Pages - Menu

SLE Pages

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Giant Snail Racing in Second Life Nomad Aries reporting



Saturday June 17, 2017 was a beautiful day , perfect for a day at the races. The Giant Snail races to be exact.  The races are held at Gullwing Coast Racers

 every Saturday.  Snail racing is the longest regular event on Secondlife.  It runs from approximately 10:45 am SLT to 12 noon.

 If it happens to be your first visit to Giant Snail racing, there is a lot to see and do , once there.  You will be greeted with a lot of information and you may find yourself in a live show.  Snail Racing is filmed by Treet T.V.  (Treet.Tv Channel: http://treet.tv/shows/snailraces ) and you can a free Treet T.V. near the landing spot!
There is a theme every week and the entire sim , including fans and snails are dressed up according to theme.  On June 17th the theme was “Summer Camp”. 
Many thanks to Tindallia Soothsayer for the camp gear she made and passed on to those of us in the stands who did not come prepared. It truly looked like a day at summer camp , even Jason from Friday the 13th showed up!
 (pic of summer camp crew)

Once at the stands , take a seat and enjoy !  The seats are guided seats which allow you to cheer the racers and watch without your view being obstructed. 
Along with other information, you are given a filming schedule which explains the order of events, it goes as follows;

“Here is our Filming Schedule (You need this for the show):

You will sit in a guided seat so get ready for us to take control of your avatar while in the audience. The seats are made to make you cheer, clap on cue and your even able to follow your favorite Giant Snail while they Race on the Sky Track.

10:45a Fireworks Begin!
10:45a Fly Through Crowd Cheering
10:47a Announcers Opening Introductions in the Balloon
10:50a Best Themed Snail Fan Contest Voting from the Balloon
10:50a RacerX Announces Stats for First Race
11:00a RacerX Announces Stats for Second Race
11:01a Fireworks Again!
11:02a SnailDude Launch
11:05a Best of Show Voting
11:25a Beginner Giant Snail Races On Ground Track
11:30a Best of Show Results
11:45a Pro Giant Snail Races On Sky Track
12:00p Background Credits Run Through
              Announce the Best Themed Snail Fan Contest Winner! (Cash Prize)
              Picture of Best Themed Snail Fan Winner
             
Once we are done filming the show everyone who attended is invited to take a ride on the bus and watch the last weeks show in Club Snailo! “


  




 The races are very fast paced , these are not your regular garden variety snails, they are indeed giant, racing snails.  The course is not an easy one at all, even walking the course with just my avatar was challenging.  There are obstacles that can slow down a racer and cost time, the mushrooms in particular, are really bad and the terrain is varied.   

  There are a few rules to follow when watching the races , these make it more enjoyable for everyone attending and it is a PG sim , everyone is welcome.

Giant Snail Race Rules

1.    Please do not play any sounds. (Unless they are extremely Funny)
2.    Wearing Weapons is acceptable if worn only. No weapon USE whatsoever.
3.    The Venue is General Audience. No Cursing allowed.
4.    Keep unnecessary scripts to a minimum. See 2.
5.    No Gestures allowed that have music in them, the music industry is very picky. See 3.
6.    No private bits hanging out. We are a Rated “G” sim after all.
7.    No Nudity
8.    No Adult themed role play.
9.    Follow the Covenant Rules as well as Linden Labs ToS.
10.  HAVE FUN! As long as it’s GOOD, CLEAN, FUN!

...and also some tips for getting the maximum benefit from the races ;

ENJOY BEING
                                                         ****A SNAIL RACE SPECTATOR*****
                                                            FOR MAXIMUM  FUN & PLEASURE

1.    When at the Snail Races you are allowed to dress for theme. Where your best avatar and you may noticed by the camera a lot.
2.    There is a HUD provided when you sit in the seats. Wear the HUD and turn it on (green) until we tell you to turn it off (red) or back on again. Once you turn it on hit escape a few times so that it resets your camera view. Now that it’s on we will be controlling your camera view. So you can see everything that is being filmed. You can also turn it off. Do that at your own risk.
3.    There is a Confused Foxy that hangs out by the audience. You can talk to them and they will respond. Sometimes though they get a little uppity and need to be cleansed (reset) for their bad thoughts, so they don’t cuss people out.
4.    Scripts can be a problem when filming. So the less scripts you have running the better.  So please turn off any non-essential Scripts (Tiny AO’s are ok) Any other huds please turn off or remove.
5.    Follow the instructions of the staff for maximum experience during filming. If you are new there are some surprises we don’t want to let out in our information packet.
6.    Our seats are enhanced with Bunny Magic, pick the colour of the scarf of the Snail you want to follow and our seats will follow them in the race and bring you back at the end. Help your Snail out by cheering.
7.    Since this is a voice event, it is streamed on the sim. There is going to be a slight delay in the stream (Approx. 30 secs)
8.    Check out the extra items you can use during the race. Look for the gift box behind the seats!



 The races are really a lot of fun and the people behind the races are largely to thank.  Everyone knows SL can act up on occasion and there can be malfunctions, but mostly,  it runs like a well oiled machine. Behind the scenes there is team of people putting in a maximum effort to make everything go as smoothly as possible and  making sure the spectators get the most from their experience at the Giant Snail Races.  The entire sim is devoted to the races and training racers.  One can even get a free snail , a Giant one or a Tiny one and a free racing hud , You can try out racing at the sim, you can go early and practice and also, if you are at all interested in racing a snail , contact Racer X Gullwing, who can train you for the races.  Anyone entering for the race on Saturday should show up at around 8 a.m. Slt. A lot of the fans and team members have raced snails themselves and have pretty impressive records.  

