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LaRPS : Legacies Role Play System » Rants and Raves
Linden Lab interviews TriJin
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Linden Lab approached me and asked if I would host their Vampire Event on their forum. I was excited about this and, of course, accepted. They made their announcements and provided an interview with myself (the content of which is below).
The day came for the hosted event and lo and behold, the forums are hijacked by Bloodlines, The Hunger and The Destiny. A bunch of meter bashing spampires who are in Second Life for the cash. Their prime goal is not to suck the life entity from a mortal in a story writing way, but simply to suck the hard-earned REAL cash from their victims.
As you probably already know, being in the LaRPS chain, we are about story writing and getting into the immersion of the environment. The satisfaction of becoming our characters as a life style. Sure, we have HUDs and clothing, attachments and other embellishments, but that doesn't take away from OUR prime mission of being part of the story and style.
Therefore, I declined being part of the Linden Lab Spampire Event for that reason. "Never argue with an idiot...."
LaRPS mission is about ROLE PLAY.... not "who's got the fanciest HUD and can press their buttons the fastest".
LaRPS is about IMMERSION... not "selling pints of digital blood for God knows how many REAL DOLLARS".
LaRPS is about YOU... it doesn't matter what your character is as long as you just take that character and become it.
Anyway, rant over... here's the interview that I WAS going to provide to the forum.
Images available on my Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trijin/
How long have you been in SL and what are some of your favorite things to do inworld?
My virtual digital existence spawned on 4th April 2007, back when Second Life had a huge spark of life and Linden Lab announces its technology for all to use. I originally came into SL to investigate one of the passions I have - virtual worlds. I found the community easy to get into due to the free form creativity that is given to each and every resident, and being a a techie, found the user interface easy to grasp. What could be better!!! I get to live my dreams, be what I want and toss the physical world constraints to one side - to realize and breathe life into my dark sinister soul-less entity called TriJin.
With Second Life being so free-form, I don't have a specific favorite thing to do, other than ensuring that what I do requires me to experiment. Exercising the imagination is important to me and once overcoming the minor mundane technical of basic user interfaces, I indulge in whatever I can. Of course, I have my guiding philosophies of community spirit, creative imagination and immersion to lead me through.
Where do you get the inspiration for your sim or community?
Inspiration comes from many forms. I may get inspired by a single quote or phrase from a book, or by listening to a piece of music. The important thing is to realize and be open-minded enough to turn that inspiration into a subjective creative spark. Putting your own self into the mix is important. As the phrase "When everyone is a God, no one is." is true. I see too many people trying to follow a fashion where they want to look and act exactly the same. This is not being part of a community but is simply a copy-cat lazy way of getting involved. A true community works due to the diversity of everyone. Each sharing their idea of what vampires (or any other form) may interact and exist.
How long have you been vamping in SL?
Wow!, too long LOL. I came from a background of D&D and a huge love of role-playing. In D&D, vampires weren't very plentiful, but then I found Second Life. From the first month in SL, I realized my vampiric character and held it ever since. Sure, the character has evolved, but the soul and essence has remained the same. I believe TriJin will continue on for many years... that reminds me, I need to change my socks :P
What’s your favorite part of your sim? Got a photo?
Hmm... that's a tricky question, as I love all parts of all the regions I've built. But if I had to choose, I think it would be the Vamporium village on the ground floor of the Vamporium region. I like to roam around there and take in the dark feeling of the place. Secondly, I just love to roam around the ground floor on Isle of Legacies and Beyond Darkness, running through the alley ways of the buildings. Especially with the super cool windlight settings, it fills my mind with all sorts of inspiration for future ideas. Not to mention running into the NPCs I made :) I was really glad to hear that SL has finally taken a plunge and will possibly offer support for AI NPCs. AI is one of those passions that really tickles my brain.
Has you sim or community changed over time? How so?
