To Voice or not to Voice

With blatant disregard for the niceties of language the two Voice camps are labelled “Augmentationists” and “Immersionists”.

Immersionists are those who want to live a parallel Second Life completely separated from RL while augmentists are those who want to use Second Life as a means to enhance their RL.

I don’t have anything against immersionists refusing to use Voice nor do I believe personal revelation is a marker of authenticity.

Ultimately, this is about intimacy — how much of ourselves we’re willing to give away to stranger

So who cares? If you don’t like it, don’t use it.

There’s always voice morphing software. Over at Screaming Bee you can get some delightful Furry voices.

First Ceremony with Voice

Well, I did it. Only way to find out is to do it. I married a couple yesterday using Voice.

Mind you, I had some trepidations about using Voice. Can I work it? Will they understand me? Will I sound really awful?

Once the couple had recovered from their surprise at my ‘cool accent‘ (and gave me some unexpected praise for my ‘intimate’ voice) it all went down surprisingly well.  A surprise for me at any rate.

The Voice tells

The advent of voice has compelled me to change my hair colour from peach blonde to stark white. At least on the occasions when I wear any hair at all.

Let’s face it, when you’re over 40 something happens to your voice that draws a clear line between Youth and, shall we say, Maturity? I just didn’t want to present a glaring anomaly.

It’s going to be interesting when some of the eye-popping buxom females in high drag start to talk, will they be simpering in a gruff basso profundo? It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest, it’s glaringly obvious that avatars looking like a cross between Madonna and Carmen Miranda in bondage leathers and diamonds have never been women before.

No woman would have such appalling taste.

Perhaps this is why Voice hasn’t been universally embraced.

Second Life CSI

The good news is that we’re not going to get a fourth painful series of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

The bad news is that creator Anthony Zuiker has decided to build a CSI-branded crime lab in SL.

Viewers can follow Gary Sinise, the lead on CSI: New York, as he chases a killer inworld and help solve the mystery in a virtual Crime Lab.

Oh dear, you have to be a fan I suppose.

Pastor Q for Sky News

Feel like making a Sky News report?

Grab yourself a microphone from Sky News and make a video for submission to Sky. Sounds like great fun. The total duration of your report should be no more than 2 minutes.

** The structure of a news report ***

What does a news report look like? Once you have found your story, start off by writing a script. Think carefully about how it matches the pictures you are showing.

In addition to your voice track, a news report should have a piece-to-camera (PTC) to give the story immediacy by showing you on location, where the action is. The other ingredient that makes a report interesting is hearing different people’s views ( grabs, short sound bites from interviews).

** ** ** ** **

Pastor Q, Sky News, Grande Wedding Island

Who is Simoni?

I enjoyed an interesting chat with Katrina Eales from the Second Life Herald on the subject of marriage in SL.

Curiously, she brought up the concept of “virtual cheating”. Curious because I had been thinking about it myself for the past week. Synchronicity?

Another odd thing with Katrina, we somehow got around to talking about the av known as Fr Simoni who says he is a Catholic priest and apparently is right into hearing confessions and consecrating wafers. Who the hell is Simoni anyway? There’s no way you can convince me a Roman Cathlic priest just happens to hop into SL to hear confessions after a hard day doing the rounds of the parish.

Pull the other one