Category: Reviews

Go down the rabbit hole and find yourself in Alice’s abandoned park.

– The invitation to visit Wonderland 2.0

A region design apparently focused on Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories is nothing new within Second Life; I’ve visited a number through my time in Second Life and written about several in this blog, and thoroughly enjoyed each of them. In addition, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass have both been the subject of art installation and special events within SL.

However, Wonderland 2.0 is decidedly special. Designed and built by Lucifer (Samael Morningstar) and Violette (Violette Rembrandt), and occupying a Full private region, it has grown from a 1/3 region parcel through a half a region to this new iteration, which Lucifer and Violette are still nipping and tucking. It offers an immersive trip into not “the” Wonderland of the books, but “a” Wonderland – a marvellous place of imagination and adventure put together by Lucifer Violette in which the stories of Alice are the jumping-off point for a journey into the fantastical and the captivating within an incredibly eye-catching landscape; a unique adventure in which Alice’s experiences sit as touchstones throughout, and with a richness of interaction.

These touchstones commence at the skybox landing point, where jut outside of a small cabin, the Cheshire Cat grins through a giant keyhole at those stepping out of the cabin’s single room. A short walk past a not-too-friendly rabbit (Bryn Oh’s Mr Zippers) delivers arrivals to where light swirls within the open maw of a rabbit hole visitors are invited to jump down.

Doing so delivers people to a further room where on a table sits a little bottle with the familiar invitation: Drink Me. Those who do so (by touching the bottle), will find themselves instantly reduced in size, the room grown large round them (through the neat use of a quick teleport), and the way forward marked by a previously tiny door of what might have once been a little moue hole but has now become a full-size door. Touching the RED arrow pointing at the door then delivers visitors to the region proper.

To describe this landscape would be to defat the purpose of a visit: that of taking a journey of discovery and adventure through a literal wonderland of colour, space, art and more. Throughout this landscape of paths and fields, flowers and hills, over which whales swim, boats float and island drift, lay rich vignettes, visible and hidden. Some embrace Alice’s adventures, other provide their own ride into immersive fantasy.

Nor is what awaits restricted to the ground level; there is a lot more over it (and under it!) than the route down from the Landing Point. So much so, in fact, that I genuinely  doubt a single visit will suffice for someone to catch it all. These elements in the sky can be reached through one of the major means of exploring the region: the network of Anywhere teleports. Some of these take the form of the usual Door form, sitting on or floating serenely just above the ground. A click on them will open them, and a second will walk you through them – and on to another vignette, one generally – but not always on roughly the same level.

Some of these teleports, however take the form of rabbit holes, wells, and more (like a dip in the water of a stream, for example). These are indicated by 3D arrows which, when clicked, will carry you through them (again with animations) to another location, this time usually involving a vertical move to a location in the sky, or back to the ground. In places the two types of teleport combine to lead visitors from setting to setting – such as with the caves, pirate ship and winter vignettes that all await discovery. Thus, exploration is gently teased out of visitors, and given the manner in which these doors and jumps might be found, no single route through the region’s settings and vignettes might match another.

Nor are these the only teleports: also to be found within the region are a number of Experience-based portals. If you accept the associated Experience, they will teleport you to other locations within Second Life. Meanwhile, for those who prefer to wander rather than just teleport around, there are paths to be found, undulating across the fields of flowers and also up some of the highlands of the regions – and I do urge visitors to follow them as well.

Wonderland 2.0 is a genuine treat for those who love exploring – and one of those places where, at the risk of repeating myself, I don’t want to delve into a huge amount of detail about for fear of spoiling the pleasure of direct exploration. It is a place that fully deserves special attention and time when exploring. In fact, such is the the design, it will take more than one visit in order to capture everything. In this, as well, I’d like to thank Lucifer for taking the time to show me elements within Wonderland 2.0, and I’d also like to pass my congrats to him and Violette on this latest, and largest iteration of their vision. I look forward to returning and seeing even more!

SLurl Details

• Wonderland 2.0 (Realm of Wonder, rated Adult)

Grace Loudon is perhaps best known in Second Life as a liver singer / musician who often writes her own songs. What may not be less well known about her (and which was certainly unknown to me until recently!) is that she also has a flair for region design, as demonstrated by Amainiris, her Full private island (with private island LI bonus) that is currently open to the public, and to which Shawn Shakespeare led me.

This is a setting that draws on the New England coastline of the United States to present a place of the imagination that may in part be drawn on memory and/or places visited, offering an environment that is both familiar to those who have visited New England or who have seen photographs taken along it and way from the more popular places such as Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket islands or the busy-ness around Massachusetts Bay. For me, it brought to mind places towards the north-west of New England such as Kennebunkport, Maine, and similar small, coastal towns or perhaps along the outer curl of Cape Cod.

