Category: Reviews

Shawn Shakespeare (SkinnyNilla) is not only a superb photography artist and discoverer of regions to explore, he is also a dab hand at designing photogenic settings – as anyone who remembers The Mill will agree. And right now there is an opportunity for all of us to appreciate his eye for design, along with that of his partner, Lein (Lien Lowe), as they have opened up their current Homestead region of Nelipot for visitors to explore and enjoy.

Set with a green surround of hills, Nelipot as a small coastal island, such as might be found along the Baltic coast of Denmark. Small and rugged, it is the kind of place many of us might sometimes imagine escaping or retiring to – or perhaps moving to in order  to take up a new life style away from the hue and cry of the city.

Rising from a rocky shoreline that is broken only by a small shingle beach, the island forms a small hill that rises in rugged steps up to its flat top. Most of the land is wild and almost untouched – although rope marked trails offer a route around and over it, together with stone or wooden steps that allow visitors to reach points of interest. The top of the island is crowned by a farmhouse that carries a hint of Danish about its name, adding to its sense of location. Sheep graze just down slope from the house, while between it and the water, a field of lavender is being cultivated.

This is a place with a subtle sense of history to it: down on the shingle is a fragment of an aircraft wing with propeller engine still attached. It sits as a suggestion that a World War 2 ‘plane attempted a forced landing here. Elsewhere the building around the base of the hill have a sense of having been around for a good while – longer than the farmhouse, perhaps.

A further twist of age is added across the island from the beach, where is single stretch of railway track sits accompanied by a span of road. Neither leads anywhere, while a small building stands alongside both, almost like a local railway station.

A train sits on the track – but it is clear it has never travelled the line to get to the island, nor will it ever use it to leave; instead, it sits, fronted by a pilot (aka cow catcher). This points to it likely having originated in America, whilst its overall styling points to it belonging to an era that has long since passed. Quite what it might be doing here is up to you to decide; my own story for it is that it was brought to the island as a collector’s piece, but the years and the salt air have perhaps not been kind to it.

Throughout the island are multiple places to sit and admire the setting it presents, together with a lot of small touches that add to its photogenic looks. The former encourage visitors to enjoy a leisurely exploration, while the detail waiting to be discovered is genuinely captivating.

From the rabbits at the “station” to the cat on the bonnet of a pick-up truck to the blue tit and robin engaged in a conversation, these are all a treat, whilst the little cabins and old camper vans and the many bicycles give the setting a different kind of attractiveness. And while some of the buildings are run-down and / or broken, they are each given a unique character through their décor and furnishings.

Throughout all of the island there is a depth of life and  – again, the birds, cats and so on, together with the sheep and seagulls. This richness of life is particularly evident within and around the farmhouse itself. This is been furnished is a homely, inviting manner that is simple but fully homely.

This is a setting that is proof that while it might might well be long in the tooth, the old adage of less is more is very much true. When people tend to cram their regions absolutely full of masses of plants and suchlike, Nelipot shows us there  is no reasons we cannot have open spaces or make frequent re-use of objects and textures to lighten the render load.

It’s not clear how long leave Nelipot will be open for public exploration; when discussing it with me, Shawn suggested it will probably be available through to the summer. But, and however long it remains open Nelipot is not going to be a place the Second Life traveller is going to want to miss.

Many thanks to Lien and Shawn for opening their home!

SLurl Details

• Nelipot (Kings Harbor, rated Moderate)

Currently featured in the Destination Guide is Bella’s Glade, a summer’s garden located on a sky platform over Shara Lights of Amara, a full region with the private island LI bonus. Designed by Shara estate owner Dhanle (DaneLee), it originally formed a place for his physical world mother, but has has now been opened as a further retreat for those wishing to find escape from whatever pressures they are facing.

It’s a gloriously colourful setting, but one likely designed for those who do not run with shadows enabled, given it sits under a skydome that casts everything into a post-twilight gloom for those who do prefer to have shadows running. As such, for those who do have shadows on, I’d recommend taking a moment to derender the dome to allows for more natural lighting – although I do so with a further caveat, which I’ll come to in a moment.

The landing point for the glade is located towards the centre of the setting, occupying a semi-circular pergola built out over an ox bow of a small lake separated from a fast-flowing river by a needle of land. A conservatory sits on this narrow band of green and colour, reached via a broad board walk they spans the lake. It is the first of several places to be found within the gardens – the  others waiting to lead visitors away from the landing point in a number of directions.

These paths wind under trees and between beds of flowers that are both planted and wild. In places railings and fences mark the route to be taken, elsewhere steps and cut logs mark the way. One route directs feet to a distant house, another to the ruin of a cottage on a hill with others passing swings and benches awaiting lovers and / or those seeking the opportunity to sit and appreciate the view before them. Some of these paths might be obvious, others less so – but to describe them all would be to spoil the opportunities to be had for discovery.

While it may not mean much to the majority of people reading this piece, Bella’s Glade reminds me of the Shuttleworth Swiss Garden in Bedfordshire, England. The two share a similar mix of the cultivated and the wild, of water and open spaces and tree-shades walks and richly wooded copses. And while Bella’s Glade might not have the same mix of follies and topiary as the Swiss Garden and be a little wilder overall, it nevertheless offered to me that same sense of wonder and delight.

Within all of this sits the house, an A-framed cottage that overlooks the river, a cobbled walk following the curve of the water in the suggestion of a canal side walk. The cottage forms an idyllic home, a place to be savoured for its solitude and the beauty of its surrounding gardens.

