One of the most popular posts I did in 2008 was my end of the year list of the 10 best places I visited during the year. Most of those 10 made the list due to the magnificent scenery that can be found. While this years list has a few outstanding scenery locales, I also picked out a few that are outstanding in other ways. If you want to see these in person, you might want to hurry, two of the places I considered for this list are gone.

Tempura Island

Originally Posted: Three Beautiful Japan Regions
A beautiful garden and castle build inspired by modern Japanese style. This place grew in popularity throughout the year. The building interiors use many special effects for a surprisingly beautiful look.
SLURL – More Pictures – Video – Official Website

Kijiji (Visiwa)

Originally Posted: Africa in SL
Probably the best representation of Africa in SL. Multiple servers filled with unique African architecture mixed with Dutch Colonial buildings.
SLURL – More Pictures – Official Web Site

Kalepa (Garden of DaVinci)

Originally Posted: Fun Fantasy Regions for SL Explorers
This build has been around a while, but I finally got around to blogging about it this year. Mixed fantasy architecture, a multi layer, and a unique “eagle” ride to help you get around, makes this a fun place to explore.
SLURL – More Pictures – Video

Mouse World

Originally Posted: Theme Parks in SL
“Mirror Worlds” are 3d computer places designed to look like real places. One of the most ambitious I found was “Mouse World” an amazing recreation of a Disney theme park. There is another 3D replica of Disney World in Google Earth as well, but this SL version has actual working rides.
SLURL – More Pictures – Video – Official Web Site

Frideswide (World War One Poetry Archive)

Originally Posted: War Memorials in SL
This late entry built by a group at Oxford University has amazed many visitors for its immersive SL experience. Audio mixed with pictures, mixed with a detailed stretch of a real WW1 trench. Lots of information here to explore.
SLURL – More Pictures – Video – Official Web Site

PAX (Where the Wild Things Are)

Originally Posted: Scenic Organic Fantasy-Historical Mostly Outdoor Regions
This beautiful inventive sim has multiple natural settings transitioning nicely. Lots of good places to take screenshots.
SLURL – More Pictures – Official Web Site

Pillars of Hercules

Originally Posted: Fun Fantasy Regions for SL Explorers
This Greco-Roman designed fantasy build has caught on as a pretty background setting to model clothing lines and take screenshot photos. There is so much stuff here, it is amazing it all fits in a single 256m x 256m region.
SLURL – More Pictures – Video

Daden Space (Apollo 11 Landing Site)

Originally Posted: Recreating the Apollo 11 Voyage in Second Life
This educational region allows you to see in detail the landing site of the Apollo 11 lander. You can even follow the paths that Armstrong and Aldrin followed and recreate some of their experiments and photo ops. An excellent example of SL as an educational resource.
SLURL – More Pictures – Video – Official Web Site

Japan Kanto (Hosoi Ichiba)

Originally Posted: Three Beautiful Japan Regions
I found this place from an impressive machinima video on You Tube. This furniture store is part of a group of Asian inspired builds that also includes Mao, a popular build of a section of the Great Wall of China.
SLURL – More Pictures – Video – Official Web Site

Mont Saint Michel

Originally Posted: Three Fabulous SL Recreations of Real Architecture
A detailed 1:1 scale recreation of a historically significant island just off the coast of France. The only difference being the kinds of stores you find in the shopping area as you climb up the islands hill.
SLURL – More Pictures – Video – Official Web Site

Virtual Society 2009, exploring, secondlife

November is best known for Thanksgiving, but Veterans Day is also celebrated on November 11th, the anniversary of the end of World War 1.

Which is a good lead into one of the best educational sims I have ever seen The First World War Poetry Digital Archive (More Pictures – Link to website) built by a group from Oxford University.

The link will take you to a starting spot, where you can get a free WW 1 uniform or a nurses outfit. This is not a RP sim so you don’t have to dress up. I decided to dress as a soldier anyways. I know a female on the battle field is not historically accurate, but what the heck. The region is very sound heavy, so make sure you can hear things. There are a lot of historical recordings, many of which you hear as you click on objects.

Follow the arrows to the “This Way To The Trenches” sign and click on the object there, and you will be teleported over a build of a trench. As you fly over and pass through a biplane dogfight, you hear a description of the history of trench warfare. When you finally land, you can follow the trench or try and run across the battlefield dodging mortars and mines. Click on the soldiers and hear personal accounts from the trenches.

This is a truly awesome use of Second Life that is immersive and educational, and everyone should check it out.

