New ideas can sometimes feel like they are hard to find in SL. Maybe it's that I'm not the wide eyed noob who once signed up with a sense of wonderment to this virtual existence, but more likely it's caused by repetition breeding contempt. No sooner am I amazed by a sim that feels like I've stepped straight into Blade Runner, than I find that over the next two weeks, I find that I can't move for places doing the same thing. And Linden Labs don't help matters. "No, we don't want well built distopian refuges as welcome areas! What we need are Castles! And Beach huts! Cos we there's hardly ANY of them, are there?" So, when you find someone with a new idea, it's always worth looking into.

A hobo friend of mine hooked me up with a SL content creator by the name of zeegan Inshan, who is putting together Raven City, a new kind of Roleplay sim. Built as a sprawling and varied city, complete with suburbs, docks, shops, and a bank; this sim designed to host the struggle between various crime gangs, and of course a police force trying to thwart their exploits. What make this sim different to many other roleplay sims is that there is actual money, well Lindens, that are being stolen and fought over as part of the roleplay here. In fact, the cities bank can be robbed for a haul of 5000L$. To try and find out some more about this place, and how this new type of roleplay is meant to work, I met up with Zeegan, and his SL daughter, Cindy Malibu:

Voodoo Buwan: OK, so what was the inspiration behind the creation of Raven City?
Cindy Malibu: My dad
zeegan Inshan: Well... The real star here that without whom it couldn’t happen at all is my daughter here, Cindy. She’s the quiet key behind it all
Cindy Malibu: But my dad is the best
zeegan Inshan: She’s basically the owner of raven, me being the creator. Its a family business. I'm kinda new to SL. I found it in Feb of this year. I started by looking for a job...got one in a club, manager it was called spells night club.... it was next door to a GOR rp half sim. The relationship turned sour... I got into gor, and a relationship with this lady, sl relationship...and we adopted Cindy....
Cindy Malibu: They had a child. I was small.
zeegan Inshan: And me and Cindy jumped ship. We decided to invest in nech business and create custom concepts being allied with some rp mobs we found that there was no RP city for organised crime, like something that don’t exist, but is in demand. the only thing stopping the rush of demand is the fact of its non existence yet. we decided that.. Within our group type.. we would create a place.. that ppl could come and live in...rp in...that fit there sl life style
Voodoo Buwan: So, there was a gap in the market, so to speak?
zeegan Inshan: Yes, totally that. Not just the place, but what the place offers, and its limits as far as mafia and organised crime/government/business/law rp goes. Things like the robbable bank, offering a max of 5000l$ to the robbers.
Voodoo Buwan: So, people can actually earn real Lindens for rping here?
zeegan Inshan: Very much so, like rl, u can work for l$ or u can be a criminal, have wars with other gangs, fight for business, protection rackets, extortion, run a club and hold lots of power, good or bad. You can grow to be THE boss of the city or full citizens can run for mayor of the city.
Voodoo Buwan: How will that work? Will you not get residents just coming in to get the money, rather than rp?
zeegan Inshan: The key thing here is you have to spend to make. Nothing for free like in rl, but processes will produce profits. E.g... Did u see the Wendy burger and the docks?
Voodoo Buwan: Yes
zeegan Inshan: They are both rp businesses... You come to the bank, pay a small lease, monthly, you then buy stock from the dock. The dock buys stock from our vendors, then sell burger meat, buns, etc. The lease holder buys the stock at whole sale prices and sells to a 300% profit. This is mixed rp with what we have named 'HANDS ON RP'. A mix of rping and actual interaction.
Voodoo Buwan: And then gangsters will try to rip off the businesses?
zeegan Inshan: Yes...but the city police work just like a mob, takin businesses back under the cities control
Voodoo Buwan: One question to do with this example. Who buys the burgers, and why?
