Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education

Performance Innovations Virtual Theatrein

of Our

The

Metaverse Shakespeare Company (MSC), aka, mShakespeare is a professional theatre company based in SL. curator of the most historically accurate theatres and architecture relating to

William Shakespeare in virtual worlds. (formerly SL Shakespeare Company!)

The MSC is an independent organization. Fiscal Sponsor: sLiterary, Inc. (NPO, arts in virtual worlds) Not affiliated with Linden Lab (Second Life) Not affiliated with any one institution, though many have participated, and all are

welcome to participate.

Origins Founded in 2007 by Ina Centaur Funded and supported completely by the residents of Second Life

Introduction, Part I

Productions – Quality and with Passion and Innovation Main Canon: A single full-length Shakespearean play/year Several smaller productions other than the main play RSC Methods of scansion/analysis with rigorous rehearsals Embrace SL: Open auditions - Most actors have never met in RL. An innovation introduced with each main canon production

Immersive Performance Environment – Cinematic atmosphere SL Globe Theatre

To-Scale replica of Shakespeare’s second Globe Theatre Set in the midst of an an arts mecca in virtual worlds.

Blackfriars Theatre World’s only complete replica of Shakespeare’s indoor theatre. Perfect for Elizabethan-style black box theatre.

Introduction, Part II

“Open Access” Philosophy Participation: Anyone can join or witness our public

events. Open Venues:

sLiterary, Inc. sLiterary is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the

arts in virtual worlds—to create “What Second Life can be!” sLiterary Venues - Always Open to the Public

Metaverse Shakespeare Venues are sLiterary Venues Over 50 venues, only some examples shown

Brief preview and event listings at each venue are available at http://venues.sLiterary.org

Anyone can book *their* public event for free

Shared Content: Creative Commons Licensing for Not-for-profit Use of

Content Attribution+Noncommercial+ShareAlike (by-nc-sa)

Effects in Education - Setting

Via “Open Access”, we’ve reached both current students and “potential students” Current Students:

Supplementing existing for-credit RL courses Shakespeare, Film & Theatre Courses

Witness/Discuss a live Shakespearean play virtually @ SL Globe or Blackfriars (UC Davis, Bryn Mawr, MPC, Stanford, UT)

New Media Courses Observations of best practices in literary artistic uses of new media

(UCSC, CSU, HVCC)

History Courses Lectures given in a virtual construction of a historic venue “bring history to

life” (Oberlin, Princeton, Waldorf)

Recreational, not-for-credit courses on SL Voice Acting courses, Hobbyist courses

“RP” courses on SL Engaging the “potential student”:

General Public Reaching out to unincorporated audiences in rural and inner city areas—many of whom have never

seen a live theatrical performance before

Effects in Education - Results

Effects, in general, for historically accurate immersive settings and activities, with/without theatrical supplements

Education Engages the student in a way beyond traditional textbooks Students learn in an intimate first-hand way when

immersed in a historically-accurate setting An ultimate globally-accessible form of asynchronous

learning

Research Provides an authentic medium for simulation of and

experiments on era-activities Insights in era activities, even from passive observations

Case Study – Historically Accurate, Blackfriars Theatre

Effects in Education – And Research

The Bad Limited audience per sim. Not the unlimited theatre one would expect

Current Solution: - 4-sim stage/theatre But, client-side lag may still strike.

Down-side: Lag and Many users of SL outdated graphics cards, more users, more to render. Audience perspectives differ takes extreme toll in “User experiences may vary.”

Often Haphazard or “Borked” Voice

Media Stream – Variable delay between avatar movement and voice arrival SL Voice – “Instantaneous” Uncertain expectations

Randomly disrupted Sometimes disabled for hours

Crash! Limitations Due to Linden Lab (More to come in Part III—Socioeconomic Insights)

Unprofessional (BBB F) Unexpected, haphazard policy changes Uncertain service uptime, complete or partial failure

Closed-source server – no way to add mo-cap, etc

The Good Proven L$-spending userbase. Possible to sustain tier even in a non-profit way (though not without

its difficulties) Immersive world—while some come on SL just for the show, they can also explore the world beyond

in-depth, become immersed in it, like a true alter reality—or, like visiting a new country.

SL as a Platform for Virtual Theatre

Accessibility Closed-Captioning, live subtitles provided in English

and other languages. Appearances

Lip-synching LSL Script-based (Dec. 2007) – Regular/Sculpted-Talking Face Built-in (June 2008)

House/Director-control of audience view Default-View Cushions Live Director-Control

Distinctive Avatars Semi-Photorealistic Faces to convey a quintessential human

element in avatar visage Tailored and Custom-Made Costumes that define each

character Designed and Dressed by professionals

MSC Innovations in Virtual Theatre, I

Optimized Sets Texture, script optimized

Preload on alpha=0 and unseen sides of prims Touch-click action

Multi-Sets for large audience Sets pre-rezzed Set-placer instead of set-rezzer Toggle-touch to place in/out

Yet More Technological Innovations on the Virtual Stage Global Lighting Virtual Storm Usage of Physics Automaton actors

Avatar-based Prim-based

MSC Innovations in Virtual Theatre, II

MSC, in context of SL’s status quo and infrastructure Second Life is a very material world

Island sims cost US$300/month, and setup fees for empty islands have cost up to US$1600. Nonprofit/Edu sims are discounted at 50% - $150/month, up to US$800 setup. This does not include any construction or content-creation costs.

The vast majority of content and islands on SL are commercial. Most educational/nonprofit endeavors on SL are funded by external sources, whether the institution itself or

grants. MSC, along with all sLiterary endeavors, involves island sims that are 100% “dedicated to the

arts”—and are currently completely funded and supported by the residents of SL. Meritocracy in a miserly v.w. based on nitty-gritty microeconomics

We operate on Merit Not everyone gets to create for us. We examine hundreds of thousands of creations yearly. We do blind evaluations

by quality of work. We make sure to give our best back in our creations. As a result: Thousands of residents have donated to support our cause.

Full Transparency Usage of any public funds are reported to a Transparency website. Script-facilitated donation beacons instantly report each donation to a public website, broadcast immediately by

the official donation beacon, and accessible by all.

Political intrigue Coups, back-stabbings, slander/libel, Machiavellian deviousness, the works—even if all this is

happening in what you might think a “game world” real people take it very seriously, enough for these complex social phenomena to occur.

Socioeconomic Insights from MSC