Some months ago I came across this video, revealing the interior of a military base in Second Life, built with such fine detail, it compared quite favorably to most anything you'd come across within a standard first-person shooter. The creation of a Resident called Siiaas Saarinen, it's the headquarters of a combat roleplaying group called the Spartans. I sought to see it for myself, but that turned out to be more difficult than I originally assumed. There is no direct SLurl teleport into the base, for one thing; for another, if you're not coming with a squad of hired guns willing to fight their way in, you have to plead for safe passage with the Spartan king. Fortunately his Highness Bruno Ziskey and his unofficial Aide-de-camp, Aleena Yoshiro, were friendly sorts (at least with embedded journalists), and not only did he escort me into the interior, he gave me an account of Second Life's large and vibrant community of combat gamers, who've managed to create a system of clans you'd usually associate with shooters like Halo or Team Fortress, rather than SL.
"Do you remember the Residents of the Jessie Wall in the early part of the millennium?" Aleena asks. I tell her I do, because I wrote about their war in 2003. "A number of roleplay militaries got together and storm each other's bases." Ziskey estimates there are dozens, some with just a few members, some with hundreds. (The Spartans count forty among their number.) "Dedicated militia roleplayers such as the Alliance Navy," Yoshiro goes on. (Another would be Ordo Imperialis, featured here last June.) "There are also national combat groups who band together based on nationality or language."
Which explains why the interior of the Spartan base, as beautiful as it is, is guarded on a regular basis, and locked away from outsiders by several armored doors, elevators, and passageways that only Spartans can access. Another reason: If an invasion is successful, every Spartan online dies.
While a number of SL rolegroups use their own combat systems, the Spartans and other military groups simply enable Second Life's internal damage meter, which teleports an avatar back to a home location, if his hit points fall below zero, and battle each other on that basis. Often that means "capture the flag"-style combat -- or in the Spartans' case, "blow up the reactor".
"We have a 'reactor core' facility inside the base that takes damage when shot," Aleen Yoshiro tells me. "After it has been shot enough times, it explodes and kills everyone inside the base. A sensor looks around, sees avatars and starts rezzing kill prims in them."
Duly privileged to be this far into the base without getting shot at, I pose with King Bruno, Aleena, and my sometime game reviewer, Ms. Kanomi Pikajuna. After returning to the entrance of the Spartan base, an invasion begins.
"Someone's shooting at the power core," Yoshiro informs me. "Jeepers creepers." A message flashes on my screen:
Core room build shouts: REACTOR FAILURE, Containment System Activating, 45 seconds to meltdown...
I try to return back to the reactor core, but without even seeing my attacker, suddenly find myself dead, reincarnated in seconds back at my office in Waterhead.
"The invader was repelled," Aleena Yoshiro updates me via IM. "He rezzed an invisible cube which was emitting kill prims, which is what got us. He was banned, and his stuff returned."
Update, 8/28: Found photo of reactor core, duly added. Get a good look, dear readers, most of you will not be able to see it first hand!
There are bunches of combat and RPG Combat sims in SL. I plan to check this one out.
Some of the fun RPG's are Land of NoR, Kingdom of Legends, Lost City and Judgement Rising. All of which I play in. Others are on my list to check out.
Posted by: Nalates Urriah | Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 12:55 PM