SL Militia: Task Force Marines
by Alphaville Herald on 10/06/08 at 10:37 pm
by Caine Constantine
Coverage of the Second Life military scene is traditionally dominated by information on the largest groups – the Merczateers, Alliance Navy, Ordo Imperialis, and the like. But while these may be the most visible face of the scene, there are countless other militaries rising to prominence of their own.
In this two-part Herald exclusive, I took a trip to the snows of Ocean Estate 10 to visit the Task Force Marines in their base. The sound of practice fire and scattered explosions was my welcome, but I found the Marines to be a colorful lot.
Ocean Estate 10, is snowy and rocky, dotted with seemingly out-of-place foliage and divided half between them and half between their German allies, who have a massive cannon pointed at the Marine’s base. Their own half is divided into two quarters, with a mall in one and a dividing wall where they stand guard, protecting the base in the other quarter.
DAY ONE:
I showed up on the first day to check out the place to meet Flamethrower Rives, a soldier in the Marines and one of the founders, who explained that the group is based on a futuristic version of one of the finest fighting forces in the world, the United States Marines. He talked to me while designing a new P90 submachine gun for the troops. The scene around him was interesting – almost nobody had any semblance of a uniform on. In fact, commanding Admiral Mayra Roffo, highest ranked on site at that time, was wearing something very un-militaristic indeed.
commanding Admiral Mayra Roffo
As I scanned the place in between asking questions about ranking systems, Flamethrower Rives said that he was a founder of the group. Yet his tag was that of a simple enlisted soldier. Why would the founder of a group be an enlisted man?
Flamethrower Rives: we had too many admirals so i got demoted to E-5
Caine Constantine: Why’d they demote you? I thought you were a founder?
Flamethrower Rives: i am but i donno
Flamethrower Rives: i’m like the best fighting in tfm
Flamethrower Rives: fighter*
So the group’s leader, who I was yet to meet, demotes his old admirals when there are simply too many of them and he wants to promote new ones. What was going on in this group? I couldn’t wait to meet the leader.
Suddenly a bomb went off. Our conversations continued, but none of them seemed to notice. They did, however, when flying Vanguard soldier jeff Lax detonated another bomb and killed everyone in the area.
the Marines were not pleased
Malik Weder: wat was that
Flamethrower Rives: did what?
jeff Lax: i dont have no gun on me
If he hadn’t given himself away they might not have known it was him. Admiral Roffo took charge and she executed the prisoner on orders from the condemned.
Malik Weder: Jeff leave now
jeff Lax: man mmkay
jeff Lax: kill me
He could not resist coming back though.
Flamethrower Rives: hmm jeff is back
Flamethrower Rives: omfg jeff is naked
So I asked for a tour to get some more information, and Flamethrower obliged. As we jumped off of the wall and into the base, I noticed something funny going on below. A man in a mohawk was running laps around a large, empty building as people laughed at him. Running laps for the pleasure of people watching – why would someone join a military that organizes such spectacles? I jumped down to talk to william Setner, the poor sap running the laps.
Caine Constantine: Hey William, you’re running laps?
william Setner: yes
Caine Constantine: Why?
Flamethrower Rives: he shot jeff to many times and we told him not too and then i gave him laps
Caine Constantine: I see
william Setner: my triger finger has ocd
Why would he disobey orders if he wanted to be in the group at all?
Caine Constantine: So William, why did you choose to join Task Force Marines?
william Setner: to shot people in there knees who r u
Valuing my kneecaps, the tour began with my insistence. We headed up the massive sniper tower that the Marines use to dominate the skyline of Ocean Estate 10. Upon reaching the top, Flamethrower told me a little bit more about himself and the Marines.
Flamethrower Rives: i was a mercz
Caine Constantine: What happened with the Merczateers that made you leave?
Flamethrower Rives: u don’t wanna know
Flamethrower Rives: wait
Flamethrower Rives: soo boring
Flamethrower Rives: all you do is sit in there base defend
Flamethrower Rives: tfm attacks and we have fun
Caine Constantine: Has TFM ever assaulted the Merczateers HQ?
Flamethrower Rives: yeah when we were a small group
Flamethrower Rives: they respect us, i hear from my friend
Flamethrower Rives: no mercz is hard because they just line up
Caine Constantine: Line up? So what are your opposing tactics?
Flamethrower Rives: i base my training off of mercz
Flamethrower Rives: we spread out
Flamethrower Rives: snipe
Flamethrower Rives: go in planes
As he went on, he told me that the Marines have 70 members currently, and that the group is about three months old. Not bad overall. We went back downstairs and checked out the armory. A car was interestingly parked next to it.
a troop transport?
Caine Constantine: A car here?
Flamethrower Rives: someone places it there i guess a recruit
Caine Constantine: Is it a troop transport?
Flamethrower Rives: nah just a random car
We then went inside the base command complex.
Another visitor was with me during the tour, who wanted to remain anonymous for the interview. He is worth mention because though the base was standard, the anonymous visitor proved that the Marines were not omnipotent.
Anonymous Visitor: what?
william Setner: im watching you
In response, the visitor hurled grenades at william Setner and repeatedly knifed him in the back. The rest of the Marines never caught on to his kills. Pleading in vain, nobody listened to poor william Setner.
william Setner: i noticed you threw a grenade to
Anonymous Visitor: I have no grenades on me.
william Setner: im going to call you a liar
Malik Weder: william plz stop accusing our guest
william Setner: my admiral noticed to
Mayra Roffo: William, enough.
william Setner: sorry mam
In between the entertainment, Admiral Mayra Roffo decided we needed to go.
Mayra Roffo: Tour is over.
Mayra Roffo: Flame
Mayra Roffo: Its time for them to leave.
I had no idea how to get out, because the Marines used code keys to operate their doors. So I asked for help.