Oh absolutely! The ideals, philosophy and community spirit has never really changed, but the quality of the immersion and the higher standard of the technical has improved. As Second Life software gets better, the quality of the visual rendering improves, thereby helping the community to delve into what we come into a Virtual World for.... to do things we can't do in the real world. The richness of the visuals now taken care of, I wouldn't be surprised if Linden Lab starts to implement Smell-o-vision and Feel-A-Scope with USB plugin access ... Oh wait.. I know a website for that :P
How has your avatar’s look changed over the years?
Actually, I've hardly changed my look at all. In the first week I was in SL, I bought a natural human skin. Wore that for nearly 3 years, then made my own dark skin to portray my character. As for clothing, I'm not much of a shopper. I still wear the same outfits I've had for years (one of the advantages of virtual clothing - they last forever) and only change my avatar on special occasions. At Easter I ran around as a bloody rabbit holding an Jason style machete. LOL.
What’s your favorite thing about building Vampire sims?
The end effect of when people say "OMG". That means that person truly appreciated the effect. I believe that's what all artists want. Why else would they try to use a medium to paint their imagination? One of the other favorite things about building is the relaxing state you get when you're putting things together. You get into a state of Nirvana. Very relaxing and very exciting too.
What’s the most challenging aspect of building Vampire sims?
Making it look true and immersive. I tend to go towards the dark and sinister look instead of the toony red blood approach. I believe, if you can project a sense of "being there", the rest of the senses will follow. Kind of like the Alfred Hitchcock Effect, of not really seeing the bloody murder or the knife... play on the imagination and the brain does the rest.
As for other challenges of building, that has to be technical. Such as prim counts and the ability to make things look as you want them to look. Now we have the wonderful Mesh capabilities, we will start to see more of the creative minds at work, portraying a more visual representation of what the artist truly wanted.
What do you do to relieve “creativity block”?
I've found the best way to overcome that big brick wall we all run into, is simply to cover the project and not look at it for a while. I go off and do something different then return to the project later, uncover it and stare at it... "Ah!... there it is!"
Second Life and its huge diversity of inspiring visuals always lead to helping towards that which you are trying to achieve. Inspiration is food for thought and we all need to be fed. We just have to be careful and not get side-tracked by the overwhelming array of places and art. Keeping your focus, is important.Do you have any tips for organizing and managing people and projects?
Keep it fun. Keep it simple. Express yourself.
I've found the best way to manage things is not to manage things. Trying to create a hierarchy in the form of a business never really succeeds within a free-from shared world where community is full of people with different ideas. I simply mould my imagination into something that people see and interact with, then if they like it, then great! Art is very subjective and one of the important things to realize is that everyone has an opinion that is completely different to yours. So never try to force your ideals onto others. The ability to take criticism is very important too. If you run off and cry just because someone didn't like the way you wrote something, or built something, isn't going to get you very far.
Also remember that solutions are born from necessity. Rather than forcing a solution to go your way, let the path evolve itself based on what you wish to achieve. This is the way of all things in life. "Nature finds a way".
How long do you brainstorm before starting to build inworld?
I tend to build like I play chess... my brain is 10 moves ahead of my hands :) I brainstorm all the time, even when I'm creating something. Regardless of whether it's a prim block build or a piece of code that finally joins those AI learning nodes together. I find that trial and error helps. Just by experimenting with things, yields some amazing results. Throw the clay upon the wheel, then spin it. Life is full of experimentation and that's how we evolve to become better. Exploration into different areas yields greater satisfaction.
What are some of your favorite Vampire shops, inworld or on the Marketplace?
Of course, I have to say Vamporium (belting deep laughter). But seriously, I think anyone who spends time and effort in making their unique creations for access to everyone is deserving of praise.
I'm not much of a shopper, but I have seen a huge number of fantastic builds and clothing in Marketplace. It is very easy just to hit that search box, search "vampire", then browse through the stuff. I greatly admire the castle builders. Abel Dreamscape comes to mind with the awesome architecture of their builds (you've got to go see the Cathedral).What are some of your favorite Vampire locations in SL?
