The Primtionary Games

The Primtionary Games: Challenge Your Building And Language SkillsBy Marcel Mosswood

Have you heard about Primtionary? It’s a cool and fun game in Second Life. I remember, one day when I was in the middle of the games, my friend asked me over IM, “Hey, what do you do?” I answered, “Playing games.” She said, laughing, “Of course, I’m in the games too. It’s called Second Life!” But I was too busy playing Primtionary to explain to her.

Primtionary was established in 2004 and has been played since, the copyright is owned by Yummie Olsen. “Primtionary may just be the longest-running, most popular game in Second Life,” said Peace Dragovar, the manager of one running Primtionary game at Creations Park and The Palace.

The Primtionary Games at Creations Park

“The rules are simple: the contestant puts together prims to build out a secret word, while the audience tries to guess the word within 10 minutes. The audience member who gets it right earns 25L and the privilege of building the next word. Primtionary is a challenge for both your mind and your building skills,” Peace explaining on my interview with her.

There are four levels word: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Evil. The Easy level can be built with 1 prim. The Medium level is a concrete word for everyday kind of objects or obvious symbols. The Hard level is a common word that is an object or concept and takes creativity to build. The evil level is a common word that takes a lot of creativity or uncommon words. So Evil should be hard to build, but could be easy to guess.

So, who are the avatars behind these great games? As mentioned earlier the copyright owner of Primtionary is Yummie Olsen, the scripter for the timer and word catcher is Lum Kuhr, Hooten Haller created the theme manager, and Aisuru Reiko built the stage (he is the winner of the Design-a-Stage contest). The avatars who keep it running are the hosts: Gardendancer, Technus Grayman, Hooten Haller, Peace Dragovar, Buck Enoch, and Ololo Petya. Yummie is the head host.

As a game, Primtionary makes benefit for the players. According to Peace, “Personally, I enjoy guessing what is being built. Once in a while, I like the challenge of building the word given to me. As a host, it's amazing to see how builders build clues. I often get surprised by how creative people can be. I also find it’s a relaxing game, there's pleasant chat among players.”

And what are the other hosts said about the benefit of this game? Technus Grayman said that “Newer folks learn new building techniques. Also, non-English speakers learn new words! Actually, some English speakers learn new words as well!” According to Ololo Petya: “We have fun! Also, an incentive to make people learn to build.”

If you are interested to participate in the game here is the schedule:

And here are the LMs:

Creation Park: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Creations%20Park/246/13/24

The Palace: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Terra%20Delta/138/157/805


Marcel Mosswood