Meanwhile, on the boards was a request for links to recreations in SL of US historical places. The list assembled on the NMSUA website is already extensive, and worth trying some links.

The first link is for a place I knew existed but never visited, an SL recreation of the Vietnam Memorial Wall (More Pictures). The place takes a while to load as the wall plates are in high definition so as to show you the list of soldiers killed in Vietnam. If you never been to the real wall in Washington DC, this is a good substitute. Turn on your video and see images, songs, and a robot voice reading all the names on the wall, something you don’t get at the real wall.

Virtual Society education, exploring, secondlife, war memorials

I normally don’t do exploring posts so close together, but its been a slow news month, so why not another?

For this one the theme is real life architecture from Europe recreated with care in Second Life. I found three dedicated reproductions both inside and out of famous buildings.

First on the list is the youngest, La Sagrada Familia is a cathederal in Barcelona in real life, but in Second Life it can be found in Meloloona (more pictures).

The ornate details of the original building do not translate to Second Life, but the build is impressive enough to check out. Its quite elaborate even for SL standards.

Next up is an older and smaller mirror build of the Parthenon in Greece. I have stumbled on a few parthenons in Second Life, including one on the official Greece Tourism region. But the one built in Sculptie Experiments (more pictures) is the best I have seen.

The primary reason I favor it is for its use of 3D sculptie prims throughout. This allows a much more detailed and authentic Parthenon build.

Finally, this recreation of Le Mont Saint Michel off the coast of France is one of the most incredible mirror world builds in Second Life. If you have not seen it you really should. They actually recreated the entire island to scale. It can be found in the Mont Saint Michel region (More Pictures).

Like the real place, the hill can be climbed by following a circular path, lined with shops, which is how the rent gets paid.

It is not entirely authentic. Hidden underneath the mountain is a large techno battle zone. See if you can find it.

Virtual Society exploring, France, Greece, mirror worlds, secondlife, Spain

I like doing these themed exploration posts. Most of the time I have two similarly themed regions, then seek out a third to round out the post. Every now and then I find three regions that kind of go together, but not in a simple to explain way. These three are organic, semi fantasy, semi historical, mostly outdoors shopping regions. Couldn’t think of a shorter way to explain it.

In that same spirit, I decided to take on a pseudo fantasy-historical look to tour around these regions.

First up, sounds like a movie plug. Its a place called Where the Wild Things Are like the upcoming Spike Jones movie. The region itself is simply called Pax (More Pictures). As I pop in I find myself in a thunderstorm. This mostly natural outdoors build seems to have its own geology, a forest growing along a recently created lave bed. OK, so that does not happen in real life. Its a pretty build to visit.

Our next stop is a fantasy themed world with a steampunk underworld called 6pi (More Pictures). Not sure what the meaning is (when I tried googling it all I got was 18.8495559…), but it is a nice build anyways. Above is me in front of the main shopping area taking up about a quarter of the region. The simple coloring and elemental plants give it a fairy tale kind of feel, like it is a nice place to hang out. Another half a region is mostly a natural plant build with a small village that sees to have popped up.

The fourth quarter of the build is easy to miss as most of it is buried underwater. It looks a bit steampunk, with its pipes and rusted color, offset with glow effects, some of which are quite nice.

Finally, on this tour is a tropical Pirate themed build called La Cuesta (more pictures). The region consists of a bay, a dock, a shipwreck or two, a cottage, and an inn called the Groll Inn.

After a long days journey visiting three islands, I decided to check myself in.

Virtual Society exploring, fantasy, pirate, secondlife, steampunk

There has been a fair amount of drama on the whole adult continent Zindra front. The move of all adult content to a new continent has brought land speculators, complaints, AR griefing, and other nonsense. Time to take a second look.

On September 15th, Linden Labs has drawn the line. All adult businesses must be on Zindra or an estate server set as “adult”. Rule breakers will no longer be seen in search and could be forced to move.  Furthermore, SL clients not enabled with code to handle adult permissions (1.23 or higher) will no longer be able to see adult islands on maps, or see any shops or groups that are adult in nature.  LL is still vague about their guidelines to prevent people from working around them, though there are 3rd parties figuring it out.

In the June essay, I mentioned two possible scenarios of where Zindra will head: 1.) A sanctuary away from alt griefing and kids pretending to be adult, or 2.) an adult oriented ghetto.  Many of the more established successful businesses have relocated to private estates rather than Zindra. Because of this, its looking more and more likely that the second scenario will prevail.

