Ladies and gentlemen, you are staring directly into the rabbit’s hole, only this particular hole is filled with people dressed as rabbits dressed as Cloud and Sephiroth (and they are quite possibly having sex with one another).
New World Notes, by way of Slashdot, has an article on a creepy clever piece of eLARPing that combines the great flavors of Final Fantasy VII with the alterna-world hijinks of Second Life. Appropriately named Midgar, the in-game-game offers Second Life’s players participants inhabitants the chance to live the virtual-virtual-life of a citizen of FFVII’s Midgar. Within, they can join with one of the cities factions and wage an unending war that, until now, served as back-story to one of the most beloved RPGs of all time.
The mechanics of the whole thing seem pretty well thought out, if a bit rough, and the dedication presented by those running it would be the envy of any MMO. Reading the article in New World Notes reveals a fanatical dedication to making the world as alive as possible, and the most surprising revelation is that the entire thing is supported by Squenix … or not. After tracing the claims to their source, the author of the New World Notes article comes to the conclusion that while the blessing of Square-Enix is widely assumed, no one seems to know when, or to whom, the official stamp of approval was given. Of course, none of that matters since the truth is so widely believed as to become a truth in and of itself (much like the claim that gaming blogs should cover Second Life).
I’m still unsure if I should be labeling this meta-game “creepy”, “awesome”, or my own shoddy combination of the two (“crawesome”), but the moment you pick up the Sexy Fox Materia, your life will never be the same (and you may have to register with your local constabulary).