Legacies 1891 and neighboring regions :) As I strive for full immersion, the role-playing areas of Legacies is so designed. With diversity of environments, one may truly become part of the scene and the community. Legacies is something I'm very proud of. Not for the build and the role-playing system, but for the community as a whole. Everyone gets together each day all day and simply delve into the spirit of things.
What is your advice to new or current Residents who want to get involved in the Vampire communities?
My advice is, go and explore. Take a week of exploration. Do nothing but go around the vampire communities. Second Life search is so easy to use now and the results are really quite accurate. Click that magnifying glass in your viewer, open the search and type in "vampires"... then just go through the list. If they are locations, simply teleport to them and get a sense of how you "feel" when things have rezzed up. It normally takes about 5 minutes so be patient. Don't rush it, as you will miss things. Also remember, like Legacies, a great deal of the vampire community work from Group messaging and external website forums. One of the reasons why I made LaRPS.net was to encourage people to become a creative immersive resident.
You must also remember one VERY important aspect of being involved in a Vampire community - to remember that there is IC and OOC. IC being "In Character". This is where you become your vampiric alter-ego and experience the immersion. OOC (Out of Character) is simply your real world self, that controls the technical parts. Never the twain shall meet, else you will run into great difficulties. So my advice is - keep your IC and OOC completely separate. Imagine back when you played role-playing games as a child. This is the same thing but more like "Whose Line Is it Anyway?" :P
In summary: Be patient, Be open-minded and most of all Be Creative. It really is that easy.
What’s the easiest way to get a great Vampire avatar in less than 15 minutes?
Seriously! Linden Lab have already placed a default path skin Goth style avatar already in your Second Life Library. So if you want to start off straight away, go grab that one. As you develop more and more into the community, you start to add extras such as fangs, cape and other supporting attachments.
If you had only 1 hour inworld, where would you go and what would you do?
Hmm... I would have to say, I would go down to the Vamporium village and bite the hell out of all the roaming zombies. Such great fun, until you start losing sight of where they dropped their coin bags. True, there's not much sustenance from a walking dead, more of a quick snack really. But at least it keeps the brain-dead entity population in control. :P
What do you think your sim will look like this time next year?
It would be approximately the same, but maybe I will rebuild some of it with the new mesh format. Especially now that mesh is a viable alternative (in some cases) to sculpties. Other than that, I only see more involvement brewing in Legacies as the community gets richer in diversity and imagination.
What do you think s the biggest misconception about the Second Life Vampire community?
Oh I have a huge list, but the biggest peeve for me has to be:
Pregnancy!
Yup, believe it or not... vampires don't get pregnant. Vampires are walking dead and have no working human parts. I see way too many people walking around with "tummy talkers". Get rid of them. Vampires don't need them. We make our Childers by turning existing humans into our family. Day walkers (dampires) are slightly different in that they are still human but carry a vampiric virus in them. Mostly used as blood dolls or slaves to do the bidding of the master vampire.Many Vampire-related communities have clans. Why do you think that is?
Simple answer - Family.
A Clan is simply a smaller community as a family. It's natural to gather together in groups. Clans tend to get feudal, as with normal families in the real world. That just adds to the excitement and the strong feeling of immersion in a group. Many see it as "clique" but really a great deal of Clans are very open to members. If you are new to the scene, working towards joining a Clan is certainly a must.
What’s your take on the “Twilight” series and the perception of Vampires in Second Life? Has that popularity influenced your community in a good or bad way?
"Twilight" - No comment :P
Hollywood vampires... you can keep them! Those styles of vampires are made for one purpose - to sell tickets. True vampire communities are not around to satisfy the fashion masses but to be part of a creative and dark imaginative community.
The premise of "Twilight" boils down to the same thing of what "boy bands" are.
I believe some people see Second Life Vampires as Hollywood vampires, saying the term is used just to sell accounts. In reality, this is not true. SL Vampires, Goth or any of the other community forms, in this wonderful virtual world, is a TRUE community. Linden Lab don't make the vampires, we do. We make it happen and we design the destiny. Linden Lab just provide the canvas, we paint the masterpiece.
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