City of Lost Angels

by Onder Skall

I originally sent this story to New World Notes, where it appeared in my column there. I was just finally reposting it tonight when I received the incredible news that CCS, the system upon which the RPG is based, is going open source! I’m going to send that in to the Herald I think… they’re always up for something timely…

Onder Skall reviews some of the Grid’s most intriguing games

There are a number of dark roleplay environments in SL, but City of Lost Angels (CoLA) is the queen of them all. The CoLA Combat System, a marriage of LSL and SQL, has created an efficiently run mini-MMO that packs the sim to capacity all day and night.

Now they’re planning a move to an island of their own (purchased as of the 10th according to the website) and things will only get more insane from here.

Let’s take a closer look at what these creepy cats are up to.

The Photography Studio of Grignano

By Osprey Therian

Once more there’s a photo contest – this time the theme is METAL

The Scorched Earth Festival

The Scorched Earth Festival
A Post-Apocalyptic Music Event in The Wastelands

 

May 1st 2007

Suffugium

By Seeker Gray

[Editor's note: Seeker Gray comes to us from his amazing blog Second Seeker.]

Seeker Gray reports from Suffugium 

Reader Evolver Dowren recommended that I stop by Suffugium. I’m very glad I did. I’m not sure why distopic builds attract me … I’m not, in general, interested in futuristic sorts of backdrops. Perhaps it is the similarities between this dark place and Victorian London, with the steam rising from the grates in the narrow shadowed streets, the sense of danger just around the next corner … ah, but I am dating myself, and that doesn’t do at all! In any case, Suffugium did not disappoint.

A Week In The Metaverse – Episode 1

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/11257453/view]

I thought I’d come back with more multimedia. No idea if I’m ever going to do another one… let me know if you like it and I’ll be more inclined to.

God… listening to it now… you can so tell I caught a cold today. I spent a lot of time in the rain, unfortunately. Last week was a week off of technology, and I think this week can be a week off of … outside.

RSS and other meta-data for the podcast can be found here.

Playing Games

By Osprey Therian

Long before floopy prims were even a gleam in LL’s eyehand, I made several different animated texture pennants to put on my tents as the alternatives – rotating twisted prims or waving prims or particles – just didn’t appeal to me. I had no illusions that the pennants were fabulous, but I liked them. I put them for sale and gave a lot away to tent buyers.

Playfulness

By Osprey Therian

In a playful way, Qarl Linden has revealed some information of a new prim function that will be coming sometime.

Exploring the caves of Q last night. Qarl has provided some Jetsonian jetpacks that emit smoke rings.

Just Hit Play

By Osprey Therian

This is the first of what I hope will be a number of posts SLurling you off to inworld machinima. I’ll start with the ones I know at the moment – but please sent me an IM if you show original SL machinima. SLurls are obtained by clicking the names.

Pause To Play

Takin’ a week off folks. No computers and no TV for a solid week. No Internet. No SL. No video games. I’m so gonna die.

Anyhow, special thanks to Osprey for putting this video together for me. I thought I should do something special before I went.

Osprey Therian will still be around to post whatever she feels like posting while I’m gone… and I won’t be around to edit so she could very well get up to anything. Um… should I be worried?

3B – Browsing In 3-space

by Onder Skall

Since the Games Park could possibly be construed as a big 3D “links page”, the mention of 3B caught my attention when it came my way this morning. I checked it out, partially out of curiosity, and partially because I’m trying to avoid doing real work today…

Anyhow, here’s a pic of me walking around Second Life Games in 3D… or 3B… or… whatever, here’s the pic:

Immediate problems I experienced upon installing the software included:

• REALLY awkward avatar customization where you can’t even pick a hairstyle or any facial features.
• Awkward camera control – in fact, very little control over the camera at all.
• A counter-intuitive search function that only addresses the immediate area, not all 3-spaces hosted.

When you first download and install the client they drop you into this space filled with television-related corporate websites… corporate websites are not compelling though. It was like standing in a maze of billboards.

So I jabbed at the client until I figured out how to load up the blog. Random pages from the blog eventually appeared, accompanied by random pages I’ve linked to in the past or that shared meta-tags with me. I couldn’t read most of them because you can’t scroll. Worse: these were just screen-captures of the web pages, so I couldn’t interact with them either except to click on them (twice) and load those pages in a REAL browser.

To be fair, I might be catching them a little early in the development. There’s a good chance that they’ll pull out some magic feature that makes it all gel and coalesce into something beautiful. For me though, this was so much more awkward than a basic browser with a Favorites menu. It’s not all bad, but I can’t see myself browsing the web like this.

I think I learned something here: 3D linking should link to 3D spaces.

Anyhow, as usual, I really don’t expect anybody to just take my word for it. Here’s a link to Second Life Games through the 3B browser… judge for yourself.

Onder’s Game: Bumper Cars, UNA, and Hogan’s Alley

by Onder Skall

This article was originally published in New World Notes. My latest column (about City of Lost Angels) has already appeared there, but I forgot to repost this earlier. Forgiveness please.

Onder Skall reviews some of the grid’s most intriguing games

Some of the best games are based on childhood memories. Nostalgia is a powerful force when it comes to fun, so today we take a good look at three games that many will remember from our years as young gamers: an arcade machine, a carnival ride, and a card game. Let’s go retro!

The Pot Healer Adventure – Numbakulla Island Project

By Seeker Gray

(Editor’s Note: Seeker Gray comes to us from Second Seeker, another fantastic place to find fun things to do around Second Life.)

I have found a special place, an exceptionally special place. Oh, dear reader, how can I begin to tell you how happy I was to find The Pot Healer Adventure – Numbakulla Island Project? Numbakulla in an adventure puzzle. It feels very much like Robyn and Rand Miller’s Myst, the first of the adventure puzzle games. I’m not sure I slept much for a week when that game came out!

SL Best Practices Game Dev. Opportunity

Fresh from the Games And Learning In Second Life wire:

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to send an invitation/reminder to all for an opportunity to be involved in a planning session for the SL Best Practices Conference. I am the gaming chair for the conference and am looking for some people interested in the use of gaming and learning in SL.  We will be having a planning session on Tuesday 4/24 at 6:30pm SLT at the Educator’s Coffee house.

Novice game devs looking to make some connections and a name for themselves should definitely be there. Don’t miss this!

Dark Life 2

by Onder Skall

I kid you not. Dark Life is rising from the ashes and bringing us an entire sequel. They’re in closed beta now. I may have even more details soon, but for now check out the official release by clicking on the giant poster in the Second Life Games Park.

Only 3 Days Left!

by Onder Skall

Long story short: the wall of notecard-givers is coming along nicely, and as of early this morning I have 13 places up there for you to visit. I want LOTS more! That’s where you come in!

Get me a notecard with a description and a landmark in it, plus a texture for me to put on the box that I’ll create for people to click on. See here for examples. I need these BEFORE SUNDAY AFTERNOON SLT! Anybody later than that will probably have to wait at LEAST a week to be included here. Get those notecards to me now! (I still get ‘em if I’m offline so just send it on over.)