Category: Exploring Second Life

Winter is coming to the northern hemisphere, and for Second Life, it means regions are starting to get snowy make-overs and – in some cases – Christmas and end-of-year holiday décor has started to appear. Given this, we’re entering the time of year when a lot of winter / holiday themed regions will be subject to blog posts and Flickr photo streams.

This being the case, I thought I’d get things started here after Caitlyn and I received an invitation from Milly Sharple to visit this year’s edition of her Let It Snow! region design. I’ve actually been writing about Milly’s wintertime designs since 2014 (allowing for a break she took with them), and I’ve always looked forward to seeing them each year, as they’ve tended to offer something beautifully photogenic and with a sense of magic.

For 2019, Let It Snow! offers something a little different to previous years – at least to my eyes. There is the same winter feeling – a crisp, cold looking sky which looks as if the air entering your lungs would give you that cold, hard thrill of being alive; there’s the familiar blanket of snow thrown across hill and dale with the trees coated in frost, and there are the trappings of the season: hot chocolate, holly strung above shop doorways, lights strung across lintels and over tree branches and so on.

But at the same time, there is something that feels a little different with this year’s build. In the past, Let It Snow! has perhaps been a contiguous landscape, flowing from place to place, while the flow is present in 2019’s design, but so to is a feeling that elements of the setting stand a little apart from the rest, as if they are mini vignettes, the surrounding landscape as much a buffer between them and the rest of the region as it a means of connecting them.

Which is not to say this year’s Let it Snow is any the less photogenic than previous years or is in any way disjointed in its presentation of its different locations. There is still a lot – as always – to appreciate, from the little village square that brings with it a touch of England with its red telephone box, Royal Mail pillar box and  country-style pub, through the crystal palace crowning a flat-topped hill and the skating rink and cabins sitting among snow and frost heavy trees.

From the landing point, visitors can turn north to the village or south towards the crystal palace or eastwards across the low-lying part of the region. The latter direction leads visitor past some of the detailed touches within the region: one of the furnished cabins, stone rings, snowmen and ruins.

Scattered throughout are places to dance or to sit – one f the more amusing of the latter being the opportunity to pose with a seated snow sculpture in the village.

There are also some familiar touches to the design – motifs seen in past iterations of Let It Snow! – that help to give a sense of connection between this and the past versions of the setting for those who remember them. Chief among these is the aforementioned crystal palace, whilst elsewhere are deer wandering in the snow, and little hideaway snugs.

For those who like a little activity, the skating rink to the west of the region, while the cable car close by offers a ride up to the hilltop overlooking it, where a toboggan-style sled rid awaits those waiting to ride back down the hill.

With plenty of opportunities for photography, Let It Snow! once again offers a charming visit and opportunity to welcome in the coming winter season in Second Life.

SLurl Details

• Let It Snow! (Sun Sky, rated Moderate)

ElizabethNantes has a reputation for producing some eye-catching region designs (see Follow your Bliss in Second Life, March 2016; and Following an Oriental Bliss in Second Life, July 2017). she now has a new design that is elegantly simple yet perfect for keen photographers.

Fusion is a Full region that features an urban setting of distinctly Japanese looks, complete with some stunning wall paintings which are, I believe, also Elizabeth’s own work. Located on a sky platform, the setting is a lot smaller than the area for a region, but there is a lot packed into it to keep visitors engaged.

Such is the size of build, a blow-by-blow description is perhaps overkill; from the landing point, situated within a concrete block of a building that offers the opportunity to join the local group (L$500 fee, rezzing rights granted), it is easy to find one’s way around the town, given the buildings are set around a series of small roads.

Which is not to say there is nothing to see; this is a place where attention to detail has produced a setting worth taking the time to appreciate.

Take, for example the marketplace just outside of the landing point building. Offering multiple food outlets, it points the way to a sake bar with adult overtones, but which also offers a place to sit. Eastwards, across a central square bounded on two sides by apartment houses is a school with furnished classrooms, playground and general facilities.

To the west, the town gives way to a ribbon of countryside sitting between buildings and cliff-like surround. This offers a haven of peace from the possible hustle of the city. Water tumbles from the north end of this reach, feeding a stream that flows rapidly south to enter a large pool. With a opportunity to fish and places to sit and appreciate the view. it offers a place of sanctuary typical of many a town or city environment, giving Fusion a further sense of reality.

With plenty of opportunities for avatar photography, Fusion makes for an engaging visit that does not over-tax one system, but offers opportunities for discovery, all wrapped in a gentle sound scape. Recommended.

SLurl Details

• Fusion (Fleur de Sel, rated Adult)

 

Alia Baroque is one of Second Life’s foremost fantasy designers. His avatars, clothing, and accessories for fantasy role-play in SL are legendary – as are his region builds for each year’s Fantasy Faire. His base of operations in-world has been – and remains-  a set of regions focused on his in-world store at Selidor, which had additionally been places for exploration and photography.

