I heard about Second Life from the sex MMORPG article I posted awhile back. Second Life's website is thoroughly uninspiring but I clicked on a few movies and it looked interesting enough to give a try.
Second Life is completely free to play and gives you access to everything in the world. You only pay if you decide to purchase land and build your own home or whatever you want to build. It's not full of ads or spam or anything else. The installation is quick and easy. The download is only about 20mb and registration does require a credit card or mobile phone number as part of some sort of age verification process. It's no big deal and easy to do.
First off, let me say that I'm impressed with just about everything in this game. The graphics, User Interface, sounds, etc all are outstanding. As for gameplay, I don't know if there actually is any...well there is but I'll get to that later.
One thing you must know right off the bat...the one poorly done thing in the game are the walking/running animations. You look retarded doing either but the good news is that the preferred method of getting around the world is flying...which is cool as hell to do (to sort of quote Snoop Dog)
This game will take as much as you can throw at it in terms of computer horsepower. I was running in 1920X1200 with the graphics options maxed...and so were my GeForce 7800GT and Athlon X2 CPU most of the time keeping up with it all. This game can be played in a window and also, of course, lower resolutions. I'd recommend using the default graphics options unless you have a high end machine.
With that said, here's an overview:
The game starts you out on a newbie island that walks you through a sort of tutorial to get you started. At the end of the tutorial you can proceed to the main world or continue on to "Help Island" for additional acclimation to the world. I highly recommend you check out the help island as well before heading into the main world. You'll learn quite a bit more on the island and also pick up some items (clothes, objects, etc)
The avatar cutomization in this world is the most detailed I've ever seen. There are sliders upon sliders of ways to modify your face and body. You can adjust some things in this game that you definately haven't been able to adjust before....coin purse!
you could probably spend a few hours just playing with your looks...don't worry too much though as you can change them whenever you want and can also save entire look packages in folders that you can instantly switch to. On the right you'll see the inventory window and all sorts of crap in there.
How's my ass looking?
It's a little bit like playing Barbie but you'll get over it.
The user interface is one of the best I've seen. A lot of controls are accessible by right clicking on the screen and bringing up a wheel with which you can select options and subwheel menus. These wheels are context sensitive so change depending on what you're doing so the one below is just the generic one:
The models seem to be missing some important parts for a, allegedly, sex game! ...and after all of that "package" adjusting in the customization too!
After going through the short island tutorial, I head off to the Help Island (go there, don't skip it!)
The first person I run into is this character:
He was nice enough and willing to answer questions. I guess here is a good a place as any to mention that this game may provide a good environment for cyber sex, etc but everyone is helpful and friendly and it seemed just like any other MMORPG to me.
A picture of Help Island. My character's name is Zed. You can pick your first name and then choose from a list of last names. I wasn't in the creative mood so Zed Newell it is. This screen shot is 1920X1200 so it may not look too good unless you click on it:
Zed spots his first female toon. Could this be the one?
She seems to be ignoring me! It would help if I knew how to send tells. We'll get back to her later.
On the Help Island, there are tutorials that teach you how to build basic things. You'll see later that you can design some pretty amazing structures, objects and clothing:
You can see by the next picture that building stuff can get pretty complex. You can also make scripts, etc to make objects usable or do things. It's pretty obvious i don't know what the fuck I'm doing so a mentor comes over to help:
Could she be the one? That bald guy seems to be having better luck but doesn't everyone know that it's best not to mess with the hired help!?
Unlike FFXI, there's tons of help available in this game. Here's an example of help text that pops up and is hypertext sensitive to make things even easier. Lots of click and drag capabilities in this game:
The map in Second Life looks like a satellite map from google or earthlink. It's zoomable and has lots of customizable info:
Another cool thing about this game is it has streaming video and audio. You can go to stations like the one below and see video (as well as text, etc) about news around the world and upcoming events.
The streaming audio is a really nice addition as players sometimes select internet radio stations for thier areas and it does add a lot to the "liveliness" of the atmosphere. I think people can add actual steaming songs as well. Anyway, the audio part of this game is better than anything else I've seen.
Ah, my first friend! It must have been my mullet that attracted her! This screen shows more of the UI windows. One nice thing you'll notice is the option to teleport a friend to you. Sweet! Toontown's best feature makes it into this game. What's with that huge parrot on the right though?
The game engine is capable of a lot. People have scripted playable games like space invaders. Some other stuff in the background of this picture are that memory game and chess. Everything in the world is player created.
The options for attire are limitless. You'll see some furries later on:
You can change your sex and look whenever you want quickly by dragging over clothing folders that have been customized. Here I tried out a fireman outfit that also changes my body/face:
I spent quite awhile on the help island and then teleported to the main world. You can't go back to the help island so make sure you've done all you want there first. Here's the first interesting character I ran into. Some fancy hoola-hooping!
Not a good picture but this was a place you could get a furry avatar look and boogie. Dance music from a streaming audio station was blasting here. I don't think furries dominate the world, it just happend to be the first place I randomly ported to.
Here's someone's really basic home:
People make some pretty cool stuff:
This game is cool enough that I recommend trying it out. It's free so it won't hurt the pocketbook. Besides the wallking/running animations, it looks great. The creativity from a player designed world is impressive and although I'm not sure there's a point to any of it, it's worth wandering around for a look.
Oh yeah, I think this look will do the trick. Got the roll of quarters in the pocket, cool shades and BMW motorcycle. Schwing!
Check out Second Life's web page and join for free
I'm counting on you to investigate the BDSM world in SL and then invite me to your freaky parties after you've set up your sex dungeon!
