The biggest film of the year, Avatar, can be played out in Second Life.  I had seen people with avatars similar to the Na’vi people in the film, recognizable by their slim tall shapes and blue skins, in different parts of the SL grid.  Looking through the ‘search’ menu I found a sim called Pandora, which is dedicated to the role-play of the Avatar movie. 

I went over to Pandora as a visitor, which you can do as long as you abide by the rules and don’t interfere with the role-play taking part within the sim.  I could see straight away that this is drawing a lot of people, some of whom had already donned the character outfits, the Na’vi people seemed the most popular castings for the roles as there were many blue skinned avatars around dressed as hunters and warriors.

You are teleported at first into a giant spaceship where you pick up the rules of the game and a list of characters to choose from.  I joined the group and wore my tag as a visitor to say I was out of combat mode.  From the spaceship I teleported into a shopping area where there is an abundance of Avatar stuff for sale, I would imagine Avatar fans would just love this, as you can buy all the Avatar skins to wear and everything that you would need to take part.  Dodging through many blue bodies, I made my way to the teleport area that would take me down to the forest where all the action seemed to be taking place.

The forest was a very pretty place with tropical trees and plants and unusual birds taking to the air.  I soon came upon a group of Na’vi people who were in role-play, talking to a human who seemed to be some sort of threat, keeping well out of the way I observed what was going on and they all played their parts very well as they questioned the human as to his presence in the forest.  I spoke to one of the lady Na’vi’s, whose name was BobCat Andel, in private message (IM), and asked if she had been doing this role play for long, and she said that it was her first day, she was very impressive and looked the part as well.  BobCat went off to join the others and it was announced over group text that they were under attack and I could see lots of action taking place further ahead.  I decided to stay where I was on the path, well back from the others, but to no avail, a giant robot came charging along past my location firing bullets everywhere.  When I looked back at my avatar to move off I noticed that I was invisible, I guess I had been hit by one of the bullets although I wasn’t in an active role.  There was so much excitement going on I doubt whether the role-playing robot would have noticed that I was in a none-combat mode.  It looked like all the players were having great fun.

The Avatar film seems to have captured everyone’s imagination and anyone wanting to take part virtually could do no better than visiting the ‘Pandora – Navi ‘ Planet Avatar’ sim, whose owner and founder of the group is Sullivan Infinity.  It is free to join and all you have to do is dress the part and use your imagination to interact with the other players.   As for me, I’m hiding behind a tree next time in case that robot comes my way again!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Pegase/174/144/3948