My Friends, We’ve Got TROUBLE

Right here in River City!!! With a Capital “T”! That rhymes with “P”! And that stands for POOL!!!!

You may have noticed that I love my life in SL. I have a great time and I am always trying to encourage other friends to come live here too. *grin* Or at least visit. (Gwyneth LLewelyn, one of the most articulate and learned bloggers out there, has the most provocative post on this subject. I am still pondering what she wrote and while I’m not sure I’m exactly comfortable with this realization, I think she has me ‘pegged’.) I have been telling my coworker J for MONTHS that he needs to come inworld. I have answered him on blogs, IM’d him, chatted on the phone, always to the same point: he can have team meetings, work, be productive and bond with other coworkers in a virtual setting.

Hallelujah! J came back from a corporate indoctrination session. *grin* Hey, I like those courses too, but let’s be honest. J and 21 others were together for a week. He told me they bonded in “our” old-fashioned way (J and I used to meet when we all came together for the yearly corporate extravaganza.) I laughed and said “Beer?” J replied “And POOL!!! Never forget the POOL!!” I laughed. I will never forget Pool night at MacClaren’s. McClanahan’s? McGovern’s? Okay. I can’t remember the place, but I remember the fun. And the team building. And oh yes, the photos. I paid a LOT for those photos. *grin*

J has come around to my way of thinking. He wants to bring his classmates together monthly so they can continue to work together and build on what they accomplished this past week. See – indoctrination DOES work. 🙂 So J wants my help. Time to put your money where your mouth is, Ahuva.

I told J who to contact officially in the company, to get into the corporate vw systems. But. J kept saying “Pool. I want to play pool. We all played pool. We could build on that.” /me rolls eyes and sighs dramatically. I checked but I knew it before I checked – even our wonderful corporate game master has NOT created a pool table. No pool yet in the corporate world. Ah, Oura, what would I do without you??? I sent an agitated IM to Oura saying “Find me a sex-free, working pool table!!!” Being Oura, of course she found one. In less than 30 minutes. Perfect. FW Supplies at Celestial Game Tower. Calli tp’d in to give her opinion. Turns out she has used this table – another friend has it. She said it really does work. The sex animations are an additional purchase if you are interested. 🙂 I did buy the cue stick rack. I am still considering the overhead lights (“If you got the optional pool lamp, rezzing it will make it automatically jump in place over the pool table. The lamp is MOD allowed, in order to extend its support up to your ceiling.”).

The other night Oura, Jonah, DZ and I unpacked my pool table and gave it a try. First, I had to change the felt to green. I don’t play pool in RL (nor in SL) but I DO know that the table has to be green. Not blue. There are 3 sets of instructions: for the owner, the player, and basic 8-Ball rules. You wear a HUD to play. DZ and Oura racked up first, Jonah and I cheered them on. Although I have the table at home right now (*giggle* it’s on the same level as my pool) I intend to move it to my SL office. I’ll take out the sofa and chairs, add the pool table and cue rack. I’ll leave the big conference table for the pizza and beer.

There were realistic sound effects, you can add power and spin to your shots. I have been assured that yes, this really IS like playing pool. *grin* I am going shopping for the beer and pizza NOW. I hope J and his gang remember to clean up after themselves. *grin*

So…. taken from my notecards, and yes, this is probably copyrighted, etc.:

• Truly realistic gameplay using extensive random physics, including possible strike miss
• Realistic custom pool table sounds and balls behavior, nice balls triangle animation and particle effects
• Balls roll on table and falls down in pockets, then slowly slide down the ramp on each side
• Really intuitive and user-friendly HUD-driven game, NO painful keyboard control NOR required MouseLook mode
• Includes automatic player’s camera control for table top view or cue view
• Balls tracking security system with automatic kill upon table eject, to avoid buggy balls remaining around on your parcel
• Owner can set table for pay-required games and choose felt’s color at will
• 8 Balls pool game rules strictly respected and handled by script

Player notes:
Player just needs to click on pool table frame to receive its Pool HUD, play instructions and pool rules. As soon as worn, the HUD searches for pool table around in a 20m range. If found, the player can then “Join Table”. Once table is joined by one or two players, the game can start by clicking on “Start Game” button. This brings the balls on table, then the triangle moves up and first player can strike (first player is always the one having started game).

8 Ball rules:
1. The game is played with one cue ball and 15 numbered object balls.
2. The balls are racked in a triangle at the foot of the table with the 8-ball in the center of the triangle, the first ball of the rack on the footspot, a stripe ball in one corner of the rack and a solid ball in the other corner, as the above illustration shows.
3. The object of the game is to make one group of numbered object balls, either stripes or solids, and then LEGALLY POCKET THE 8-BALL which then wins the game.