Hey Gaming Press: Second Life Users Have Always Built & Played MMOs in Second Life

My brief post last week about Remnants of Earth, a user-made MMO in Second Life, was picked up by Patricia Hernandez for Kotaku, which is super cool; even cooler, other gaming outlets are picking that post up as well.

Less cool is this: A lot of the coverage has an irksome "I can't believe there's an MMO in Second Life, who knew?!" tenor, as with this PC Gamer post, or this Rock Paper Shotgun post, which comes right out and says:

"In what is probably the most impressive creative project in Second Life since the giant penis sculptures of SL retail, a group of players have used the game’s building and scripting tools to create an in-game cyberpunk MMO."

... which is silly in several ways, but to just focus on one: Second Life has always had user-created MMOs within it. And Remnants, while impressive, is not even the first cyberpunk-themed MMO in SL by a long shot.

Seriously, always. First one I'm familiar with was built in 2003:

To play "Dark Life", a user-made game within a game, you purchase a backpack and basic weaponry from a store near the dungeon area. The backpack itself comes equipped with a fairly complex bloc of Linden Language Script, which tallies and displays traditional RPG elements of Hit Points, Experience Points, inventory, and so on, while it's worn. Once equipped, you're ready to go questing. - "Worlds Within Worlds", December 12, 2003

Ironically, I mentioned Dark Life in a 2006 post for... Kotaku.

To be fair, I can't entirely blame game journalists for missing the ubiquity of mini-MMOs in SL. For one thing, Linden Lab itself has done little to promote this community. (There's not even a category for MMOs in its official guide.) And even MMO-focused game journalists, generally speaking, don't spend much time researching MMOs they're not personally interested in.

So as a starter guide, here's a very abbreviated list of MMOs I or others have written about over the years (many of which are still active), which is only a fraction of the whole list:

• A Second Life-Based Mini-MMO Called Godswar: The 100 (pictured above)
• Second Life WWII Roleplay Game Set in Nazi-Occupied French Town
• Krafties, SL-Based Pet-Raising MMO, Collects 7K+ Members
• Bloodlines Has 69,000 Players, Mid Six Figure US$ Revenue (Vampire MMO)
• The Second Life Of Star Wars: In Fan-Made Mini-MMORPG, Metaverse Meets Lucas-verse
• Midgar (Inspired by Final Fantasy VII)
• City of Lost Angels (Cyberpunk MMO from 2007)
• The Wastelands (Cyberpunk MMO from 2007)

And like I said, this is a seriously abbreviated list I pulled from about 5 minutes of Googling. In fact, if you're an MMO SLer, please post your favorite in Comments.

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Comments

[Pituca FairChag]

I remember Numbkalla. At least I think that is how you spell it. Garth, his son Pheonix Fairlight played Dark Life back in the beginning, I did a couple of times but not being a gamer I lost interest. Better said it was just too complicated for me!

[Pituca FairChang]

geeze I got my own name wrong too! This one is correct (Ithink)

[adec]

I really used to like the I Am Legend sims.. even though they were only up shortly to promote the film.. still, spent a fair amount of time playing that one.

[Rin]

Sims like this might be missed, because most don't use the MMO in their description and are usually refered to as RP sims (actually I never thought of applying the description MMO to a RP sim ... it sounds kind of strange to me to be honest since the words 'massive' and 'SL sim' simply does not go well together ;) ). And those have been around since the very beginning of SL with Nexus Prime being the first I remember. Even when I have only seen it after it has fallen out of use and stood there empty ... before it was finally destroyed (now Doomed Ship is on its former location).

Sadly actual sci-fi and cyberpunk themes have been mostly missing and the sims catering to this have been few and far between.
Supernatural, post-apoc, urban and fantasy on the other hand? I think there are a few hundred of them around at any given time (they do tend to open and close faster then anyone could count often ;P )

[Elsbeth Writer]

Tiny Empires
Linden Realms

And actually there is a category in the Destinstion Guide for Games. 78 entries currently!

[Wagner James Au]

Yeah, for Games, but it's strange they don't break it down by FPS, MMO, Strategy like Tiny Empires, casual, etc.

[Issa Heckroth]

"it sounds kind of strange to me to be honest since the words 'massive' and 'SL sim' simply does not go well together"

THIS. this, this, this.

"Massively Muliplayer" doesnt refer to the size of the world but the amount of players. Still I think you have a point.

The term MMO is ubiquitous with vast open world spaces. Though these RP sims may have a strong MMO influence in terms of mechanics, I think its a little misleading to call them MMO outright.

Also as an avid roleplayer myself, I agree that recently, games and venues like this one have been in decline. Its good to see them get some coverage as it might inspire others.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Even in the days of MUDs and MUSHes...

The MUD community, the 80s / pre-web version of an MMO... and the MUSH community, the 80s / pre-web version of Second Life / Minecraft / Everquest Landmark...
Never saw eye to eye and would act in amazement anytime somebody put dropped chocolate in the peanut butter or otherwise 'bridged the divide'.

As much as Second Life people get mad at anyone who calls it a game or considers it similar to a game...

The 'Gamer World / Press' kind of looks at Second Life as a place for weird freaks and people who 'need a life'.

That the two actually have so much in common...
Only surprises the very people who should be the least surprised... the people using the platforms.

To the rest of the world... the difference between 'freaks playing games' or 'games for freaks' is not visible. :)