US Holocaust Museum & Kristallnacht

Well, it's been quite a few weeks since I last put virtual quill to pixel-based parchment. There's a pile of reasons why this is the case, but I think they can all be condensed together into a single catch-all: I've got other things to do with my time. Tracking down new enterprise sims has become the SL equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack, and frankly I don't feel like doing it at the moment. Mr Kingdon, in various recent interviews, seems to be in some sort of denial about the business appeal of Second Life. I am not privy to The Numbers, but my experience has left me with the view that Second Life is signally failing to appeal to organisations other than universities and colleges. Welcome news, no doubt, to many of the residents of Second Life, who couldn't give a fig about this, as long as it doesn't interrupt the often bizarre ups and downs of their virtual lives.

Sure, there are several newcomers to Second Life that I have visited - but I've not felt "inspired" (yet) to write about them, including: Air France-KLM, virtual Birmingham and virtual Czech Republic. So why am I writing now? And what am I writing about? A week or so back, I got a message from Drew Stein of Involve, the company behind the rather fine 7Days' Magic Bakery sim, inviting me to view their latest work on behalf of the US Holocaust Museum. After a few attempts I finally met up with Drew and David Klevan, Education Manager for Technology and Distance Learning Initiatives at the Museum, for a tour. The site opens officially on Tuesday, 9th December.

As it has already been described in great detail by Virtual Worlds News I don't intend to offer you much wordage - and would point you towards the extensive set of images at the foot of this post. However, if you want my impressions - here they are:

The first thing to note is this is not actually a full sim, nor is it a virtualised version of the US Holocaust Museum itself. Rather it is an exhibit commemorating the Kristallnacht, the 70th anniversary of which has just passed - an event which many now see as defining the start of the Holocaust. The exhibit, which covers roughly a quarter of a sim, starts in a 1930s news room. The idea - the conceit if you like - is that you are a journo, freshly arrived in Germany (one assumes), a day or two after the events of Kristallnacht. Your mission is to investigate what happened, and file a report. Once you've got the basics, a click will open a wall, and you find yourself on a deserted German street, books and documents are strewn about, and anti-semitic graffiti are daubed on many of the buildings. As you move through the streets you trigger audio commentaries, the first-hand experiences of survivors of that dreadful night. You can also enter a number of buildings - the police station, a consulate, a wrecked house, a ransacked schoolroom and finally, a burnt-out synagogue. Again, the audio gives you the personal reminiscences, while ingeniously designed displays provide you with views of related documents. There are various information notecards throughout the exhibit, giving you yet more details.

From the synagogue you proceed to a second newsroom, where you can opt to file a short report - and find out more about the people to whom you've been listening while exploring the exhibit. There's also a video room, displaying a range of short films.

So what did I make of it? Does it all work? Hmmm... it's hard to say. I think, perhaps, the central conceit of the "investigative journo" may be more suited to an exhibit aimed at kids and teenagers; not surprising, since that is the origin of the piece, in fact. The narratives, the personal testaments, were very moving and interesting, and the build itself has been done with sensitivity and skill. However, I am not sure that it all works - at least, not for me. Scripted items, like the smashing of shop windows or the burning of the synagogue, are impressive as pieces of code - but cannot really capture the fear or horror of the event. Also, while they show what can be done in SL, they are not strictly necessary. Indeed, given that you, the journo, are supposed to be investigating after the event, these occasional flashbacks are also anachronistic.

The exhibit should certainly be seen, and you may find the effects work for you. I know the museum has planned a lecture/meeting in January - and I hope they provide many more. The holocaust, and the many genocides the world has witnessed since then, should not be forgotten. One of Second Life's greatest strengths is the way it allows people from around the globe to meet and share the same experience. So, for example, it should no longer be necessary to travel to New York to attend a lecture or meeting at the Holocaust Museum.

As promised earlier - here are my pictures. It's an extensive set...

