Well, we go through this every year in every industry across the board. People get laid off in December. You’re coming down to the end of the last quarter, things are getting tallied up, and if the numbers don’t look good it might be your neck. Best to offer up someone else’s before it comes to that.
Let’s start with the basic rundown of the Linden Lab situation: Cory Ondrejka was fired from Linden Lab about a week ago. He was the “Chief Technology Officer”, responsible for keeping the machine well-oiled and for adding all sorts of features. Massively published the in-company memo about it, as well as Cory’s classy farewell email. (Nice scoop guys!) Everybody is holding true to the official company line that it’s a question of Philip and Cory seeing the future of the company differently.
Interpretation we’re supposed to make:
Even though Philip promised the grid would start working better, it’s actually much worse. So, he’s taking decisive measures to make good on his promise, but please remember that Cory is an innovative genius so anyone out there looking for an engineer should hire him.
The cynic in me isn’t completely buying this on the surface. The “leaked” internal memos read like press releases, first of all. I’ve never known engineers to write that well. They had help. The whole thing feels like a strong attempt to manipulate all upcoming 2007 retrospectives where we count up a few dozen extra features and no appreciable improvement in performance.
MEANWHILE…
The Electric Sheep lays off 1/3 of their staff (22 people gone). I like the Sheep, in a big-budget-blockbuster kind of way. They make mega-budget virtual world builds, and hire lots of talented people to make it happen.
The problem is the flops. I mean, they’re going to happen. Nobody bats 1.000. Now, if your budget is the same every time you can survive that kind of thing but that CSI:NY project, well… you knew that was hubris the moment you heard of it. A few dozen (literally) generic-looking cloned sims, an untested client, and a website that made actually finding the sign-up page almost impossible.
It flopped. Don’t believe any hype to the contrary – residents watched that giant grid of islands carefully. They stayed mostly vacant. That might not be so bad, but ESC bet a hell of a lot on this one. Soon after AOL announced that they were leaving Second Life, and Pontiac announced that they were on the way out too. Now it’s not just cash that down the tubes, it’s reputation.
End of the year comes, you take a look around, a hell of a lot of pressure on you, and you start to trim your projects. They’re ditching their ad network (thank goodness!) and focusing on technology items instead of gigantic builds. You can’t blame them.
Games for Change, a national umbrella group dedicated to advancing positive social change through digital games, is seeking a Project Manager for its Prototyping, Evaluation, Teaching and Learning lab (PETLab) ¬ – a joint initiative with Parsons The New School for Design. This new position is part-time (60% FTE), with potential to grow to full-time, in a high-profile, cutting-edge New York City-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting the new field of videogames for social change. Continue reading ‘Want Work In Gaming?’
Why am I posting a bunch of potentially offensive videos from a guy making political statements I don’t completely agree with and I’m not interested in discussing?
Sean Bedlam is what new media is all about.
He does two extremely taboo things in his videos: he swears (taboo because science has shown that some sounds emitted by human vocal chords, called “swears”, hurt people somehow), and he states a strong political opinion (taboo because, obviously, you shouldn’t… uh… opine…).
Let’s face it: we’ve allowed censorship to run amok in the mainstream media. When I can turn on the TV any day of the week and watch hours of back-to-back beatings and murder on CSI but we’re still talking about Janet Jackson’s 2004 Superbowl nipple, we have a problem. I’m not saying I’m a plug-my-fingers-in-my-ears-and-chant-”censorship is wrong” kind of guy, but when we ban sex (something we all like in our lives) from TV, but are cool with broadcasting violence (which we really DON’T want in our lives) perhaps we all could use a big kung-fu kick to our sensibilities. People haven’t felt like they can say what’s on their minds for ages.
(Oh, and yes I censor comments on my blog whenever they tick me off. Yeah, ironic, I’m a hypocrite, get over it.)
