New Artificial Life Species in SL: Mating & Hatching Turtles!

Will thousands and thousands of multicolored turtles join a hundred thousand Sion Chickens to ride herd over Second Life, albeit very slowly? Artificial Life aficionado Aunty Audrie has a charming and detailed review of Petable Turtles, which hatch, mate, and create another generation. Similar to Sion Chickens, which became a craze in SL over the Summer, a starter kit costs L$270, which gives you four random egg types, though Auntie intriguingly notes, "you can accidentally cross-breed the turtles but apparently this is a bad thing". Read the rest at Aunties' Chicken Diaries, which as the name suggests, was an SL blog largely devoted to Sion Chickens. (Ms. Audrie and her co-writer, PacificBlue Hanly, even have a Sion Chicken FAQ.) That said, it does seem enthusiasm over chickens is on the wane, in the wake of controversies over lag they apparently cause, and a rash of drive-by chicken killing. Will turtles inherit the earth?

Update, 12:25pm: Co-creator Matthew Anthony discusses his turtles in Comments. As it turns out, they can only be killed by starvation. (Sorry, would-be turtle hunters.)

Comments

[Veeyawn Spoonhammer]

I wonder if the turtles work under water. The chickens, it turns out, did not...they wouldn't move.

[iggy O]

First we had chicken-killing griefers. Next, we'll have nuts in their virtual cars running down the poor turtles.

[Matthew Anthony]

Thanks for the coverage, Hamlet! Grim Hathor and I co-created the turtles over the past couple of months, after starting to create them over 3 years ago. We're currently in an open beta/preview phase, but the full launch is scheduled for next Friday, September 4th!

[Matthew Anthony]

Veeyawn: turtles do function just fine under water! They don't swim on the surface and may climb up any slopes coming out of the water, but they're perfectly fine in the sea.

Iggy: turtles can actually only be killed by starving them. They're fine if run over, dropped, shot at, even if auto-returned into the owner's inventory.

[Veeyawn Spoonhammer]

Excellent news Matthew! My land is entirely underwater :)