Comments on: CSI Creator At it Again: Lessons from Virtual Worlds Forgotten?

By: Clubside Granville

Clubside Granville — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:43:36 +0000

It always depends on how immersive someone wants to get. CSI has been the basis for a handful of console and computer games, yet the best Crime Scene Investigation type experience has been the Condemned: Criminal Origins series from Monolith. The difference? The investigation parts can be interesting to watch on television, but are tedious as the sole play mechanic in an interactive experience. Condemned added, can you guess, combat to the narrative? A little action is needed. Some fun and maybe some scares. Unfortunately Linden Lab is nearly allergic to the concept of fun and while it would be easy for them to add facilities to the simulator code to allow development of action and more interactive experiences, they continue to stroke a flaccid business tool to no happy ending.

By: Dusan

Dusan — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:13:51 +0000

@Gianna – I really think that James Cameron’s project, Avatar, will blow the lid off storytelling across media, and of course change our perspectives of 3D entertainment.

By: Gianna Borgnine

Gianna Borgnine — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:30:33 +0000

I agree that the ESC version of CSI was a failure despite what the ESC say. Like many of their previous projects, they developed fantastic machinima, but the concept did not live up to the hype of those videos. We could talk about why in length, but the real point of my comment is not to critize the ESC, but to state that I do believe CSI and other franchises aren’t completely off base thinking that there is potential to create immersive experiences, but it would require them to throw away what they “know” and change. People no longer want to be advertised at and creating commerical SIMS that are just blatant advertisements for their franchise and others is not fun or immersive and they aren’t fooling anyone. If they truly want immersion, they should throw away their current agenda, and start by creating something of value to the existing community and go from there. If they are ever willing to be open to expanding while considering the public good, then they can give me a call, and I would be more than happy to help them (or they can just continue down the same path of failures).