that bloggers' experience varies widely depending upon the purpose of their blog, their primary areas of interest and their own special idiosyncratic blend of intellectual, emotional and creative gifts and vices. For instance, some people blog in conjunction with a virtual world related business so their main aim may be to connect with (and sell to) existing and potential customers. Others blog as amateur enthusiasts of a particular sub-culture or hobby interest such as fashion, role play, art or music. Their purpose may be to share information of mutual interest such as new products, exhibits or venues. Still others use their blog mostly to vent vitriol at companies, people and issues that piss them off.

My blog is pretty much a public journal of my thoughts and creative work related to virtual life. So the tips I'm going to share after this long-winded introduction relate to my own limited experience. Your mileage may vary:

1. Discover the sacredness of the empty page.

Most posts I've written start with an empty page and no preconceived idea of what I was going to write about. Although I do my share of whining about being out of ideas for new posts when I'm not in the process of writing, I've never actually sat before an empty page and left empty-handed. So if you don't have an idea, sit your ass down in front of the keyboard with an open mind and give your Muse the time and space to whisper in your ear. He or she is probably straining at the bit to take you in some new interesting direction.

2. Don't let your ideas get away. Always write them down.

There's no telling when the Muse will grace you with a fresh idea. So when something comes to mind, be sure to capture it or it will likely slip away. I recommend Evernote as a great multi-device notetaker for text, voice and visual note taking.

3. Write to understand rather than to convince.

Few endeavors will challenge your thinking as consistently and constructively as the process of trying to write a few hundred clear and honest words on a complex or controversial topic. Although many of my posts come across as opinion pieces, the particular ideas I end up expressing are often quite different than what I started out with. The key is to be more committed to discovering the emergent truth than in promoting any particular fixed position.

4. Shorter is better.

If you can't clearly get your point across in a few hundred words, it's unlikely that five thousand words words will do anything other than kick up a smoke screen to hide your lack of understanding. Piling on disconnected anecdotal evidence is neither persuasive nor interesting. And since no one will actually read a blog post of that length, it's not really worth the bother. Of course, complex topics can not be fully discussed in a short post. But both you and your readers will be much better off if you break complex issues down into a series of short and focused posts. 

5. Pseudonymity is never invulnerable. Don't write anything you can't afford to connect to your atomic identity.

At first, blogging under an avatar pseudonym is pretty easy. But one day you may wake up and find that your dozens of hits a day are up in the hundreds and the social network, e-mail and content sharing presence needed to support the blog requires juggling separate web browsers and multiple accounts on all of your devices. So it's very likely that one day you're going to mistakenly type the wrong information into the wrong place and inadvertently out yourself to the whole Internet. When that happens, you don't want to have anything out there that will jeopardize your job, marriage or other important aspect of RL.

Whisky also asked us to: ". . . go into your InWorldz inventory, choose snapshots, and sort by date. Show us the first snapshot you took in InWorldz."

I never save images to inventory since I always capture them to disk. But I did find this old video clip from InWorldz, shot with an iPhone:

Botgirl IRL

Continuing my less-words-more-art based approach to exploring factual, fictional, physical and digital identity (sorry Soror), here's a fun little iPhone-created exercise in mixed reality imagination:

My Current Take on Identity (after 100+ posts on the topic)

Soror Nishi posted a rant yesterday about misuse of the word "identity" by people discussing the topic in relation to virtual worlds. After writing more than 100 posts related to identity over the past few years, the primary question that still holds interest for me is this:

How do the beliefs we hold about who and what we are 

impact the way we live our lives?

I could have just stopped there, but wanted to add a few thoughts related to Soror's post . . .

If we look deeply into the sentient being we experience as a unique identity, it becomes clear that little has been constant over the course of any person's life. For instance, at fifty years of age there is only the slightest remnant left of the physical, mental and emotional aspects that comprised a person when they were two years old.

So although I agree with Soror that, "Your Self and your Identity you are stuck with, and you only ever have one of each . . .", it is only from the perspective that we don't have multiple instances of our selves walking around simultaneously and interacting independently of each other. Practically speaking, I find it more useful to think of myself as an ever-changing malleable web of thoughts, feelings and form that expresses multiple identities, not only from decade to decade, but from moment to moment.

