Second Life Adventures: Siden

Whoops, did I say something about last post for Halloween? I might have lied. But Siden is too good a place to pass up, and I was looking for something that might visually look like Haven, which is the beautiful beautiful game I'm in on DreamWidth.

Now I haven't gone through the entire sim, which is somewhat funny because I've been here months ago and gotten the navigation HUD to explore the area. Ran away quickly enough when I fit the top level of the hospital and started getting attacked by the ghosts; ghosts everywhere!

I'm not sure if I can write a entry that would do this place justice, because this place is large and so complicated, and with so many different layers even though I mainly stuck to one level-- the city area. There's still the underground sewer system, many floors of the hospital, and I don't know how many other places.

The detail here is pretty amazing, from foggy and rainy areas to places that are completely overrun with growth and negligence (not that you can neglect areas on Second Life; you actually have to work to make it look like that!), and little areas hidden everywhere with supplies for those who are wearing the HUD and role-playing there. Food, medicine, gas, etc, etc. It's all so complicated and all very, very impressive.

I got there just in time for a hunt event as well! Although this isn't exactly the hunt event that I'm used to, but rather one with more emphasis on hunt than most other hunts. I actually just arrived in the sim as they shouted the five minute mark before the hunt, and chatted with a few very friendly players there who were dressed and waiting for the event to start.

And what is this event? Well! As I started exploring the city, several other players ran right past me and about the streets, and being the curious bee I am, I might have panned in my camera to find out what they were doing.

Apparently this hunt is the hunt of the grid's very own Elizabeth Siden-- or at least for her head, which ran (floated?) from the players as they shot and cast spells at her. She has health and drops items as she's hurt, and the player who manages to kill her gets in-game money (not Linden dollars, but Siden HUD money).

Let that digest for a moment.

Now add in some zombies that spawn as you cross through certain streets that will attack you and you can kill, and this is practically a video game in itself. Not just Second Life.

Now that's give some kudos to those maintaining this event, and this area in general. I got to talk a bit to Queen Sooden, who plays Elizabeth Siden for the hunt as well, who was patient enough to stay and chat for a while as well as participate in another role-play going on when a Time Lord landed in Siden and started asking around. I don't know if people understand how much work moderators do (and I'm looking at you, Blue, the super awesome moderator for Haven who somehow manages to be everywhere and run everything and still talk to everyone, do game events, and juggle all the suggestions for future stuff), but the amount of work? A lot.

After chatting a while, I decided to pick up the game HUD and give it a quick test spin, myself. So I walked around with the HUD on and was immediately attacked by a swarm of zombies, and then pumpkins just for Halloween. It was great fun taking out the zombies, though, since they're rather slow and I suppose it's for beginners to the game. They give a bit of EXP and I was on level three before they announced another game hunt. It's going on every few hours today, so if you have time... don't miss it!