A quick tour around Zindra today is like a big mall of mostly crap. A good 90% of adult merchants do not know how to make a good store build. Lots of bright tacky colors, or way too big textures that cause load lag. I went to some of the busiest businesses and either found a lot of bots / camping chairs, or builds in private skyboxes.

That to me is a virtual ghetto.

Ironically, after exploring the main areas of Zindra, my favorite build I found was designed to look like a ghetto (More Pictures).  Its actually a group of builds in the same area with the same “ghetto” aesthetic.  Lots of naughty poseball furniture and toys, mixed with sexy clothing shops and booth and apartment rentals.  It is the most interesting build, or group of builds, I found on the whole continent. (Pictures in this article are from that build)

The as yet unanswered question is how will this segregation of adult businesses affect the rest of Second Life.  Adult rated regions currently make up almost 5% of Second Life, and the stricter enforcement (especially on estates) is going to make that percentage rise. Traffic will change, as will land prices, but how and how much are unanswered as of yet.

Below is a map of the main section of Zindra as it now exists. Compare it to the map I made in June and see how much it has changed.

Metaverse News, Virtual Society adult content, censorship, exploring, secondlife, virtual sex, zindra

Over a year ago, I went around the world in Second Life builds and noted the lack of builds based in Africa. I did find one decent one at the time, but felt annoyed that there were not more. It is the second biggest continent after all.

Since then some new ones have been built. I tracked them down and thought I’d share.

The first is a really impressive 4 server build called Visiwa (more pictures).  According to its website it was originally opened in October of 2008, but has expanded quite a bit since then. I saw some tacky construction signs (are these really necessary?) indicating it is still expanding.

The port in the top picture is dubbed Port Kijiji (an ancient African work for “Village”), and it is surrounded with stores, including some available for rent.

In the back are some residential spaces, also with some vacancies, if you are looking for housing in a beautiful exotic locale. Even if not this is a cool place to explore, just don’t feed the lions.

Speaking of lions, the next African location I visited was simply called Virtual Africa (more pictures). Built by a non-profit based in South Africa, its a small tourist attraction complete with 3d models of about a dozen different African animals, and a fair number of plants. The whole thing has a safari feel to it.

You can walk around, balloon around, or hang glide. There are also tents for rent, auditorium, and some informational displays.

With these real world tours, I like to try and find historical locales as well.  No problem, I found an Ancient Egypt City of Thebes (more pictures). This is a role play server, so you have to be in costume to look around.  I just decided to scope around with my camera.  If you want to visit someplace a little less role play, I found a build called Egypta occupying a quarter of a server.

Well that’s my brief tour of Africa in SL. Hope you enjoyed it.

Virtual Society Africa, exploring, Historical, mirror worlds, secondlife

One of the thing I do in Second Life is shop. I have been to a lot of stores in SL, but never bothered to blog about them, because most are so unoriginal. You got your box stores, your boutique stores, your fancy upscale stores that look like they belong on Rodeo Drive in LA, 5th Avenue in New York, or any of the other famous upscale shopping locales.

But this is Second Life! Why do you have to be normal?

I recently stumbled on to a few stores that were far more interesting as places to explore than as places to shop, and being the 3D adventurer, it makes me want to shop at these places more.

Being a “shopping” themed exploring guide, I decided to get a new outfit. Something wild but fashionable, but not formal dressy fashion, and ended up with the above outfit. Half the outfit comes from the first store pictured above The Abyss (more pictures) The store consists of two buildings and a walkway surrounded by a post-apocalyptic nightmare world. Lots of gothic and art deco looking buildings leaning at angles like they are about to fall over. Its a very cool.

The second completely original shopping experience belongs to The Boudoir (more pictures). The Boudoir City region looks like a french village on most of the server, but the skyline is dominated by a completely bizarre and completely original building. The bottom half has stone arches similar to a gothic cathedral, the top half looks like a post modern disaster you imagine seeing in East Asia.

As original as the exterior is, the interior is an equally impressive decorated store, looking like something you might see in a French opera house, or a Las Vegas casino. It makes you want to spend some money.

Finally on the stores that impress list is an odd fantasy combat store called Alruneia Sentry (more pictures). Being somewhat traditional in my tastes, there wasn’t much I was interested in buying, but the place looks gorgeous and unlike anything I have seen before.

The rez  point for the region will drop you at the store, but fly on down to the surface and explore there too.

Lots of glowing plant life and flying neon whales to keep your eyes busy. There are lots of hidden corners to explore. One was a “grotto” cave filled with water and  things to see both above and below water. I had to check it out but did not want to ruin my new clothes. So I just took them off.

