By Fresh Catteneo
Second Life Reporter
If you thought Second Life is a paradise of beautiful flowers, magical landscapes and enchanting sunsets then you are..... probably right. But there is a second side to Second Life and it is dark and dangerous. This white rabbit was shot point blank right in the forehead on
CSI:NY Orientation West . With a cigar still stuck in his mouth he lay flat on his back while his wound oozed blood all over the sidewalk. A close examination of the footprints leading away from the body reveals they belong to someone wearing high heels.
I was not alone on the crime scene. In fact, the area was surprisingly crowded. But not by typical
SL residents wearing L$ 2000 suits and skins, but by dozens of shiny bran newbies with NOT
flexy hair. Most of them had
CSI FAN tags on them and NY police badges... Here's a picture of a typical
CSI:NY fan inspecting the scene:
And what else is typical newbie behaviour at
SL? There are two main ones; being in a state of "Away" or in a state of "Editing Appearance". This girl came to the crime scene to help solve the crime (I'll tell you about that in a minute), so why is she dozing off while floating in midair ? And wearing only one shoe ?! What's going on here ? Is this a police badge I am seeing on her right breast ?
The rabbit was shot by a dangerous assassin called Venus who started off in an episode of
CSI:NY , later escaping her pursuers into
SL.
The
CSI detectives followed her tracks, in the form of
SL avatars. They are detective Paul Dawson, Medical Examiner Dr
Dacota Lenox,
CSI Nathalie Evans, and Jared Washington.
Also a major player is detective
Zuiker:
This virtual
CSI team calls
SL residents,
CSI:NY fans and literally anyone with a bit of a detective spirit to help locate the whereabouts of Venus and deliver her alive to the hands of the police. This apparently draws many people to participate. At the
sim's landing spot (welcome area), I counted new avatars materialize at a rate of about 5 - 10 per minute.
Once you arrive, you are instructed to download an additional piece of software called the
OnRez (developed by the
Electric Sheep Company), which is a sort of upgraded traditional
SL viewer. It's very user friendly and enhances the overall
SL experience. The detectives left clues and tracks one must follow in different
sims in
SL. I am not sure but did I see a reward of 5000$ ? The game will go on until February 2008. I might continue following this story, so stay tuned....