The Alphaville Herald

Furry Builds Biggest Second Life Avatar – Giant Wolf

by Alphaville Herald on 21/02/05 at 5:18 pm

by Neal Stewart

THE FOREST (Mature) (210,76) — A Furry resident has completed the final touches on what may be the biggest avatar to ever set foot – or paw – in Second Life.

The aptly named ‘Woulfe Wolfe’, who is a member of 10 Furry groups in Second Life, spent nearly 20 hours in the Forest sim building his 100-metre high, 40-prim ‘macrowolf’ (macro – ‘large’).

Although Woulfe has seen larger mechas (robots) built before, he believes his canine creation to be Second Life’s biggest actual avatar. It is a Frankenstein of sorts, with head, paws and tail purchased from other residents, and textures provided by fellow Furry Kwip Manimal. The huge tail is attached to the avatar’s spine and offers a wagging function controlled by mouse. A friend is currently working on a script that will allow other avatars to sit on Woulfe’s giant paws.

As a veteran macrowolf in a variety of text-based MUCKs (Multi-User Chat Kingdoms), Woulfe is accustomed to providing 350-word-long pure-text descriptions of his appearance. “Here [in Second Life] I don’t need a paragraph to describe how I look,” he says, “I always had a thing for them [Wolves] it seems. Guess it came from watching a lot of PBS when I was a kid – they had these nature programs…”

Woulfe – a 40-year old U.S. resident – says that as a child he once experienced a particularly-surreal dream where he was visited by a wolf ‘as big as a mountain’, who picked him up and cuddled him into his fur. “I guess it was one of those, ‘I had a rotten day at school’ things and needed that at the time,” he says.

30 years after that first Wolf dream he had another, where he envisioned the design for his current 100-metre Second Life avatar.

The Forest sim that Woulfe calls home – where he is described by other residents as ‘a cuddly overgrown pup’ – is currently the single most popular location in Second Life. Owner Spade Richelieu – a black and red vampire bat – spends about $200 US per month running the island. He attributes it’s popularity to the unpaid volunteer contributions of it’s Furry community, who help put the sim in the top 2% within just 2 weeks of it’s creation.

Spade concedes that although it can be hard to talk to Woulfe from ground level, his ability to provide comprehensive cover during shoot-outs has made him an especially-valued part of the community. At the Club Fur Nude Beach his substantial… ahem… attachments… have apparently also not gone unnoticed.