The Oil Well
The Annon Corp are a cross universe, cross world, cross platform, oil company. That’s right, virtual crude, Pixel oil that is!
We’ve found through extensive geological study of your world, the grid, that there is hardly any oil. None to be found from the most northern sims or to the farthest reaches of the south. We had given up hope completely of exploiting your little world for our own financial gain. We were about to leave without even saying hello. Then it happened. Our scanners detected an oil deposit off of the mainland on a tiny little isle in the west sea. We finally found it, we almost missed it, but there it was, waiting for us all the time.
This island was no paradise. Its surface like a desert covered in sand to the sea. The landscape dimpled with many dunes and hills making it hard to see far. There at some time were people who lived here, or tried to. A couple of ramshackle homes and a barn can be viewed on the horizon. On the side of the barn there is a sign that reads ‘New Town’. Now this is all that’s left of the dream about a sim called New Town.
It didn’t take us long to find out why New Town had been abandoned. The island sim is prone to constant sandstorms that cause damage to all avatars unfortunate enough to be caught in that blinding wind. Most people can only stand about 20 minutes before they de rez. Then there are the nasty sand snakes. They come out of the ground in seemingly random patterns swirling here and there in and out of sight. If they smell you though, they will chase you for a good 5 minutes. When they bite, you lose half your life and have to decide whether to stay or escape. The worst thing though, and I shudder to tell you about them, are the Roamers. I don’t know a lot about them. They seem to be the first monsters in your world. There are two of them and they fly around the island looking for avatars to eat. It’s best to just avoid them since they can kill on contact. They seem to attack whoever is moving the most.
There is hope for New Town! Although not much really, at least not for you, or any of its residents. We at Annon Corp have found tons of oil under the very center of New Town. We have set up our oil rig in the middle of the island and we claim all rights to the oil there, forever! About once every 40 minutes our oil ship will appear in the sky over New Town and dock with the oil well to transfer our oil from the sim to our ship. It’s a breathtaking sight really and I suggest you see it for yourself, but be warned. There are many natural dangers on this island. It’s getting more dangerous everyday in fact.
Oil spillage is occurring at the location of our oil transfer each and every time. We are losing oil on the ground around the oil well. The amount varies each time, but sometimes it’s quite a bit. We decided this loss was unacceptable, so we brought some needy avatars to the isle of New Town, to stand at the oil well. We instructed them to collect the extra oil and deposit it in a nearby machine for payment. Everyone was happy, at first.
Oil pirates soon moved in and took over the isle with sniper rifles, machine guns, and other more foreign looking weapons. They killed everyone! They wanted to control the oil collection for their group. The pirates didn’t seem to care that every now and then one of them was eaten by a roamer or that they had to leave their position guarding the well to keep from dying in the storms. They guarded the well against nature, each other, and all outsiders. They proclaimed themselves the New Town Pirates!
The New Town Pirates caused so much terror that we decided to shut down the well in hopes of them dispersing back to where they came from. It seems they mostly have gone and New Town sim is quiet except for the howling sand storms, the sand snakes that make the quietest little clicking noise, and the mysterious Roamers. Everything is quiet, quiet, quiet….
We are not making any money off of our well are we? Nope! It’s not running, nothing is active, and that’s not good for business. We’ve decided to turn the oil well back on soon, and since all your residents over there on the main grid have been so vocal about needing money we’ve decided to let them come to the island and pick up some oil for themselves. So if some of them get eaten, poisoned, or drowned in sand you know what has happened. Who knows, maybe history will repeat itself and some group or another will take over the well like the New Town Pirates once did, maybe, maybe not!
The Oil Well is my Idea for a game in Second Life. One sim is turned into the desert island like the one described in the story. It would be set to no fly, all rezzed items would be temp, view would be set to 64 meters only, no set as home, no sit, and no landmark. The entire sim would be no limits PVP. There would be weather, a sandstorm that would constantly inflict damage. There would be creatures that have various attacks. In the center of the isle there will be the focal point, the oil well. Every 40 minutes it will “spill” oil in the form of oil cans on the ground. People who are lucky can get those oil cans and deposit them in a machine that would be located at the edge of the sim. The machine will pay them dependent on that day’s oil value and how much they deposited.
I think this game will lead to several things. Large groups of people gathering around the oil well waiting for the expected oil spill. A lot of activity each time just before the oil spill. Expected emergent behavior would include some well armed group claiming dominance over the well. This of course would prompt others to fight for the well to be the top group or just to grab a little oil for themselves. Basically a lot of fun for all!
Thanks for reading this long idea.
Angel Leviathan
