Another Sunday, another Show-n-Tell...

I promise this is the absolute next-to-last time I'll blather on about Zonax's Show-n-Tell. Mostly that's because after a year and a half of hosting them nearly every Sunday, he's retiring. Next week there won't be one, and the week after is the last. So I have to work on something special for that one. I'm very sad, though. The Show-n-Tell has been a great motivator for me. I find even if I haven't made anything new all week, I can hunker down and come up with something for the show. I'm going to have to check the events listing to see if any one else does them. Or if there are some other comparable things. I've tried speed building contests, but they just don't twang my wire the way the Show-n-Tell did. Mostly because for the speed building, someone else was telling me what to build. For the Show-n-Tell, it was all me.

I'm sure you're all a-twitter to find out what I actually entered this week, so I'll get right to it. This week's entry was an item that I've had modelled for pretty much ever, but have never gotten around to scripting. It takes a small amount of prefacing: I abhor violence, in both RL and in SL. I think it's the last refuge of weak willed, immoral people. But I love guns. I love to shoot them in RL as long as it's just at paper targets. I love well made guns in SL, such as those made by Ordinal Malaprop or Gerami Fizz, although I find guns in SL doubly repugnant from a moral standpoint. After all, SL is a world where there's absolutely no excuse for violence. No one starves in SL. No one will die from exposure to the elements. There is no "legitimate" need for violence to protect oneself or secure one's well being. I can understand creating real world simulations, to an extent. And I can definitely understand creating and firing guns in SL as a way of appreciating the beauty of their deadly symmetry. But guns qua weapons are, well, purposeless and demonstrate a, well, a lack of character.

Therefore I set about doing that which I am becoming quite fond of, namely taking something and twisting it three degrees off of center. And so I present to you...

The Love Gun

When you are shot by most guns in SL, you take damage (if you're over land that's damage enabled) or you get pushed or caged or something equally fruitless. But when you get shot by someone wielding the Love Gun, rather than being hurt or hindered, you are given a present. Love Gun owners may supply their own presents by dropping inventory into the Love Gun, which will then deliver one of the contained presents at random to each "victim." There are two fire modes, single-shot Heart Bullets, which work like you would expect a regular bullet to, except with the gift giving, and multiple-shot Gift Balloons, which are most useful if you have a crowd of people you want to share your love with. Simply fire off a volley of Gift Balloons and watch them drift gently down into the crowd. Whenever they touch an avatar they will pop and deliver their present. The Gift Balloons stay on the ground for several seconds before popping on their own without giving out their gifts. I wish I had the Machinima setup that Ordinal does, I'd show you the Love Gun in action. But I don't, so pictures will have to suffice.