SL Combat Expo Underway
by Pixeleen Mistral on 27/03/07 at 12:46 am
by Onder Skall, courtesy of SL Games
The SL Combat Expo 2007 has officially launched and will be running until April 2nd. This is a great opportunity to see some of the cooler weaponry that Second Life has to offer and ask questions of the weaponsmiths themselves.
From the official release:
William Dalgleish, Project Manager for the SL Combat Expo said, “The response from combat vendors to this Expo has been great, and we have basically filled the vendor stands. Several weapons makers will be releasing new products especially in time for the Expo.”
The discussions will take place each night from 5:30 to 6:30pm followed by formal product presentations by exhibitors from 7:00pm to 9:30pm.
TONIGHT:
5:30pm-6:30pm Combat Strategies for Players Round Table Discussion
Speakers include Max Demar, Manager of Armory Xtreme and Loki Pyle, Sales Manager for Armory Island
7:00pm-9:30pm Product Demonstration by Vendors Gold and Silver (20 minutes per gold vendor, 15 minutes per silver vendor).
Here are some hawt pix (after the fold):
dandellion Kimban
Mar 27th, 2007
Expo is nice, all the good to organizers.
But, I lefvt the island with the impression that SL is overhelmed with same types of weaponry all over. No, cold weapon, no middle ages, not even katanas and japan stuff! Just black steel and chrome.
katrina bixby
Mar 27th, 2007
The expo is great! see the StarFleet Command booth its the best and has info about the sim and group!StarfleetcommandSLQ – Second Life Quadrant.
Khamon
Mar 27th, 2007
Alright, so many people have been doing weapons since Second Life opened it isn’t news. The next thing you know Second Life Herald, Second Life Insider, Terra Nova, and Fortune will all be reporting this as news!
Onder Skall
Mar 27th, 2007
dandellion – I understand what you’re saying; the combat expo is very gun-and-HUD-centric, but SL does have LOTS of melee weaponry. DarkLife is a fully functioning RPG that’s very swords-n-arrows, and Samurai Island is all about the Katana.
I’ve been considering doing a massive review of the various katanas available for SI, but I’m not really sure I can get the designers on-board for that. Hey if you guys are reading, drop me a line!
Apollo Case
Mar 27th, 2007
Dandelion, thanks for visiting and you are right, we would have liked to have more katana’s, Japanese stuff and swords in general. We will do our best to get more such weapons at our Fall 2007 Expo.
There are a few stands you might be interested in though, there is a stand from Bitter Thorns with claws and a hammer, and Toxia also has a few interesting weapons on display too. We have some swords from Herzog out in the main vendor areas on Armory Island too.
And people should definitely check out the Star Fleet Command booth. They put in a lot of work into the stand, and have some great people manning it. Overall, there are about 30 booths at the Expo with some new product releases. Anyway we are holding the Expo until April 2, so be sure to check it out.
Dimentox
Mar 27th, 2007
Actually check out the DCS store.. There is melee weapons there.. Some flaming swords etc.
Harlequin Salome
Mar 27th, 2007
This makes me chuckle. I swear, the fact that people want even a quarter of these guns amazes me. There’s only a handful of weapons that people make, so your choices are either between different G36 or M4 models that are realistic, or an assault rifle that like, shoots explosives, gas, cagers, and whatever.
I’d like to see some people flexing their muscles and making some weapons that aren’t seen often, like calicos, or a working OICW. You know, show their skill in recreating weapons, rather tan, say, a feature-laden Black Ops piece of crap. I do more than my fair share of fighting, and my weapons consist of a shotgun, a rifle, and grenades. Call me a traditionalist.
Teiko Moxie
Mar 27th, 2007
From the get go to my knowledge, Armory Island has been very gun oriented. So all the vendors were told about the expo. Naturally we assumed we would be demoing all of our weapons already made, and maybe some new ones. Neo Synthetics, who’s weapons are now released under Vashir Weapons Foundry wound up needing to overhaul all of our guns. We finally heard about some good complaints. Noone has told us what they don’t like about the guns. All we’ve heard was praise until recently. So while we’re trying to release the reworks we were unable to work on any of the other projects we have going, for example: Ushao’s Oodachi or other swords he has already had made for several months.
I just want to illustrate that even some of the gun makers like ourselves – do have other projects like melee weapons and other big ideas. I hope more people tell us what they want, even if it sounds far fetched. You never know.. it might just get made for you. I’m glad Apollo suggested we look here for the coverage – or I wouldn’t have heard about your want for swords and other melee weaponry. I’ll be sure to let Ushao know. Also, don’t be afraid to ask her to see her Oodachi. She’s very proud of it and I’m sure she would love to show it off to you.
