Respecting the Prey
Written and Submitted by Blitz(john8u2 Resident)
Having been asked by a friend to do a few articles for this blog, I thought I would start with a two parter on Respecting the Prey in The Village: Slave Hunt. In this first part, I wanted to talk about the hunt or chase part of the game, and in the follow-on I want to cover the capture. The Obligatory Statement: Let me say very clearly that these are MY opinions and insights and do not necessarily reflect the views, rules or opinions of any of the staff or owners of The Village: Slave Hunt sim or Second Life in general. Your mileage may vary, some exclusions apply, VAT may be applicable, if after reading you see any signs of a rash or other ailment, please consult your physician.
Part 1 - The Hunt
Being a guy and a gamer, I have played countless hours of the different multiplayer flavors of COD (Call of Duty) and Halo. The one thing all of my friends and I have agreed upon is this simple fact...what makes a great match is the effort expended and skill displayed by both parties to try to win. That's what makes it fun, right? The chase (or hunt) part of The Village: Slave Hunt is no different. If your selected Prey is more skilled or knowledgeable about the map than you, it isn't their fault, it's yours. That may seem harsh to say, but just like when a new set of maps come out in those other games, you have to get out there and learn the map. Learn how to jump from place to place on the map without falling to your death. Try to remember where the mantraps are. These things will stand you in good stead, I promise. If you get caught somewhere you can't get out of, talk to your prey and maybe they will teleport you out. Give them a little head start and then continue on. Offer the same to them if THEY get stuck.
Also keep in mind that it is NOT your Prey's fault that you decided to play Second Life on your Grandfather's laptop...you know, the one with the junk video card, the jerky mouse, and a dial-up connection to the internet, while she is playing on a high end, gamers wet dream of a workstation with a fiber connection directly to the Pacific coast backbone of the 'net. Those are extreme examples, but my point is that glitches, interruptions, pauses, and yes, even crashes happen. Deal with it. Don't take it out on your Prey...they are typically dealing with the same problems.
This part is the hardest part....always keep in mind that we all come to The Village: Slave Hunt for different reasons. Some of us want a short hunt with a fun role play ending...others just want the grand hunt of the ages and no role play endings. It is not your Prey's fault if they came looking for something different than you. I have been on short chases that ended with a good bit of role play, and I have also been on extended chases with very little role play (one seriously extended chase that left me with my eyes rolling around in my head for 10 minutes afterwards....and she KNOWS who she is). The point is that getting upset with your prey for wanting to have fun in a different way than you wanted is childish. If you wanted a shorter chase and you are 10 minutes in and no closer to your quarry than you were at the beginning it's probably time to reconsider your choice of prey.
Lastly, just as in COD or Halo or many other FPS's...don't poach another man's prey. This should be a brotherhood of men kind of thing...respect your fellow Predators. Just because some luscious vixen fell to her capture right at your feet doesn't really give you the right to take her. Some other Predator has probably been chasing her around like crazy and will come zooming around the corner at any minute. On the other hand, if no one shows up after a few min (or you could just ask the Prey if she was being chased) perhaps it'll be your lucky day. Poaching however is just going to lead to hard feelings all around.
Always remember that the Prey is here to have fun (and maybe get their kink on just like YOU)...show them some respect or you will find all the prey sitting in the Safe zones when YOU come out to play. From a role play perspective, Gor (in my view) was not a series about little boys chasing hot women...it was about MEN chasing hot women. Man up...do the work it takes to become a great predator...and you will find that the Prey will respect YOU for it. The more we all try to abide by these simple, common sense ideas, the more fun we can ALL have.
In my next installment I will talk about the capture portion of The Village: Slave Hunt. I hope you enjoyed this first article, and I invite your comments.
Showing posts with label Carp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carp. Show all posts
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Kingdom of Pleasure (review)
Kingdom of Pleasure (review)
written by Maldoror Bowman
Kingdom of Pleasure is a capture sim strictly divided on gender lines. I've visited several times (as a pred) and there have always been plenty of players there and a good mix of pred and prey.