Looking back through the past bunch of decades we’ve dealt with this problem in a variety of interesting ways. In the 60′s people actively rejected social norms and called it “being a hippie”. By the 80′s people saw that wasn’t necessarily a long-term plan for them and instead tried to buy into the dream that television was selling them. Somehow this resulted in massive commercialization and shows with detectives that drove sportscars but still couldn’t afford a decent razor. This was followed by the 90′s, Generation X, and a bunch of people with an uneasy feeling that while everything probably made sense, they weren’t in on the joke.
Now we have the new media. Blogs, podcasts, message boards, virtual worlds, and yes, free video for all. Sean’s videos are a great example of what happens when the media is finally divorced of “institution”. People say what’s on their minds, at long last, and we’ve discovered that things don’t make sense and never did.
So, now what? Are we any less neurotic? Are we any more free? Has any of this changed a damn thing?
My gut tells me that while it’s all fascinating, the change in Who We Are (in big-concept caps) hasn’t happened quite yet. Let’s give it another decade. Even with all of the analytical tools and instant delivery of ideas across the globe that we have at our disposal, only hindsight remains 20/20.
–
Oh, and about what Sean’s actually said in these clips… hell, it would take about four dozen blog posts to cover it. I gotta go do some stuff though… so… you write ‘em.
I was told at one point that “they” were waiting for me to get in touch. Foolishly, I wrote an aloof “what the hell” email.
Clearly, that was the wrong attitude.
Robin Hely created a short film called “Who Is Robert Henley?”, detailing the peculiar character that would later reappear in many Neurocam references. Unfortunately the ‘net has been scrubbed clean of the movie from what I can tell, and Robin Hely’s website is down for the count.
The movie was odd and clever, although it revealed very little. Robin Hely made a bunch of other films, including one where he had a limo pull up, two men wearing ski-masks pop out, trash Hely’s art exhibit and then kidnap Hely himself.
In 2004, the billboard (pictured above) appeared in Melbourne, Australia. People going to the website were invited to volunteer as “Operatives”. Many were contacted anonymously, sent on missions, temporarily kidnapped, interrogated, and often (but not always) sworn to secrecy. Sometimes it was a package delivery mission. Other times photos. Many missions skirted the edge of the law.
It’s likely Hely ran things at this point, but after awhile things got rocky. Missions became sporadic. Operatives were culled en masse. Some operatives, thinking that the project was abandoned, tried to pick things up here and there but it never really worked out. Hely started working on his INNOCENCE art project, and that might have been that.
Lately, however, things are alive and kicking around Neurocam. The website itself isn’t telling you much, but follow the clues and eventually you’ll end up at the Yellow-1 website. There’s also the ultra-enigmatic Fiat Nox. From the feel of things there are two possibilities: either Hely found qualified artists to hand things off to, or somehow the beast is continuing to lumber around without a head.
There’s a possibility that nobody is running this thing, after all. It could be continuing on without any central guidance at all, having taken on a life of its own. Operatives could easily be sending each other on missions that make sense to them at the time. They may be unfolding a story that has not, in fact, been written.
So I’m flying along, minding my own business, when *POW* I get smacked by Gwyneth Llewelyn‘s tag. Now I have to write eight things about myself, and tag another eight people to do the same. It’s like one of those horrible chain letters I generally hit “reply” to with a bunch of angry comments. I’ll start it with: “Chain letters are one thing, but you actually expect me to participate in an old worn-out blogmeme? Why you…”
Except… well… it’s Gwyn. In Second Life’s blogosphere she’s like everybody’s awesome cool aunt that you wish you had more time to hang out with. Seriously, are YOU gonna be the guy to tell off your cool Aunt Gwyn? No, I didn’t think so. Guess I’m screwed.
THA RULEZ for the “Eight Random Facts Blogmeme”:
Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
Hooboy… alright, let’s give this a shot. Why the hell am I feeling nervous? Weird. Anyhow. Here: Continue reading ‘TAGGED!’
