April Fools in Second Life

 

Some people love April Fool's Day. Others hate "International Crawl Under a Rock Day" as one called it. Either way, quite a number or pranks happen. Some go well. Some don't. And a few go truly epic. The Newser got into the act with it's April Fool article. But we weren't the only ones having fun. So were many others, including the Linden Lab Moles with their "UFO" stunt.

Read more in Extra.

April Fool's 2018

By Bixyl Shuftan

Yesterday, the Newser had a little fun with it's "April Fool's" article. We got a few groans, and a number of chuckles. But we weren't the only ones pulling peoples' legs.

Linden Lab decided to get into the act. Unlike two years ago, it didn't involve calling readers for a special announcement only to just play "Never Gonna Give You Up." Instead, in a take off of Allstate Insurance's "Mayhem" commercials, a character called "Pandemonium" calls on the residents to upgrade to Premium account status to get comet insurance, referring to the update for Linden Realms that it's plotline attributed to a comet knocked off course to plummet to Earth.

In gaming, World of Tanks claimed they were selling the monster tank from their Halloween 2017 game, The Leviathan, as part of a special package with ten other tanks and 6666 gold currency, for $5000 US dollars. World of Warships had a "What cruiser matches your personality" test. But unlike in some previous years, no special games. Elder Scrolls Online did have a special in-game event, the Jester's Festival.

Elsewhere on the Internet, Google announced they had come with a "Bad Joke Detector." T-Mobile announced their "Smartshoephone." And no doubt there were a few yours truly has yet to hear.

What are your April Fool's stories? Know another gaming or Internet one the Newser missed?

Bixyl Shuftan

April Fool's In and Out of Second Life

Last Saturday was April Fools Day, a day which is noted for people, and occasionally media and other businesses, playing jokes and harmless pranks. Second Life would see a few as Furry Fashion, Grendel's Children, Bay City, and the Newser itself got in the act. Online games have also played some fun jokes in the past few years, including some special games that were up for just a day. But this year, there was a surprising lack of foolery in online gaming.

Read more in Events.

Examples of April Foolery Across the Internet

If you're reading this, chances are by now you've seen the April Fool's article from us, our yearly tradition. But we're far from being the only ones pulling an April Fool.

World of Warships announced a new "Jacuzzi Mode" for four toy "Tier Zero" ships, the "Bottlesheep," the "Bathyscrap," the "Pokeyboat," and the "Das Boot." Taking place in a bathtub, matches could be either two teams in PvP or one in PvE against bots, pooting toy cannons against one another in sounds that compared to the rest of the game are rather cutsie. While players couldn't earn experience points or credits, there were missions to be done for rewards. (Click here for a video).

War Thunder continues to get comments over it's putting "My Little Pony" fighters in the game for April 1 a few years ago. This year, they've brought pirate ships into the game. There's only one kind of ship of for play, and aiming the cannons can be tricky as the ocean waves are rolling. But it is possible to fire at one enemy on one side, then switch to the other immediety and give another a broadside. For all the laughs about "Yo-ho-ho!" and "15 Men on a Dead Man's Chest," it's believed this is an open test to see how the game and the players handle ocean action. So this April Foolery has some seriousness behind it. (Click here for a video).

And then there are webcomics. Many engage in April Fools pranks such as the artists of two doing a one-shot joke comic for one another's strip. "General Protection Fault" by Jeff Darlington did something different this year, an ode to old time text-based computer adventure games.

April Fool's Day pranks have a long tradition here at GPF. For 2016, I had the idea of replacing the front page with an old style computer screen, like and old DOS oe UNIX prompt, or, even better, something related to old home computers like the Commodore 64 or TRS-80 Color Computer. I wanted it to be able to play a game of some sort, something that would hearken back to the simple games I played as a kid.

The comic itself started in 1998, and after almost two decades has gone through a number of plots with characters going through a lot of changes. One can also find April Foolery in other comics, but Darlington's 1980's throwback is almost certainly the most unique.

That's all for now with the foolery. Happy April Fool's.

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: "When the Reporter's AFK"

"Be careful where you go "Away From Keyboard" we residents remind ourselves, as you never know what some wag might do. Well, one night while at Club Cutlass, I had a minor emergency that couldn't wait. And when coming back, Zorro Wuramunga had sent me this picture, which he also put on his page.

And then there was this one by Cynthia Farshore.

Zorro's known at Cutlass as "The Fisher Fox," noted for his devotion to fishing and crabbing games, even while on the dancepole. His antics have also gotten him in the Newser's cartoons time to time, such as here and here.  Cynthia's a DJ who plays at Cutlass and other clubs, who's appeared in the cartoons as well, such as here and here. So perhaps a little payback was deserved.

And I'll be on the lookout for more cartoon material from Zorro's antics.