ALL ALONG THE IVORY TOWER

The devil lives in Noyo, and he wears tighty whities.

Instead of flaying men's souls from their bones, however, Lumiere Noir spends most of his time in-world completing the Ivory Tower of Prims, a multi-storied building devoted to teaching new residents the intricacies of building objects. "I'm a teacher [offline], and pretty much a self-taught builder here," Noir tells me. "I've made a lot of discoveries with building and wanted to share them. And I started to get the idea that one of the best ways to demonstrate building here would be to lay it all out visually, down to the workings of the user interface. Because there's really no way for a Basic Building 101 teacher to show that [in an online class], and people get lost." So each level of the tower breaks down the process of creating, texturing, and shaping an objects, step by step, GUI by GUI. Or as Lumiere puts it, "[T]his is a user interface about a user interface. I like it when there are layers of reality and simulated reality that go in layers like this... I've interviewed a lot of master builders to get tips and tricks and experience and buidling methods that go beyond my own."

We step outside the wide, dramatic entrance of the Ivory Tower, the devil and I, to wrap up our interview.

"I want it to be a very public looking place," says Lumiere, referring to the curling, white marble staircase, the reflecting pool, the polished brass lettering, and the giant abstract scultpures that ring the entrance.

Off-world, Lumiere teaches English as a second langue to high schoolers, mostly Spanish and Chinese-speakers. At the same time, he adds, "I've got a Masters in art... so that's still a strong pull-- part of why I like SL so much, it's a new medium." The Ivory Tower is his effort to link his twin passions of teaching and art together, and he has long-term aspirations to expand in both directions. "I've considered using the tools of SL to create things in British history to show students," says Lumiere. "Say, like the Globe Theater, Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe and things like that... I'd be able to give them walk throughs."

The bulk of this profile was conducted several weeks ago, so I checked in with Lumiere Noir this week, to see how things had been evolving in the Tower, since then.

"I'm putting in a branch building in Natoma now," Noir tells me via Insant Message. "I've added a lot of advanced techniques to the upper levels of the original building. The branch will cover texturing and avatar attachments. I'm running out of prims in Noyo, so that's part of why I'm making the branch in another sim, until I can get more land in Noyo... Attendance is way, way up with the new arrivals. I'm getting between 40 and 50 visitors a day now, sometimes up to 100."

None of this is to suggest that the Tower is solely a non-profit public works project. Based on the steady foot traffic of new users (i.e. "newbies"), the Tower generates enough Dwell credits to bring in a small but steady stream of Linden Dollars, into Lumiere Noir's account. "I usually make 200-300 a day," Lumiere tells me-- about US$.90-$1.30, based on the current exchange rate.

"Is all that total enough to cover your monthly fees?" I ask him.

Noir laughs. "Not at all... but it does help a lot to get developer's incentives. People that make the most Dwell are given awards of US dollars, either as a check or as a credit to their accounts. I've received these the last 3 months... the library was never as busy as it is now, but let's see... US$30, $40 and $33 so far, for the 3 previous months. I just have it taken off my bill. It's nice. It's not what I do the library for, but it does help." His main motivation remains the thrill of teaching, and building to teach.

"I'm often approached by newbies who say 'I learned how to build in your tower!'," Noir says. "And that's all the reward I ever need."