By Osprey Therian

Komuso Tokugawa /Japan and Hathead Rickenbacker /Canada perform live on this machinima. The Second Life music scene is vibrant and varied, ranging from traditional to ZOMGWTF!11!!1.

PRESS RELEASE

Mob Mentality, a new adult themed game designed to be placed in Second Life Clubs and Strip Clubs, is now available! The game offers fun and sexy game play designed to enhance a club goers experience and create a more social environment as players interact while playing.

Zaplok Riggles, the games developer, had this to say: “I designed the game from the ground up to work well in an adult club environment. The questions are sexy and sure to get people talking. The game uses a HUD so there is no annoying chat spam and means the game can be played anywhere in the club while dancing, chatting, etc. I work closely with my game owners keeping the game fresh with new questions and free updates. We also have an innovative pricing structure to allow any club to quickly begin earning money with the game with zero upfront costs.”

For more information on the game, visit the game’s web page: http://www.mobmentality.com/mobmentality You can also send an IM to Zaplok Riggles to setup an in-game demonstration.

Pictures after the jump.

By Osprey Therian

Grand Opening of UnitedSpinal.org Car Culture
Motorability Island

http://slurl.com/secondlife/UnitedSpinal/110/182/28/

Motorability’s press release for the 29th March event says:

Fashion, Cars and Avatars event in Second Life
to Raise Awareness About SCI/D

Cars! A passion, a hobby, and a culture. It all comes together for Second Life residents on Motorability Island in Second Life. United Spinal Association’s 7-sim Motorability Island, formerly Pontiac’s Motorati Island, is set for its grand opening on Saturday the 29th of March - however it’s open to the public now. Fashion Cars and Avatars is the theme for the event.

The island will provide an opportunity for United Spinal Association members to experience car culture related virtual events, activities, community building, educational seminars and pure racing fun on the many original venues and race tracks re-opened in early February. Event proceeds, sales of goods and services from commercial enterprise and sponsorships will contribute to raise awareness and provide funding to support United Spinal Association programs in the virtual and real world.
All proceeds to UnitedSpinal.org - Donate at designated donation kiosks in Second Life on Motorability Island go online here to donate directly to UnitedSpinal.org: www.unitedspinal.org/motorability

Sponsors interested in supporting UnitedSpinal.org in Second Life can contact Jody DeVere at jdevere@askpatty.com.

Event schedule and times:
9am PDT Fashion Show at the Callie Cline Beach Resort featuring caLLie cLine & kiana dulce designs and done by the Aspire modeling agency.
10am PDT Racing at SLASCAR Official Fairgrounds Speedway
11am - 12pm PDT Dancing at the Parkade Nightclub and the United Spinal Upper Deck Dance Floor
All day tours of the United Spinal Welcome Center, Motorability Springs Automotive Education Center, Wonderland Cardin and many other sites on Motorability Island.

By Osprey Therian

United Spinal Association’s 7-sim Motorability Island, formerly Motorati, is set for its grand opening on the 29th of March - however it’s open to the public now and motorheads might be interested in renting one of the reasonably-priced parcels.

By Osprey Therian

Combat Cards Arenas in Europa
Tournament Event Listing

On 2 March at 2 pm fighters will gather at Europa to determine who will win the Combat Cards Constructed Cup and 5000 lindens, and the Open Cup and a set of cards. If you are new to the game you will enjoy watching the duels - and you can jump in after we roll out 1.5 and the new cards and fight in the Free-For-All. Game devs Doc Boffin and Osprey Therian will be on hand, of course.

With the addition of the cards released on the 2nd March, Combat Cards is moving towards 50 unique cards in two series, Fantasy and Horror, all featuring Second Life Avatars. Those cards represent moves fighters can chose to add to their pool of cards when they construct decks. Cards have many different actions, such as attack, regeneration, dodge, forced discard, block, and those actions take place in high, mid, or low regions (so you would block a high attack with a high block). Constructing decks is an art as balancing is difficult - but for those wanting to jump into the game there are two choices right now: free demo decks (limited but well-balanced decks) or the new fully modifiable complete decks (10 cards - balanced but you can tinker and change it as you like). That brings me back to the Constructed Cup, where the top fighters compete using decks they have constructed themselves.

