Playing games
I visited the Text 100 games expo on Text 100 island, yesterday. The exhibition has been spread over the course of a number of platforms and seems to be mainly board and small group games found in world.
For a games expo in Second Life, there are some pretty crucial omissions. Where’s the Tringo? Slingo? Bingo? Where are Xylor Basclef’s Mah Jong, Chess etc? How come Primtionary has become SLictionary? Why is there no display about the games which are unique to SL, like Darklife and Numbakulla? No story about the translation of Tringo to real life?
This seemed like a collection of disparate games, rather than an expo… no discussion about the difficulties for games designers in SL, and what the challenges are, and an encouragement to play games with physic objects which doesn’t seem like a terrifically good idea to me, given the instability of SL at present.
There are some great free to copy games by Lex Neva, which are worth the visit alone, and there is also a Text 100 game with names, which I haven’t tried yet.
I’m certainly all in favour of exhibitions with a theme which draws together all the information and examples for the subject, but I think this exhibition highlights what isn’t there, more than what is.
January 17th, 2007 • 
Caliandris Pendragon • 
comment | January 25, 2007 at 12:53 | individual comment-link
Thanks for your feedback, Caliandris. The Games Expo we’re hosting is intended to showcase some of the work of the SL game developer community and to provide a central location for residents to find several of these amazing creations, but it is by no means exhaustive. I’m really impressed by the quality of these games! We wanted to find fun, easy to learn, PG games that could be played by groups or individuals, so that did eliminate some fun role playing adventures. As a side note, I believe that Xylor is taking a break from SL, at least based on his profile. Thanks for stopping by!
comment | January 26, 2007 at 00:00 | individual comment-link
Hi there. Thank you for the comment. It would be great if you could answer some of the questions posed in the write up, such as why you didn’t include the most famous game of all, Tringo. And why you have pinched Primtionary and turned it into SLictionary?
Xylor as far as I am aware is a Linden now, and would probably have responded to a contact on his Xylor account? In any case, his Mah Jong etc is available as a freebie all over SL.
comment | January 30, 2007 at 14:16 | individual comment-link
Perhaps, I should clarify a bit further. We didn’t claim that our exhibition would be an exhaustive reflection of gaming or game development in SL “which draws together all the information and examples for the subject.” Our objectives were more humble. We simply wanted to create a stage for some of the current game dev community talent.
That said, we think some of the visitors to the expo would certainly benefit from the context you requested with your questions. We are planning for a panel discussion on gaming that will give a broader perspective than the exhibits. But it would also be a nice thing to have a couple of introductory collaterals at the entrance of the expo, e.g. a notecard with a brief history of gaming in SL, including some important links. Would you be willing to contribute to this effort?
comment | February 3, 2007 at 04:27 | individual comment-link
Nice try. As far as I am aware your company is a commercial company and so that exhibition is part of your company promotion in SL, is it not? I’d be happy to contribute a notecard at my usual rates.
Before you come back with anything about contributing to the greater good of SL, I work as a mentor, host a community of creators and people in Nemesis, and support a number of not-for-profit sims in SL with creations, time and effort. If commercial companies want my help, then they pay for it - and usually commission by a more direct route than comments on a blog.
As for the exhibition not being “an exhaustive reflection of gaming of game development in SL”… there’s approaching it like an academic subject and there’s telling it like it is. I don’t expect an exhaustive list but you can’t get away from the fact that you have omitted Tringo, which is the most famous game in SL and the only one to migrate to the real world as far as I am aware; you renamed Primtionary to SLictionary, either hijacking someone else’s idea or through ignorance; and much more that used to be central to SL wasn’t in the expo. That’s all I was saying.