In Second Life, there are not only those people who everyone seems to know, but also those residents who all the cool people seem to know; and it is these people who tend to be infinitely more interesting, in that they are creating the things that leave even the cutting-edge leaders in the grid impressed. Such is the case, for example, with Ordinal Malaprop, the steampunk extraordinaire who has had a hand in everything from public transit systems to customized SLurl creation on the web. Between such public projects and her popular retail outlet [Caledon 100/59/23], where she offers a slew of jarringly unique Victorian-era science-fiction objects, Ordinal has become a poster-child for many as to what can be done on the outer fantastical edges of Second Life. And to add even further to the mystery, no one knows who Ordinal actually is in real life; the most she will admit to in public is that she's a London-based daytime computer programmer, preferring to keep the rest of the details firmly separated from her virtual persona.
After many months of intermittent contact, I finally had the chance this week to sit down with Ordinal, over at her store in the Victorian community of Caledon; it was a lengthy and informative interview, one that I think any fan of Ordinal's will enjoy, which is why I've published the extra-long unedited transcript below. Needless to say, I thank Ordinal immensely for taking the time out of her schedule to talk.
In The Grid: Okay, so let's start with this subject, because it will influence the interview; that the real life of Ordinal Malaprop is a mysterious one. In my research in your archives, in fact, the only RL info I ever came across was that you make a living programming.
Ordinal Malaprop: That is very much by design, I must say. The two things that I reveal are for practical purposes; that I live in London, and that I am a programmer by trade. This has been a little hard to disguise in any case.
ITG: Are you ever tempted to step forward, in order to get some real-life recognition for your much-admired scripting work here? Or is the anonymity more important for you?
OM: Well, part of the reason that I am here is to get away from Other World affairs, to a great extent. In my early days I was a little more forthcoming, but not an awful lot. It isn't something that really interests me -- I have a fairly extensive Aethernet presence in other guises, though you would not have heard of me, I don't flatter myself to think.
ITG: Ah, so the scripting here is not going on the RL resume, then?
OM: No. Well. Perhaps, at some later stage. I have thought about it as a profession of sorts, but am in two minds about whether it would ruin my own enjoyment. Here, one can say no to things, after all. And one gets a little tired of being seen primarily as a programmer.
ITG: So if I can be a little presumptuous, is part of the anonymity so as to better inhabit Ordinal the Steampunk? For those who don't know, you roleplay 24 hours a day here, within a sorta retro-futuristic society that adheres to Victorian ideals.
OM: Oh quite. I wouldn't want my Other Worldly character to take over from my real existence after all; that would be seen as dysfunctional by alienists. By the way, I have criticised some people in the past for accusing me of "roleplaying," as if some sort of music-hall player [laughter].
ITG: Yeah, how would you best describe it? What is life for Ordinal in the grid?
OM: I try at all times to remain very adaptable and take events on in the Grid as they come, as outlandish as they may be, but reinterpret them in my own context. I have written before that this is a very...robust strategy for a society, and it is one that is epitomised in Caledon I think. All comers are welcome -- Goreans, Ruths, Ents, purple monsters -- and none of them can damage our society, without drastic and physically disruptive action. So really I am not playing a role, just being myself, I feel.
ITG: So not roleplaying so much, but more an entire life for Ordinal that's different from the flesh-covered entity in London controlling her? Not a game, that is, as much a chance to construct a better society, in your eyes.
OM: Less perhaps about the society and its benefits, though it is always pleasant to be in the company of others of a similar bent -- I love the Grid and all of its peculiarities. I find it a little tricky to define my precise position in relation to myself outside of Second Life sometimes, to be frank. Trying to do so and speculating on it I find fascinating as well, so perhaps I am just creating work for myself deliberately [laughter]. There is also the point of view that says it is better to live and experience something as it comes rather than plan things out beforehand.
ITG: What led you to steampunk and the Victorian era to begin with? Are you more a fan of the postmodern literature, or of the original images and styles that come with the age?
OM: Well, in my youth I was something of a "cyberpunk." Or to be more accurate, a nearly-ex-cyberpunk. As I said, it was in my youth, but since then I have become a lot more cynical.
ITG: Waning on the genre, were you? But this was 2005 when you first joined SL, right, when a lot of people started waning off cyberpunk.
OM: In many ways the primary point of the cyberpunk movement has been assimilated into the mainstream, I feel; speculation on the social effects of everyday technology is the stuff of mainstream journalism now. Something that is left, though, is speculation based on alternative starting points, alternative histories. Taking a step back.
