SL on CSI NY Repeat on Tonight

Just wanted to let y'all know that they are showing the CSI NY about SL tonight!

FYI,
Kate

Hey thanks! I missed the first time around.

Can't catch it, anyone know the name of the episode so I can 'find' it later?

I refuse it to watch it on moral grounds siince it allowed ESC (Electric Sheep Company) to make a ton of money right before they turned around and fired half their staff which included a lot of good people that are well respected creators and several who are/were respected commentators on this forum.

That's also not to mention that they represent the gentrification and the selling out of SL and of course screwing their greeters out of proper pay.

I've heard it's an entertaining series of episodes though

it is either "Down the Rabbit Hole" or "Through the Rabbit Hole". This was the third showing that I have seen. It is totally unrealistic, but sort of fun to watch. The follow up episode was really bad. Hardly any reference to sl.

Gordon, as one of the ex-Sheep you may be talking about, let me say I appreciate the sentiment. However, I'd still recommend watching the episode. The fact that they laid us off doesn't negate the fact that many talented people put a lot of hard work into the art that was featured in that episode, and we're proud of what we did accomplish with it. It's of course unfortunate that things ended the way they did, but there's little point in remaining bitter over it.

As for how much money was or wasn't made, I can't directly comment on that, for obvious reasons. But I would invite you to consider what is perhaps even more obvious. Do companies that are making a lot of money typically lay off half their staff all of a sudden? Or are layoffs more typically a sign that a company is experiencing financial difficulty?

It's a common misconception that fame and fortune are directly related. The truth is that just because your stuff's on TV doesn't mean you're rolling in dough.

Heck, I happen to know several rock stars personally, and at least one fairly famous actress, all of whom are either flat broke, or are just scraping by. I won't name names, but I'm sure you've seen all of them on TV many times. If those guys aren't rich, and they're stars, it's a bit hard to imagine that a small company with (then) 70+ salaries to pay would have gotten rich just by contributing some visual content to one episode of one television show, don't you think?


In any case, the episode is entertaining. As has been mentioned, it's not at all realistic in terms of what SL actually is, but that's why it's a TV show. It's fiction, not reality. CSI doesn't even portray crime scene investigation accurately, after all. No one should expect they'd be even close to accurate about a peripheral 'topic of the week' like SL. There is some good SL artwork featured, though, which is worth seeing, and if you happen to like crime dramas a lot, you might enjoy seeing the (stretched) lengths the writers went to to make 'crime-fighting via SL' somewhat plausible.



Try as I might, I've never understood that line of thinking. How could SL ever be "sold out"? So some RL companies have taken an interest in it. So what? If you don't like the fact that shows like The L Word and movies like Smokin' Aces and I Am Legend thought SL was cool enough to get involved with, simply stay away from those regions. The world is certainly big enough that you don't have to encounter those things if you don't want to.

For my own part, SL now constitutes the majority of my living. What started out as just an enjoyable hobby four years ago evolved to become a career. Basically, all that happened was I eventually opened myself to the fact that there's a demand for what I'm capable of producing in SL, and that people are willing to pay for what I can deliver to them. That meant I could stop doing some of the less enjoyable work I used to do, and spend more time doing what I really like. And yes, it happens that most of the clients who can afford to pay me what I'm worth are corporations and government agencies. Does that somehow make me a "sellout"? If so, then your definition of the word must be quite different from mine, because I'm pretty sure that if you had the chance to make your living doing something you really like to do, you'd do it, wouldn't you? Isn't that how life is supposed to be, after all?

Look, I've certainly got no more love for ESC these days than anyone else. But let's keep it real. To insinuate that they somehow "sold SL out" is laughable at best. They saw a unique opportunity with SL, and they went for it. Then when it didn't work out for them as well as they'd hoped, they changed gears to pursue other ventures. There's nothing wrong with that. I don't happen to agree with the way they went about certain things, of course, but that doesn't mean they're evil or anything.




I don't know the terms of how greeters were or weren't paid, but my understanding is it was never anything more than a very low-paying part time contract gig. If the terms of any contracts weren't honored, then that would certainly be an issue worth complaining about. But I've never heard any stories to indicate that that was the case.

