First Report from Manoa
Okay, we’ve now spent some time in the Centric region, we’ve talked a little more with Stratton Briggs, and we have some more info for everyone.
First, the singing mats are damn creepy.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. As we mentioned earlier, our region in Second Life has seemingly been taken over by a future corporation that was developing an alien world. Yeah, we know. Strange things happen in SL, but this one is particularly bizarre. And the story gets even stranger. Apparently this alien planet’s development was shut down due to “cost overruns.” And Winfinity is offering a L$100,000 award for the “best independent data” regarding the reasons.
Second, Stratton Briggs doesn’t believe for a moment that we’re actually from the 21st century, or that this is anything more than a management test. But he did seem honestly interested in determining what happened on Manoa.
Third, I don’t think that the future will spawn companies like Winfinity, which seems to be quite oppressive. Transparency and openness seem to be the hallmark of companies who want to succeed in the future. Which brings up an interesting question: is Winfinity from an alternate timeline where things went differently? Are we changing our world, right now, to an extent that they might never exist? And is that why there’s been this intersection between future and past?
Because one thing’s clear: Manoa is not a portal to another dimension. It abides by standard Second Life rules. As far as we can tell, anyway.
Fourth, Stratton Briggs seems to think there isn’t one right answer to what happened. "This is not a game," he said. "It is a presentation. You stand in front of the board, you do the tricks and show the best light, and in the end, they pick which is most convincing." He reiterated: "Tell a story. Words, Images, Video, Sound, all media is equal.
So? We’ll play along. We’ll even host DiscoverManoa.com on this timeline. So come in, take a look around, and let us know what YOU think happened on Manoa. The highest-rated answer on DiscoverManoa.com, as rated by visitors from June 1 to June 30, wins the L$100,000. Which isn’t bad for what might be a few lines of copy.