We’re located in the main isle – to the right. In fact you can see us in the fourth image of this post – the blue wall on the right with the poster and a few lame looking vendors. (We’ve been fighting computer problems left and right. If you have questions for us, we are usually there later on in the evening. We try to hang out at the booth for about an hour, but feel free to drop us an IM
)
Aln Soy
Mar 27th, 2007
Khamon, it’s just like a real life expo, many news papers, magazines, and television report expo news. I think SL Herald has done a great job at reporting the expo. the expo is a place for people to get their name out, release new products, and actually interact with a product or company they have never encountered before. It’s just like a car show, they have been here since early 1900′s, but news still reports Auto Shows =D
Suzanna Soyinka
Mar 27th, 2007
The sunday portion went over alright but the island had some issues but the discussion still went over very well. Overall, it was a nicely designed exposition and I found it very interesting and was glad to be invited as a guest speaker for the Sunday “Setting Weapons Standards” round table.
Ordinal Malaprop
Mar 27th, 2007
Was this the same expo that banned “anti-American” exhibitors?
Just wondering.
Ordinal Malaprop
Mar 27th, 2007
Incidentally, the source for that would be the Herald:
“We love America, so no flags or objects promoting Middle East countries that are hostile to Western interests or items that promote communism or fascism.”
http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/02/lock_and_load_s.html
Ushao Murakami
Mar 27th, 2007
Harlequin: Oddly enough I was looking at Calico’s awhile back and was thinking about making one. I didn’t know who would buy it because of it’s unorthodox shape and configuration but that’s something I also admire about it. I’ll be working on quite a few fantasy guns as well as uncommon (in SL) real world firearms such as the Jericho 941 (one of my favorites) and the Beretta M93R as it was modified for the movie Equilibrium (one of my other favorites).
Apollo Case
Mar 27th, 2007
The round table discussion at the Expo were well received and we had a lot of interest. Suzanna Soyinka, (from City of Lost Angels) brought up a lot of important points at the discussion entitled “Settings Weapons Standards”. I’ll be posting the transcript of the discussion on the Armory Island blog at http://www.slarmory.com later this week.
I think Weapons standards will be an on-going topic in Second Life, so we will have more discussions on this matter in future.
dandellion Kimban
Mar 27th, 2007
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I had my nice time at the expo. (Yes, I’ve seen the Samurai Island, that is why I am surprised that middle age Japan weaponry was neglected.)
Diversity of SL’s lifestyles and in-world creativity was not there on expo, which is a pity. Happenings like this are not just big shopping on one island, nor only business opportunity, nor huge advertisement for one branch of in-world industry. They are representation of SL itself, with all its diversity mentioned above.
Please, don’t take this as a rant or in any negative context. It is more kind of benevolent feed-back and trowing of couple ideas.
Speaking of which… I missed a corner with workshops, vendors with scripts, a bit of DIY stuff. Weaponry is not only to be bought, many people enjoy making their own stuff. We also missed some exhibitions of unique pieces. I could bet there are some magnificent works of art and craft we cannot see every day. Supposedly, there are enough crazy experiments (like this one) that deserve to be seen and maybe tested against public interest. Once again, don’t take this as anything else than just few wishes for the next year.
Raideur Ng
Mar 27th, 2007
Thats the beauty of SL, if you desire something truely unique, you can make it (or ask someone to make it). Functionality too. Just pay that extra amount or have those right friends.
(But seriously, whats with all the M4s? Every dude and his cousin has a chrome plated, silenced, scoped, completely blinged one..)
Ushao Murakami
Mar 28th, 2007
I completely understand why you guys are tired of seeing all the same crap in SL. I hate to say it, but those are the moneymakers. I will, however, say that we at Vashir have some very cool stuff planned that is VERY different than what you see around all the regular gun shops. And yes, as Teiko mentioned, I do have some melee weapons such as Katanas and Odachi that I’ve made but I just don’t have the script know-how for them. My current scripter is still learning SL, though he’s quite a genius. I really would love to work with someone who’s done melee scripting before. Of course it would be -excellent- if the C:SI folks would let me into their group but I know they’re very tight knit and for a very good and understandable reason.
If anybody has some suggestions for us or wants to help out please feel free to IM!
Scout Detritus
Mar 28th, 2007
@dandelion & Onder
There are more than just a few medieval and middle ages weapon makers…most of the demand for their products comes from role play instead of actual combat. Try searching for specific weapons like axes spears or arrows and you’ll find plenty of nicely scripted neat weapons…
dandellion Kimban
Mar 29th, 2007
point! There is role-playing weapons and there is combat weapons. Just like in RL.