LEA Avatar Games

I applaud the Lindens for their Linden Endowment for the Arts ventures we've all been hearing about. I've previously blogged about the monthly (MOM) Month of Machinima themed contests, and now my mind is wondering about these Avatar games.

I first read about the avatar games on Bryn Oh's blog (look right at my blog roll)and started to get excited. This just might be a game for me. It looks way more light hearted than most SL competitions, like maybe, just for fun, really, no OMG I really have to get this right feeling, but only .. O crap, I hope I don't get blown away into too many pieces by that dude and/or dudette named Crap... yes my kind of competition! Woot! Sign me up!

After reading Bryn's very nice blog post I checked out some Linden info. about it:
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"Dodge, Dash, and Dive in the Avatar Art Games
If you’re a creative type who likes to virtually sweat, the LEA Art Games (aka Avatar Games) might be just the thing for you.

They’re called the Avatar Games because they’re really a “physical” challenge for your avatar—having to successfully run through a gauntlet of objects and artful environments to reach the end. It’s a marriage of artful builds and a silly footrace—making it accessible to those who admire inworld aesthetics and good, clean fun.

The Games involve an an art obstacle course on the LEA sims. One competitor runs the course with one referee monitoring from the platform, and the audience is given special guns with scripts for shooting at the competitors (the bullets don’t cause damage; they just slow them down).

The Avatar Games kick off (pun intended) Monday, June 6 at 4:00 p.m. To sign up for a spot as a competitor or a participating spectator, visit the LEA Avatar Games wiki page. And if you don’t get called for an active role, just come down to the Games each Monday at 4:00 p.m. PDT and you just might get picked out of the crowd!

About the Linden Endowment for the Arts
The Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) was established to help create a center of arts activity in Second Life. It is a collaborative venture between Linden Lab and the arts community. Guided by a dedicated board of renowned Second Life artists, the LEA is committed to providing access to engaging experiences in the arts for the Second Life community. Through its exhibitions, programs, and events, the LEA fosters awareness of artists’ contributions to our virtual world and encourages others to get involved and be inspired..
To learn more about upcoming programs produced by the LEA, join the Linden Endowment for the Arts Info group—which is open to the public inworld.." That was posted with more information on the SL Inworld site by Courtney Linden here: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Inworld/bg-p/blog_inworld direct Link here:
LEAAvatarGamesHere.
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If you want to sign up to play check it out. I want to do this. I like art. So maybe I'm not quite so creative as some, but I am VERY good at exploring other's art and finding the secret spots even if they didn't intend it to be crawled all over looking for secret spots. Yes on any given day I might be that one stuck underneath some art piece while the artist runs up yelling hey, that's not immersive art. Dang, I have a RL class at this time weekly, but hey.. this is worthy of skipping a little RL. I just wish at the end after the finalists have their individual times to let each weeks winner run the course TOGETHER at the same time with the shooting going on.. I think that would be great fun to see avatars bumping into each other trying to reach the finish before the others. Huge cluster F@*$ & lag fest for sure-all the funnier I say.

Now my mind in wandering, wondering? A little of both. IF I ran this game what would MY strategy be? I haven't seen the course yet, so hard to know what is best. Bryn's blog shows a very funny machinima kind of commercial for the games where they ask this contestant his strategy, so be sure to watch that. But seriously maybe I'd have my avatar legs long and very skinny so they run fast but are hard to hit, or maybe I could make my arms invisible and wear a sign saying, "Don't shoot, I'm unarmed". (That might be cheating if they can't see arms to shoot at... it did say no shields which could include invisibility shields and I sure wouldn't want to be heckled for being a cheater) Bribes aren't cheating are they? Hmmm... Any ideas?