iSports Entertainment Interviews
Kathy Nikolaidis had a nice interview with Vista Cobra. Here it is in it's entirety.
I had the chance to sit down and interview the founder of the VRFL
(Virtual Reality Football League) Vista Coba. We talked about the
league, its goals and a bunch of other stuff.. Enjoy :)
iSE: How
did you come up with the concept of the VRFL and how did you set out to
make it unique in SL? Whats your history with SL sports yourself?
Vista
Coba: VRFL started out 4 players by player. We have under gone some
upper management changes, and are happy to say we are now 4 players by
"real life" players. We are all about the games and not the lindens $.
We want to provide a place for not only us to play but others also.
iSE: How is the game played? Is it used with huds?
Vista
Coba: I set out to have a system different to all others, work closely
with the scriptor spending hours testing and refining it. But some
people lost sight of playing the games, we had replace those people,
rebuild this league and the system with real life players that know
football and can bring there rl to this league.
iSE: What makes the VRFL unique. What’s different about it as opposed to the other football leagues in SL (such as SFL or AFL)?
Vista
Coba:Other than real life players running this league, the cost. We
have no buy in, and 3K a month for game fees, to pay referees and ARK
people, we also have a league field. Teams are welcome to use this field
to practice and have home games, we will texture the field with their
logos so they can have the home field feel by doing this we put out
lindens out of our pockets to run and keep the league running, also the
VRFL (Virtual Reality Football League)tm is trademarked through the US
trademark office. Owned by myself in RL. So no one can use anything with
the VRFL name without my ok. In world or out.
iSE:In your opinion, what’s the most exciting aspect about the VRFL?
Vista Coba: The players, the owners, and the staff all come together for one thing the good of the games
iSE: Who can be a player for the VRFL?
Vista
Coba: Any adult human avatar are welcome here. we have both men and
women that play. Team owners are also allowed to take the field to play
on game day.
iSE: You hear it in all SL sports, how lag plays a factor in the game, what does the VRFL do to minimize lag during games.
Vista Coba: We have people to check rendering and scrips, and it is watched during the game by hired pros
iSE: Are there any special events the VRFL holds such as an ALL Star game or cheerleader shows?
Vista Coba:Yes we do,we try to make videos of these events and post them on the
website @ http://vrfl.webs.com/
or you can search our videos on facebook and youtube, seach VRFL
iSE: What can you tell us about the future of the VRFL and where you’d like to see it go?
Vista
Coba: We have a long and bright future,we got a good staff of hard
working people, great bunch of hard working,drama free, tough players
and owners
iSE: As founder what thing or things are you most proudest of in the VRFL?
Vista
Coba:The people,my staff, the owners and players, have all stood up and
stuck together, believed in the league, and myself, true players want
to play
iSE: How can someone be a member of the VRFL or find out more information?
Vista
Coba: We have a VRFL sim, with a league office, website,and a
facebook,Fan group in world : VRFL Fans Group they can contact myself
Vista Coba, or Enrik Eros
iSE: Does the league have websites, facebook or twitter pages?
Vista Coba: website: http://vrfl.webs.com/
LIKE our facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/pages/VRFL-Virtual-Reality
iSE: Is there any other information about the VRFL you’d like to add?
Vista
Coba: We are a strong,and tough league of people! 4 players by"real
life" players! Theres no crying in football! Our scrimmage are open to
anyone that want to play,for free, without drama.
Thank you for your time
5/19/11
Here is the interview I conducted with Dixie Sixpence regarding the SFL, it's future, and her future. Hope you all enjoy the read.
Xavier Ruska: Are the "rumors" true that you are working for the SFL, doing scripts, for free?
Xavier Ruska: Feel free to give me a no comment. :P
Xavier Ruska: Because this will be reported.
Dixie Sixpence: For the version 1 of the field and the betas, yes. The next version 2 will be a paid venture.
Dixie Sixpence: Contracts are being submitted and terms will be worked out.
Xavier Ruska: So currently you edit the scripts, debug them, have made a huge amount of updates in the past 5 months with a compensation of $0 L?
Dixie Sixpence: The idea was to get the SFL up and running.
Dixie Sixpence: After this season, all that has been completed.
Dixie Sixpence: Yes. The only pay I receive is ref work.
Xavier Ruska: Are you afraid the SFL won't pay, keep what they have and move on?
