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Major League Baseball In Second Life

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the get-your-digital-pop-cooooooooooooorn dept.

Jerry23 writes "There's apparently an upcoming Home Run Derby in the world of Second Life, sponsored by Major League Baseball and created by The Electric Sheep Company. In proto-interactive TV style, fans can tune their laptops to the multi-player recreation and chat with other Second Lifers while they watch the real deal on the tube. And of course they can also pop over to the virtual souvenir shop and drop some hard-earned loot on a pixelated jersey." From the article: "[T]he virtual derby will not be a separate contest, but will be 'a real-time Second Life re-enactment' of the real thing, featuring avatars for each of the eight Derby players -- Major Leaguers competing to see who can hit the most home runs over the course of two rounds."

40 comments

  1. Slashvertisement by mrxak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In other news, Electric Sheep Company writes in to slashdot to tell everyone about themselves.

    --
    -mrxak
    Onions Will Kill You
    1. Re:Slashvertisement by Photon+Ghoul · · Score: 1

      "Hard-earned loot"? You don't loot in Second Life for money, you pay USD.

    2. Re:Slashvertisement by frosty_tsm · · Score: 1

      In other news, Electric Sheep Company writes in to slashdot to tell everyone about themselves.

      ... and announced that their robots do infact dream of electric sheep.

  2. Recreating Real Events? by yoblin · · Score: -1

    It seems to me that second life is taking the place of real life for some people

  3. Wow by MrSquirrel · · Score: 1, Insightful

    and sometimes I wonder if I have too much time on my hands. Really though, I find this an interesting crossover of media forms -- like little kids holding their own home run derby in the backyard... except replace "little kids" with "30 year olds living in their parents' basement" and replace "the backyard" with "the internet which requires no physical effort". I guess I just don't understand it -- I know I'm a nerd, and I have a large disliking for professional sports ("Oh yay mr. baseball, you hit a ball with a wooden bat... here's your multi-million dollar paycheck. oh, what's that mr. coder, you worked 60 hours this week so you could implement your program before the server freeze?... well, we outsourced your job to India, clean out your desk") so I don't understand why all these second lifers are putting on their own little derby.

    --
    A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
    1. Re:Wow by mrxak · · Score: 1

      This whole thing is a little bit scary. Maybe not cult-scary, but at least wasted-life-scary.

      --
      -mrxak
      Onions Will Kill You
    2. Re:Wow by Photon+Ghoul · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sort of like reading Slashdot, reading an article about 'scary' people and taking time out of your day to comment on said scary people.

    3. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Because nobody cares about coding, get it? If people cared, you could log onto 2nd life and watch a virtual re-enactment of a fat slob coding. Stop complaining about the invisible hand of the marketplace and get on a treadmill.

    4. Re:Wow by TheFlamingoKing · · Score: 1

      Right. Lots of people can do your job. No one else can do that baseball player's job as well, or he'd be out of a job, like you...

    5. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The reason the baseball player makes millions and you don't is because his product generates BILLIONS and your's certainly does not.

  4. Hey, Windows and Linux Refugees! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The only thing more pathetic than a PC user is a PC user trying to be a Mac user. We have a name for you people: switcheurs.

    There's a good reason for your vexation at the Mac's user interface: You don't speak its language. Remember that the Mac was designed by artists, for artists, be they poets, musicians, or avant-garde mathematicians. A shiny new Mac can introduce your frathouse hovel to a modicum of good taste, but it can't make Mac users out of dweebs and squares like you.

    So don't force what doesn't come naturally. You'll be much happier if you stick to an OS that matches your personality. And you'll be doing the rest of us a favor, too; you leave Macs to Mac users, and we'll leave beige to you.

    1. Re:Hey, Windows and Linux Refugees! by muhgcee · · Score: 1

      What the hell are you talking about?

    2. Re:Hey, Windows and Linux Refugees! by Don853 · · Score: 2, Funny

      And I'll remember to tip well the next time I'm out to dinner.

    3. Re:Hey, Windows and Linux Refugees! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fred Phelps' cult now seems reasonable.

  5. is virtualizing transformative? by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 1

    Could you take something like this, or perhaps the Super Bowl(tm), and virtualize the game, and then rebroadcast it, because your work is transformative enough that it's not considered copyright infringement?