If any greeter felt that the job didn't pay well enough, they didn't have to take the job. But no one who willingly entered into an agreement ever has the right to claim they got "screwed" out of anything, as long a the terms of the agreement were met. If I offer you a dollar for your Ferrari, and you say yes, I didn't screw you; you screwed yourself by agreeing to such ridiculous terms.

I'm not saying the terms of the greeter contract were or weren't ridiculous, since I have no idea what they were. All I'm saying is that IF they were ridiculous, and people signed up anyway, then they've got no right to complain. And of course if they weren't ridiculous, then it's a non-issue anyway.

That's all assuming that whatever agreements were in place were honored by all parties. As I said, if they weren't, then that's certainly a problem. But again, I've never personally heard any stories of ESC not paying anyone exactly what they were promised.

To repeat, I've got no love for ESC these days, but I do think it's important to make sure accusations are fair, no matter whom they're about, before they're given credence.

I'll snip it there because there's no need to quote the rest in full and I think we argue about this enough, but actually yes you were the main one I was talking about and although we disagreed and argued (incessantly) about the same things you mention in the rest of your post (gentrification, selling out, commercialization of sl in general, etc...) I still feel you guys got a bad break. Your right that it is a general misconception (and one that I to this day fall prey to a lot) about the fame and fortune angle however even outside of your press there was a fairly general feeling that ESC was on top of the world and then it all went screwy.





As someone who has at various points in his life done part time min. wage work I have a tendency to sympathsize with the worker more than the company that's making the money off their back even though as you said we aren't really in a place to guess about the contract but regardless maybe it should lower my faith in people in general that people actually agreed to that.



At least nobody can blame you of not being loyal to your ex-employer

I missed it tongiht but I did see one it wasn't that great it was okay.
If I had the connections, money and skills I probably could create something bit more creative but I am just nobody.
I never understood how some can create anything, even get media hype for it, while there are probably are others even in world who incredibly talented ( and I am not talking about myself because I don't have that much talent, just creativity) who go pretty much unnoticed.
Why is it some things get noticed and promoted while others don't?
Example Ginko getting on local news and being promoted as legitimate company?
Truthfully I don't have comment about Electronic sheep but if they are Onrezz there is obvious reasons why they aren't doing well and they don't seem to want to fix and I am not going to waste my time dealing with them any more.

Hi all, I have seen the episode already and I would like to share with you the episode. In fact, I started playing SL after watching this episode.

Your episode, ripped from Wikipedia.

Detective Mac Taylor is shown jogging down a street because he cannot sleep. The scene then changes to a janitor pushing a cart down a hallway. The janitor then enters a room with many storefront mannequins. He then turns on a cassette tape player and begins dancing a tango with one of them. When he does a dip move her head falls off and rolls away. When he kneels down to find the head he finds the body of a woman with green hair lying dead with a gunshot wound to the head.

The scene changes to one of the crime scene investigators snapping photos of the dead woman. During their initial inspection of the body Mac receives another unknown call at 3:33 on his mobile phone.

The team finds a small piece of bamboo, a tick under her skin, and a small male doll with the word "Johnny" on the shirt. The bullet appears to have been fired from a suppressed .45 Caliber pistol, most likely a suppressed Colt M1911. It is believed she was tortured to death because her arms were bound and there were scalpel cuts on her neck. After doing an image search on Google for this unknown woman it is revealed that she is part of a virtual world known as Second Life. Her avatar is named Venus and she is very famous on Second Life. Mac asks Danny to contact Second Life to acquire her real life information.

She is revealed to be Cheryl Miller, a resident of New York who did most of her living on Second Life. She had a Second Life partner named Don Juan 2-3 whom she was planning to meet for the first time at a nightclub called Random. Don Juan 2-3 is revealed to be Jonathan O'Dell, however his credit card he used on Second Life is expired and he has an unknown address.

Mac then decides the best thing to do to find Johnny O'Dell is to enter Second Life himself. Adam helps Mac create his Second Life avatar. Mac continuously gives Adam odd looks implying he thought this was silly. Adam then takes the keyboard away from Mac to speed up the registration process. Mac is suddenly thrown into a Welcome Area and attempts to contact the infamous "White Rabbit".