Dixie Sixpence: It's iffy but I'm smart enough to keep some elements in R&D so if I get burned, the newer version 2 field is almost 200% better than the old system.
Dixie Sixpence: The newer field is 100% my scripts, getting rid of bad scripting formats that the original used.
Xavier Ruska: Yes, you had mentioned that a few months back and I know, I for one, am super exicted to see all the new improvements and work you've done.
Dixie Sixpence: Thanks.
Xavier Ruska: If you were to put a price on it, how much you think the SFL should be paying for your services?
Dixie Sixpence: So far, it is the most advanced football (American Football ) game system in SL.
Dixie Sixpence: That's hard to say.
Dixie Sixpence: Some of the scripts are generic, off the shelf things. Just a different way of using them.
Xavier Ruska: Do you normally charge per hour for this kind of service or is this a contracted lump sum type deal and you work as salary?
Dixie Sixpence: Normally in building, I use a formula that is 5L per prim and hourly per script. R&D textures are also both hourly and upload cost.
Xavier Ruska: And how many hours do you think you've given to the SFL currently?
Dixie Sixpence: Easily over 100 hours of R&D time.
Xavier Ruska: Newb moment here, R&D means?
Dixie Sixpence: Research and Development
Xavier Ruska: Did you say you had a set price for R&D? Or do you base it off the specific project?
Dixie Sixpence: Specific. Some scripts are harder than others.
Xavier Ruska: Being as SFL is as advanced as I've ever seen, what kind of typical price range would you price these scripts per hour?
Dixie Sixpence: Getting things (Prims) to talk to each other and have the right response consistently isn't always easy.
Dixie Sixpence: In open market the scripts are relativly cheap but the integration is what takes up the time so you have to base it on time spent on each script and usually a few hours go into each one so you look at a possible cost of 500 to 1k of time involved per script.
Dixie Sixpence: The basic field contains just under 200 scripts.
Dixie Sixpence: It only takes 1 to mess the whole system up if it gives the wrong data.
Dixie Sixpence: No change is easy, as changing one part all scripts get effected.
Xavier Ruska: So is it safe to say, at, let's take the low end here for smiles....500/hour x 100 hours, thats 50,000...I feel that's a super low amount. Even if we take the high end at 1,000/hour at 100 hours is 100,000. At 100k Lindens, that's roughly $400 USD. Do you feel that's plenty of compensation for all the work you've done thus far?
Dixie Sixpence: It's not so much the money X. It's more about me, the creator. I want people to know this is something I've done and that made possible.
Dixie Sixpence: It opens the door to more work.
Dixie Sixpence: My tag World Dominator is a style more than a statement. I want my name in every avatars head. When they think builder, I hope that my name would come up.
Dixie Sixpence: Making Dixie Manufacturing a household name.
Xavier Ruska: Well if you keep up your great work with the SFL, I am sure you will have a household name soon enough.
Dixie Sixpence: I'm picky about what I get involved in. The SFL originally was supposed to be a short term project.
Dixie Sixpence: It's lasted a lot longer than was planned, but it has opened the door for other projects.
Dixie Sixpence: As a girl in RL and in SL, it is hard to gain the respect of doing something that men are thought to be better at.
Dixie Sixpence: Really, who would expect a girl to perfect a football game.
Xavier Ruska: Absolutely, I agree.
Dixie Sixpence: Though the field is far from perfect, but if you want to play, say Madden, then get a X Box.
Dixie Sixpence: I've been asked by several people to build fields for them independently, but I'm bound by no compete contracts so I have to say no, but other sports will be possible like baseball.
Xavier Ruska: Are you fully interested in other sports and enough so to create replicas within Second Life?
Dixie Sixpence: Sure if there is good management and a chance for notoriety and, of course, a profit.
Dixie Sixpence: If the project (is one) that I can get vested in, I'm all for it. Otherwise, I'll sell a few scripts and ideas then move on.
Dixie Sixpence: My goal is to help others in their ventures... Just want my fingers in it. lol
Dixie Sixpence: I work well as a project consultant. I don't always need the chunk out of the project. Just knowing that I had a finger or hand in its creation is sometimes enough.
Xavier Ruska: Well said. Well thank you so much for your time Dixie. I appreciate you answering all my questions tonight. :)
Dixie Sixpence: Anytime X.