    --
    stuff |
    1. Re:is virtualizing transformative? by eln · · Score: 2, Informative

      In the standard warning that they spout out during baseball and football games, the prohibited activities also include "depictions or accounts" of the game. I would imagine a play-by-play re-enactment like this would fall into that category.

    2. Re:is virtualizing transformative? by booch · · Score: 1

      What they say is allowed, and what is allowed by law are not necessarily the same. And since you have not agreed to any contract, you only have to follow the law, not what they say. (Of course, I'm sure Second Life and Electric Sheep have signed a contract with MLB.)

      By law, the question is whether the work is a derived work of the original. A full play-by-play or reenactment would clearly be a derived work. An "account" of the game that merely summarizes what happened would not be a derived work. And because such an account is based on facts, there's no copyright protection of facts. Where things get grey would be something like a re-enactment based on facts instead of based on a video, audio, or text play-by-play description.

      --
      Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
    3. Re:is virtualizing transformative? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      "depictions" are the pictures -- the video and stills. "accounts" are the narrative the sportscasters give around the game. As long as you don't rebroadcast either of those (except for fair use) then its totally legit.

      What, you thought the sports guy writing for your local paper went to all of those games across the country? Hehehehe.

    4. Re:is virtualizing transformative? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A local TV station where I live has been doing a similar thing for World Cup highlights. I guess they couldn't afford to pay the fees FIFA were requesting, so the morning news features clips taken from some game (FIFA 2006?) of the same players in identical situations. It's pretty cool.

  6. That is *sweet* by Otter · · Score: 1
    Doing this in real-time is pretty damn sweet. (Or am I completely out of it and this is nothing novel? The article seems to think it's impressively new.)

    I'm still not sure why anyone would pay $3 to watch it, as the only clear benefit over ESPN is not having to listen to Chris Berman and you can do that by hitting the mute button on your TV. But then I'm not a MMR-whatever-it-is'er in the first place...

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  7. Wow-Crummy Burger. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    "I guess I just don't understand it -- I know I'm a nerd, and I have a large disliking for professional sports ("Oh yay mr. baseball, you hit a ball with a wooden bat... here's your multi-million dollar paycheck. oh, what's that mr. coder, you worked 60 hours this week so you could implement your program before the server freeze?... well, we outsourced your job to India, clean out your desk") so I don't understand why all these second lifers are putting on their own little derby."

    Wow! Real life bitterness and envy. And all I had to do was plunk down money to my ISP for the experience.

    1. Re:Wow-Crummy Burger. by MrSquirrel · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Envy? No, I'm glad I'm not a stupid (what's the average SAT/ACT score of the average baseball/basketball player?), drug-enhanced, overpaid dolt. Bitterness? Yes, because I think it's stupid that entire populations (not just America, the whole world [think of all the crazy World Cup stories, locking spouses in closet so you can watch a game or running into a burning house so you can grab your t.v. to finish watching the rest of a match is STUPID]) are so amazed by sports that they don't see a problem in paying millions to people who contribute nothing to the world (they play a fucking GAME -- kids play games for FUN!) while people that are intelligent and pour their lives into their profession (teachers, social workers, doctors, etc) are paid poorly (well, maybe not doctors).
      P.S. unless your ISP charges per data bit or per minute then all it cost you was a smile :}

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
    2. Re:Wow-Crummy Burger. by (A)*(B)!0_- · · Score: 2, Interesting
      "Envy? No, I'm glad I'm not a stupid (what's the average SAT/ACT score of the average baseball/basketball player?), drug-enhanced, overpaid dolt. Bitterness? Yes, because I think it's stupid that entire populations (not just America, the whole world [think of all the crazy World Cup stories, locking spouses in closet so you can watch a game or running into a burning house so you can grab your t.v. to finish watching the rest of a match is STUPID]) are so amazed by sports that they don't see a problem in paying millions to people who contribute nothing to the world (they play a fucking GAME -- kids play games for FUN!) while people that are intelligent and pour their lives into their profession (teachers, social workers, doctors, etc) are paid poorly (well, maybe not doctors)."
      Teachers? I've seen plenty that are just there to get their paycheck and let their union protect them from being fired. But we'll leave that aside. Why do you care what people enjoy for entertainment purposes? And, since you care so much, what's entertaining you that is so much better and delivers so much more benefit to the world?
    3. Re:Wow-Crummy Burger. by MrSquirrel · · Score: 1

