Bite me! Not. Ever. Again.
February 7, 2009 4:27 pm
We already know what to do when the Horde storms in, but how to protect yourself from digital vampires and their never ceasing “bite requests”? The Thirst: Bloodlines is one of the most scolded upon Second Life games pyramid scheme entertainment, as it leads to an endless amount of spam from random vampires all over the grid, harvesting “blood” for their bloodline. Sadly enough, there’s no option “mute all that are playing this game”, nor did these wannabe über vampires learned about not bugging total strangers recently. The avatars behind The Thirst: Bloodlines - Lyle Maeterlinck, Mars Bracken, and Curse Aszkenaze from Liquid Designs - did finally add the functionality to “opt out” on receiving Bloodlines bite requests by wearing a scripted garlic necklace. Now this is news that should appear on the Official Linden Blog!
“This garlic necklace was created by Liquid Designs, the creators of the Bloodlines game in Second Life, to ward off vampires. Bloodlines is supposed to be a fun game, but some people have complained that they receive too many bite requests from our vampires, and they don’t think that it’s very fun to be beset by bloodthirsty creatures of the night at every turn. So, we created this free, transfer / copy item for people that don’t want to be a part of vampire roleplay.”
Luckily, you don’t need to constantly wear the necklace - once you’ve selected “Activate”, you’ll be impervious to vampire bite requests. So what are you waiting for? Get yours now (TP to “Liquid South”), and be forever free from ill-mannered digital bloodsuckers.
14 Responses to “Bite me! Not. Ever. Again.”
Finally, a solution. I am so fed up of these bitting requests all over.
I just found out about the “buffy bot” also, via your2ndplace:
“Yohan has created a Buffy Bot! Buffy sits nicely on your parcel and if anyone sends her a bite request, she instantly ejects and bans them. She can also just warn them but I prefer the eject option myself. Buffy is a program that runs outside of sl and works with an alt. And what’s even cooler than the fact that he made this amazing Bloodlines defense tool? The fact that he made and is distributing it totally FREE!!! You can get yours by following this link.”
I wish it was opt-in instead of opt-out. Doesn’t seem right to have to boost their traffic to get out of their silly game.
I second that, but at least they offered a possibility. Also, the necklace is copy/transfer, so you can donate it to a friend if (s)he asks for it.
On one hand, it would be normal that the game is opt-in. But on the other, activities that spreads around virally all over the grid ARE what makes our world so interesting. Or do we want SL to be not a world but set of sims that are not connected to each other in any way other than possibility to tp from one to another?
Sure that garlic necklace is a nice thing to offer, but I’d prefer vampires to have more nice manners. It is not so hard to give a notecard to new players, right?
There is one thing, though, that is not “good behaviour” in the case of grid-wide games. Bloodlines HUD has a scanner for victims. That is exactly what produces all those annoying attacks. If a vampire had to really search for the victimes, it would take more time and more effort, and would reduce the amount of spam.
This way, Boodlines first gives its players a tool to spam around, then gives anti-spam tool to the rest of the world.
Despite the annoyance I have for Bloodlines, i still find it socially interesting, as I noted on my blog (http://poultryreport.blogspot.com/2008/10/bloodlines-me.html). About the necklace, though, I find it attractive enough to wear as a semi-regular accessory. I was bitten once (I thought she asked for a hug) and that means Bloodlines players can “sense” I’m biteable until I activate my immunity. Just wearing the necklace is enough for now. If I get any more requests I might do more, but until then I’ll just be fashionable.
I also get bite requests, believe it or not. But no garlic necklace option available for me. Can I just have you walk by my side with a stake, Vint?
It doesn’t make sense to add your name to a database to make sure your name is not added to a database, especially since, while the opt-out isn’t public like the bite list is, there’s no guaranee that the list won’t be made public or sold unscrupulously.
They need a better way to deal with this, preferably deactivating all huds and closing up shop. They also need a way for landowners to prevent all bits on their property at the parcel and estate level for those who own estates.
The garlic “necklace” has been around for a while - at least since December last year, possibly prior to that. However, as Gordon points out, the issue is not only that you need to opt out to avoid spam, it’s the fact that in using the necklace, you are still allowing Liquid Designs to capture information about your avatar - information they are VERY reluctant to remove from their database, even after a direct request has been made.
Boy Lane has been down this road, and her post makes interesting reading:
http://my.opera.com/boylane/blog/bloodlines-a-pest-and-rip-off-ponzi-scheme
I wouldn’t go as far as Gordon suggests, removing scan option from scanner seems enough.
Bloodlines is a game specifically designed to try to force folk to play it, why should I have to opt out of a game I have no interest in playing? The group I’m with have a simple attitude, any bite requests are met with instant bans (there are plenty of ‘No Bite’ signs). We don’t ban on group association, I know some bloodlines folk and if they respect our wishes, then they are welcome.
The huds should be setup so they are only active on specified parcels/sims and not grid wide. I’ll not be putting this ‘garlic necklace’ on as I have _no_ interest in that game and have no intention of joining it (I ban/AR any bite requests I get). Would it be acceptable for Gorean men to wander the grid with a hud that asked to enslave any passing women?
Funny, this necklace has been out for a couple months at least.
Sometimes I wish there were a central news outlet. That’s the problem with SL - too difficult to get news like this out.
I’m not sure, but I thought it was also on SLX and OnRez, too.
In other words, we have to play the game in order not to play it. Wow! No wonder so many hate Bloodlines.
Care to comment?