You arrive in a large and busy mall 1500m above the sim. Setup can be a bit confusing, and the instructions were evidently written in Italian and translated to English with some loss of clarity. The point that I took a while to grasp is that the weapons are in the meter: you attach the meter and select your weapon from a menu, and if, for example, you choose the bow then the meter 'morphs' into a quiver and the bow is rezzed an attaches to you. I'll say a bit more about the weapons later, but once you have learned the system I can see the attachment could become pretty straightforward.
Now you can tp down to the sim and start hunting. There's no requirement to roleplay any attack, a pred can simply single out a target and open fire. I have to admit that I took my prey with me - or to be quite honest she took me - the first time and so we were able to puzzle things out together.
The sim is laid out with the prey village surrounded with canals in one corner, a walled settlement and some open areas, including a large mountain with a valley running through it. The build is a little reminiscent of candy boxes in some parts but not obtrusively so. Floating above it is a castle.
Post-capture roleplay is encouraged and suitable equipment scattered around. There are rlv areas, but use of rlv is not required. Roleplay is such a personal thing, so dependent on the two players involved developing a theme that each enjoys, that I shan't try to make any generalizations about it.
Most importantly, a lot of people seem to have a lot of fun here. The guards are helpful and relaxed, I saw no disputes about rules, and newcomers are made welcome. I've enjoyed my visits and met some interesting players, but this wouldn't be my choice for a regular capture sim to play in. The game here is closer to combat and further from hunting than I like, though I have heard others make the opposite criticism of sims I like better. It's just a matter of choice.
One reason for this is that the layout of the sim does not favor evasive play by the prey. There are very few places to lose a pursuer: the castle would be ideal, but it is isolated from the rest of the sim on its rock; the villages have narrow passages and entrances but these are very often blind; and the terrain otherwise does not offer much by way of concealment.
On the other hand, prey receive as their free weapon a knife, which is not a lot of use because of its low range, but can also buy better weapons such as bows and also shields. Another benefit for prey is that there are a lot of safe areas, scattered all around the sim. As a result it's to the advantage of prey, and especially of prey who can afford top spec weapons, to fight rather than run.
The meter used is called the DM meter. I know a lot of players prefer the more familiar Gor meter, but personally, as I am not a particular devotee of Gor, I am happy to try an alternative. The Gor meter is in some ways over-featured for a simple capture game with its peculiar system of splash damage and multiple menus and choices. The DM meter seems to be robust and straightforward. It's a shame that it has no falling damage, as this encourages players to do strange and unrealistic things like leaping out of the castle into the middle of the sim. A feature I do like is that players emit a small sound to show when they are hit, much better than having to to keep an eye on floating text all the time (although the female hit sound sounds more as though the prey were being tickled than shot).
I think that the aspect that would most irritate me if I were to play here regularly would be the 'arms race'. Because the meter does not recognize most sl weapons, players are restricted to the use of weapons sold (I assume) by the makers of the meter itself. If you want to hunt prey with bows, you have to buy an even bigger bow, and then the prey can go and buy an even bigger bow still and so on. Because the weapon makers have a monopoly, weapons that are, to be blunt, pretty mediocre can be sold at prices beyond what one would pay for some of the best modeled weapons in second life. There is a system to allow players to buy weapons for experience points, but I had the impression that a great deal of time in sim would be required to get even a simple enhanced bow.
In summary: this is a lively and very active community in a well-organized sim enviably free of stress about rules. A good place for combat fans, less so for hunters.
After-note: After I finished this I received a note advertising a 'wild hunt' event in Kingdom of Pleasure. I assume this means that prey are allowed to hunt preds (normally they may only fight when attacked). During this time the safe areas are closed. I wasn't able to go along, but it sounded like fun.
written by Maldoror Bowman
Kingdom of Pleasure is a capture sim strictly divided on gender lines. I've visited several times (as a pred) and there have always been plenty of players there and a good mix of pred and prey.