ITG: Would you have a guess why this particular speculation has caught on so much? Why not entire societies devoted to, say, the Nazis winning WWII?
OM: Well, there is the aspect that, at least on the surface, Victoriana provides a model of a polite and stable society, perhaps. One would have to refer to The Diamond Age here [Ed: a Victoriana sci-fi novel by Neal Stephenson]. I was also briefly involved in retrotechnology of a slightly later age, 1920s to '50s.
ITG: And one grappling with the societal effects of large, fast technology, too. Something we in the modern age can definitely emthasize with.
OM: Quite. Rapid social change, in many cases based on technology. It's a sympathetic situation. The 1920s was another one, and the '50s, hence I suppose my previous sentence. It being in the past may give it the distance to make it more bearable and allow a more objective view.
ITG: And yet, you as a moderner also deal with the darker aspects of the time; like the notion of "Empire" and the "White Man's Burden" in the case of Victoriana.
OM: I do. While I am not really active at the moment, I have a definite political position, and regard the whole British Empire and the history of the period with a distinctly jaundiced eye. There's an element of irony in all of this for me, the references to gunboat diplomacy and so on.
ITG: You're a Socialist, right? Or at least Ordinal is, here in the grid. And that too fits into Victoriana; not just the empire defenders, but those at the time who were critical of it.
OM: In both worlds [I'm a Socialist]. I can say that even if I were not, to consider the period without also considering a very important political movement relating to industrialism would be remiss for anyone.
ITG: And in your retro work in the '20s to '50s, do you explore Socialism as well? Virtual Orwell, perhaps? Would you ever build a virtual 1984 for SL?
OM: I haven't really extensively built in that period; but if I were to, I certainly would. An idealised Communist society would be an interesting one, just like an idealised Victorian one. And just, of course, as ripe for irony.
ITG: So let me just jump to another random question I've been wondering for awhile; who exactly buys retro-future Victorian weapons? Do you have fans in the traditional gaming community, or is it mostly steampunks who want something that will go boom?
OM: I have two main groups of purchasers for my weapons, as I see it. The first group are historically-led, including some who are not roleplayers but have an interest in historical firearms. The replicas that I produce, particularly the Webley, sell well to them, as I am shall we say persnickety about detail. The second group are interested in the unusual effects of the more peculiar steampunk weapons that I build -- I do try to make them spectacular. This includes quite a few people who have no steampunk connection at all. Obviously there isn't much point in researching the exact details of a beehive launcher. Rather fruitless, I would think.
ITG: Right. Or a three-barrel snowball machine gun.
OM: The two groups tend to blur at the boundaries as well, just as the product range does. Clockwork blunderbusses don't exist but are not terribly outre, as with the revolving flare pistol.
ITG: And of course, you do a lot more here as well; entire structures, your famous lighthouse, etc.
OM: Well, I like to provide entertainment just for the casual visitor, make places worth looking at and exploring. For myself I love to explore areas and love them even more if they provide hidden secrets or interactive parts. The cyberpunk sim of Chaos is a good example there.
ITG: And this of course also brings us to the public transit system here at the Caledon complex. How did that come about? If I understand it right, it was collaborative; you did the scripting and others built the trains and tracks.
OM: One of the first serious projects that I embarked upon, when I was still living on the mainland, was a tour balloon. It still exists -- it hovers just to the west [of my store], and takes people on a ride around Caledon. I mentioned this when I was getting involved with the steampunk groups, and when it came to the infrastructure of Caledon, it was one of the things that Desmond was interested in. I built the script from the ground upwards, and it went through many iterations. The tram itself was built by Reitsuki Kojima and Shaunathan Sprocket. I'm still rather proud of it, and feel very proprietorial. I also used a related script for the Monorail at the third-year anniversary celebrations.
ITG: And it's cool when it works, as I can attest; but as you've mentioned at your blog, it can get quite buggy too, right? Is it still just a tiny bit ahead of the curve too much as far as SL tech?
OM: While I'm sure the script itself could be improved, the main issue is with the world, I fear. I live in some hope that Mono will make this a bit easier to cope with, but a lot of it comes down to the simple issue of moving prims around an area. There is only so far that one can go to change how that works. One can realise the peculiarities of the world and try to adjust for them -- for instance, the speed of the trams is tailored to try to ensure that they don't disappear on sim crossings, or explode, heaven forfend. But there is a point at which one has to say "there's no way of doing this now, I will have to wait for a fix to the universe." I've considered having shrines to the Lindens on board the trams, which automatically make sacrifices to propitiate the Grid Deities at sim crossings [laughter].