Caine Constantine: No escort out of the building?
Flamethrower Rives: come
william Setner: reload
Anonymous Visitor: Don’t reload it too much, might break.
So I thanked them all for their help, but I realized that their leader – whose name had been revealed to be bennyboy Ball – had not been there that day. I had to get the insight of the man in charge – everyone said he had the answers, and I planned to come back the next day for them.
As I left the base, the Anonymous Visitor told me to check out a small orange chair situated in the base. He told me that right after I’d left, william Setner had been put into time out for his actions during my visit.
Task Force Marine william Setner gets a timeout for poor behaviour
lol
Jun 10th, 2008
lol sl militias
griefers in disguise
Eye Korobase
Jun 10th, 2008
what a joke of a military, they will not last a month in real combat.
Teh Puff
Jun 10th, 2008
Good luck is all i can say they are going to need it out there. If they want to stay together and going.
The Mandie
Jun 10th, 2008
Caine, nice job on the article. I think it was well established and you got some action while at the TFM’s base. This is interesting, people need to hear about more of the smaller militaries. I gives the little guys some recognition since Mercz, Ordo, and VG seem to be all anyone hears about.
Garinovitch Raviprakash
Jun 10th, 2008
Wow! Interesting article, I hope to read more. ^^
Hades Juran
Jun 10th, 2008
As much as I don’t like the TFM personally, I will actually admit that they are good fighters and stage decent attacks if nothing else. Last time the AN attacked most of us were banned, but I actually believe that it was because they were building. Personally, I would like to visit, not attack, but actually just visit their base as well, it seems like a well-designed sim.
Hades Juran
Jun 11th, 2008
Though it would be nice if yall would finally unban the AN again. Doubt you are still building after this long.
Izaea Qinan
Jun 11th, 2008
… wow.
Oh well, lulz are to be had – and you know what? If they have fun doing what they do, more power to them.
Jason Backer
Jun 11th, 2008
This is quite refreshing.
Nice to get a peak into the world of the smaller groups, with no IS vs AI. Kudos!
Aye Corobase
Jun 11th, 2008
Like omg I wanna join, lol
LOL
Jun 11th, 2008
“what a joke of a military, they will not last a month in real combat.”
Ya know, I could be wrong… But seems to me, that being a joke is intended here. Playing military for teh lulz. Not being too serious about it.
SL is horrible for combat anyway, way too laggy and not a real working combat system to speak of. If you want to seriously fight in a computergame I suggest playing Counterstrike or something.
In any case, I’d join up with this group if I had the time on my hands, I like a good bit of fun in my wargaming
Some_Guy
Jun 11th, 2008
OMG, what is this??? I hope they come past Dorien one day.. it’ll be fun
anon
Jun 11th, 2008
Bennyboy Ball is just a griefer who picks on noobs.
Steve319 cao
Jun 11th, 2008
Ya know I actually didn’t know anything about TFM until last night when I got an IM saying TMF declare war on U.N.I.T so thanks for giving me an insight Herald this should be entertaining.
oh and flame little bit of advice mate if your an owner and you don’t want to be demoted DON’T ACCEPT DEMOTION
Just Me
Jun 11th, 2008
At last! SL miliary with a sense of humor and the ridiculous. Why take it all seriously… it’s for fun, so HAVE fun !
Artemis Fate
Jun 11th, 2008
“what a joke of a military, they will not last a month in _____real combat._____”
Hahaha what?
I didn’t know fighting in a shitty and outdated combat system where every hit, no matter how superficial, is a one hit kill/teleport, that simply just delays a person from fighting for a half-minute or so, qualified as “real combat” these days.
You’ll have to go to the vet’s lounge and trade your rugged war stories of derez, and the horrors of auto-targeters with all those Vietnam vets.
Jesus christ, it’s a game remember guys? The whole SL combat scene is supposed to be fun, not the drama infested “we r teh biest!!!1″ my dick is bigger than yours, ego-fest you’ve turned this into.
Bruno Ziskey
Jun 11th, 2008
“Flamethrower Rives: hmm jeff is back
Flamethrower Rives: omfg jeff is naked”
…Priceless.
Yeah, the only reason the TFM base looks good is because they hired a professional builder to make it….so yeah they’re not that great. They’ve never even made it past the hub when they’ve attacked Gliding, where our old base was. I don’t think they even know about our new base in Pacific Breeze yet…I should probably attack them and leave Landmark-giving flags around their base….
General Drama
Jun 11th, 2008
Poor william setner, the most observant one on base is so dumb and immature he needs time-outs… seems to me like anybody could defeat this military just by age-reporting them all.
Vegna Fouroux
Jun 11th, 2008
YUS SOMEONE ELSE DOING MILITARY ARTICLES!
nice job, I lol’d
they’re a joke.
Flamethrower Rives
Jun 11th, 2008
lol! we don’t ahve the same base anymore. we changed we getting new armour and crap. Jeff is funny yeah, and we don’t hire pro builders.
Alyx Stoklitsky
Jun 12th, 2008
Why don’t these people just go play Battlefield 2 or something? I mean seriously, what the fuck is the draw of SL combat? It’s laggier than any online FPS has been since the invention of the 56k modem, graphically uglier than than any mainstream FPS released this century (not even a joke), and put simply, completely fucking inferior.
El Rob
Jun 17th, 2008
Why do they play it? Heh, good question.
So you\’re playing Battlefield 2, and you\’re faintly sick of the way your sniper rifle is innacurate, or reloads slow, or whatever. You can do jack-diddly about it, short of creating your own mod. In Second Life? Change a few numbers.
Second Life is like no other platform in terms of interactivity. People play it because you can do what you like. Same goes for the military sim included within.
Back off to CounterStrike, ignorant one. Go on.