Next Wednesday (Oct 24) will see the sleuths of CSI:NY launched into Second Life, investigating virtual clues of a real murder.  Viewers will be encouraged to log on as well, to visit CSI locations and investigate the crime themselves.

While this kind of "you can play too!" gimmick is often a sign of desperation from a franchise, this case could be an interesting experiment.  It certainly displays a great deal more effort than the usual "insert-popular-keyword" themed murders from many episodes.

Viewers will be able to visit virtual CSI locations, interact with virtual suspects and search for electronic clues. They’ll  have access to techniques even the real detectives don’t (the average police officer can’t wait a few days then download an FAQ), but even with people cheating their way through it all counts as visitors, popularity and therefore success from CBS’s point of view.

Second Life location builders Electric Sheep have been hired to construct locations designed by Anthony Zuiker, reports the New York Times.  Mr Zuiker, the creator of "CSI" (remember back when it didn’t have other stuff after its name?) has even uploaded his own avatar which will greet viewers eager to log on and investigate.

Whether the makers can avoid the well known "cyber-hacker-OMG" problem of technology represented in television remains to be seen. In order to keep the show accessible to the majority of viewers, the concepts are often broken down into incredibly simple (and highly inaccurate) explanations. The result is that those who don’t care about the subject still don’t care, and those who do care are frustrated by the simple level and glaring inaccuracies.

The plot of this episode raises an important question: if you kill someone who spends all their time in Second Life, does it count as a full murder?  And since the murderer also spends all his time there, isn’t he already serving a life sentence?

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Entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 12:39 pm under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Luke McKinney.
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