ITG: And sociologically speaking, do you find it changes the way people interact at Caledon? Most travel in the grid, after all, is through direct teleportation, which I think has a real effect on how people interact at their destinations.
OM: This sim, Caledon I, is now less busy than it used to be, but when it was starting, it was a definite influence. Actually, there was an issue to begin with, since people tended to stand around at the telehub and chat, and of course the tram goes right through there. There were good-natured protests at the fact that people were being run over.
ITG: So let's get into some technical issues, as long as we're here. For example, is there a key or series of keys to going from a good designer to a great one? One who can attract high-end customers, like you've now been able to?
OM: If there is one thing which one needs, it is a portfolio. The advantage of work in SL is that it is very immediate, when it is actually instantiated. Having potential clients who can directly experience things that one has built is much better than simply having a CV of some sort; or "resume" as I believe you [Americans] call them. I would advise any aspiring scripter or builder to become involved in some sort of fairly stable project and do work for that, perhaps for free.
ITG: And how about from the building process itself? What's one or two things, for example, about texturing that you've learned now, that's really come in handy?
OM: Well, I consider myself a merely adequate builder, but two things about texturing: 1. be aware of the differences between stretching textures and not doing so when one modifies an object, and how this doesn't always work; 2. become familiar with the mathematics of texture repeating and offsets, because this is essential to having textures line up across multiple prims, and otherwise picky people such as myself will turn up their noses [laughter]. I don't approach the texturing skills of any real architect, though. Oh! And a third one: Never, never, never have "texture flash," which is when you have two surfaces occupying the same space, and the texture flips between them arbitrarily. It stands out a mile.
ITG: And how about from the scripting side? In relative terms to other languages, how difficult is it to get up to speed on LSL? If I know HTML and some Javascript, am I still going to be hopelessly lost? In other words, is it only daytime programmers who will have a shot of doing really cool scripted things here?
OM: In general, no, it's not that hard to get used to the basic principles of LSL. The challenge is (a) being aware of a few tricks, such as using simultaneous scripts powered by link messages, and the much more difficult (b) which involves being aware of the peculiarities of how functions work in practice, and in different environments, and with different other loads on the sim, as opposed to how they should work. I don't know a scripter who has mastered (b) and none ever will while the environment keeps changing. Once you have done that you can proceed to (c), which is actually understanding how quaternions work [laughter].
ITG: So thorough usability testing is important here?
OM: It is essential. I maintain properties in different areas specifically for that purpose. If one builds something and only tests it on private islands, one's mainland customers may find it unusable. Sometimes this means removing features or compromising on them, but better that than it doesn't work properly and looks shoddy.
ITG: So okay, Ordinal, later this year you celebrate your second anniversary of being here. What's in the future for you? Are you still finding the grid as "worth it" as you have before?
OM: Hmm. Later this year, well, it will be quite a bit later really...I certainly don't regret anything. In some ways the Grid is less amenable than it was before, but there have always been issues with sim crossings and so on. Periods when things are simply impossible have increased in frequency, but all that one can do is pray, there, really. I am certainly not in the position of giving up, though I do get annoyed at times. I know that Lindens do as well, and they do take the issue very seriously.
ITG: So will it be more steampunk items from you? Or do you think you'll start delving more into the other periods that interest you?
OM: I think that barring some drastic event, I shall remain in my current form and with similar areas of interest, though I am always amenable to other topics. Some of my projects have no genre at all, such as the sim maps. I am always open to suggestions.
ITG: And will we see you at this year's community convention? I just found out it's in Chicago this year, where I live in real life. Or would that break too much the layer of anonymity you maintain here?
OM: I think that it would break my bank account, to start with. I have met a few people in person, but in general I prefer to meet them here on the Grid. I would hope that the convention will have a significant element in-world.
ITG: And then finally, maybe off the top of your head you'll recommend a couple of oustanding places here at the Caledon complex for people to visit? Or even, just where's a good place to start? It's so big, it can be intimidating at times.
OM: Oh goodness. Erm. The dog kennels here are very impressive from a scripting point of view, in Caledon I -- not just for scripters either, they are some of the most sophisticated pets that one can find. Otherwise I would just invite people to take a tour around, I think. Perhaps on a balloon [laughter]. Promenading is a terrific way to meet people as well -- do feel free to bid people a good day and so on. Some of the most interesting conversations I have had have just been from wandering Caledon and speaking to those doing the same.
Ordinal Enterprises can be found at [Caledon 100/59/23]; the public is invited to stop by 24 hours a day.