Games in SL - What's fun?

Tringo seems to be a big part of the events scene these days. What else is happening with games? If you've enjoyed a game or if you've got a game you want others to enjoy - post to this thread.

Do you think that games will play a bigger role in SL's future? What's in the way of seeing more people playing games? Why aren't there more games that cost money to play. Do we need a separate forum thread for games?

(Bonus question for the inner core - What was the first game constructed in SL? How fun was that.)

SimCast -Interactive, attachment based, player versus player, medieval combat simulator. Built across three private simulators, this is simply the largest "even battleground" currently in Second Life.

If you enjoy player versus player interactions on an epic scale, this is a must play! Swords, armor, and magical weapons of medieval destruction await you in this real time RPG.

Form combat groups, equip your character and head out onto the battlefield in search of fame and glory! Only the quick and strong shall survive the dangers that await you!

March 1st is the planned grand opening! We are in beta and currently open to the public to help stress test the combat system, offer suggestions and features, interact with the players in a Ventrilo Voice Server, and roleplay until you drop!

We will be offering a free survival kit to introduce new players into the World of SimCast so even players without money can enjoy this wonderful RPG creation.

Games I'll go to if they're in event:

Bingo
Tringo
Primtionary
Yahtzee
Musical Starzz

Games I'll stop and play if I'm passing:

Blackjack
Mahjong
Anything by Antagonistic Protagonist (no, really - anything)
Prim Attack

SIM Combat is a multi-player Melee combat game which emphasises Strategy and Interaction over twitch reflexes or character statistics.

SIM Combat sword fights can be played at the The Kill Club in Europa (106, 160) and The Snake Pit in Westport (17,22) at any time. Free weapons are available, so you can try the game for free.

SIM Combat is currently in playable Beta. We are expanding the number of swords, the number of moves and animations, and increasing the ease and quality of the UI. Unlike SimCast or Darkwood, which are huge undertakings, this combat system will be improved in small incremental releases so you can continue to enjoy the game sooner!

Upon the release of 1.0 we will be hosting tournaments.

HULLO HANEY!!!

Here's another scattershot post from the tangential depths of mah fuzzy mind...

I've enjoyed a number of the games as listed above by my friends. (I keep telling myself: "Games have rules, so rezzing funny objects and dropping them on a buddy for kicks doesn't count -- unless you're keeping score! "

Yes, I definitely do think games will play a bigger role in SL's future.

Particularly, ones that involve community interaction -- that is, people getting social and coming together while playing the game. Tringo is a fine example of this, because not only is it interactive and provides degrees of choice insofar as your moves go, but you can chat in between with other players. I like to connect this way.

Several of the obstacles are obvious: lag, GREEFER KIN who circumvent rules and spoil enjoyment for others, and fading interest after taking a long time to develop something really cool. But there are also some lateral routes involving the aforementioned: getting good teams of "clans" of people to play multiplayer games is tough! Peeps seem to be going AFK in the middle of a crucial set, or caught up in IMs or whatever. I'd like more team games in SL! Especially with expanded Resident membership in the future, I'm looking forward to this.

Games that are pay-to-play tend to tick people off, in my observation, unless it is really tasty and/or involves gambling and the certain ingenue of RISK VS. REWARD.

I'd like to see more hot gamedev action in SL. Dave Zeeman got me following several thoughtlines since we had a meaningful discussion the other day. He also made avatar-sized Plinko (i.e. sit your av on a chip and fall!), which is still prototyped but kicks ass. Not to mention, he did Castle Siege back in the day... which is an excellent example of a "community game".

WHERE IS MULTIPLAYER PRIM ATTACK?

WHAT HAPPENED TO SCORES BEING POSTED ON THE SL WEBSITE?

http://secondlife.com/newsletter/2004_08_07_archive.php

^this, I gently wanna know.

AND WHERE IS XYLOR BAYSKLEF AND THE MISSING MEMBERS OF THE COOL CLASSIC GAMES PARK?!? Hi Ananda, nice to still have you here with us.

There you have it.

Time to reload.

Skunk Money is a one-time wonder I made once. I'd make more, but got hung up with lots of transparency bugs which really turned me off developing some card games I wanted to do.

SKUNK MONEY IS ONE OF MY FAVES.

It's addictive.

I have a serious gambling problem but played this for 2-3 hours and finally hit the jackpot. LOL.

Tag, Questing and Mazes/Labyrinths.

Dang, that's the inner INNER core
The first game... I dont know. Plinko?

SCRAMBLER has proven popular since I launched it a month or so ago, with player-contributed pots ranging between 2 and 15k per event. People appear to enjoy a diversity of activities within SL, and group activities such as multiplayer games I believe will be a popular drawcard for a long time to come.

Linden Ball.

Battle of the sexes, with the big bulky buzzer things, used to be a blast...and if I remember correctly James used to hand out the wearable letters in the welcome area for impromptu games of create a word. Ahh the halcyon days.

Space Rocks of Death!

My favorite Game du Jour is Captions! run by the illustrious Trimming Hedges. Trimming puts a picture up and everyone gives it a caption. We have some really wittily funny people in SL, and Captions! lets them all prove it!

And I love trivia games, but there seem to be less of those than there were a while ago.

Today during my travels I saw some kind of particle contest game that looked really cool, but no one was around to show me how it worked.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT! It's a LOT of fun to get all retro and play Pong at, what's the place called? Brainiac Headquarters or something? What makes it fun is being in the midst of all the Second Life technology, and taking it back down to 1978 to play one of the very first computer games. It's just so wrong that it's right!

~impy

No, earlier than Lindenball. Here's a hint - there was no programming involved.

I really enjoyed Route 66 demolition derby. Space Rocks (the Asteroidsesque game) was pretty cool but I couldn't bear to spend money on it though. Tringo is a sweet little game. DarkLife and SimCast look promising. Tiger Crossing's Deus Via puzzle game was excellent.

On the flipside, most twitch-style games just don't work well within the current SL universe. It's teh lagz0rz, mostly. The games I've played/enjoyed the most take the lag into consideration in the game design. I think the key to any successful game here is working cleverly within known limitations rather than trying to push the envelope.

Well, I think you may have stumped me, Haney. Lindenball was pretty new when I started....I must be too young to know it.

primtionary was pretty cool, I thought. too bad jamie seems to have taken a hiatus.

oh nevermind.. he still seems to run them.

Forgot to add answers to the original questions, sorry:

Do you think that games will play a bigger role in SL's future?
Yes, ultimately. The better the engine gets, the better gaming potential.

What's in the way of seeing more people playing games?
The engine/infrastructure. I can only guess about the following other possible reasons: Lack of group cohesiveness, lack of developer support, lack of awareness.

Why aren't there more games that cost money to play.
Why pay to play Space Rocks when I can play Tringo for free?
Why pay to play anything when I can do other, non-gaming things for free?
What's so compelling about a game within SL that would make me pay to play it?

Do we need a separate forum thread for games?
If you build it, they will come. I think.

Haney, I hope you're not thinking of Bump'n'Run! LOL

Captions gets my vote too. It's a guarenteed laugh, and Trimming has done a great script to automate the voting and storing of the captions.

My guess for the first game is hide and go seek.

What the heck is Linden Ball?

Oeh i just LOVE tringo!

First asking "why money trees?" and then "what's fun?". I suppose the next question will be "Is your AV a different gender than you? Why?"

[note: totally, totally joking. I'm actually pleased to see a Linden ask questions about the qualitative experience of the game; presumably with an eye toward policy changes to support such experiences (not necessarily with L$).]