Virtual Society exploring, secondlife, shopping, virtual economy

I try to do an exploring post at least once a month, and it has been a while. Checking my “in box” of places to blog about, I find a few incredible fantasy builds I have neglected to mention, so lets get exploring. While the following three builds have fantasy themes, none are role player worlds you have to be in costume for, so I put on some casual exploring gear and hit the virtual open road. All 3 are PG rated too.

First up is a Greco Roman build called the Pillars of Hercules. Above are two good pictures of the wide exteriors, but I failed to get some good pictures of the elaborately detailed interiors of these buildings. This is quite the tourist attraction, both inside and out.

Second one up is quite a bit less elaborate. Its a region called Drowsy, and it features a series of small fairy tale like builds all with a whimsical feel to them. I met a mother and baby bear there. We had a nice chat, and so I decided to buy them some ice cream.

Finally, for the big finish is The Garden of Davinci. Another elaborate single server build with multiple buildings, this one more of a Renaissance feel to it.

The place is spectacular day or night. There is an Eagle ride that takes you on a flight around the Island ending up on a floating rock high above the rest of the build.

From above is about the only good way to see the whole build.

Happy Fantasy Touring!

Virtual Society exploring, fantasy, secondlife

40 years ago this week, Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on its way to being the first manned space ship to land on the moon. In honor of this anniversary, I thought I’d find a way to recreate the mission in Second Life.

Well the first stop in our voyage is of course the International Space Museum at Spaceport Alpha. If you have never been to this awesome region (which I am sure I have mentioned before) well shame on you. It is one of the best educational regions in Second Life.  I have known people who joined Second Life, just to go see this place.

At ground level they have a display of all the famous rockets in space exploration history.  Above is a picture of me standing in front of my favorite rocket, the Ariane 01 used by the EU to launch satellites.

Apollo 11 was a Saturn V rocket, and I am sure there is one somewhere in the museum, but the only rideable rocket is a Gemini ship which predates the Saturn V. Close enough for this mission.

Before we take off though, we probably should get a spacesuit.  A quick check of Xstreet has a few available, but I managed to score a freebie helmet, gloves, and life support pack in the National Space Society region. Add your favorite leather body suit and boots, and you have a working space suit. Not authentic by any means, but good enough for virtual space travel.

So here we are aboard our ship waiting for launch. Actually launching will take us to the International Space Station display and the beginning of a tour of all the planets . A nice display, but not where we want to go.

We want to go to the Moon, so it is time to move on to the Daden Space region. This place requires that you be in a spacesuit. Pick up a HUD and stand on a teleport pad.  Yay! we made it to the moon!

Finally, it is worth mentioning that NASA has some 40th anniversary activities and events planned. You can find a schedule, along with a couple of detailed lunar lander lunar rover models in the Nasa CoLab region (right next door to the ISM).

Media, Virtual Society education, event, exploring, secondlife, space

I haven’t written in a while especially about Second Life. Felt the need to post something. I wanted to check out Hair Fair 2009, but all four servers were consistently full. Oh well, off to plan B…

Second Life finally opened the “Adult” rated continent to public access. There is no privately owned land or building yet, but there is some new construction courtesy of Linden Labs. I decided to check it out before the place gets crowded with who knows what kind of places.

This shuffling all adult content to one continent is an odd experiment I plan to watch carefully. Already there are people attempting to scam the system and trying to get land there.

Despite minimal content, there seem to be other people wandering about, many recruiting adult “clubs” currently open on other islands. At least most people had their clothes on.

I am curious how life on “A” continent (they keep changing names, first Ursula, now apparently called Zindra) is going to go.

On the one hand if the age verification system works, this may be the place to go to get away from kids pretending to be adults, and newbies begging for free Lindens.  If the continent becomes popular enough to overshadow the rest of Second Life, it could make SL’s already sullied reputation as a virtual sex world even worse.

On the other hand this could turn into an “adult ghetto” with tons of tasteless textures and graphics we do not really want to see, driving away any business interests, and quickly turning into a waste land. The upshot will be LL can now tell potential deep pocket clients and investors that they cleaned the place up and it is no longer the anything goes virtual waste land it was in the past. Despite official statements, it is obvious that this is the result LL is hoping for.

Lets face it, when it opens for building starting next month, it is initially going to be the place to be. What happens after the initial newness and curiosity factor fades remains to be seen.

Here is a pristine map – a “before” picture. I suspect the place will look quite different by the end of the summer.

Virtual Society adult content, censorship, exploring, secondlife, virtual sex, zindra