Category: Reviews

We’re all familiar with the news of regions that disappear from Second Life – I’ve reported on a few that have announced closure myself. These disappearances can often be high-profile, leading too public upset and, and times, a reason for some pundits to blog about how they are further signs of SL’s “demise”.

What often goes unnoticed, however, are the regions that endure, sitting quietly tucked away, offering a place for people to visit year-on-year, unsullied by time. They remain a constant in the face of change over the passing of time, but can so easily pass notice by bloggers as we rush to seek the latest or new region design or setting.

Take Wizardhat Studios, for example. I made my first visit to it almost seven-and-a-half years ago, in October 2012 (see: Wizardhat: dance, explore, contemplate, admire). At that point in time the region was already entering its fourth year, and it became a place I tended to jump back to semi-frequently over the next few years – although I confess that other than that one 2012 blog post, I’ve never actually written about it again in detail.

This fact had been playing on my mind over the course of the last week or so, a nagging feeling that as it’s been about 4 years since I last dropped, I should pop over and take another look. It’s a thought that was reinforced when reader and friend Miro Collas poked me via Twitter about the region. So, off I hopped.

Designed by Karencreek Melson as the home of artist Wizardhat Mornington, the region is an atmospheric mix of reality, and fantasy, making excellent use of region surrounds and off-sim elements to create a great sense of depth. The default Windlight is perhaps a little bleak – I again found myself flicking to one of my preferred custom presets, but that’s about the only “complaint” I have with the region.

This is a place of coastal castles – one a home to Wizardhat’s photography and art, the other set as a home (but open to the public), where rough-faced cliffs climb to one side, water tumbling from them in places. This cliffs form a semi-circle enclosing the lowlands, their waterfalls forming streams that split the land with its mix of woods, flowers, and cart tracks, as the waters make their way to the sea.

It’s also a place of whimsy: a steampunkian flying submarine floats alongside one of the castles, its interior perhaps triggering thoughts of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus and its vast undersea voyages. Not far away, polar bears take a moment in the sun, stretched out on the western beach; apparently the benefactors of a lottery win. Other animals roam free in the form of scripted agents, some of whom I recall from past visits, such as Happy Camper, others of which may well be new – or at least, relatively new. They wander about the lowlands and / or frolic in greeting while birds wheel overhead.

The animals are not the only perambulating occupants of the region. As you explore, you may notice that a couple of the trees appear to be locating themselves. Wait long enough, and you’ll see this is precisely the case, as one or another of the pair calmly uproots itself and goes for a wander, both of them again being scripted agents. It’s clear that these arboreal wanders are an accepted part of the landscape, as an owl is content to sit in the boughs of one as it takes to its roots and scurries across the land.

What is particularly attractive with this region is that while it retains almost all of its original looks (for those of us familiar it from past excursions), it is also home to subtle changes that both maintain its look and appeal whilst also in part renewing it and making it worthy of return visits. Take the hillside turret to the north; once it looked out towards a storm that seemed to be approaching, now it faces stern-faced faced mass of rock sitting just off-sim.

Eclectic, rich in detail, with lots of opportunities for exploration, photography and dance, Wizardhat Studios remains an engaging visit, one given the added fact it is a place now into its 13th year in Second Life.

SLurl Details

• Wizardhat Studios (Rated Moderate)

It has been just over three years since we last visited Pacehaven, a setting designed by PurrBlaize. At that time Purr had just made the move from a Homestead region to occupying a quarter of a Full region (see Peacehaven – A New Beginning in Second Life and, before it, The serenity of Peacehaven in Second Life). Since hat time, Purr has once more relocated, and gained something of a larger space in which to establish Peacehaven with a new look.

Now occupying almost a 1/2 region, Peacehaven retains all that has made it an attractive visit, whilst also sharing the space with a neighbouring parcel that offers live music and events to create a feeling of even more space. It is once again an environment that demonstrates you don’t need a full region in order to create an expressive place that offers a rich amount of exploration, being almost almost perfectly put together by Purr and her SL partner BluBlaize.

Offering an aspect looking to the west, the setting has a summertime, semi-tropical look as it runs inland from the western ribbon of beach, above which the landing point sits, to form a rugged, uneven and attractive landscape cut by paths, water channels and gorges that slice between and around two central plateaus, gorges and water channel alike spanned by bridges such that while smaller than a region’s full size, Peacehaven has multiple routes of exploration that make it feel as if it occupies an entire region.

Three paths point outward from the landing point and the graystone summer house that sits alongside it. The first runs to the north, the second due east, the third to the south and east. All three actually eventually link up one to another, providing a means to tour the entire setting – although as noted, they are laid out in such a way that they don’t feel as if they are “just” a simple loop. Quite the reverse in fact.

