One of the things I love doing most in Second Life is exploring new places and spaces – especially those places that draw new communities together or allow for immersive experiences.

Today I finally found the time to explore a fabulous example of Second Life being used to make a historical re-creation…. Roma – an Ancient Roman themed sim owned and created by Second Life resident Torin Golding.

You can read a great interview with Torin by Sphere Gasser at Slatenite.com. You can also read an article and view a video tour of Roma by Rikomatic.

Here I am learning some basic Latin at Customs House – the arrival point which houses labeled barrels that contain notecards with all the information new visitors need to start exploring. This works quite well as an orientation, and provided me with a list of places and activities to check out during my visit. I also picked up a free toga here… because in Second Life it’s important to look the part!

The Roma Sim includes four quarters, each containing districts with various activities and areas to explore.

In the Arena District I found the Flavian Gladiator Arena, a place where residents can play at combat or hone their archery skills…. whilst learning a little about about ancient roman gladiatorial customs.

Via the notecards provided at the Arena, I found out that gladiatorial games had their origin in Etruscan funeral rites – the funerals of great people were celebrated with gladiatorial contests. Apparently, this custom found its way to Rome, but was a standard part of most holidays, rather than a funeral observance.

I hope no one releases that lion, or I’m done for!

Apparently a self-contained combat system is planned for this part of Roma, which would make much more sophisticated gameplay possible. I’m going to have to come back and watch the first Gladiatorial Contest complete with all the ceremony!

The Southwest quarter of Roma includes an Arena and Fort Legio VII Augusta, which you can see me visiting below.

Based on the typical plan of a Roman fort, the Fort Legio VII Augusta is often used for role-playing and activities restricted to members of the ROMA Citizens (SPQR) group. Residents can join this group inworld to keep up to date with upcoming events and meetings, and take part in ancient roman role-plays and exhibitions.

Shhh… don’t tell the Emperor I was sitting in his chair!

The northest quarter contains Hippodrome Point, Caligula’s Pleasure Palace, the Gardens of Maecenas, and the Theater of Dionysus.

At the Theatre, I watched a SL version of The Bacchae by ancient Greek playwright Euripides.

Setup so that visitors can view the performance on demand by clicking on click on the stage, the play lasted about 20 mins and included scripted characters who appeared on the stage and delivered their lines in the text chat.

This was a really interesting use of the building and scripting tools available in Second Life, and there were some sounds and slides used to enhance the ‘performance’.

Reading the story in the text chat was a little bit tiring, but this example of virtual theatre points to some exciting possibilities as voice tools become more integrated into the platform. It also has me thinking about how I might experiment with a combination of machinima and these scripted ‘characters’ in some of my own work.

The northwest quarter contains the Roman Forum, the Capitoline Hill and the Temple of Apollo.

Here, I visited the Capitoline Museum, which houses a collection of ancient roman artefacts, and seasonal exhibitions; as well as the Library of Alexandria which includes a number of scrolls which can be unrolled and read in the library’s reading room.

I also learnt a little about the prehistoric people called the Sabines who, according to legend, originally inhabited the hill and were attacked by the Romans, who kidnapped the Sabine women to populate the Roman city.

Here I am worshipping Jupiter at the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, which was built during the battle between the Romans and the Sabines in 509 BC.

The detail, research and information included at Roma is pretty amazing, and could be used as a launching pad for students to engage in a deeper exploration of history via Wikipedia and various other web-based sources. And, I can imagine some pretty great activities with students utilising the role-playing aspects of the Roma sim and its community.

Despite the limitations that notecards pose in terms of presenting information in-world (more on that later), and the fact that they have set it as a no-fly zone (which always annoys me!), I had a great time brushing up on my ancient roman history here. I’ll be keeping my toga for future visits!

Check out Roma @ http://slurl.com/secondlife/Roma

 

Image by Stephen Downes

After a couple of years of using Blogger to publish to stuff:ED, I’ve finally taken the plunge and moved to my own hosted blogging solution using Wordpress – and so far I like it!

For the last few months, I’ve been on a little blogging hiatus. This happened for a number of reasons. I was stretched and the blogging juice just seemed to dry up towards the end of the year, as I concentrated on other online spaces and discussions, family stuff.. and finishing up all those projects!

But I’m back and feeling motivated to get back into the swing of things, with a range of topics I’m looking forward to recording and exploring here. It’s time to join the online discussion again!

jokay.com.au will be a space for me to write about all my work – day job, creative pursuits, 3D and virtual explorations and all the technology stuff that takes my fancy along the way.

I’ll probably still use stuff:ED from time to time, to record particular projects at work, and for demoing blogging and Web 2.0 to my colleagues… but this new space is where I’ll be focussing my blogging energy. My aim is to create a space for myself – which reflects the areas I’m most interested in.

I’m going to try to integrate a few new tools and blogging strategies as I go along – including some BlogHUDing (inspired by Sean FitzGerald, whose BlogHUD page is worth a look!), and of course lots of Flickr images, delicious links and various other Web 2.0 widgets and mashups.

I’m hoping some of my stuff:ED readers might subscribe and join me in this new space, with a new focus!

Here we go!