Hello! I’m Mich, the new junior reporter for Second Life Games blog. I will test and review some of the games I find in SL, just so you’ll get to know how much fun there is to find out there. Today I will tell you about “En Garde!”, a new turnbased strategic fencing game for two players. Check it out!
Here I am about to pierce my friend Kat Burger… or is it the other way around?
Rifkin Hasburg of Procyon Games brings us a strategic fencing game by Reiner Knizia. “En Garde” is a strategic fencing game similar to Combat Cards, but with some interesting quirks. A Fencing Tournament will commence September 30th at 5pm with over L$10,000 in prizes!
Wanna play? Here’s the SLurl!
***UPDATE: fixed the SLurl
by Onder Skall
I was sent this by Ultralite Design and haven’t been able to take it off my HUD since. It’s genius.
The basic premise of Tiny Empires is that you’re climbing the social hierarchy. To do that you need to buy land, get subjects, and grow your empire. The subjects are other, newbie players… which means that at the beginning YOU will be somebody’s subject.
That takes a bit because another player of a particular rank has to be logged on and playing in order to see that there are new subjects available. I had to wait about five minutes… and it didn’t really benefit me directly.
Indirectly the benefit is huge, though. My liege earns money on every acre of land I own, and I get occasional offers to leave him and become somebody else’s subject. That means that my liege is SUPER helpful, sending me friendly IMs and offering advice. Good guy. I’ll keep him around. For now. 
You’ll get offers from “the king” to buy land occasionally, which is great because land means money. You’ll also get offers from other players to buy your land. If they’re offering you above fair market value, it might be worth it so you can buy more later at the regular price. More often than not though they’re offering you much less, so make SURE to turn them down!
It’s time-based gameplay so what you’ll end up doing is hitting the little minimize button on it and quickly opening it whenever the indicator flashes to see what the latest offers are. I’ve enjoyed having it there while waiting for IMs to come in.
You can pick up a free trial at Ultralite Design and get the full version when you’re ready. When you get the full version you can even hand out trial versions to your friends!
I found this story over at Deus Looks, a really cool SL blog:
So the group I blogged about the other day had what I thought was another good suggestion for today’s outing. Jelly (new link, update people!) and her guy Hawks led us all in Castle Wars, the brainchild of RacerX Gullwing. I had zero idea wtf to do because my Quicktime broke and I couldn’t watch the movie with instructions, but I kind of got the hang of it in the end and Jelly helped me in the beginning <3. I actually finished runner up in the first war despite having zero strategy or any understanding of wtffff to do. More importantly, I outlasted Adec - so it was worth it
The one chick I didn’t beat was again, Misacha Vaughan - who kicked my ass 9/10 times at the Go Kart track. So she’s tough and I’m waiting for a challenge where I can beat her ^-^
I notice the group tends to be a blend of visits to corporate sims (hmmmm not unless there’s something really different happening, thanks) and cool stuff like this. So far, both the activities I took part in were fun.
I took some really crap snaps - something has gone all wonky on my machine since I installed and de-installed the First Look viewer (which totally doesn’t work for meeeeeeeee *whines*) - so here’s a crap photo of Adec protecting his blue castle. Meh.
I don’t know… I thought it was a great picture!
by Onder Skall
I got an email from Second Life Games reader Zarf Vantongerloo about a new Go Center:
Thought you might like to know that the in-world Go group has finally
gotten big enough to start holding club times in SL. We’re starting
out with these times:Monday, Noon - 2pm SLT
Thursday, 8pm - 10pm SLTThis coming Monday, the 16th, is our first event:
http://secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=550407&date=1176750000
We’ll be meeting at the still-under-construction Go Center of Second
Life, located at Vineland (58,93):http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vineland/58/93
Check out the group “The Game of Go aka Wei’qi aka Baduk” for more information about the club. Or contact me.
Definitely check out the build, actually… has a nice airy feel to it.
by Onder Skall
When Rifkin wrote me about this I had one of those smack-your-head-with-astonishment moments. Why the hell hasn’t this already been built?
You have got to admire Rifkin Hasberg… the guy has vision. (Previously he built Frootcake, Danger Zone and Zingo).
You can get your own copy here. From a business perspective there’s a bit of genius to it because all he has to do in order to sell more decks is re-texture the back of them.
It’s kind of beta at the moment but you can play Hearts and Spades. MANY more games are promised. If you and three friends want to give it a try I have it over at the Games Park. If you can’t find a fourth, try your hand at 52 Pickup. Seriously. Couple more pictures after the fold… Read the rest of this entry ?
by Onder Skall
This article was originally published in New World Notes. My newest column should be appearing there later today on Sunday.
Onder Skall reviews some of the Grid’s most intriguing games
Second Life tends to be full of bling. Even the more grim RP communities can’t resist dipping their dog-collars in chrome and shining their samurai swords. After awhile this can all start feeling like a shiny happy Barbie landscape, and you need to get out. You need to go where things have truly, irrevocably fallen apart.