Meanwhile, Stella and Lindsay discover the tick has lyme disease. They believe the killer may have lyme disease and may be a hunter. Mac and Adam finally speak to The White Rabbit, but he will only tell them where Johnny is if they pay him 6,000 linden dollars. After they pay him he teleports them to Shangri-La where they finally locate Don Juan 2-3. When Mac greets him he says "Goodbye" and flies away. They determine that if they want his attention that they should approach him as a female. After a quick gender change they approach Don Juan 2-3 again. Mac proves to be very ineffective speaking as a woman, so Stella steps in and successfully holds him long enough so they can trace his IP address.

When they show up at the shop Johnny is hiding in his friend at the front tries to warn him via instant messenger that the cops came in. He attempts to flee from the police but ends up running into someone and tripping knocking a gun out of his backpack.

Stella and Danny begin questioning Johnny. When shown a picture of Cheryl Miller, Johnny claims he has never seen her before. When shown a picture of Venus (her Second Life avatar) Johnny immediately identifies her as such. Johnny tells them that he is in love with Venus, which they do not believe is possible. They ask Johnny if he is a hunter and he shakes his head. Mac first believes that he is exibiting symptoms of lyme disease. Johnny tells Stella that the plan was to meet Cheryl at the club "Random". They showed Johnny the doll they found and he admitted he made it so Cheryl would know what he really looks like when they met. Johnny then reveals he is dying from acute multiple sclerosis and says that is the reason he bailed out of meeting Cheryl. Johnny implied he had the gun in his possession for the purpose of suicide, since his condition is uncureable. A problem arises when they discover that Johnny is still talking to Venus on Second Life long after Cheryl was murdered.

Sheldon processes the bullet, but is unable to match it to Johnny's gun. Stella asks him to check the bullet to see if the gun has been used in other murders.

Mac and Adam return to Second Life to track down Venus. Mac is suddenly stopped by an avatar named "Cezar". Cezar will not let Mac through unless he has a battle in his colosseum. Mac enters the arena with armor on to a cheering croud of spectators. Adam tells Mac he does not stand a chance of winning, so Mac agrees to turn over control of his avatar to Adam. Adam engages in battle with the other competitors and ends up defeating them all. Mac then searches for Venus and finds her next to a fountain. When they try to ping her IP address they are unable to because she is Wi-Fi fishing. Suddenly a griefer dressed as a wolf furry pops up and aims a gun at Venus and says "Stop pretending to be Venus!". The griefer takes several shots at Venus making her avatar disappear into the ground. When Mac attempts to question the griefer he runs away and hops onto a hoverboard. Adam gives Mac a jetpack and chases the wolf. The chase suddenly ends when the wolf is frozen in mid-air and does not reply to Mac's questions. Adam tells Mac that the wolf either lost his internet connection or his computer crashed. However Adam is able to trace the wolf's IP address to an apartment.

The police go to the apartment and get no response from inside. Mac decides to throw a four-way camera device inside. On the camera they see someone slumped over a laptop computer. When they lift him up they are shocked to see that Johnny O'Dell has been murdered with a bullet to the head.

Sheldon has positively matched the bullet that killed Cheryl to the one that killed Johnny. Stella theorizes that the killer didn't want any information from Johnny because he was not tortured as Cheryl was. Stella believes Johnny was killed because he was blowing the assassin's cover. Sheldon informs Stella that he did get a hit on their bullets from another murder of a high profile judge murdered last week. Judge McHenry never returned from a hunting trip and the police thought it was a hunting accident. This might explain the tick found on Cheryl's body.

Mac returns to Second Life again and looks at the shoes that Venus dropped when she disappeared. On the heels of the shoes he discovers a logo for "Old Gearhead", the Second Life vendor who created the shoes.

Following this lead Stella and Danny go to a mechanic shop in real life to talk to the maker of the shoes. The mechanic states that Venus is not a regular customer but he still treats her special. He informs the CSI that she has a date tonight on Second Life with Mr. TCB. Suddenly Venus walks into his virtual store and tells him that she wants to replace her shoes she lost.

