Step Inside the Concrete Jungle : A Peek at the City of Lost Angels

Second Life is filled with interesting and intriguing places. One realm that has been enhanced with this virtual freedom is that of roleplay.
For those who don't know, roleplay is a game best described like a play: each person has a character that they play, which interacts with others and the established environment. It is distinguished from people just writing stories together by usually having some sort of administrator or coordinator that provides information about the surroundings, creates a focus or goal, and/or enforces interaction rules. Often, roleplays will involve a combat element; the most widely-known is Dungeons & Dragon's stats and dicerolls. Within SL, sims typically use a combat meter and HUD system, creating a more dynamic playing field.

There are many different types of roleplay, just as there are story genres: sci-fi, fantasy, and gor are some of the more popular categories. Another major area is that of dark roleplay, a theme focused on terror, carnage, and the obscene. In this realm we find the apocalyptic urban jungle of Lost Angels. As per its website,

The City of Lost Angels is a Dark RP/Combat/Sex sim where you can come and live a character life thats not all shiny and happy and new like most of Second Life. We attempt to provide a good community for free form roleplay for characters of a darker nature.

Essentially, the only time you will find sunshine and teddy bears is when I'm frightening the demons and lycans. From the moment you arrive in the rundown subway, you will see the bold, edgy propaganda posters for each of the City's official factions: Brood, Choir, Clan, Coven, Pack, Syndicate, Tribe, and Vanguard. Each - save the Vanguard - is primarily focused on one of the combat system's races (demon, angel, supernatural, vampire, lycan, human, and neko, respectively), and all have their own motives, structures and agendas. Players have the options of their characters joining a group or taking the dangers on alone, but all are likely to get caught in the crossfire when these agents of power push and pull upon one another. Often, confrontations will lead to brutal brawls and fierce fire-fights in the streets, leaving the defeated in a pool of blood and humility; however, residents of the sprawl should be ever wary for other forms of revenge, such as kidnapping, territory destruction, rape, or other 'creative' methods.

Granted, while it might be easy to consider the actions of the epic hero or the dastardly villain, one of the most entertaining and rewarding gameplay can be the struggles of everyday life. How does life change when not only the world is falling apart, but your neighbors are literally barking up the few trees that still stand? What is the person hitting on you at the bar has wings sprouting out of their back? What do you order at the coffee shop when the barista has horns growing out of her head? The possibilities are endless and add a whole new dimension of life to the typical online game. This is not your nerdy brother's WoW- this is an improve play, filled with different characters and little to no scripting.

So, what's the catch? Well, you do have to abide by basic rules. While your character may be rude, you - the player behind the character - should not be. The golden rule of CoLA is "you do not have the right to be an asshole". More specifically, you nor your weapons may orbit, push, cage, freeze, and otherwise harass others, nor may you heckle other players or sim staff. You may also not idle with your combat meter on, as having the meter on gets you experience; to not be doing anything related to the game (interacting with others either in roleplay or combat) while gaining experience is called camping, is a form of cheating, and is a no-no. Not observing these rules will get you a punishment ranging from a warning to a permanent ban from the sim and the Community Combat System/CoLA Combat System (CCS). CCS is used in a number of roleplay/combat sims, so being banned from the system would negate allowing you having full abilities in these areas, too. While there are some other more technical issues you may run into (metagaming, godmodding, etc.), if you follow the basic tenants of being kind and respectful as a player, you are not going to have any problems.

If this sounds like something you'd like to investigate, feel free to teleport into the sim of Lost Angels or check out the website.

And click the pictures- the thumbnails look like crap.