Sometimes you need to go to the Wastelands. Welcome to the post-apocalypse. Read the rest of this entry ?
[This article originally appeared in New World Notes]
Name: Pop-A-Rama
Genre: Board Game
Creator(s): Monk Zymurgy
Estimated Number of Players: 2 - 4
Gameplay: Get all of your pieces around the board while sending your opponents home.
Top Qualities: Really cool build, extremely easy learning curve, three game modes
Current Shortcomings: A little laggy, puts lots of text in the chat box at the moment, a bit too simple for lots of games in a row
Where to Play/Buy: ONLY at the Games Park, not even available for purchase yet. IM Monk Zymurgy for a copy!
A functional HUD version of the classic board game Trouble would be reasonably fun. A physically rendered version with moving pieces, a working dice popper in the middle, and user friendly interface would be even better. A huge version with pieces so big you can ride them around the board, however, takes things to a completely new level.
For those who aren’t familiar with the game, players push on a “popper” in the middle of the board to roll the dice. They can then move their pieces around the board that many spaces, and send their opponents back to the beginning if they land on them. It’s a pretty simple concept, but since all players have four pieces there’s a bit of strategy as to when to move which piece on each roll of the dice.
Monk Zymurgy almost didn’t even finish “Pop-A-Rama”. He put it together on a whim and was testing it in the sandboxes of Discordia. A few of us helped him test it out, and I made a note to follow up with him on it later. When I eventually asked him about it he said that he was thinking about never finishing work. Aghast at the prospect of such a great game disappearing, several of us banded together and begged him to put an installation of it in the Games Park.
He gave in and a few of us got together for a rounds or two. Apart from some lag issues the board works very well. The popper even has a failsafe so that if somebody does something sneaky to the dice you can re-rez them and just keep on playing. That came in handy at one point when a passing vehicle smashed into our board. Only in Second Life!
Just before publication of this article I checked back in with Monk. Not only has he been spending time streamlining the code, but he’s going to be releasing an auto-updating version of it on SLX soon. Usually an auto-update feature just means that you get bug fixes and minor tweaks, but Monk is taking it to the next level: the board will eventually be able to morph into entirely new configurations!
Onder Skall reports from Manua
This was a tip by regular Second Life Games reader Guiles Tidewater. Thanks Guiles!
Set in a Japanese-style neighborhood, a small collection of simple and fun games greet the casual surfer. There’s Hangman, a peg-jumping puzzle, a memory game, the 3-peg ring game, and a glowing drum set that turned out to be a version of “Simon”. Here’s a picture:
Also for you Go fans there’s a nicely oversized goban in the building to the left. Worth checking out if you’re out of L$ for the day and looking for something free and fun to do with friends.
Have you found a hidden place people should know about? Email me at ruagamer at gmail dot com, or join the Second Life Games group in-world and IM me!
Onder Skall reports from The SL Chess and Soduku Club, Solariam 227, 199, 42 (Mature)
As I started to put together a comprehensive guide to games in Second Life I began to realize that a really big element was missing: Chess! There must be dozens of Chess games all over SL! Now that I think about it, I’m way overdue on covering this topic.
It took me a bit longer than one might expect to find a decent Chess club. There are plenty of chess games all over SL, but they’re usually in dance clubs filled with people uninterested in a quiet game. Eventally I found a club with a variety of 2d and 3d Chess sets, as well as educational tools to help you become a player. I sat down and pondered a Chess puzzle that they had on the wall.
It was then that I remembered something: I totally suck at Chess. Read the rest of this entry ?
Originally this article appeared in the Second Life Herald under the title “Dodge This, Tringo: Combat Cards Deals Itself Into SL Gaming Scene“
Special to the Herald, by Onder Skall of Second Life Games
It started with a couple of friends sitting at the kitchen table. Doc Boffin and Jaladan Codesmith wondered what it would take to create a kick-butt card combat game for an MMO. A deck of playing cards, some masking tape, a magic marker and a lot of imagination later, and a new game was born. This was the very definition grassroots gaming.
Onder Skall reports from Tech War Arcadia , Arcadia 1 (62, 221, 22)
I’m a big fan of New World Notes. It’s the most intelligent, consise, “just-the-facts” writing on Second Life that there is. While poking around the blog I came accross this article about Tech Warfare. His article is written better than mine is, but mine’s shorter and I have bigger pictures so I win.
Onder Skall reports from A Stone’s Throw Away, Epimetheus (212, 23, 84)
The ancient game of Go is available to play for free here. This gorgeous 19×19 goban is comfortable and serene. The creator (Sai Harbinger) deserves quite a bit of credit. Linked from here is a store with many powerful Go lessons to learn.
Go. Be ‘leet.
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