Tag: Exploring Second Life 2018

Malaika Park – click any image for full size

Malaika Park is, according to region holder Leroy Voorhees, “A happy place, and home to a very few people . The ground area and the mystical waters underneath are for exploring, photos and fun.” He goes on to note that changes may occur at time in décor, but visitors are invited to embrace and enjoy the setting.

I can vouch for the fact things change at Malaika Park; we’ve visited this full region numerous times over the past few months – although it has actually been around since 2014 – and each time there have been changes both large and small in the current design: a building moved from one side of the bay to the other here, the addition of a piece of art there, the arrival of a car… and so on. All if which have piqued curiosity and encouraged return trips.

Malaika Park

There is a certain eccentric look and feel to the region, marking it as a delightful curio among Second Life regions. Oriented north-to-south, it presents a island with a somewhat Mediterranean feel to it due in part due to some the architecture used, but which also feels a little as if it has been lifted from a storybook with its tall, slender houses rising like multi-hued bristles from the back of a hedgehog as they climb the island’s rocky hump.

The southern end of the region forms a small bay marked by an outstretched rocky promontory on one side and the long arm of wooden decks on the other as they stretch forth from the rocky coast, offering mooring for boats and yachts. A café and an open-air bar face one another across the inner face of the bay, where stone stairs step their way down to the water’s edge – and then under it, as if daring visitors to follow them below – although it wasn’t an invitation to be accepted at the time of our visits; the steps only led to the sensation of getting wet 🙂 .

Malaika Park

Instead, it is better to climb the hump of the island, either by taking the steps up the the terraced café and its rooftop pool or, for a longer walk, up the broad road leading uphill between the talk ranks of the island’s houses and they stand to attention behind what might be a gentleman’s club close to the waterfront.

None of the brightly coloured town houses are actually furnished, but this doesn’t mean there is nothing to appreciate within the town. Follow the road to the top of the hill, and an ageing, pavilion-like house awaits, the path down to a beach off to one side while just behind it, the north side of the island falls away to the sea. This isn’t, however, the highest point on the island.

Malaika Park

This is reserved for a high table of rock rising to the north-west of the island, the location for a studio and workplace set out by Gabriel2009, who along with Leroy, Sangi Phaeton, JJ Goodman, and WayneNZ (responsible for the former Toru homestead region – see here and here for more, and a curator of the former Holtwaye ArtSpace gallery), form the team responsible for the look of the region.

Below this, between it and the café by the bay are a couple of Mediterranean style buildings. One offers itself as a spa with swimming pool and the other a place of table-top and other games, a playable chess set sits on the cobble path outside the walled courtyard setting. Art can also be found at various points across the island, in the studio building up on the north-western plateau, and via sculptures by Mistero Hifeng and Lucas Lameth which sit both on land and in the water.

Malaika Park

And talking of water whilst also returning to our starting point: those who fancy a little on-the-water fun might try the bumper boats available from the deck on the west side of the island’s bay.

Malaika Park makes for a slightly different visit for those who enjoy exploring Second Life; there is no central theme, but enough hints in building styles to give it a certain air of familiarity. The setting is photogenic, and can make an ideal backdrop for photography (join the local group to obtain rezzing rights for props, but do please clean-up behind you.

Malaika Park

Stop Press

Malaika Park will be hosting a special Halloween setting, opening on Wednesday, October 10th, 2018 in the sky over the region.

It will be an adventure style thing, an explore and enjoy, thing, all of that plus a hunt with some fun toys and Halloween goodies!

Malaika Park co-designer Sangi Phaeton

So, if you fancy a few Halloween scares as well as a visit to a delightfully quirky and eye-watching region, make a note to visit Malaika Park this October!

Malaika Park

SLurl Details

• Maliaka Park (Malaika Park, rated: Moderate)

SilentRane – click any image for full size

Update: SilentRane has closed, and the region is now privately held. SLurls have therefore been removed from this article.

A bell chimes forlornly against the susurration of tide over shingles and the steady beat-like passage of the wind. More distantly, an owl can be heard hooting softly, as if worried by the darkening skies, while the squeal of rodents perhaps put the teeth on edge. On the high wooden deck, its planks aged, weathered and broken, oil can bonfires add their own basso voices to the air, while a conspiracy of ravens circles ominously overhead, perhaps eyeing the wreckage around the deck and its steps suspiciously.

