CSI Files
Captain
<font color=yellow>Anthony E. Zuiker</font> is nothing if not a progressive thinker. With all three CSI shows continuing to trounce the competition in the ratings, Zuiker is constantly staying one step ahead of television trends by looking outside of TV itself to other media such as the internet and mobile phones. His latest venture involves the virtual world Second Life, and in the October 24th episode of CSI: New York, "Down the Rabbit Hole," Mac Taylor and his team will investigate the murder of a popular figure in Second Life. Zuiker spoke with CSI Files' <font color=yellow>Kristine Huntley</font> about CSI: NY's latest venture and why he thinks cross-platforming is the wave of the future when it comes to television.
CSI Files: You're obviously a fan of cross-platforming, given last year's "Hung Out to Dry" which featured edoclaundry.com. What made you choose Second Life for CSI: New York this season?
Anthony Zuiker: CBS put a minority stake investment into a company called Electric Sheep and they specialize in making virtual worlds. They approached me in June of 07 to be involved in this. The goal was to launch to a virtual world that was CSI: New York-esque in the best fashion. So we came up with the idea that we would actually do a show in the "first life," that will air [tonight] and in that show <font color=yellow>Gary Sinise</font> would be chasing a killer in Second Life and Gary would have to go through the process of downloading the software, creating his avatar and then going into the world [of Second Life].
The show will actually cliffhang, and when the show is over at eleven o'clock, the narrative continues because the CSI: New York virtual world will be open for business, where you can download a customized avatar, actually go into world, go through orientation, teleport to different New York simulations that emulate Manhattan from top to bottom in a virtual world: Flatiron Building, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, you can go inside the real CSI: NY lab--that's the same lab that's on our show.
You can either play casual games, like facial reconstruction or puzzles or memory games. You can play a more intermediate game, which is called "Murder by Zuiker," which is a blog game where I create a crime scene virtually, and I challenge you to go in that crime scene, analyze it, and write in 500 words or less what you think happened, and then I will read the excerpts and I will post the top ten that I think are closest to my solution. I'll hide one more clue inside that crime scene; if you find it, you guys should go back into world and get a gift for your avatar for solving a crime. In expert play, if you're a little more hardcore, your avatar can actually engage in a crime scene somewhere in world in a simulation. You get your own field kit, you fly around, you talk to suspects, you gather the evidence, you analyze it. At the end you talk to Cisco Telepresent Center and they analyze how you did.
So there's something for everybody in terms of gaming in the virtual world. There's also a social aspect--you can purchase items, you can build real estate--everything you can do in Second Life you can do in the simulation. But this is the most aggressive simulation in Second Life. And don't forget the numbers are seven million people belong to Second Life, but only about 40-41,000 are actually on it at one time. We are going to do something special [tonight] which is clearly historic, which is we're going to, in two thirty second spots, invite our viewership to the virtual world in the show. It's completely groundbreaking that we would advertise that there's a virtual world that we encourage our viewer to download. We're going to invite 15 million people to this party.
The great thing about what we're doing is that not only is there a narrative set up in first life, but when it continues in Second Life that narrative will continue for many, many months, all the way through February. In February, we'll do part two of the show. We're actually having a rock star on the show to help our people solve the crime. Then that person will be performing in a live concert in Second Life after the show ends in a true triple cross-platform play.
The future of television [is] TV, mobile, on-line and gaming, that are specific things to the device that drives you back to television. We're really making a concerted effort [to commit] to a narrative on a seasonal arc in both platforms, which I think really makes this special.
CSI Files: For viewers to get the full impact of the story, do they have to go into Second Life?
<HR ALIGN="CENTER" SIZE="1" WIDTH="45%" COLOR="#007BB5">
To read the full interviews, please click here.<center></center>
CSI Files: You're obviously a fan of cross-platforming, given last year's "Hung Out to Dry" which featured edoclaundry.com. What made you choose Second Life for CSI: New York this season?
Anthony Zuiker: CBS put a minority stake investment into a company called Electric Sheep and they specialize in making virtual worlds. They approached me in June of 07 to be involved in this. The goal was to launch to a virtual world that was CSI: New York-esque in the best fashion. So we came up with the idea that we would actually do a show in the "first life," that will air [tonight] and in that show <font color=yellow>Gary Sinise</font> would be chasing a killer in Second Life and Gary would have to go through the process of downloading the software, creating his avatar and then going into the world [of Second Life].
The show will actually cliffhang, and when the show is over at eleven o'clock, the narrative continues because the CSI: New York virtual world will be open for business, where you can download a customized avatar, actually go into world, go through orientation, teleport to different New York simulations that emulate Manhattan from top to bottom in a virtual world: Flatiron Building, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, you can go inside the real CSI: NY lab--that's the same lab that's on our show.
You can either play casual games, like facial reconstruction or puzzles or memory games. You can play a more intermediate game, which is called "Murder by Zuiker," which is a blog game where I create a crime scene virtually, and I challenge you to go in that crime scene, analyze it, and write in 500 words or less what you think happened, and then I will read the excerpts and I will post the top ten that I think are closest to my solution. I'll hide one more clue inside that crime scene; if you find it, you guys should go back into world and get a gift for your avatar for solving a crime. In expert play, if you're a little more hardcore, your avatar can actually engage in a crime scene somewhere in world in a simulation. You get your own field kit, you fly around, you talk to suspects, you gather the evidence, you analyze it. At the end you talk to Cisco Telepresent Center and they analyze how you did.
So there's something for everybody in terms of gaming in the virtual world. There's also a social aspect--you can purchase items, you can build real estate--everything you can do in Second Life you can do in the simulation. But this is the most aggressive simulation in Second Life. And don't forget the numbers are seven million people belong to Second Life, but only about 40-41,000 are actually on it at one time. We are going to do something special [tonight] which is clearly historic, which is we're going to, in two thirty second spots, invite our viewership to the virtual world in the show. It's completely groundbreaking that we would advertise that there's a virtual world that we encourage our viewer to download. We're going to invite 15 million people to this party.
The great thing about what we're doing is that not only is there a narrative set up in first life, but when it continues in Second Life that narrative will continue for many, many months, all the way through February. In February, we'll do part two of the show. We're actually having a rock star on the show to help our people solve the crime. Then that person will be performing in a live concert in Second Life after the show ends in a true triple cross-platform play.
The future of television [is] TV, mobile, on-line and gaming, that are specific things to the device that drives you back to television. We're really making a concerted effort [to commit] to a narrative on a seasonal arc in both platforms, which I think really makes this special.
CSI Files: For viewers to get the full impact of the story, do they have to go into Second Life?
<HR ALIGN="CENTER" SIZE="1" WIDTH="45%" COLOR="#007BB5">
To read the full interviews, please click here.<center></center>