Meanwhile Lindsay tells Mac that the bamboo they found is used in certain types of buildings. Mac says they need to start searching for new buildings that have not treated their bamboo yet. Stella calls Mac and informs him that they found Venus again on Second Life. Mac quickly runs to get back on Second Life. He asked Venus if they can speak somewhere in private. Venus agrees and he follows her through a red curtain. Mac proceeds to walk down a hallway but Venus appears to have disappeared. She taunts him "You won't find me, Detective Taylor." She claims The White Rabbit told her everything. Suddenly the pictures on the walls flip around, each showing one of the murder victims. One by one each picture has a silenced gunshot wound and a scream. Mac looks down on the floor and sees a "calling card". Adam tells Mac to pick it up then quickly changes his mind and says the calling card could be bad. Suddenly Venus comes out of the floor and begins mimicking Mac's avatar in both voice and appearance. The avatar starts duplicating itself over and over convincing him that he received a virus. Mac tells Adam to turn on a firewall, but it is too late and the CSI computer network becomes infected. Mac demands Adam log off Second Life but he refuses, because he didn't want Venus to get away. The computers fail and suddenly go black.

Adam informs everyone that the computers won't be back online for another hour and Lindsay is worried that Venus will change avatars by then. Stella says she doesn't think that will happen because the assassin needs Venus for some reason. Mac states that it's Venus's popularity that the assassin needs to get to her next target. They find out Mr. TCB's real life information and discover he is being used by U.S. Congressman DeVayne. His secretary informs CSI that he is in New York City and gives them his current address and mobile phone number. Mac attempts to call Congressman DeVayne but gets no reply. They find out the apartment is new and rush out to find him. They know that the assassin will try to kill Congressman DeVayne and that Cheryl and Johnny were murdered because they got in the way.

When the cops show up at the apartment building they talk to the doorman. He confirms that Congressman DeVayne is in his apartment and that a young woman is on her way up to see him. The woman is dressed exactly like Venus just as Cheryl was. The cops tell everyone to get down but she proceeds into the elevator. When they attempt to stop her the elevator doors close. The CSI team quickly runs up the stairs. Mac tries once more to get Congressman DeVayne on his mobile phone, but just as the congressman answers his phone the assassin aims her gun at his head. A silenced round is fired. By the time CSI gets up to the room the assassin is gone with the congressman murdered on the floor. Mac tells his team to start searching the other rooms and floors. Mac comes across a couple walking down the hall towards him. He stops them and tells them to go back to their apartment. Stella suddenly discovers the assassin's costume and radios everyone of her discovery. Mac yells out at the couple to stop, and the woman spins the man around pinning his arm behind his back. The assassin decides to shoot the man in the side so that she could get away. Mac momentarily stops to assist the fallen man and then takes off after the assassin. He follows her down the staircase to another floor of the building. He looks around for her and she is seen peeking out of a garbage chute. Mac hears the chute door close and throws it open expecting to find her hiding inside. But the assassin is nowhere to be found.

I finally got to watch it (and I dont even like CSI)... and I got to laugh my ass off!

My only thoughts while watching it: Where was the lag?? and "If Only!!!"

Entertaining, but talk about stretching the truth!!! Wow! Even Stretch Armstrong didnt stretch that far!!!

I think the Second Life episode of the "The Office" was closer to truth

Thank you Wisley, I read the whole spoiler. That must have been a fun episode, especially how SL tied to RL...it really happens too, but I mean mostly drama and love stuff. When you think about it, why not murder too? May be far streched.

Once again, thanks for the sentiment. I very much appreciate it.

And I'm happy to agree to disagree on the "selling out" part. I don't think I'll ever see where you're coming from on that. I do think there's value in the discussion of differing points of view, though. I get the sense that you do as well, so at least we can agree on that.



I can certainly see how people got that impression. But again, just because one gets a lot of press doesn't necessarily mean one is succeeding.

For what it's worth, though, like most other people, I thought we were on top of the world as well. I certainly didn't see the collapse coming, and I don't pretend to understand what really happened. I'm sure only the board members know for certain. But there's not much point in dwelling on it. The world keeps on turning, and it's "lesson learned, move on," as far as I'm concerned.




As someone who's done the full range from minimum wage jobs, to middle management, to business ownership, my perspective is a little different. With rare exception, you'll almost never find a case where a company is "making money off the backs" of the workers. I think most employers pay their people as much as they can afford, no more, no less.

It's easy to assume that "the company" must somehow be rolling in money no matter what, but with most businesses, particularly small to medium sized ones, that's simply not the case. The vast majority of business owners struggle to make ends meet for years before they see a single dime of profit. That's why most businesses go out of business.