It takes a team to run these events. The team at the Giant Snail Races has been doing this for years and their ability is incredible.  The amount of work is staggering but with the creativity, knowledge , talent and sheer joy of what they do is evident.  Together they make a truly enjoyable, fun experience for everyone.  The people who make up this team are ;

Announcers RacerX Gullwing, Mae Best, Tindallia Soothsayer, Stephanie Brimmer,Lobbie Riggles,Cally Kane,Oodlemi Noodle,Fukuju Amaterasu ,

Giant Racing Snail Pros, Alden Cortes,Oodlemi Noodle

Giant Racing Snails, Cally Kane,Lobbie Riggles,Josu Tenk,Abby Black

Music by Alazarin Mobius

There is also the jobs of posting results , pictures and films on Youtube, Flkr, Itunes , Treet T.V. And Facebook.

Follow Us on the following:
SLURL:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gullwing%20Coast%20Racers/152/98/777
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIzUNyz8RHrBc--NIXwEAEg
Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/121990117839655/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/giantsnailracessl/
SnailDude’s Blog: http://snailracers.blogspot.com/
SnailDude's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Snail-Dude-11775713522749
Treet.Tv Channel: http://treet.tv/shows/snailraces
Revised 7-16-16 /sp

The results are passed out to spectators after the races.

After the races everyone piles into the bus and heads over to club Snail0!  Here people unwind from the hectic pace of the races and watch a recap of the last weeks race  and chat.  It is a very friendly , fun place to hang out. 



How did Giant Snail racing start?

 As  Racer x Gullwing, (founder of the Giant Snail Racing) explains, it was a learning process,” It all started with a contest called Giant Avatar contest I saw was coming up in a few days back when events were only a few a day  and finding them was easy. I went to the sandbox
where you could usually work for about 30 minutes at a time between sim crashes .”

“ I started attaching prims to my feet but that didn't make you any taller just made prims that went into the ground. So I thought about it and figured the way I'd have to do this is be in the foot. I didn't have a clue how to script legs to move and back then movement scripts didn't work in avatars anyway .  Narrowed it down a bit to a one footed animal . The shell was maxed out at 30 meters or maybe I just remember it that big . Thing is I didn't have a clue how to see out of that  so had to stop a lot an cam outside the shell to see where I was.”

How did the contest go?

“It was hilarious I got to the contest about 20 minutes early and the guy holding it told me to please park off to the side somewhere I thought he was steering me over there because I had obviously won and he didn't want to discourage the other avatars.  Ends up I was the only one that took it him literally and made a giant avatar. Well I didn't win .



How did this lead to Giant Snail Racing?

“ I was in group called Montmartre Artists and we were trying to get on the most popular places list before camping chairs were invented and were each asked to come up with an event  Mae Best had got another Quiz every other night it seemed and that alone got us up to about 30th or so but not the top 20. Anyway I was trying to come up with an event and talking to my good scripting friend and neighbor in fujin Catfart and he suggested giant snail racing. That's where it all started, that's when I put together a better .cuter avatar with blinky eyes that everyone loves and they haven't changed much since. We did get into the top 20 a couple times.”

Where did you Manage to Race Giant Snails?

“It started on the ground using stone paths that circled Montmartre. I made all the arrows and things needed for the race rez from a single prim and go find their spot in the sim just for the race, then I'd go around after the race and shout the race is over and all of signs of the race track would vanish just leaving the stone path built by May Best.

“ They also went down the city streets of Chase Rutherford's Manhattan in the Hawthorne sim an Aimee Weber build. at 8 pm on Tuesday nights.”
“ The thing that brought them to an end was mostly due to the physics in SL, where.  if you can find something to trip over.. you can fall a lot  faster than anyone can run. Also. once you get into that falling state you can close chat bar and hold the space bar down and get yourself to glide a long ways. “

  “ So I moved the race up into the sky onto a perfectly flat surface where there is nothing you can trip over. Same time, Seifert Surface was experimenting with a transportation system that would use push and throw you across the map. He had set this set of “flingers” up at the future sim, just one Sim south of Montmartre and owned by Chase Rutherford.”

“In fact I used his experiments as the track ,I just built the course around them. The race stayed in the future sim as it changed hands  to Gus Plisskin . who said it was welcome to stay as long as I wanted to have it there, but the sim slowly filled to capacity and had a lot of scripts going and  the” flingers”  stopped working consistently and the sport became more of a luck thing but eventually become an endurance race. I got Seifert Surface to give me a copy of his experiments and carefully packed it all into a prim and moved it all back to where it started from Montmartre. Also, if you go to http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/ and look search using the tag snail race you can see 99 percent of that history there. The snail race is only a few months older than snapzilla.  Snail races will be three years old at the end of November and have been held every Saturday but cancelled 2 or 3 about a year ago when I was very sick.”

 If you have a Saturday morning free tryGiant Snail Racing out.  It is truly an enjoyable experience for everyone.  You will be welcomed and entertained from a group of very professional, witty , creative people.  It is highly recommended !

This week's them is “ Aliens” and the sim looks absolutely wonderful !  The big event is July 15th, 2017, it is the Relay for Life so if you can make it , please do!
  See you at the Races !


 ITunes hit the podcast button and type snail in search
or see them on the web at http://treet.tv/shows/snailraces



 ITunes hit the podcast button and type snail in search
or see them on the web at http://treet.tv/shows/snailraces


 ITunes hit the podcast button and type snail in search
or see them on the web at http://treet.tv/shows/snailraces


No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments will be reviewed and posted within 24 hours. Please note any abusive content or outside promotional links may not be approved.