      "Teachers? I've seen plenty that are just there to get their paycheck and let their union protect them from being fired."
      Oh yes, they are just soooo lazy. Actually, most teachers are hard working. What teachers do you know? Both of my parents are teachers and they usually go in to work around 7 in the morning and don't get back until 5 or 6 at night. I have worked for 3 different schools through tech consultant jobs and dealt with a lot of teachers -- almost every teacher I met seemed like the hard-working type with a "make the world better"-esque goal in life. Oh yeah, it's just sooooooooooo hard for teachers to get fired -- actually, it's VERY easy for teachers to get fired (if they're not doing their job). Once they have been doing their job, they get tenure... then their job security is much more firm... however, the trade-off of long hours and low appreciation just to get tenure and then get... more low pay is not worth it (you don't have to be an economics major to realize that -- also, yes, there is NO fucking debating that their pay is low -- I, with a bachelors degree, would make more money the first year of a job than my parents currently make [they've both been working at the same school for over 30 years, both have masters degrees, and are both department heads]).

      I DON'T care what people do for entertainment purposes -- watch baseball, watch bondage videos, dance, eat tub upon tub of cool whip!!! It's not about entertainment when someone gets paid over a million dollars per point (divide some professional athlete's salaries by the number of points they score) in a GAME (games are suppossed to be about fun, not money) while people in real life are dying for little to no recognition (think of all the firefighters, soldiers in Iraq, etc.) it sickens me.

      What's entertaining to me? I enjoy playing games (for fun, not for millions of dollars), talking, long walks on the beach, music, dancing, singing, living life to its fullest!

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
    4. Re:Wow-Crummy Burger. by drsquare · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Envy? No, I'm glad I'm not a stupid (what's the average SAT/ACT score of the average baseball/basketball player?), drug-enhanced, overpaid dolt.

      You're glad you're not highly paid? I don't see what's stupid about making millions for playing a game. Seems pretty clever to me. Maybe you're the real smart one though, doing something much duller and less exciting for a tiny fraction of the money.

      Yes, because I think it's stupid that entire populations (not just America, the whole world [think of all the crazy World Cup stories, locking spouses in closet so you can watch a game or running into a burning house so you can grab your t.v. to finish watching the rest of a match is STUPID])
      What exactly is wrong with being entertained? Seems you're just bitter that the forms of entertainment you enjoy are different to that of the majority and you feel left out. I'm sure whatever forms of entertainment you like are pretty stupid and pointless, but maybe other people have more class than to insult your intelligence because of it.

      are so amazed by sports that they don't see a problem in paying millions
      I don't remember ever paying millions to a sporting event. Maybe that's in yen?

      to people who contribute nothing to the world
      If you consider entertainment and excitement to be unimportant, then you have no soul.

      while people that are intelligent and pour their lives into their profession (teachers, social workers, doctors, etc) are paid poorly (well, maybe not doctors).
      Stop being so bitter. When millions of people want to watch a social worker wipe the arse of a pensioner then they'll get paid millions. Until then stop your tiring killjoy act, you're not impressing anyone by demonstrating how mature and elitist you are.
    5. Re:Wow-Crummy Burger. by drsquare · · Score: 1
      I DON'T care what people do for entertainment purposes
      Yet you've started an entire thread about it?

      The only reason sportsmen get paid a lot is because people like being entertained by them, so you obviously do care what people do for entertainment, even if you're too dumb to realise the connection.
    6. Re:Wow-Crummy Burger. by scd · · Score: 1

      Free-market economics. There's a strong demand for entertainment (watching good athletes is enjoyable), but not much supply in the way of top-level athletics. If any schmuck could play Major League ball, salaries wouldn't be high (think janitors here). Since very few people are skilled enough, their pay is higher.

      If you feel that their salaries have some intrinsic value, then you'll agree that all professions should be ranked according to 'worth' and payed accordingly, right?