The region sits with a north / south orientation, denoted by a central channel.; to the east sits a teardrop island and to the west a pair of ribbon islands that form a Y shape. Between them the latter sit as the home of a small coastal town, the waters between their arms forming a little harbour space. Depending on one’s perspective, the layout of the region might be seen as a small group of islands lying off the coast of one of the New England states, or the western isles might be imagined as a stretch of the New England coast, with the teardrop island sitting “offshore” from this “mainland”.

Whichever you choose, the islands are an attractive visit. The landing point sits on the west side of the teardrop island and is located on a deck reaching out in the channel between the island and its neighbours. With a low, rocky spine topped by a single paved road leading up to the tall lighthouse that crowns it, the majority of this large island is given over to sand that is welcoming to bathers and surfers.

At the southern and broadest end of this island, work appears to have been put into preventing coastal erosion and to establish a broad, sandy table: large blocks of rock have been carefully arranged to form a 3-sided breakwater behind which the sands have been levelled to form the home of Righteous Noise, a live music venue sitting within its own parcel (thus preventing music and sound flooding the entire region during an event) with the promise of performances coming soon.

A long, broad wooden bridge connects the large island with its smaller neighbours, Potentially broad enough to take a car or small van (vehicles crossing in one direction at a time only), it crosses the shallow intervening channel to arrive at the edge of the little hamlet. And I do mean little here: two rows of sun-bleached buildings facing each other across the water separating the two ribbon isles.

Perhaps the hamlet was once a little fishing town, but it now appears as if the vacation business and holiday fishing trips might be the main source of income here. Small rowing boats are moored at the wooden piers reaching out into the waters and the majority of the buildings are now given over to food and drink establishments. A lone fishing boat does sit on the sands behind one half of the village, supported by a makeshift cradle of poles as it is being painted and a second fishing boat is moored at the northern end of the other half of the village, so some fishing is carried out here, but perhaps not as much as might have once been the case.

A second bridge links the two halves of the little village, landing on sands that trail south to form the tail of their Y-shape. A long, low sandbar, this tail offers views east towards the teardrop island, complete with sun loungers set to catch the morning Sun and ready for people emerging from a swim in the bay. To the west, the sand shelves sharply, a small barge offering both a lookout point and offshore party space.

Caught under a westering Sun and wrapped within a gently, effective soundscape, the region offers one or two things to do as well – such as taking a canoe for a paddle around the islands – just be careful around the northern breakwaters  and keep well into the coast around the southern end of the teardrop island! Those who prefer can go camping or join the folk partying on the beach to the east of the teardrop.

“Amainiris” is an ideal name for the region. It means “the second day after tomorrow”, and as such has something of a magical connotation to it: the day after the day after tomorrow suggest a time just out of reach, always hovering on the horizon. Similarly, this is a region, sitting within its forever evening of a horizon-hugging Sun, that has its own timeless nature making for an engaging visit.

SLurl Details

• Amainiris (ated Moderate)

Hi there, I finally decided to do the sim I have been almost doing for the past 20 years, the original Blade Runner set. Hope you can get along to see it some time just opened it.

From Hera (Zee9)

These are the words that sent me skittering over to Hera’s Full region at the weekend, both as a confirmed fan of her work and because I am also a not only a sci-fi fan, but a great aficionado of Ridley Scott’s outstanding 1982 masterpiece, which has oft cropped up in my chats with Hera.

Surprisingly, I don’t actually have an awful lot to say about Blade Runner, located on the ground level of the region, where it replaces the Drune builds that have previously occupied the space; at least, not it terms of my usual style of travelogue piece. This is not because there is more that much to see – rather the reverse in fact; there is so much on offer here that I actually don’t want to spoil things too much for those who, like me, love Hera’s work and greatly enjoy the film. Because this is a setting where things – like the poster advertising the “75th Anniversary Version” are so superbly put together and the region so rich in detail, it absolutely deserves to have its secrets discovered, not merely written about.

That said, I will offer some pointers to things I feel you should keep an eye out for. It’s intentionally not everything, but it is hopefully enough to whet appetites and get people a-visiting. For example, within the familiar, canyon-like streets we have LCD advertising hoardings and bright neon glow over places of work and business along the busy streets in a manner that directly recalls the movie.  However, within them, there are subtle touches. Not only do the brighter ads for the Tyrell Corporation carry Eldon Tyrell’s words More Human than Human as a tagline, while the logo with them incorporates an owl’s head.

More particularly, spot the adverts for Tyrell’s Nexus 6 Pleasure Models and you might notice a distinctly Pris-like character, complete with eyes masked by black pigment as one of the images displayed by the ads.

Nor is Pris alone in being mentioned. Find your way to The Snake Pit, and you might discover a curtained door that provides access to Zhora Salome’s dressing room, complete with her snake awaiting her return. Elsewhere, Roy Batty gets a more direct reference – and quite rightly, given his richer and deeper interactions with Deckard – as his face is displayed on a police Wanted alert – but I’ll leave you to find that.

