Force Prophecies is a Second Life commercial add-on with Star Wars Force power effects.
Contributors[]
It was created by scripter, Jedi Master Kokiri Saarinen then of Jedi Master originally under the name Master of the Force or MOTF for short. In his initial designs, however, Kokiri was assisted by fellow Jedi Master Darth Aridian who contributed many of the builds (including a Star Wars ship and a speeder bike and by a team of ideas people and testers including Pantera Asturias and Leo Mission (the latter also contributing the blurring illusionary mind effect animation). The later Force Prophecies was augmented by scripting from fellow JM Jedi Ayrn Wake.
Background[]
Contrary to popular belief, this tool was never originally intended for RP (which may explain some of the problems listed in the Current Status section). In a time very different to the current situation in SWRP (at the time of writing, September 2008), OOC griefing (caging, orbiting, pushing) was extremely common (often several 'hits' a day on popular sims) and there were relatively few tools that people could use if they were not the land owner as well as no generic SL tools like "no push land". Master of the Force therefore provided its users with a way to shield themselves, have non-physical vehicle protection (initially in the form of a sit-shield, but later improved to the almost iconic floating circular hoverchair), have a few offensive powers like push and a phantom bullet disguised as a fireball, a few more defensive powers like mind trick (of which there were two varies; one was an animation to confuse the eye of an attacker, the other a sphere which surrounded a gun-wielder's vision, whilst leaving them in plain sight, making mouselook aiming useless). It also contained a few pretty particle effects, and an early form of radar which is now commonplace but which was not then. All of this was packaged in a quasi-Star Wars theme; and originally this item was intended purely for the use of the Jedi Master group. However, due to the success of its first use, at preventing griefing, it was rolled out to the SL Community as a whole and had an overall positive effect (although it could be used for griefing itself).
Master of the Force was revamped many times, and a major revamp ended with the creation of Force Prophecies, its successor. Into this which crept elements of the makers' humour (mainly in-jokes at Jedi Master), like the puzzling Sith Mower and fleas.
At a later stage, an attempt was made to integrate Force Prophecies into roleplay by providing a Force crystal system (a form of XP, which could be used to bolster stats), which could be earned through meditation and swapped or traded with others. This proved to be divisive and controversial, as on one hand supporters started a craze of very popular "Force Meditation Parties" where the combined meditations of individuals would augment the collective accumulation of Force Crystals, and on the other hand, opponents felt this to be concentrating too much on XP and not enough on RP and values of the faction they belonged to.
Current status[]
Its current usage during a metered fights is seen as unbalanced by many sim owners, then prohibited from these sims. This is in part because some of the powers like Force Lightning and Fireball are phantom bullets which can deliver 100% damage without any need for aiming (i.e. are targeted by the product with a system like "/1 fb Joe Bloggs", which is frowned on in SWRP as it gives no chance to the opponent). Whilst this is undoubtedly a justification for preventing its use on RP sims, it should be remembered that these powers were created as part of the original purpose of the product - an antigriefing tool - and way before the first combat meter in SWRP (RCS) was made.
Force Prophecies has since been made redundant by Inner Strength (IS), of the same creator but which has no overt Star Wars references. Use of Force Prophecies remains heavily restricted on most sims, but some sims allow the usage of the particle effects to augment RP as these are essentially harmless (but always check the local RP rules of each sim to be sure as some sims actively forbid it being worn).
Controversies[]
It was later believed that the scripts used in Force Prophecies may contain code copied from CellMaster Alexander's Force Elements without the original authors permission.