Of course, this is a deep, important, complex and mysterious subject that can not be covered in a single book, little alone a short post. But my intention in this blog is not to hack into the ultimate reality of identity, but instead to think about how virtual identity can contribute to the actualization of human potential and happiness.

Remembering Digital Utopianism

Digital Utopianism was the leading-edge philosophy in Second Life when I arrived in January of 2008. I think the movement's peak came in June of that same year when a two day Future of Religion Conference was held in the Extropia Sim:

The Future of Religions/Religions of the Future is a two-day conference examining how two of the 21st Century's driving forces, religion and technology, will continue to re-shape each other and, in the process, re-cast our understanding of "humanity" in the Third Millennium.

For a brief shining moment, many of us felt that virtual worlds were going to take humanity into a new and better place based upon the social equality of pseudonymous avatar identity and the freedom to transcend the limitations of physics. Some were even tipping the balance and making their virtual identities primary in terms of time, attention, relationships and vocations. Two and a half years later that movement is virtually gone with many of its chief proponents disappeared from the face of the virtual world.

In retrospect, I think that the failure of the movement to create a sustainable means for independent avatar existence was not due to faulty vision, but because it saw too far into the possible future. Perhaps someday technology will be able to provide the all-encompassing vehicle required to transport us into the better future envisioned by avatars like Sophrosyne Stenvaag. Or maybe not. In any case, I was waxing a bit nostalgic and thought I'd share my thoughts.

The Winter of My Discontent

What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

Night and Day Noir

I decided to play around with Night and Day: Episode One to illustrate how post-production effects, editing and scoring can create very different looks and feels from the same raw machinima footage. This remixed version takes a Noir approach, using high-contrast black and white filtering and a melodramatic score. There were also quite a few small edits of both the voice and video sequences to speed up the pace and tighten everything up to match the new style:

Here's the new Noir version:



And the original version:



Due to Night's indeterminate time out from Second Life, subsequent episodes of Night and Day with new content are on hold. C'est la vie virtuelle.

Botgirl Strips

Please excuse the misleading headline. I wrote it to illustrate the use of a teaser headline, which is a common tactic bloggers use to increase traffic to a post. There was a pretty active discussion on Twitter yesterday around SLebrity and one thread focused on the impact of a perceived audience on a creator's works, including blogging. In what ways, if any, do we dilute, color or ignore our Muse's voice because we are afraid we might alienate or bore our audience. And do we sometimes end up chasing our idea of what our audience wants instead of listening to the small still voice within.



These strips were created with iPhone software, inspired by an article I read yesterday on 3D Post Production. I often use iPhone and iPad software for sandbox projects. The bigger project this is leading to is a re-edited version of Night and Day Episode 1 that will use some post-production tricks and a new score to demonstrate the power of post in machinima production. I hope to have it out early next week.

The Art of Blur and the Infinite Game

Screen shot of new depth of field feature in Second Life mesh viewer beta

I finally got around to checking out the new depth of field capability of the mesh viewer beta. Although it's definitely not ready for practical machinima use yet, it offers a tantalizing glimpse of what a full-featured virtual camera rig might offer someday. In any case, it was really fun to just play around with the art of blur as it stands now without worrying about getting any particular result beyond a shot for this post.

The amateur can afford to lose. The expert is the man who stays put. Marshall McLuhan

Although I've toyed from time to time with doing something professionally-related with virtual worlds, I really love being an amateur enthusiast. Just as pseudonymous avatar identity provides many people with a sense of expanded personal freedom, the virtual sandbox has facilitated a similar sense of creative freedom for me. With no business purpose to serve nor customer goals to consider, I am free to go wherever the Muse takes me. I can fearlessly post even the most off-the-wall experiments and works in progress, because I'm sharing a journey rather than creating a product or bolstering a career.  In short, it allows me to enjoy my virtual life as an infinite game:

There are two kinds of games, finite and infinite games. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, and infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play. James P. Carse

The idea of playing an infinite game doesn't preclude the possibility of external pay-offs such as money, recognition, fame or whatever.  It's just that the focus is on the intrinsic joy of the doing, rather than on the projection of some future benefit.

- In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. Andy Warhol
- In the future, everyone will be famous to 15 people. Momus
-In the future, everyone will have 15 like-minded enthusiasts to play with. Botgirl Questi

Missing: The Video

Here's the latest iteration on the concept I started fooling around with in yesterday's post. The voice on the soundtrack is Marshall McLuhan.