VICKIE is Breaking Out
by BONZO, HSM team writer
Lockwood’s Vickie is breaking away, and it’s about time.
My first attachment to Home came with SodiumOne and Lockwood. It is what made me come back and become a core user. Many of the regular users have wanted a Vickie outfit for a very long time, and finally it is happening. In this teaser image on the official Lockwood website we see Vickie posed in two different angles with the costume icon on the top right corner.
Why is Vickie so cool? The sci-fi-loving nerd in me just absolutely went bugnuts the first time I saw her. It was digital love at first sight. Vickie was a conglomeration of so many sci-fi references and geek conceived notions, and for me at least provided a glimpse of the potential of what Home could be. Interaction with an artificial intelligence. Vickie is a very basically programmed android character in the setting of the Sodium Hub, but she represents so much more. She hints at the fantasy of interactivity with a cybernetic being.
When I first set eyes on her, my first thought was, “No freaking way!” My first mental association was Major Motoko Kusanagi, the protagonist in what is arguably one of the most beautiful anime films ever made, Ghost in the Shell. Take a closer look at her though, and I am sure so many other sci-fi references probably pop into mind. Borg, Matrix, Terminator, StarWars, Star Trek, I Robot, Battlestar Galactica, countless video games – I could go on and on. Our modern culture since the inception of the microprocessor has been nearly obsessed with the idea of robots being a part of our lives, either living among us as subservient property, as equals, or as our eventual overlords when they finally rise and take us out of commission. The 1950’s saw an explosion of science fiction in the media which inspired further science fiction artists and writers, and even the progression of the technology we take for granted today.
Robots, androids, and cyborgs have been a big part of our culture and continue to grow as technology is making them more possible. Video games provide a glimpse of this interactivity. NPC – non-player characters are representational programs we interact with during in-game scenarios; essentially they are robots without the machine parts. Though there are plenty of robot and sci-fi costumes available, including a line of Iron Fusion costumes from Lockwood, Vickie is an outfit that has been long overdue. It is cool enough to interact with the animated Vickie in the Sodium Hub, and the static statues available as decorative items were a good fix (particularly the Golden Vickie) but the notion of having an avatar-wearable outfit with a real human behind the controls adds a new level of interactivity with a cyborg fantasy.
Vickie is a unique character in Home; her entire design tells a story. She is an entity fixed to a rig, attached to a portable generator, but she is incomplete. Her body hints at nudity, her joints have no skin, and she is missing the shell of a leg. She is also alone. To take her out of context as an element of video game interaction, she is also a representation of a desire for us to create something that we breathe life into. The god complex in a way, to create life through some non biological function. We respond to robots, to androids, to these non living entities that somehow can mimic life. We are fascinated by them, and we either long for their presence or fear it.
In the modern technological age the novelty has somewhat worn off; the pre-animated automatons or animatronics are no longer enough or that interesting to us. We want artificial intelligence; we don’t want to tell these beings what we want to them to say, but want them to say it for themselves and respond to our interactions individually. There are some who even wish to be merged with technology; cue the cyborg complex. It can be argued that to some degree we have. While most of us are still only attached to technology by external methods: e.g. smart phones, laptops, tablets, and network linking to everything even appliances, there are however people who have through casualty ended up with a technological prosthetic. Body modification with technology is on the rise; at the moment it remains a means of necessity but the very real ethical and political debate exists to make it elective. Were it to exist as an elective possibility to modify or augment your body with cybernetic implants, how many of us would?
Vickie is a 3d model, with limited animation and limited interactivity, but she represents those very real issues, concepts and ideas that may shape our future with technology, or as technology. What separates her from most of the robotic outfits is that her design hints at a lot of humanity. While most avatars are a direct representation of humanity in an artificial reality, Vickie is a representation of emulated humanity within virtual reality. Perhaps such complex ideas didn’t go into her conception; maybe she was just designed because it was a cool concept, and kudos to Lockwood for succeeding. Vickie is a very cool concept.
Nevertheless, those sci-fi cheesy B movies from the 50’s probably weren’t created to spark such philosophical debates either — however, as life continues to imitate art and vice versa, the questions arise. Perhaps it is why robots, and androids fascinate us, because it is an emulation of us. They are a reflection of us, or rather they are created by us in our image.
As a kid I was always enthralled by the robots in cartoons, comics, toys and movies. Not much has changed; they still find their way into my artwork, my writing, and every creative outlet I engage in. I still find technology and its applications amazing, and that is one of the major things that draws me back into games and specially into Home. We interact as robots our avatars with other surrogates that are nothing but lines of code which respond to our stimulus. Vickie is a cool avatar outfit, but she represents so much more than just another outfit.
July 26th, 2012 by BONZO | 6 comments
BONZO is an editor and artist for HomeStation Magazine.
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Brilliant read Bonzo, and I’m gonna have to check myself here so I don’t prattle on like a giddy school girl. But Sci-Fi, old or new, fascinates me. Robotics (especially girly robots heh) also fascinate me. I too had the same stream of “wowness” when Sodium came along, it just burst my mind. That this is what Home should be doing, where it should be heading. In all honesty I don’t think they’ve done enough with Vickie, and why exclude her from the S2 events? I’d loved to have seen her wave a scarf at the start of the S2 races, 50’s Greeser style, y’know.
I wouldn’t say that Sodium would be the same without Vicki, she’s an integral part of the whole scene, and I love the idea that she’s “with you” regardless of where you go in the area too, like a feminine HAL lol. I think a more fluid interface with her would’ve worked wonders, maybe like a speech tree instead of just a basic menu system; but then given Homes limitations when she was created it’s understandable.
I hope to see lots of Vickis walking around soon, I might even get one myself!
There needs to be a Robert Palmer “Addicted to Love” tribute machinima featuring a whole bunch of performers in VICKIE bodysuits.
Seriously, this needs to happen.
Hahaha! YES! Make it happen oh mighty Norse!
lol I can see that!
You sound like you want Vickie to be like a japanese idol for Home, or at least sodium. Vickie was pretty impressive for the time but Home has developed. Hopefully Vickie will be developing with it!
Now we just need to find someone to voice/sing for Vickie so we can get the whole idol thing off the ground. lol.
As usual, great read Bonzo. Vickie actually makes me think of the digital artist Michaelo, although his cyborgs ARE a lot softer than Vickie. I’m not sure Vickie references all these staples as science fiction as much as she has been inspired by them. I love how you took an NPC from Home and have built rhetoric around it, giving it a deeper meeting than titillation.
I actually considered using Vickie for the picture in my “Fetish Indulgence” article for Mechanophilia here on HSM but decided to stick with what avatars could actually wear. Soon Vickie will join those ranks!
I can’t wait for this icon to take center stage of the Sodium universe!