With Second Life really starting to take off, its no surprise that people are finding all sorts of new and creative ways to use the space. But this one caught me totally by surprise.
Apparently a group within Second Life has recreated the fictional city of Midgar, from the widely popular 1997 Playstation game Final Fantasy 7. Though I havent yet travelled to Second Life Midgar "in person", the screen shots I've seen are stunning - the city appears to have been created with amazing architectural detail and an eye to preserve the feel it had in its first form.
Whats the point of doing this? To turn the open (and yet still highly scripted) Final Fantasy 7 game into a massive multiplayer one. Health bars, materia (your magical powers), weapons, and even a basic combat system have all been built into Second Life Midgar. And just like that one of the most popular single player games of our time has been rebuilt as a multiplayer one.
As I'm writing this, I havent heard any official word from Final Fantasy's game studio (Squaresoft) regarding their thoughts on this unofficial recreation of their bread and butter, but I'm hoping they dont but the kibosh on it... at least not until I have a chance to take a look myself =)
Pull back from a pure gaming context and look at it from an educational perspective, and this is setting the stage for some REALLY cool ideas for Second Life...
Wow. As a Final Fantasy nut, I am going to have to check this out.