If there is one issue to be had with this setting it circles back to that aforementioned caveat about the use of shadows. Simply put, this is a setting with a lot of individual textures – and these both take time to load  – sometimes frustratingly so – and can also significantly impact rendering performance when combined with shadows. As such, it may well be preferable to only toggle shadows on when taken photos.

That said, Bella’s Glade is an enchanting setting for those wishing to find a sanctuary or who enjoy garden spaces and are willing to make the necessary adjustments to their viewer.

SLurl Details

• Bella’s Glade (Lights of Shara, rated Moderate)

SL explorers are probably only all too familiar with region designs that hint at, or directly portray dystopian and / or post-apocalyptic settings; at times it can feel impossible to not throw a virtual pebble without hitting one. However, once in a while there comes a region that, whilst it presents such an environment – and can be appreciated and enjoyed for doing so – can also carry a deeper message.

Just such a region is TokSik Jello, to which I was drawn courtesy of a prompt by Shawn Shakespeare. On the surface, this is a highly photogenic setting suggestive of some near future in which Something has happened to bring about widespread destruction and breakdown. At the landing point, buildings point broken fingers accusingly at the sky and an elevated road hints that it once offered a through route to Somewhere, but now ends abruptly at the edge of a landscape the sea has partially claimed, flooding what might have once been a coastal setting built around a small natural harbour, turning what is left into a series of roughened rocky islands split by channels and upon which the remnants of a civilisation cling, perhaps almost tribally.

When this might be is anyone’s guess, as it what might have happened. There are certain cultural references to the modern age to be found, such as the cooling towers of a ruined power station that rise Fukashima-like on the horizon, Others such as the bulk of a great metallic airship moored above what remains of an elevated tramway, point the way to this perhaps being a place a little in the future.

Between these two landmarks and the landing point, two of the remaining islands have been converted into encampments: one within the remnants of a circus the other – looking somewhat fortified – utilising old building and cargo containers. Both camps are the homes of two gangs of children, the Misfits and (I believe) the Harlequins. Through them is revealed a further layer of meaning for the setting; that of a place where those who enjoy coming together and reliving (or perhaps living for the first time, depending on their personal situation) a time of childhood and its inherent freedoms through the use of child avatars and adventure role-play.

This focus is pointed to in the first instance within the Sonnet of Jello, framed a short walk from the landing point. An ode to the freedoms childhood should embrace, the sonnet sets out the intent behind the creation of TokSik Jello. It is a poem that also reveals the core purpose of the reason for the region as expressed in the Tale of Beanz.

Child avatars and those who use them are perhaps one of the most marginalised groups within Second Life. Contrary to the view of some, they are not “against the TOS”, nor are they automatically indicative of either sexual age play (which is very much against the SL terms of service, but not something we’re discussing here) or an indicator that the person behind the avatar is under age. That so many are so quick to jump to such negative interpretation of child avatars in SL is both unfortunate and, perhaps, more of a commentary on their own lack of understanding (on multiple levels) and inability to think compassionately about others than anything else; particularly where said attitudes are accompanied by outright hostility.

Simply put, child avatars can be used for a number of valid reasons, and such use is no different to any other means of avatarian self-expression that sit within the Second Life Terms of Service. They can be used simply for fun, or for very real and personally therapeutic reasons. As such, simply dismissing them out-of-hand (and in some cases by direct trolling any any opportunity – something also referenced in verse and physically within the setting) is simply unfair – and unnecessary.

Thus, the Tale of Beanz is something of a commentary on this; a statement on how easily actions can lead to people feeling ostracised, disliked and isolated to the point they fell little more than a ghost, slowly fading from SL. It’s a story revealed through the presence of “Beanz”,  a lonely, emaciated figure found at different points within the region and who will, when touched, reveal more of the story through wonderfully constructed verse; verse that also speaks to the self-destructive nature that can also be found within social structures in Second Life and beyond, marking the setting as statement of social politics in the digital domain that should give us pause for thought.

However, to frame the region entirely as some form of r”angry” reaction to all of this would be a mistake. Yes, it highlights a degree of negative perceptions and actions – but in doing to, it offers an entirely positive response. In recognising and understanding the prejudices and petty politics that can and do exist in the digital world as much as the physical, the team behind TokSik Jello have established the region as a of haven of openness, a place where child avatar role-players can escape the toxicity they might otherwise face, and simply enjoy themselves, as is noted in the region’s concept notes:

Regardless of how negatively people think of us, true Role-play SL kids are important to Second Life as a creative and diverse group. Eager to be part and valued as any other person. Therefore It seems crazy that one of the most discriminated SL demography, turns into its own discriminators with internal wars, arguments and hatred for each other. Especially when we have others destroying our community from the inside… for various nefarious reasons ….

Our goal is to install a community structure built on core values such as mutuality, compassion, honesty, respect and trust.  A place for true role-play kids to be as they are and have a place, to share positive community values in a safe, supportive and holistic environment.

– The TokSik Jello Team

As such, the region is currently open to the public through until (I believe) May, after which is will be gated and restricted to access for members of the role-play group associated with the region – details will be made available through the associated Facebook group, or by containing group members Jordy Zippy Banana (Zippy Banana), Niklas Howlett, Kenzie (Hiro Dismantled).

Slurl Details

• TokSik Jello (rated General) – limited time access