Jack: GOHA was established in 2006. I had been in Second Life for a year or so, and was intrigued with a rink I found at a place called Spittonie Isle, but there was no active play going on. My understanding is there used to be an active league but it had been gone for some time. So I decided to try to start one. I can build, but my scripting knowledge is still pretty much nonexistent, so I hired a scriptor to develop our first game while I built the rink. Currently, our scriptor is our own long time player Dyz Warburton, who is also in the field in real life and very talented. The base script was written a year ago by scriptor NeoBokrug Elytis, who did the Wastelands here in SL, and since that time Dyz has modified it quite heavily, following league requests and research. We now have a complete, incredible statistics engine, in which all player and game stats are recorded as games go along and stored on our outside servers.

Wurlitzer: Where is Global Online Hockey Association located at?

Jack: We're on the sim Jericho Hill. This winter, we also moved our sim so that its north border intersects with another sim, TreeSong. We then rebuilt the rink so that the spectator half is on one sim and the game on the other. This helps with the lag that comes from avatar crowds.

Wurlitzer: Was there anybody helping out while developing the Global Online Hockey Association?

Jack: Initially, two guys I met here, Weis Hickman and Marjan Tomba, helped me with this whole process. Weis has since mostly left SL, but Tomba is still around and is assistant commissioner. But in the meantime, there's been MANY hands involved in this. The league is too much work for one person, unless it was somehow your full time real job. So many of us pitch in. Dyz Warburton scripted our current game and continues to update and work on it. We have team captains who are heavily involved in making sure their teams are up to date on rules, script changes, and arranging practices. We have a referee squad of our own experienced players. Basically, it takes a LOT of willing hands to make something like this work.

Wurlitzer: How long has Global Online Hockey Association been in Second Life for?

Jack: It started initially in late spring 2006, and we're getting ready to start our 8th season. We do two seasons a year.

Wurlitzer: What was the reason Global Online Hockey Associations was previously renamed?

Jack: Linden Labs has contacted many groups and businesses inside Second Life. Unless under certain circumstances, you are no longer allowed to use the letters SL, or words such as Linden. Also, we have some upcoming plans to be expanding both in and out of Second Life, so trademarks come into play then, and so we changed from SLHA to GOHA which is undergoing the trademark process as we speak.

Wurlitzer: How does hockey translate into Second Life?

Jack: It's a simulation, like anything else here. Our main goal is to strive for realism while at the same time accepting and working around some of the limitations of the platform. Lag, for instance, or collision. People who know real hockey will notice right off that our crease (the area in front of the goal) is abnormally large. This is specifically because of SL physics. If shots are taken too close, every shot goes in. So we have a large crease, and no one but the goalie is allowed inside of it. If a player skates into it, they get a penalty. This is something that we were the first to specifically develop after much testing.

Wurlitzer: What time are the hockey games usually played at?

Jack: North American division plays from 6-8pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12-2 pm on Saturday, and 1-3pm on Sunday. European division plays at 1pm Thursdays and 10am Sundays. Farm division plays at 6pm on Monday and Wednesday, and 10am Saturday. Then we have daily scrimmages open for anyone at 5pm, and most nights we wind up having at least 1-2 more random scrimmages.

Wurlitzer: How the teams setup & how many members are on a team?

Jack: We have 5 teams in the NA division, 3 in Euro, and 2 in farm. We plan to expand to more teams for Season 9. We do a draft at the beginning of every season. Prior to the draft, current team captains get to make a certain numbered selection of players from the prior season they want to reserve rights to. All others are entered into the draft. Each team has about 15 active players. Some play part time, some full time.

Wurlitzer: What are the differences between the North American and European teams?

Jack: It's just time-zone related. It's actually tough sometimes to come up with players who are strictly European time-zoned, but we have a Euro commissioner Tuvok Dingson who is working on some promotions and advertising to get more folks in. NA players are also allowed to play in the European division, which helps fill out the teams.

Wurlitzer: What age brackets do the teams range in?

Jack: Players have to be at least 18. I think our oldest player who will admit their age is in their 50's.

Wurlitzer: If one is interested in joining a team, what are the steps one should follow?

Jack: First, stop by the rink. We have all the equipment you need, for free, sitting by the glass and in our Equipment area by the spectators benches. Then join the group Global Online Hockey Association and also sign up at our website, www.globalonlinehockeyassociation.com. We start players out in the Farm division, where they play with other rookies 6-10 games and get accustomed to the game play. Anhayla Lycia is in charge of the Farm division, and new players should contact her or myself to get started playing, and come by for the Farm games Monday Wednesday and Saturday. After they're comfortable with the game, we draft them to one of the NA or Euro teams.

Wurlitzer: What are some perks for being involved in Global Online Hockey Association?

Jack: It's a very social, very enjoyable environment. The competition is fantastic. We have a lot of people in the league who say they basically log into Second Life strictly for the hockey league play, which is pretty cool. There's a lot of social events outside of game time, and many long-lasting friendships formed through it, even a couple of successful real life romances. That's the best benefit, the friendships. Some of us have some outside contact as well, mine I keep a bit limited, but I've talked to some of our players on the phone and sent Marjan Tomba a couple jerseys..lol I didn't know his real name so I just mailed it to "Marjan Tomba". We have a good time.