As with the movie, this is a cityscape that is dominated by the great angular form of the Tyrell Building, before which great flame stacks periodically belch frame into the smoggy sky, whilst LAPD spinners periodically zip overhead, and cars and automated vehicles trundle along the wider streets, whilst the narrower throughways are home to a market stalls and corner shops that bring a city to life – and offer further reflections on the 1982 film – and other popular genres. Do be sure, for example, to allow the Globe News stand to fully rendered – there are some nice references to the genuine coverage the film gained on sci-fi and film magazines on its release.

Other touches worth looking out for is the advert for PKD Electric Animals, which includes their new line of sheep – it’s a clever reference to Philip K. Dick’s novel that served as an inspiration for the 1982 film. It’s also an advert that contains a further subtle reference that sits well here. It is to the 1979 song written by Gary Numan for his band, Tubeway Army (and a frequent staple of his concerts as solo artist) Are “Friends” Electric? Released in 1979, three years ahead of Blade Runner, it’s a song about androids – replicants – that are so human-like, they are indistinguishable from flesh and blood – and like the replicants of Dick’s novel (and the film), perform all sorts of menial and other tasks. Actually inspired by Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the song offers something of the same underlying question: are androids real enough to be friends / companions?

There is so much more to be found within this setting – but as I noted above, I don’t want to give everything away, as this is a setting that you should immerse yourself within, although I will note that Deckard’s car, sitting in the rain but sans nosey police spinner loitering overhead, also awaits those who can find it; and do be sure not to miss the other interiors – a couple are hinted at in images here, and there’s another I’ll just introduce by saying, “Good evening Sebastian!”.

So with that in mind, I’m going to bring this piece to a close and strongly urge anyone who likes Blade Runner, sci-fi and / or Hera’s builds not to miss this. Twenty years in the making it may have been, but it is utterly mesmerising – and make sure you have local sounds enabled with visiting!

SLurl Details

• Blade Runner  – landing point (Cloud Lake, rated Adult)

Ravenport Reclaimed occupies half of a Full region with the additional private island Land Impact bonus. Designed by Raven Banrion (RavenStarr), it presents a city in decay, a place overcome by time and falling into collapse and nature reclaims it.

Post-apocalyptic region designs are not exactly uncommon in Second Life – I’ve covered more than a few in these pages – but Ravenport offers something that is just a little bit different. Exactly where it might be or what happened goes unmentioned; instead, it is left to the imaginations of those who visit to reach a conclusion as to what may have happened; all we are told is that it is a place that is “wiped out of human life”.

These are words that can be interpreted a number of ways, from humans having been somehow eliminated from the city as a result of physical elimination in some way, through to the inhabitants having been forced to flee the city due to natural or other disaster. But whatever the cause, it is clear that human life departed the setting in a hurry and has been gone a while: Broken buildings and roads are well on the way to being lost amidst the returning greenery, vehicles have long since become rusting hulks and the harbour has been deserted for so long that the waters there are choked by vegetation, one of the remaining vessels within it listing to the point where it is no longer seaworthy, and another other fast becoming a home to vines and greenery and a home for waterfowl.

Greetings, survivor. If you are receiving this message, all human life in Ravenport is gone….

– The greeting given to visitors arriving at Ravenport

The waterfowl are not the only wildlife to be found within the setting; while humans may appear to have deserted Ravenport, animals have not. They roam almost every street and road, their mix suggesting that they may have all once been gathered within a local zoo:  elephant and rhino from Africa mix with North American jaguar and black bear, while Australian kangaroo can also be found and seals occupy the docks, keeping away from the sharks in the water.

As deer, raccoon, squirrel and even turkey can also be found, together with the styling of the vehicles, there is a hint this might be a place somewhere in the North Americas – but again, I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

However, the animals are not alone in the city. Despite the landing point greeting not everyone has completely deserted Ravenport. Within the ruins of the city’s theatre lie signs that humans still gather on occasion and an attempt has been made to supply electrical power for a DJ’s deck and lighting – so someone appears to be prepared to party on from time to time. Outside of the theatre sits what might at first seem to be a hint as to what might have befallen the city to cause its desertion.

This comes in the form of a Fat Man nuclear bomb that has partially cratered itself directly outside the front of the theatre – although the fact it has not detonated indicates it is not itself responsible for the city’s condition. Nor, given the healthy presence of the wildlife and greenery, would it seem that a nuclear disaster has been directly responsible for the situation; so perhaps the “bomb” is merely an artistic statement.

Those exploring the city will find other possible explanations for the city being left to its own decay. The fence outside of one of the buildings, for example, has a biohazard warning hanging from it. Inside another building sits a figure in a hazmat, a bleak warning painted on the wall over it. These and other elements both add to the mystery of Ravenport and allow visitors add to their own stories around what may have happened here.

Rich in detail and finished with a soundscape that reflects the wildlife that wait the cameras of photographers, Ravenport Reclaimed makes of an engaging photo-rich visit. My thanks to Shawn for the landmark.

SLurl Details

• Ravenport Reclaimed (Fairhill, rated Moderate)