zeegan Inshan: Ok.. good question.... The guy that lease the business...he has paid a small lease of a business... the stock that he must sell for his profit... is like the testament to him network... what I mean is that small business in the rp acts as his own hang out, and he works with the community to bring them in to his store. Oh… I forgot to tell u what it was about the burgers and all the food in the city. Ok, if a gang want to make it there hang out our food scripts to them, and protect the business, then they will be the burger buyers... the burgers are like tipping the guy in a club and he has to get as many tips as he can. There is city help: ads, billboards, things like that
Voodoo Buwan: So, there's a lot of money flying around, and obviously with the gangsters trying to rip off your bank, and the cost of the sim in the first place, is the cost of this project not a concern?
Cindy Malibu: We have home and stores for rent
zeegan Inshan: Our mall, homes, apartments are all for rent. These even 1/2 full will pay the tier for the sim alone...on top of this... to become a full citizen means you need to buy a licence to shoot and drive... this is done buy buyin into the land group. As a 'full citizen' now u can rezz objects/shoot/drive. Also to rob the bank u have to buy the robbery kit. Inside is all u need to pull off one robbery and also mess one up. So if u imagine, a robbery costs u almost 1000k to pull off. So in a successful robbery, u make a profit, not a killing, and one person can’t get 5000k alone. For every crime role, there is a kit you must buy. The mafia kit has a mix of all kits like a hit man kit, robbery kit... along with the gang system. Mafia bosses buy this kit and add there gang to it. They are added to there system so businesses can be taken over in there gangs name. Same with the police, owned by the chief, and they will re-take businesses and territory in the name of the RCPD.
Voodoo Buwan: Moving away from the financial side, a lot of crime based sims, such as the crack den, have a lot of controversy with things like human trafficking, rape and other such sexual crimes being roleplayed. Do you have a policy on this sort of behaviour?
zeegan Inshan: we do not condone it what so ever. We go as far as allowing pimping/prostitution rp, as a business/crime rp sim, but we have strict laws/rp rules and sim rules. They work to ensure the safety and enjoyment of all raven city’s rping communities and a NO TOLERANCE action is inplace for those that want to mess it up for all.
Voodoo Buwan: Many of the mafia groups in SL seem to have differing attitudes towards what constitutes roleplay, and what is greifing? Have you had any problems with this?
zeegan Inshan: I allied myself with the more classic mobs.. The Corleone mob...and the Irish Syndicate. These guys are known to many for mixed reasons, but one thing that has remained, and still makes them the bench mark for rping mafia in SL, and that’s their boss, zito, and the personality and aura he casts over SL. This guy don’t use griefing to get ppl. Words work like weapons. Other mobs can’t wait to crash our sim, but that’s easy to defend. Trouble is easy to spot
Voodoo Buwan: Well, thank you for taking the time to speak to me, and best of luck with Raven City.

Many of my articles would finish at this point, but I feel that would leave this particular one incomplete. You see, it would be remis of me to leave this with the idea that this is a surefire winner. At the end of the interview, I wished zeegan and his daughter the best of luck, and to be honest, I think they'll need it. On paper, the infrastructure of this entire setup seems to make sense, but the number of people required to make it truly work, will probably kill almost anyone who attempts to get to the city under the sheer weight of lag. And I remain unconvinced that anyone will eagerly be wanting to roleplay as the owner of a burger bar, in the hope that gangsters will hang there, and maybe buy a few burgers to say "Thanks for being here", giving you a meagre few Lindens for the time and effort you're putting in. Although, It's always possible I might be proved wrong.

And there might be why people stick to the tried and tested formulas, rather than trying to come up with something truly different and the added risk that comes with it. But to be honest, if my cinema choice was another bloody remake of, or sequel to, a film that was made over 20 years ago; or a film that has a clever and innovative inspiration, but that might have some clumsy execution... I know which one I would choose. And at the very least, Raven City is a truly gorgeous city and well worth a look around. But maybe do it now.