7 Days Magic Bakery

I've not written much recently, mainly due to the difficulty of finding anything new and interesting to write about. There seem to be no new corporate sites in Second Life, and many that have been here a while are closing up shop. It therefore comes as a pleasant surprise to visit not only a new corporate sim, but one that rewards the traveller handsomely in terms of build quality and entertainment value. The sim in question is 7Days Magic Bakery.

Sound quaint, huh? A sim for your local neighbourhood bakery? Ummm... not quite.

7 Days is a brand within the the Baking and Confectionery division of Greek food conglomerate, Vivartia, formed as a result of a merger in 2006 with Chipita. In total Vivartia employs around 13,500 people, and markets its bakery goods throughout Eastern Europe. On a darker note, in December 2007, Vivartia was found guilty of colluding with other milk producers to fix milk prices in Greece, and its earnings for the year were reduced by nearly 22million Euros as a result. Nevertheless, the company had a turnover of around 1.5billion Euros, with the Bakery Division bringing in some 412million Euro. So as you can see, 7 Days is far from being a little local bakery! If you want to see something of their product range then try here.

OK... so what about this sim? It opened just over a week ago and if I had been slightly quicker off the mark I could have posted a rib-tickling pun about taking 7 Days to write this post - but I wasn't, so I can't.

I have to say that I think the build quality and approach knock just about every other corporate build into a cocked hat. In large part this is due to the decision by involve3d, the builders, to execute most of the build work outside of Second Life, using Maya. The resulting structures and textures were then uploaded for final placement in the sim. The result is a spectacularly successful marriage of forms and detailed textures - which is my pretentious way of saying: it looks great!



Yeah.. yeah... but what does it look like?

You arrive at a landing that is faintly reminiscent of the Crystal Palace - lots of baroque ironwork - and your first action is to proceed thru the door in front of you into a windowless vestibule, where you will trigger the first of many audio commentaries (for the deaf, there are notecards too). A slightly peeved and aggrieved robot will tell you something about the sim - his amusing ramblings giving time for the sim itself to rez behind the scenes. When all is set, you can open a door and proceed into the sim proper. They've aimed for a "Dreamworks/Pixar-like" cartoony look and feel, and they've achieved it. Not only visually amazing, the music and audio fit the theme too.

Your main objective is the Bakery itself, but you should take the time to meander up the hill on which this Wonka-some construction sits, and take in some of the sights and sounds. In the bakery, you can control a machine to make your own personalised baked item - sweet or savoury. As their press release notes, you can concoct such oddities as the Chocolate Symphony Cosmic Satisfaction Croissant or Oregano Grated Cheese Electric Burst Pita Bakes. Whatever you end up with - and there are many, many variations - you really must eat it to get the full benefit. (A slightly cumbersome arrangement - you have to "Buy" for zero L$, then "Wear" the item)

During your wanderings you will encounter, and should pick up, the Vendomaton. I think I was a little too full of sugar-rush to fully absorb how this beastie functions. But in essence, everything you've made can be added to your vendomaton, and that means you can rez it at home and share your baking bounty with your pals; and vice versa.

But why? Why build the sim? I think the answer, in part, lies in the quality. I don't see this place setting new records for concurrent visitors, or establishing itself as the Place To Be Seen in SL. It might - but that would be a side benefit. Is it there just to promote the company? Well, yes, of course... but it is more subtle than that. Simply promoting within Second Life is largely a waste of effort, as many companies have discovered. But using Second Life as a stage in which to create ads - both movies and stills - that can be pumped into the real world. Now that is something different - hence the need for high quality, essentially non-SL constructions. I look forward to seeing how this story unfolds - and to the opening of their orientation sim, which also promises something new.

There's a lot more I could say about this place - but really the only thing I would say is: add it to your 'Must See' list. No.. don't do that. Just go there. But a word of warning... I found the triggered audio really impacted performance on my machine - and SL crawled along abysmally at times. This probably improves with cacheing... I went back with a friend, and found performance was much better. But don't let that stop you!

As regular readers will attest, you can judge how impressed I am with a sim by the number of pictures I take of it. I think I might have set a new record for myself: