The zombies... they're everywhere...

...I can't hold them back for long.

Find a gun. Any gun. Hold them close. I can't keep them from coming in much longer.

Soon they'll overrun the grid...

Beware!

LF

Zombies is good eatin'. Unfortunately they think the same thing about us.

Shoot them in the head!

Actually, my observations have yet to see where their "head" is. They're a single prim, escaped from the nether regions between the world of deleted prims and our main SL grid. These "ghosted" prims are apparently very aggressive, and very simple minded.

If they touch you, they feed off the energy of your avatar to bring in another prim zombie nearby. If left unchecked, they could take over the world!

Any sufficiently powerful gun is enough to stop them, though.

LF

Got to be careful of anything escaping from there...

Yeah, like man gravy

wow! someone should get some zomies to randomly move around Rausch, and you can kill em. Then when someone kills one another is rezzed. Maybe a points system for killing 'em. hehe. maybe this should go in a different thread

Nevermind.

After two (alleged) abuse reports, a bunch of confused people, an angry newbie or two and the realization that 90% of plots are set to 1 minute auto-return, I'm cancelling this experiment.

So much for that. Guess we won't see any harmless robots, or birds, or flowers, or anything else that requires a script to move over someone else's land for 2 seconds.

You know, SL is a game... don't treat it like a job. Lighten up.

Want to know what the zombies did? They found the nearest avatar, bumped into them (very slowly), then spawned a copy of itself (up to a maximum of 12 in a given area, so there wasn't a chance of them lagging the sim). They can be shot and immediately die upon doing so. They're harmless. It's a bit of fun.

Bah.


If you find the green things called "zombies", don't touch them. right click on them and delete them if they're on your plot.

Or shoot them, they're designed to die upon immediate impact from anything moving faster than 50 meters.

*goes to his RL job*

LF

That's a shame, LF... those sound kinda cool.

Next time, we should put out little prim brains for them to eat... maybe on a plate... with cookies.

--Carolyn
(Zombie Auntie)

The Zombies would have been fine... EXCEPT that they did NOT die when shot at with any of the free weapons I had in my inventory, AND they swarmed when I had to go AFK...

Had they been released in CONTROLLED areas, not at... say Chaos Theory Gaming (where lots of folk idle), and there had been some in-game sign explaining them (or had they just provided a notecard when you clicked on them, explaining them), then I might not have reacted the way I did. Also, had I been able to IM the creator live in-game (you were not on, lordfly) and ask what was up and gotten a explanation, I likely would not have minded.

I apologize for the abuse report, but they hindered movement (if you had already gotten swarmed) and generally were annoying. Interesting idea, and great in the right areas, but annoying none the less.

Jethric - Holder of Mice

Had i not had to go to work, I would have been happy to have explained what the deal was. And deleted them, because I had gotten enough abuse reports from it.

I'm sorry I ever bothered, really.

Here's hoping I don't get banned.

LF

what a fun idea. i wonder if you could make them seek out any object named "brains" without using alot of sensors.

and the Linden revolver only fires about 30 meters a second i think. oops. the zombies were too tough this time.

I would have been in trouble if I'd run into them. The only weapon I've got that's faster than 35 m/s is my homing orbiter, and that only works against avs.

They kinda taste a little like chicken

Merlin

bah, I'm inspired to do something similar now just to piss of the whiners. neg rates be damned, I never have paid attention to ratings.

I think it was a cool idea Lordfly. I actually made something almost exactly the same without seeing your zombies, but didn't unleash them on the grid. Maybe I will make a game out of it in a controlled environment as above posts have suggested (free of course) unless you have a problem with this (don't wanna steal your ideas)

Hi folks, newbie here.

I'm new to SL, but am a game-designer from way back, both computer and non-computer games. In the gaming field, there is one over-riding rule, the #1 foundation of games: The game is for the fun of the player.

I've never met a zombie. All I know of them is from this thread. But if I may humbly offer a couple of observations:

1) A game should never be forced upon a person who doesn't know he's playing.
2) Non-players should not be affected by the game.
3) The game should be restricted to a specific area or if not (for example, if Zombies are a standard part of SL) then notice of what they are and how to deal with them should be provided in note cards to all new members.
4) Zombies should work properly. If they're supposed to die when you shoot them, then all weapons should affect them. How frustrating to pull out a standard-issue revolver and have the zombie keep coming! (especially for newbies, who sometimes don't even know how weapons work).
5) If anything about them is detrimental to new players who don't know what's going on, that should be "tweeked" to be non-detrimental. For example, a "tweek" might be: Zombies do not go after players who are less than 30 days new to SL.

The idea of random monster walking around that tries to latch on to you and needs shot sounds fun, but I can see three problems:

1) Pulling out a gun and shooting can affect innocent passerby-- if one misses.
2) Weapons can disturb the general peace of the community
3) When I'm building or scripting, I don't want NUTHIN interferring with me, thank you very much. lol

So just some thoughts. I think Jethric made some very valid points-- restrict Zombies to specific areas, give all users entering those areas ample warning and instructions. Or, if you want to make it an all-over SL thing... restrict them from areas already script and weapon restricted and as a possible tweek... place a user option in the code to eliminate zombies from their personal play (so that people who don't want them don't have to mess with them) -- and then have a blast!

The problem is, if you put them in a restricted area, give folks ample warning, and make them so weak that any gun will kill them... they cease to be fun.

In a restricted area, they can't attack people who just stand outside of the plot.

If you give folks ample warning, they don't listen anyways. I GAVE ample warning. I shouted warnings all across the world. Everyone thought I was being silly.

You can't have a blast shooting fish in a barrel.

LF

Well then at that case you get down to another important game theory question (and to be honest, one of the main questions of life itself): when does my fun interfere with the peace of others? So maybe deleting the zombies was indeed the honorable thing to do. An alternative: have "Zombie game zones" specifically designed to feature that game. Of course, then SL instead of an interactive social community starts becoming more like Unreal 2003 Invasion... LOL.

A similar example that comes to mind that has some folks irritated is the prevalence of porn on SL. The question is: porn is available all over the net... why have it on SL? The solution: restrict it to a specific area with ample warning when a user crosses that zone. It's a simple and elegant solution, but instead-- the merchants stick in in people's faces every time we turn a corner.

Could it be the zombies had the same effect? When they begin irritating people, then the "personal fun" concept begins clashing with the "rights of others" concept-- a common mistake of society in general (boom boxes, cell phones, talking in theaters). I've met users who have the inexcusable attitude, "So long as I want it and I'm having fun, what do I care about the other dweebs?". And they're always the first to yell if someone with a little more clout and power returns the favor to them.

In the case of Zombies, simple zone restrictions with ample warnings might be the elegant solution. (Interesting thread BTW).

I agree that sometimes neg rates can be abused. However, even as a newbie I know they can't be ignored. Enough neg rates, and Lindens start paying attention.

"Unleashing" something like a Zombie without Linden permission would I think, be tantamount to releasing a virus on the net and would most likely result in a permanent boot (which happens; I personally witnessed one my 4th day here).

Myself, I wouldn't wanna do it.

I love it, "The Ethics of Zombie Unleashing"!

I think the temporary weirdnesses that pop up unexpectedly are interesting.

Wayfinder,

I don't know - perhaps sl is changing. If it is, it's changing for the worse. At one time one of the delights of being here was coming across the unexpected. It's people like Lordfly and Pete Fats (who is notorious for crashing sims spectacularly) who provide those quirky and funny events that make second life what it is.

You use the example of porn. That is something that enhances no one's virtual life save for the person who buys it. The whole point of zombies and flying fish and humping hamsters is that they are a delightful conjunction, like Breton's umbrella, sewing machine and operating table, which spark off something greater than their constituent parts.

Yes, I'm sure the zombies could have been irritating. But I'm sure that most people who have been here some time would on reflection have seen the funny and charming side of them. I think these days second life seems to be more oriented towards making money than enjoying the multifarious possibilities that this environment can bring us. And that, in my view, is a shame.

I have to agree with Selador... it's the weird, silly, odd, unexpected events that make life interesting, First and Second Lives included. I mean, how much fun would your real life be if everything was perfectly safe, expected, and controlled? Urg... ~~~O <- drool

Seems people these days want to complain about everything. I mean, you and a friend teleport, and when you both arrive at your destination, one of you has picked up a mystery pair of breasts. People get mad about this?? This is funny, geez. Lighten up people. It's Second Life, not Real Life (tm).

I wish to complain that I have never picked up a mystery pair of breasts!