The fact is it's very, very difficult to run a business successfully, which is why most people don't do it. I think people who've never done it before have this notion that when you start a business you just open your doors, and then everything magically falls into place, and you get rich. That's really not how it works.

It's also easy to blame "the company" for the woes of "the worker", because "the worker" has a face that's plain to see, and "the company" generally doesn't. I think it's important to remember that companies are nothing more than groups of people, all of whom are individually just as human as everyone else. Businesses succeed only when the people within them realize they're all on the same team. What enables each person to do his or her job is the fact that everyone else is doing theirs. Neglect any single gear, and the whole machine will fail.

That's not to say there aren't businesses out there that mistreat their people. There certainly are. But those are the exception in my experience, not the rule.




Loyalty's got nothing to do with it; believe me. I've got no reason to feel any attachment to ESC. You might as well have been talking about Acme Corporation, for all I care.

It's really just as I said, a question of fairness. When I see accusations fly about anyone, I try to inject a little rational pause into the discussion if I can. It's not about defending the accused, but about standing up for truth. If there's legitimacy behind the rumors, great, let's find that out. But if there's not, we need to make that clear. Either way, it's important to keep the witch hunt mentality in check.


Also, don't mistake professionalism for blind loyalty. Just because I'm not about to go around talking smack about a former employer doesn't mean I still feel committed to them in any way. If I were to have a grievance with any person or company, that would be between them and me, no one else. It would do no good for me to air that kind of negativity for the world to see. All that would be achieved if I were to that would be a loud and clear broadcast that I myself am unprofessional and untrustworthy. Since I'm neither of those things, I don't do that.

Can the episode be found somewhere on the internt for viewing?? I missed the original and reruns...=\

You are beginning to understand Television.

The next step is to realize that everything you see on television is just as "realistic" as this portrayal of SL.

Even the news.


ESPECIALLY The news.

Me too! I was all excited when I read the OP...then after reading a few more posts went back up and saw the OP posted "yesterday."

My local network ran the episode last night.

I learned it's more fun to watch it in the vein of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" (not the artery but the vein)

When the bunny greifer showed up, my partner and I screamed "yiff in h*ll!"
When the guy in the robe said "Welcome to Shangri-La" we both yelled "It's Gor, stupid!"

It's much more entertaining that way.

Gordon,

I feel that the economic benefits to SL when this episode aired were far and wide. My traffic and occupancy maxed soon after the episode aired, and some of those CSI avatars are still living on my properties, paying me 1000s of L a week.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who reaped the rewards from an influx of new people excited to try out SL. In my opinion, it was the biggest benefit since the "Second Life's First Millionaire" article.

I never made it over to the CSI sim, and I wasn't aware that Electric Sheep had anything to do with it. But I certainly would encourage SL to try to get more gigs like this.

--Avion

For anyone who may have missed the CSI episode, here is a link to CBS where you can see the whole video.

~Dawn

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/csi_ny/video/video.php?cid=446409462&pid=Sl58CFTrWwJBD13MEOwJ0sheVlcabjTx&play=true&cc=0

Hi Chosen, I am so glad that you landed on your feet. We never know what is in our future when our present life changes do we. congrats

Thats the main reason I stick with Cartoon Network.

thanks for the heads up and for the link, watching it now and i must say, if I had seen this prior to becoming a resident of second life, i would have been very disappointed. Having said that, if all the graphics etc seen in this episode were all created in world, WOW!! I got a lot of giggles watching this, especially the part where the character played by Gary Sinise is asked 'male or female?" .. the look on his face was priceless

anyone know if this episode had a second part???? if not, that ending .. omg

Kira, thanks for the kind words.

Nissa, to answer your questions, yes on both counts. Yes, everything shown in the episode was done in-world. There was no After Effects trickery or anything like that. And yes, there was eventually a follow-up episode, but it wasn't nearly so elaborate. Because of the writer's strike, it wasn't produced until well after the mass layoff at ESC, so almost all the people who had worked on the original were no longer there. The second episode had only a couple of very quick SL scenes in it. The rest was just like any other CSI:NY episode, all live action.

thank you.

I think a lot of people flocked to SL after seeing this.. I wonder how many left disapointed.

If its anything like the typical sign up -

About 90%