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Roskilde University to open super-hero city and host machinima contest

Tateru Nino
Updated ·2 min read


Danish Roskilde University in Trekroner, Roskilde is celebrating the art of machinima with a competition kicking off in Second Life later this week. The competition coincides with the opening of the university's new Second Life research-center, "Metrotopia – City of Superheroes."

The launch event kicks off on Friday, 28 August at 11:30AM SLT (US Pacific time), and the details of the competition will be announced in conjunction with the opening address at Noon SLT.

Sessions will primarily be in voice, though text-chat will not be entirely excluded. Due to the multi-national nature of the University team, English will be the primary language for events.

Friday, 28 August 2009:

20:30 CEST (2:30pm EST, 11.30am SLT)
Arrival at "The Costume Bazaar" to change into your own superhero outfit
OR, if you have one already, bring your own!

21:00 CEST (3:00pm EST, 12.00pm SLT)
Opening Address from Professor Sisse Siggaard Jensen, Ph.D., RUC
Announcement of the Metrotopia Second Life Machinima Contest

21:30 CEST (3:30pm EST, 12.30pm SLT)
Ghostbusters Supershow

22:00 CEST (4:00pm EST, 1 pm SLT)
Live concert from USA: Friendly Fire

23:00 CEST (5:00pm EST, 2pm SLT)
Fight Night in the Fight Club Dojo
Party at the Museum of Superheroes with DJ Otawan Fouquet

1:00 CEST (7:00pm EST, 4pm SLT)
Close

You can reach Metrotopia, once it opens to the public, at the Research Island Denmark sim (SLURL).

You might well wonder what research gets done in a super-hero city in a virtual environment. Doctor CarrieLynn Reinhard of the Roskilde department of Communication, Business, and Information Technologies has been using it to compare engagement and entertainment among various forms of media: Movies, video games, MMORPGs and virtual environments.

The super-hero theme was chosen as a common denominator between the various forms of media, to help distinguish experimental differences between the different media expressions. The primary data-gathering phase has been completed and we're rather looking forward to seeing what results Dr. Reinhard will come up with once the analysis phase is done.

Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.