Wurlitzer: What are the rules/regulations of the Global Online Hockey Association?

Jack: The rules are long! We have to develop, through years of play, a very unique set of rules to help the games stay fair and fun. We have some unusual rules, for instance the penalties for being in the crease or for flying, that you wouldn't see in real life. Many of our rules are based off NHL rules. The complete list of rules and regulations is available on our website.

Wurlitzer: How did you conduct your research as to making sure everything works out for Global Online Hockey Association in Second Life?

Jack: It's all trial and error. A group of us, as managers, meet weekly and discuss various concerns, problems, and task-force on resolving them. Managing something like this is totally different from managing something in real life. You're dealing with different social aspects and forms of expression, and it can be a real challenge. Communication is vital and sometimes difficult in here. We do our meetings in voice most of the time to help facilitate that.

Wurlitzer: Is there anything you had to compensate for, in order for hockey to work in Second Life?

Jack: The biggest compensations were the restrictions that Second Life imposes, although our scriptor Dyz is amazingly able to take just about any idea we have and translate it into a workable script. We are always fighting SL issues like lag and crashing, but then so does everyone here. The people who play realize it's not the same as playing NHL '08 on an X-Box console, but the rewards are the awesome script and the interactions we have with each other.

Wurlitzer: Any plans to take Global Online Hockey Association outside of Second Life?

Jack: Actually yes, we are in the midst of a project that SLCN.TV is doing, as one of their shows. SLCN has been filming our games for a couple years now. Our longtime players Kert Upshaw and Bedtime Bobbysocks are the announcers, and very professional. You can see the games on SLCN's website. They are expanding into a more global market and we're working with them, along with some other great SL sports like simboarding and snail racing, to bring our great sports out into more of the virtual world. We're excited to do this and to represent the hockey and sports world inside SL.

Wurlitzer: Does Global Online Hockey Association have any plans for future growth?

Jack: Always! We've expanded several times with more teams and divisions over the years, and now with this SLCN endeavor we're excited about the next years.

Wurlitzer: How many visit Global Online Hockey Association?

Jack: Since June of last year, we've had almost 2,000 people try the equipment. We have an average of 10 new folks a day stop by and try the game, and more who come to watch.

Wurlitzer: What are some upcoming events you are having for the month of April?

Jack: April is our "off-season"..we are between official seasons, but we will still be having daily 5pm scrimmages. We are also doing a Beta Series of games, which follows our regular schedule as listed above, in which teams will play and test out our new scripting features. We are doing this so that we can make adjustments to the script, testing etc and be ready for Season 8 with some new features we are adding. The Season 7 Awards ceremony is being held April 18th in our "Below Zero" club which is underneath the ice rink.

Wurlitzer: What made you decide to market Global Online Hockey Association?

Jack: It's more fun with more people, so way back in early seasons we jumped at the chance to have the SLCN film, and we have a PR person who goes out looking for new folks. We advertise in Events and word of mouth.

Wurlitzer: What are some drawbacks your experiencing with promoting Global Online Hockey Association?

Jack: It's incredibly busy sometimes, more than one can handle. Fortunately people jump in and help me all the time. I don't know what I would do without these generous league members, really the league could not exist if it was just me trying to run it alone. There's really no major drawbacks though. A lot of benefits. You get a lot of enjoyment and pride out of contributing. A long time member, Joe Grumiaux, told me once "It's cool you got me involved in the world of hockey; I'm more than a casual fan now by simply creating the game and league." Hearing something like that makes all the busywork well worth it.

Wurlitzer: Does Global Online Hockey Association feature any sponsors?

Jack: We don't have sponsors at this time, having the wish to remain free of much responsibilities for others than our own league.

Wurlitzer: If you didn't have Global Online Hockey Association, what would you have done instead?

Jack: I still do a lot of building and would probably have expanded more on that but the league is time consuming. It's fine by me, I greatly enjoy it, and would rather be doing league stuff than building.

Wurlitzer: How do you keep transparency in making sure who you are in RL becomes the same in SL?

Jack: Actually I don't, I am pretty private about my real life. There are a few people in the league who have my real life information and can and do contact me. Like any large group in an online environment, you get a few kooks come through, and I don't advertise my real life publicly due to the potential of the kooks coming out of the real life woodwork. I'm basically the same person though, I don't get into role play environments.

Wurlitzer: Are you the same person in RL as you are in SL?

Jack: Kind of. I'm not as social in real life as I am here. I don't have a six-pack or hair this great!

Wurlitzer: What would you like your future in SL to be?

Jack: I'd like to continue to grow this league and grow with it. We will be here as long as Second Life is here

Wurlitzer: What do you like to do in your spare time in SL?

Jack: I spend time with my wife Katia Ixtab and also like to build and to explore interesting-sounding places. There are some amazing places out there if you take the time to look. I'm slowly rebuilding my sim now into a Mayan jungle at Katia's request, it might be finished some day.