Kanomi Plays: RAGE, a Melee Combat Tournament Game

Kick, punch, it's all in the costume

• Title: RAGE Fighting Championships
• Released: 2008
• Genre: Player vs. player hand-to-hand combat
• Age Category: PG (Mature sim)
• Summary: Beat other players into grapefruit pulp
• Price: Free trial / 900 Lindens for a pro HUD
• Estimated Play Time: Indefinite
• Where to Play: RAGE at Devil's Moon (SLURL)
• Web Resources: Combat Evolution site; Combat Evolution forum
• Developer: Royce Boa (RP groups); Abramelin Wolfe of Abranimations (Combat HUD)

The first rule of Fight Club may be that you don't talk about Fight Club, but when it comes to Second Life combat groups, the more said the better. There are a lot of communities out there in the metaverse beating each other up, but the result is generally the same: broken noses, bloodied avatars, and a lot of fun. Whether it's samurai swordfighting or mecha combat, you'll find it in Second Life. And while not often noticed by the press, a lot of avatars are out there making in-world games and communities around them, bearing out -- albeit more violently -- Phil's original vision of "Your world, your way." Now if only we can get Linden Lab hippies to put a "Games" tab on the Showcase...

At any rate, this time out we're playing RAGE Fighting Championships, one of the longer-running but probably lesser known fighting venues. The group actually hosts three different competitions -- mixed martial arts, wrestling, and boxing -- but for this review I concentrated on the martial arts. In their version, you can use a variety of styles like kickboxing, kung fu, muay thai, a few weapons styles, and street brawling against your opponents.

How is all that hand-to-hand combat possible in Second Life? Read on, dear reader, and see:

Fighting in RAGE is done by wearing a HUD and its accompanying damage meter, then running around the ring throwing blows on your opponent. There's skill involved, not only in knowing when to attack and when to block, but also what position to take to angle in for the best blows. Things happen fast, so dexterity and low lag help too. And because the rings in RAGE are very tight and close, there's not a lot of bunnyhop healing, by which I mean running around the ring avoiding your opponent by jumping while your health meter regenerates.

Their combat system is called "Combat Evolution," developed by Abranimations. Combat Evolution is available to other parties, but the group I'm profiling here is the primary user of the system, based on the Abranimations sim and with their stats are recorded on the official Combat Evolution site.

Competitions available include not just sparring in the gym, but entering bracketed tournaments, competing for money and championship titles, and punching up your rankings on the Website. There are divisions for different time zones as well as female and male brackets, although practically speaking there's no difference between a female and male avatar in world terms, and the genders can compete easily enough.

Combat Evolution tends towards quick, close in-fighting, with typical damage being about 4% per landed blow. Coupled with pretty quick regeneration, that means over time the wins tend towards the steady, on-target fighter who knows their blows and their moves well, rather than the one who can time their critical hit just right. There's also a 'charge-up' factor (the yin-yang symbol in the HUD pics), but it's far less devastating than other systems have.

The player base is as warm and friendly as any I've met on the Grid, and for that alone deserves special consideration. Another point of interest is the club's training grounds. Unlike most sims, where you basically wait around for an opponent to spar with, here the Abranimations creator has built a little mini-rpg world just for fun.

It's a place where you can wander across a desert and fight AI scorpions, snakes, ghosts and the like. And while it's not World of Warcraft quality, it's definitely inspired by it. To find it as a training area for a martial arts competition group was a pleasant surprise, and so this sim's worth checking out for a mob-versus-player implementation in LSL (Linden Scripting Language), even if you're not interested in fighting games.

Amateur nights are 6 PM Wednesdays. See you there!

• Strengths: Quick and accessible combat system with balanced results; good player group
• Weaknesses: Need to find other players to spar with; some skill required
• Helpful Hints: Play in third person, use your keys to move your fighter, use the mouse and HUD to attack and block

Kanomi Pikajuna is the proprietress of Tiny Dancing, the original adult continent of Second Life.

Send review suggestions to kanomi.pikajuna[(AT)]gmail[(DOT)]com.

Previous Kanomi Plays reviews:

• Tiny Empires 3000
  
• Khet
  
• The Crack Den
  
• En Garde
  
• The Kaaos Effect
  

Thanks to Botgirl Questi for the 'Kanomi Plays' header graphic!

Comments

[Slugger]

Awesome article! I love that place. Great people, great fun. I went to many other places around SL looking for similar training and found nothing worth mentioning.

The stuff I learned at RAGE has helped me improve fighting in the other combat places I frequent as well.

Good job!