To the north, the first path runs alongside a water channel, passing a squat fort (home to a little rooftop café) and which stands guard over a man-made causeway the extends out over the water to a waiting lighthouse. Two bridges span the water channel, one linking the path to the fort, the second to connect it with another deck that offers moorings for boats. Beyond this, the path reaches a garden pavilion sitting on the north-side beach, crouched next to one of the region’s squat plateaus.

A fence separates the pavilion from the path, but a gate allows access, and rather than being a private space as the fence might suggest, the pavilion forms a small place to hang out, a second path running due south from it to eventually become the southern path back to the landing point. Along the way it branches with a west-pointing route, and also passes under a rocky arch and colourful flowerbeds.

The southern end of this route ends in a set of steps connecting Peacehaven with the neighbouring music venue that is also available for exploration, while an ancient pointed arch indicating the path running back to the landing point. This arch also sits under the shadow of one of the parcel’s plateaus – the larger of the two, in fact – which is home to a cottage that has been a motif throughout the various Peacehaven designs. It can be reached either from a further branch of the west-pointing path, one which gently coils upwards around to sides of the plateau, or the third of the paths available from the landing point, as it passes through the summer house and then climbs up to the cottage by way of stair and tiered garden.

A bridge connects the cottage with the second plateau – the one below which the hangout hides – which is home to a half-circle ruin, another motif from previous Peacehaven builds. This also forms a place to hang out and / or dance while a final path from here snakes down to meet the west path running from the landing point to beach summer house.

All of this barely scratches the appeal of Peacehaven, which remains as much an attractive and photogenic sitting as it ever has been, rich in colour, offering a warm, natural welcome and plenty of opportunities to simply relax and recharge.

SLurl Details

• Peacehaven (Ocean of Orchids, rated Moderate)

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be very intelligent, read them more fairy tales.

– Albert Einstein

I opened my 2018 travelogue for Nessa Zamora’s (Noralie78) Storybook Forest back in September 2018 following our visits to the Lost Unicorn regions (read more in Opening a Storybook in Second Life). Part of this quote is also used as an introduction to the region, so given news has come that the the Forest is shortly to close to make way for a new design, it seemed a fitting piece with which to open this piece.

Designed by Noralie78, Storybook Forest is an utterly bewitching place that, if you’ve not visited before, you really, really, should before the end of day on March 3rd, 2020 (I’d have given more warning, but only got word myself following the Lost Unicorn post giving notice of the closure being published on March 1st). The design stands as a marvellous homage to fairy stories and a delight to all who still love the fables and tales they may have heard in childhood days or have enjoyed reading to their own children – or who simply like reading; while for photographers and explorers, it offers something to smile at around every corner.

This is a place where ornate, rounded castle towers rise from the surrounding trees while paths wind between tree trunks and under a canopy of wide-spread boughs; where exotic plants grow and sunlight dapples the glades and falls across the waters of a small lake. From the outset, it’s clear the is is a place where the imagination can be set free and the magic of books and tales has been given leave to run as they will – and we can run with them.

So it is through this winding path, passing from castle to castle, from glade to tower, that visitors may find Peter Pan pointing the way forward, Mary Darling standing below, even as Captain Hook, Mr. Smee and Tiger Lily row past on the nearby waters, a certain crocodile inevitably in tow. Deeper still are opportunities to gather with a group of dwarves, as Snow White lies under glass, the victim of the Wicked Queen’s apple, or to sit with Alice, a white rabbit and chap with an affinity for hats to partake of afternoon tea, while a lost boy wades the shallow waters of the little lake, gazing in wonder at the pile of books that rise from is midst.

Nor is this all; every turn in the path awaits the opportunity to offer a new childhood memory: Bambi and his mother, Cinderella, Snow White… the list goes on, and I’m not going to spoil things by mentioning all who are given a role within this forest.  And as well as these glimpses of childhood tales, Storybook Forest offers many places where visitors can sit and allow memories wash over them or have their imagination take flight – or rest their avatars while their camera roams through the woods, seeking out details that might otherwise be missed.

And details there are indeed, from dedications to read through quotes from stories to places where a little interaction can be enjoyed, such as at the harpsichord sitting atop Cinderella’s tower. Even some of the characters have some unique aspects too them – take a look at the seven dwarves gathered around Snow White’s glass casket, for example! All of this is offered with a special dedication from Noralie, offered to all that wander Storybook Forest’s enchanted paths:

To the boy or girl who reads by flashlight
Who sees dragons in the clouds
Who feels most alive in worlds that never were
Who knows magic is real
Who dreams.

This is for you.

As noted, Storybook Forest will be around until the end of of March 3rd, so make sure you capture any memories you wish to have of it before then. I confess, I will miss it once it is gone; it is a magical place. However, while it may soon pass into memory, so too are we given the promise of something new to follow – and so I look forward to returning and seen what new fruit has come forth to replace it.

SLurl Details

• Storybook Forest (Storybook, rated: General)