A Glance At World of Warships

 

While we usually cover Second Life, I'm taking a step away from my usual coverage to write about one of the computer games I've been playing for some time.  This would be "World of Warships" by Wargaming. Players chose a ship, then fight as part of a team in a fleet battle. So how do you play and how do you get bigger and better ships, and is this free to play game really free?

 

Read the article in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games. 

Bismarck in SunWaterOne

 The SunWaterOne sim in the Sunweaver Estates often has some small craft going about in the waters. But recently a very big craft has been there: The Bismarck. It is owned by Rita Mariner

For those less than familiar with naval history, the German battleship had a short but active career in which it served one mission in May 1941 in which it was sent to raid Allied shipping but would end up the subject of a massive search by the British. At  823 ft 6 in (251 m), it was a quarter kilometer in length. The ship boasted eight 15 inch (38cm) guns, twelve six inch (15cm), sixteen four inch (10.5 cm) guns, and numerous smaller guns for anti-aircraft fire. It also had a catapult and four floatplanes.

In May of 1941 the war had just begun
The Germans had the biggest ship that had the biggest guns
The Bismarck was the fastest ship that ever sailed the sea
On her decks were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees

Despite it's advantages, the Bismarck was eventually damaged by torpedo bombers, and following a long battle with two battleships, three cruisers, and six destroyers, it sunk, taking with it all but 114 of it's 2200 crew. Following the sinking, the Germans would make no more raids in the Atlantic with surface ships, instead relying on submarines.

In 1960, Johnny Horton would do a song in honor or the pursuit and battle, "Sink the Bismark."

We'll find the German battleship that's makin' such a fuss
We gotta sink the Bismarck cause the world depends on us
Yeah hit the decks a runnin' boys and spin those guns around
When we find the Bismarck we gotta cut her down

It's possible the SL Bismarck might be used in a video. But if so, it'll be done in the Blake Sea region. The Sunweaver community waters are just too small to resemble open ocean.

Bixyl Shuftan

This And That: WoT's "Tankmas" and Swedish Tanks, War Thunder's Official Release, Rust Junks XP System, WarFrame, and Astroneer

So what has yours truly and his Second Life neighbors been playing when not in Second Life? A few things. There's been a few developments in a few of the MMO games we've been playing, World of Tanks, War Thunder, and Rust. There's also a couple we've recently started playing: Warframe and Astroneer.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Cartoon of the Day: Coast Guard Graduation

Taken at the Second Life Coast Guard graduation on July 28, once the graduates were officially SLCG officers, there was one interesting tradition that followed, one that involved an activity one associates with pirate ships, not Coast Guard cutters.

They were out of chat range, but it's a safe bet there were these kinds of jokes.

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Yamato Memorial

A few years ago, among the big ships rebuilt in Second Life was the Imperial Japanese battleship Yamato. Om March 2012, the ship and its sim were found to have have vanished. But recently, the Yamato was discovered to be once again on the Grid. Grey Lupindo went over to the sim to take a look at this huge warship.

Read Grey's article in Places.