I took a brief look at Remnants of Earth back in February when I boldly went in search of Science Fiction action in Second Life. However it’s worth revisiting again because it’s now being discussed by a wider audience, even beyond the Second Life blogsphere.

Remnants Of Earth is a cyberpunk roleplay game in Second Life and was recently covered by Hamlet Au over at New World Notes : Remnants of Earth, a User-Made MMO in Second Life.

However now news of the world has gone beyond Second Life, thanks to Hamlet Au’s post, Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku has noticed it : Players Built An MMO Inside Of Second Life, And It Looks Wild.

The article consists mostly of screenshots from the Remnants of Earth website, which is an impressive website on its own, although be warned, it is quite bright and has some flicker.

So first of all, just what is Remnants Of Earth?

Remnants of Earth is a cyberpunk-fantasy role playing game within the metaverse of Second Life, with a heavy basis around classic pen and paper RPGs elements, like; dice rolling, stats, monster fighting, story driven events, MMO-like adventuring, and gathering. RoE is the first second life pen and paper table top game in SL, while still keeping the core features of any other roleplay sim. Players can interact with NPCs and other players to accomplish goals, and even engage in heated PvP faction wars. We even have a full crafting and mining system! Think of RoE as a fully functioning table top game in SL, like Dungeons and Dragons, or ShadowRun.

The world is extremely photogenic and has a definite cyberpunk feel to it. However as I haven’t engaged with the world properly, therefore I am unable to review the game mechanics.

As for the setting of the game, it’s best if I let the website explain that too :

The current year is 2130, mankind has just passed the pre-mature stages of expanding out into the solar system over the years and have established colonies on moons such as Titan, Ganymede, and the Earth’s Moon along with key planets such as Mars, Venus and Jupiter. After the Resource War and the following horrific events of The Gate Incident, Earth has been rendered a mostly barren husk of it’s former glory devoid of a proper rule of law from the neglect of it’s former governing body, and is controlled loosely by it while everything else is ruled by either crime, vagrants or corporation military contractors and police for whatever goal they may be shooting for.

A lot of care has gone into creating the story and the world. This is quite an impressive feat and if you want to visit, rather than join in the action, the usual OOC tags are available in the welcome area along with a lot more information about the world you’re going to enter.

When I arrived, there were quite a few people around, a lot more than were present when I visited before. So how is something like this received by people on Kotaku? Alas all too predictably with comments such as people pondering whether Second Life is still around and why are the avatars clothed or not furries. However all is not lost because someone does actually point out that Second Life gets a bum rap and that there’s plenty to do there beyond the usual stereotypes.

As for Patricia Hernandez herself, her comment is rather amusing :

Woah. This trailer for Remnants of Earth is about as Second Life as you can get, but still — it’s an MMO inside of an MMO, and it looks bonkers.

 

This is good publicity for Remnants of Earth and therefore by extension, Second Life. This has been mostly a good week in the media for Second Life with quite a few positive stories, long may it continue.

SLURL To Remnants Of Earth : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Tron/203/156/3527

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