    7. Re:Wow-Crummy Burger. by (A)*(B)!0_- · · Score: 1
      "I DON'T care what people do for entertainment purposes"
      Then shut up.

      "It's not about entertainment when someone gets paid over a million dollars per point"
      Why isn't it about entertainment anymore? You just make this statement without any reasoning. Athletes are paid what the market will provide. Quit your whining.
    8. Re:Wow-Crummy Burger. by (A)*(B)!0_- · · Score: 1
      "Oh yes, they are just soooo lazy. Actually, most teachers are hard working. What teachers do you know? Both of my parents are teachers and they usually go in to work around 7 in the morning and don't get back until 5 or 6 at night. I have worked for 3 different schools through tech consultant jobs and dealt with a lot of teachers -- almost every teacher I met seemed like the hard-working type with a "make the world better"-esque goal in life. Oh yeah, it's just sooooooooooo hard for teachers to get fired -- actually, it's VERY easy for teachers to get fired (if they're not doing their job). Once they have been doing their job, they get tenure... then their job security is much more firm... however, the trade-off of long hours and low appreciation just to get tenure and then get... more low pay is not worth it (you don't have to be an economics major to realize that -- also, yes, there is NO fucking debating that their pay is low -- I, with a bachelors degree, would make more money the first year of a job than my parents currently make [they've both been working at the same school for over 30 years, both have masters degrees, and are both department heads])."
      Forgot to address this: you cited anecdotal evidence to support a generalization. This shows you're not smart. Based on this fact, I'd say your parents probably get paid what they deserve. After all, it's their genes that made a moron such as yourself.
    9. Re:Wow-Crummy Burger. by Mr.+Memblers · · Score: 1
      I don't remember ever paying millions to a sporting event. Maybe that's in yen?
      Well, over here we have to (collectively) pay millions to subsidize millionaires.
      http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID= /20051017/NEWS02/510170432/

      I think the Colts suck and should leave town, but I have to pay for this shit? Lucky for me I live near the county line, so sometimes I'm able to avoid paying this dumb tax.
    10. Re:Wow-Crummy Burger. by Mr.+Memblers · · Score: 1

      Oops, nevermind that second part, the tax is in all the surrounding countines. Guess I have to pay for it no matter what.

    11. Re:Wow-Crummy Burger. by drsquare · · Score: 1

      I wasn't thinking about tax-payer funded stadiums, more about ticket prices. Things like in your link is mainly an American phenomenon.

  8. how's this supposed to work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I skimmed TFA, and it doesn't appear to explain how the players in the home run derby actually...well, play. Can anyone explain how the game decides when a home run has been hit, and what factors are involved?

  9. What's up next, you ask? by SLot · · Score: 2, Funny

    A steroid probe, of course.

  10. Steep entry fee by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

    I considered attending - but the entry fee (approx U$3 at current exchange rates) is far too steep to justify, considering I get the real thing for 'free'.

  11. Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They *need* more electric sheep. Can you think of a better place for them to look for them? :-)

    Okay, maybe in andriod's dreams, but we all know how that worked out for Data...

  12. "Sponsorship" Questionable by Webz · · Score: 1

    I call lack of citation on the original poster's mention that MLB sponsors the event. The linked blog says that the virtual event would be held in conjunction with an MLB real-life event, but it does not say that MLB sponsors the virtual event.

    1. Re:"Sponsorship" Questionable by coryedo · · Score: 1

      Hi there, I'm Sara Van Gorden, and I was one of the builders in Second Life for the ESC/MLB project. The Home Run Derby event was indeed sponsored by MLB.com, including the creation of virtual merchandise officially sanctioned by MLB and utilizing the offical logos, etc. for the Home Run Derby. The MLB reps were on hand throughout the creation of the build and attended the SL event, and also helped provide a live stream of the live HRD into Second Life. :)

  13. Steep entry fee-All you can eat salad bar. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I considered attending - but the entry fee (approx U$3 at current exchange rates) is far too steep to justify, considering I get the real thing for 'free'."

    Yes, those orgies are expensive.

  14. Set Theory Applied to this Article by neonprimetime · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, I just got done with my set theory class, and I did not realize that the sets of Second Life and Major League Baseball intersected. I was certain they were disjoint?