You arrive in a large and busy mall 1500m above the sim. Setup can be a bit confusing, and the instructions were evidently written in Italian and translated to English with some loss of clarity. The point that I took a while to grasp is that the weapons are in the meter: you attach the meter and select your weapon from a menu, and if, for example, you choose the bow then the meter 'morphs' into a quiver and the bow is rezzed an attaches to you. I'll say a bit more about the weapons later, but once you have learned the system I can see the attachment could become pretty straightforward.
Now you can tp down to the sim and start hunting. There's no requirement to roleplay any attack, a pred can simply single out a target and open fire. I have to admit that I took my prey with me - or to be quite honest she took me - the first time and so we were able to puzzle things out together.
The sim is laid out with the prey village surrounded with canals in one corner, a walled settlement and some open areas, including a large mountain with a valley running through it. The build is a little reminiscent of candy boxes in some parts but not obtrusively so. Floating above it is a castle.
Post-capture roleplay is encouraged and suitable equipment scattered around. There are rlv areas, but use of rlv is not required. Roleplay is such a personal thing, so dependent on the two players involved developing a theme that each enjoys, that I shan't try to make any generalizations about it.
Most importantly, a lot of people seem to have a lot of fun here. The guards are helpful and relaxed, I saw no disputes about rules, and newcomers are made welcome. I've enjoyed my visits and met some interesting players, but this wouldn't be my choice for a regular capture sim to play in. The game here is closer to combat and further from hunting than I like, though I have heard others make the opposite criticism of sims I like better. It's just a matter of choice.
One reason for this is that the layout of the sim does not favor evasive play by the prey. There are very few places to lose a pursuer: the castle would be ideal, but it is isolated from the rest of the sim on its rock; the villages have narrow passages and entrances but these are very often blind; and the terrain otherwise does not offer much by way of concealment.
On the other hand, prey receive as their free weapon a knife, which is not a lot of use because of its low range, but can also buy better weapons such as bows and also shields. Another benefit for prey is that there are a lot of safe areas, scattered all around the sim. As a result it's to the advantage of prey, and especially of prey who can afford top spec weapons, to fight rather than run.
The meter used is called the DM meter. I know a lot of players prefer the more familiar Gor meter, but personally, as I am not a particular devotee of Gor, I am happy to try an alternative. The Gor meter is in some ways over-featured for a simple capture game with its peculiar system of splash damage and multiple menus and choices. The DM meter seems to be robust and straightforward. It's a shame that it has no falling damage, as this encourages players to do strange and unrealistic things like leaping out of the castle into the middle of the sim. A feature I do like is that players emit a small sound to show when they are hit, much better than having to to keep an eye on floating text all the time (although the female hit sound sounds more as though the prey were being tickled than shot).
I think that the aspect that would most irritate me if I were to play here regularly would be the 'arms race'. Because the meter does not recognize most sl weapons, players are restricted to the use of weapons sold (I assume) by the makers of the meter itself. If you want to hunt prey with bows, you have to buy an even bigger bow, and then the prey can go and buy an even bigger bow still and so on. Because the weapon makers have a monopoly, weapons that are, to be blunt, pretty mediocre can be sold at prices beyond what one would pay for some of the best modeled weapons in second life. There is a system to allow players to buy weapons for experience points, but I had the impression that a great deal of time in sim would be required to get even a simple enhanced bow.
In summary: this is a lively and very active community in a well-organized sim enviably free of stress about rules. A good place for combat fans, less so for hunters.
After-note: After I finished this I received a note advertising a 'wild hunt' event in Kingdom of Pleasure. I assume this means that prey are allowed to hunt preds (normally they may only fight when attacked). During this time the safe areas are closed. I wasn't able to go along, but it sounded like fun.
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