There are 3 events for the Spring Tournament ‘08 -
Constructed Cup - top fighters using constructed decks battle for 5kL
Open Cup - top fighters using demo decks battle for a full set of cards.
Free-For-All - after the new cards are rolled out anyone can fight, with the high scorer in the new 1.5 release winning 1kL.
BASICS: Any weapon can be used - the game animates you according to the move you pick from the choices displayed as cards in your HUD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCzO6qL7Sh0
Watch the video if you are new and want to get the basics. Free to play in demo or horror demo mode, more complex combos and moves are opened up if you decide to construct your own deck using cards from the vendor, player marketplace, or through trades or referrals.

By Osprey Therian

I just saw this:

Spore finally evolves to retail

Sept 7, 2008

Woo - that is a game everyone has been waiting for!

By Osprey Therian

Komuso and MoShang are currently beta testing SynaesthAsia - but when it goes public go and see it if you can. This is my machinima record of one of their live music jam and biofeedback particle beta performances.

MoKo LoCo
Real time Internet/SL music jam
Komuso Tokugawa/Japan
http://music.sonicviz.com
MoShang Zhao/Taiwan
http://moshang.net/

By Osprey Therian

Theme: Past contest themes
Cash prizes.

THEMES
Past contest themes are the contest theme. To see old contest posters visit the Photography Studio in Grignano.
Identify your entries with their name and the contest they are harking back to, i.e. Frizzled by Oso Mirage- Beach Blanket Tringo. Snape by Ibello Maunder - Circus

Straight snaps or manipulated - it’s all good.

DATES
Enter by: 1 February 2008
Exhibition: 3 February - 29 February 2008 in the Photography Studio upstairs gallery.

TO ENTER
Enter 3 textures of Second Life screenshots.
Textures can be no bigger than 512×512 - rectangular photos saved as 512×512 regain their proportions once they are put on a prim.
Title entries with title + your name + the contest they are harking back to <—= so I don’t lose it in my inventory
i.e. Frizzled by Oso Mirage- Beach Blanket Tringo. Snape by Ibello Maunder - Circus

Send them to Osprey Therian with MOD permission and COPY permission.
Give me an IM so I know to look for them.
Don’t send them in a notecard.

* “Collection” refers to my collection of posters I made for the contests

The first of many En Garde open tournaments will be held this Saturday, January 26th. These tournaments will happen every other weekend at different locations around Second Life. This time La Musique hosts the event.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/La%20Musique/202/227/400

Everyone can enter this elimination tournament, for 50L, and the winner and runner up splits the collected pot that day. The champion also gets a nice trophy for his/her achievement.

More details and a schedule of planned tournament locations so far can be found at Kat Burgers webpage:

http://www.katek.com.au/EnGarde.htm

Come join the fun and don’t forget to bring your fencing equipment.

/Michalius Oppewall

By Osprey Therian

Sine Wave is developing something they call actorbots - bots with a bit of AI which can perform tasks in machinima or in other roles such as greeters, and Easy Babcock demonstrated the alpha stage project on Sunday. The first use that occurred to me was virtual sex-slaves in virtual brothels - and I commented how these would become sex toys for noobs. That might be inevitable, although Easy said he hadn’t been approached by anyone interested in that aspect, yet.

I was a volunteer to interact with a football-playing bot, and was impressed with the way it moved and chatted in IM. Sine Wave made a machinima using the bots that is rather good, too.

I can see people using them as machinima actors, except it would take a lot of the interest out of filmmaking, to me. NPCs - well, if DarkLife wanted to pay 5L/hour (or write their own code) they could certainly use them for shopkeepers. I’m not against the idea, or think it won’t be a successful project, however for me I feel it diminishes rather than enhances our world.

Easy Babcock watches his actorbot.

The actorbot paces and a brave woman approaches.

The bots have a crude AI and can be programmed to use chat or IM.

He looks aware - but there’s no one there.

Dancing - one thing out of many the bots can do.