I didn’t expect to write another story about my Woodlin buddies so soon again. But what happened this weekend, I felt it just *had* to be told.
Many Second Life residents know about the board games here, such as SLopoly, a Monopoly spinoff poking fun at SL. Well, one of my neighbors got Una, a SL version of Uno, a card game in real-life. He thought it would be a great way to get everyone together, notably Dax Loon who's been working like crazy on her next big build.
I had never played Uno in real life, but the rules seemed simple enough. The object of the game is to play all your cards, ending up with none. A card can be played only if it’s the same color or number or a wild card. Besides the wild, there are special cards which call for the next player to be skipped over, the direction of play suddenly reversed, the next player to draw two extra cards, etc. Gameplay needed the players to sit at the table and get an HUD from clicking the stool.But one thing the designers didn’t count on was what happens when close to a dozen easily amused guys and girls sit down to play.
It didn’t take much to get some of us chuckling, and when one did, we all joined in, either in voice, which most used, or chat. And with our emotes, funny noises and audio lines from film clips, the hilarity just fed on itself. If a player ran into a setback, it was enough to use a long “NOOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOooooooooo....” emote. Then there was when a player would be hit with a “draw four card,” “Oh my Gawd. You pawned me! (laughter) I’m going to get you for that. (more laughter),” pretending to be mad at the dealer. And when one of the skunkfolk made that remark, I jokingly asked if I should get clothespins and tomato juice, which got more chuckles. Emotes of sound clips of funny web films and movies, emotes of funny sound effects. It continued on and on, and some people supposedly were laughing so hard, they were crying in real-life. Then there was the game’s ending animation, when the cards would explode outward, then all converge on the winner just in front of the chest. When it was a girl, there were jokes about the deck ending up in the cleavage.Some told they hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time.
We’re going to have to do it again soon.
Bixyl Shuftan