I mention this because Annie Brightstar brought to my attention the fact that Alia has decided to retire Annon, one of his regions and a well-known setting in Second Life, and will be doing so at the end of Sunday, November, 17th 2019; so I decided to hop across to take a last look.

Annon, a homestead region, is the home of The Tower Gate of Annon and Flowing Monastery. It’s a place I’ve visited on numerous occasions – although I’ve only actually blogged about once, far back in 2012. It’s also a place with a long history, dating back to 2010.

The Tower Gate originated as a build for the 2010 RFL of SL weekend, and was constructed in just 7 days. A prim build, it is has been standing guard over the Fallen Gods regions largely unchanged since being relocated. Alongside of it, just across the water, sit the Flowing Monastery, another prim build sitting atop a rugged knuckle of and island. But for a single blossoming tree in the cloister, the monastery is an empty building, lending a haunting beauty to it and the island on which it sits. The Tower Gate, however, offers multiple points of interest for those exploring its halls.

As Alia notes, both builds have stood for almost a decade, almost unchanged through the years – and certainly untouched by Alia for around half of that time. Thus, while they are in some ways monuments to Second Life’s history, they are also something that now sit outside of his Second Life vision. So, he plans to retire the builds to inventory before returning the regions to Linden Lab on November 20th, 2019.

In retiring the region, Alia has emphasised hie is doing so not because of issues with tier or anything like it, nor does he wish to have donations made towards their possible upkeep or enquiries about purchasing them, noting:

They need to go to allow Selidor and Athan to flourish and be reborn … I am not interested in selling them or any contribution for their extended existence, the tip jar was always there so it won’t make a difference as I take this choice happily and without regrets. So please, if anyone has a sudden moment of making a fund-raiser thinking I am doing this because of a dire need, don’t.

I hope you enjoyed it until now and will remember the region with fondness, happy memories and longing, but I also hope you will be excited to see the new rebuild and update of the rest of the Archipelagos of Fallen Gods that I plan, hopefully soon.

– Alia Baroque, November 13th, 2019

Those who wish to pay a last visit to Annon are encouraged to do so before the end of November 17th, 2019 (SLT). In addition, those who can are invited to join a Fantasy Faire LitFest tour of the region that will start at 14:00 SLT on Sunday.

SLurl Details

• Annon – The Gate (Annon (rated Moderate)

For the third time in 2019, I dropped into Drune, this time on the recommendation of reader Robin Lobo, although it is a place that has been getting a lot of attention of late due to a photographic competition that is running through until November 27th, 2019.

Designed by Zee9, we visited the region at the start of 2019 and then during the summer (see: Time at 2019-XS in Second Life, January 2019 and Drune IV: an Aftermath in Second Life, August, 2019), although Zee9’s designs go back beyond either of these dates. Throughout all of their iterations, Zee9’s builds have focused on a sci-fi / cyberpunk feel that incorporates certain key motifs drawn  – as the About Land description notes  – from the likes of Blade Runner and The Fifth Element, Neuromancer, and Altered Carbon.

This latest iteration of the design is called Drune: East of Eden. Whether or not the title is a reflection of Steinbeck and the underpinning themes of his novel I’ve no idea, but given the dystopian state of human civilisation seen particularly within Blade Runner, and the novel’s examination of humanity’s capacity for self-destruction, the link would seem to perhaps be apparent.

Focused on a single, neon-lit street, complete with Spinner-style police cars buzzing and hovering around, the build perhaps leans more towards Blade Runner than the past two builds offered – although equally, there is less of a feel of the multi-level nature in the setting than previous builds that also move it a little away from that film. However, there are numerous nods and touches to a range of influences beyond the films named in the region description (one of the more obvious being Sulaco Corporation – a name that would seem to draw on the Alien franchise).

There are familiar elements from earlier builds to be found as well – notably the subway that serves as the landing point, some of the vehicles, the little hovering robots, the night club and the bar. These help to give a sense of continuity to the setting that eases those familiar with some of Drune’s past iterations (such as 2019-XS) into this one, such that the feeling is not so much that this is not so much a new build, but another part of that city.

For me, the enclosing region surround give this iteration of Drune a depth perhaps lacking in some previous versions – and it is clear that Zee9 has taken a huge amount of care to ensure the the edges of the region break up the surround such that the high-rise buildings of the latter feel like a genuine continuance of the setting, adding to that feeling of depth noted above. It is as if one could walk through one of the road tunnels, the canyons between those skyscrapers would indeed lead to some of those past Drune designs, sitting as further outliers of the city.

Always evocative, wonderfully thematic and rich in colour, Drune always offers a setting worth visiting and appreciating – and for photographers, the photo contest mentioned above gives an added incentive for visiting. Details can be found on an ad board in the landing point subway.

Recommended – and thanks to Zee9 for the chat.

SLurl Details

• Drune: East of Eden (Sensual Moments, rated: Adult)