So, what is The Wastelands? It is a game within Second Life™. It is a bit different. It uses a somewhat typical post-apocalyptic setting. The 10 regions making up the game area are all Moderate rated. Full nudity is prohibited and no sex… O.O
Also, the game has been around since 2006. Making it definitely an SL classic.
This video was taken as I begin to explorer The Wastelands. I happened to be there when the monthly meeting was announced and The War Zone game started. Luck. I don’t plan to video the meetings. This is a one-off type thing.
I clipped out parts of the video and sped up parts I left in. So, reading the chat as it scrolls by won’t get you a transcript of the meeting. So, I have a transcript below.
The War Zone game as I understand it is a control the flag game. I have seen it played and heard the rules explained once. The flag is radio-active. So, carrying it will kill you. As you run with the flag the other team is trying to kill you. You are going to die. But, games have the ability to resurrect you. At the end of the game whichever team controlled the flag the ‘most time’ wins. And… you have to stay in the region.
There is a fans’ mobile ‘bleachers’ that follows the flag. You sit on it to follow the moving game. That is kinda neat. It is jerky. So, that is what you see in the jerky parts of the video. It isn’t my computer stuttering.
The Wastelands has games within it. The Wastelands is the overall role play game encompassing the smaller games. The main game requires you eat, gather, craft, and barter. There are NPC’s to help the RP along and hand out quests. You’ll meet your first one when you try to join the official group, Ruin Nation: Official Wastelands RP. A rather novel aspect of the game is their incentive for reading the rules. You have to read the rules to figure out how to get an invitation to the group which is required to turn the game meter on. I won’t give that away. I will say you need to be face-to-face with the right bot to get the invitation.
The game has a training tutorial. You’ll find old beat up arcade game machines that hand out the free game meter. Next to those are signs that link you to the tutorial, which is an in-game practice and training section of the game. Definitely, go through it.
The game uses Second Life’s Advanced Experience Tools. RLV is not needed. You do have to enable the Experience for things to work and the HUD to attach.
You can find more information on Plurk, weekly events stuff, and on Discord.
Flying and various other prohibited actions will disable the game meter. Other prohibited actions will remove the game meter/HUD. Then, AFAIK, you have to find one of the old arcade games and get a new HUD/meter. It is a very simple meter with few controls.
Weapons I have yet to sort out. You do acquire them in game. Buying weapons from third-parties isn’t permitted. Weapons are found or made. The Wiki shows 26 different weapons.
The game is supported via in-game donations or Patreon and land rentals/sales.
Left: Over Dressed – Right: More the style wearing the free clothes provided in-game.
Dress is a Mad Max-style crossed with the Walking Dead. In the video I’m overdressed… I have found there are designers making Apocalypse-style clothes. Search Apparel apocalypse. Of course, most of those clothes are more for an exotic dancer than an end-times scrounger. Also, it seems a large portion of ‘apocalypse’ clothes are for the Classic body, which may be why most of the avatars I’ve seen in Wastelands are classic avatars. Also, the use of the classic body may be an effort to reduce script count to the bare minimum.
The Wastelands people have put some free clothes at the main entry point. They are for the Classic avatar only.
NeoBokrug Elytis
The buck stops here.
Owner and Chief Executive Officer of Desolate Studios, NeoBokrug Elytis founded the Wastelands in 2006. From there he’s worked as a game designer and coder for a ton of games and projects in Second Life, including the games in the Wastelands. His primary roles in the Wastelands are community leader, estate owner, and game developer — usually in that order as time permits. 99% of the estate owned assets that are coded are done by Neo; tier meters, game elements, and miscellaneous stuff. If a problem is too tough for a Road Patrol or a Dev to handle, Neo is the last person before Linden Lab that can help to resolve an issue if it escalates that high.
Meeting Transcript
I’ve changed names to protect the guilty and perverse and make fun of the innocent… this is my hat tip to the PC fungus. I assume any hitmen on assignment reading the transcript can still figure out who is who. It is possible I missed obfuscating a name or two. I’m sure you’ll consider that a deliberate attempt to reveal your whereabouts to those hunting you. I mean… food is scarce.
Transcript: The Wastelands Trans.PDF – Includes War Zone game play.