Such is the greeting for visitors to SilentRane, the atmospheric Homestead region designed by region holder Quinn Holsworthy (Zoey Drammond) and Bailey Button Rowman (Bailey Delwood) and presented as an “apocalyptic” setting. It’s not clear what may have happened but there is absolutely no denying the “creepy” and “Halloween” epithets appended to the region’s description are deserved, and the general state of the place does suggest some kind of event has overcome it.

SilentRane

From the landing point, a raised wooden deck extends a finger out over the water and forms the bar of a shallow “T”, thanks to a short length of deck reaching for the land. Waves break against rocks and the tide clashes with itself as it rolls both towards and away from the coast.

Stepping down onto the railed board walk reveals the landing point and its derelict junk – which includes the wreck of an aeroplane lying in the water – is in fact located on a small off-shore knuckles of rock, a place suggestive of having once been a venue for entertainment.

SilentRane

Once on land, the path offers a choice of routes: along a ravaged, broken path where a fire burns between a tall cement wall and a tired fence, or under a rocky arch and up into the wilds beyond, where the hooting of the owl is even louder and the sound of chimes can be caught in the wind.

The lower path leads by way of a tall copse of pine trees to and fishing wharf, suggesting this may once have been a thriving place of commerce. A large warehouse sits on the shore while fishing boats are moored at the wooden piers. However, given the ruined state of the building, and the carcasses of shark and swordfish rotting as they are suspended from lines or lie strewn on decks, it’s not unreasonable to assume this is a place perhaps now all but deserted.

SilentRane

A little further around the coast, beyond more trees and a forlorn children’s playground sits a trailer park with suggestions of occupancy. A light burns, vehicles sit parked close to trailers and a flag flies from a pole. Closer inspection, however, reveals it as a place also long-deserted, the vehicles battered and bruised and nature starting to claim occupancy of the trailers and ground.

Above this, reached via the passage under the rocky arch and a walk up a winding path, sits an old fun fair and circus. These further suggest this place may have been a vacation spot, filled with the sounds of music and happiness, patrons perhaps staying in the trailers below. But those days are long gone; the big top is faded, its canvas mottled with mould;  the lights and paths of the fun fair are broken, the rides now rusting, decaying shells. What was once a place of laughter and joy now little more than a carcass itself; one edged with a little menace, given the patrons who do remain – and who tend to suggest whatever did occur here may not have been an entirely natural event…

SilentRane

Set beneath an ideal windlight with the off-sim shadows of mountains suggesting this could be a place sitting on a lake in the wilds, SilentRane is hauntingly ethereal and wonderfully photogenic. A Flickr group is available to those who wish to share images of their time visiting, and should you enjoy yours, please consider a donation at the landing point so that others may also continue to enjoy SilentRane.

Deadpool Reborn – click any image for full size

Earlier in September 2018, Megan Prumier posted images of Deadpool Reborn, with a note that the design she and Xjetx Chrome first opened back in 2013 (and about which you can read about here) would soon be opening. I’d al but forgotten seeing the notice, but fortunately, Shakespeare dropped me the new landmark.

Like the original, Deadpool Reborn is in part focused on a run-down carnival that is not quite all it seems. For those who remember the original, there are several elements here that should ring the bells of memory: the great red Ferris wheel, the broken roller coaster and so on. However, as something I don’t recall from the original, the carcass of a city sits beyond the boundary of the carnival, adding its own ominous air to the setting.

Deadpool Reborn

This is not a place for enjoying all the fun of the fair or holidaying in the city; again like its namesake, Deadpool Reborn is – for those so inclined – about hunting clowns and zombies as they wander the streets. To assist in this, weapons can be obtained from a large case just outside of the carnival grounds, alongside the landing point.

Within the fairgrounds, the decaying rides offer both atmosphere and backdrop for photography, while the clowns and scurrying mechanical spiders with their broken doll heads present an obviously malevolent edge to things – although they are by no means alone.

Deadpool Reborn

A stage area sits to one side of the carnival’s cracked asphalt, a board revealing it is a place of entertainment and given the season that’s approaching it will no doubt some Halloween themed parties to come. Nor are the sideshows entire static as well; for those willing to explore, there is a little non-zombie killing fun to be had, in a slightly macabre manner.

In terms of the city, one can only guess at what may have befallen it; natural disaster, plague or some terrible experiment gone wrong. Whatever it was shows signs have having struck fast, and was certainly enough to bring down one elevated road with traffic still upon it; but it did not happen recently. The streets are now well overgrown; the building shattered and slowly falling apart – and yet, oddly, there is still power available to light street lamps and lurid neon signs.

Deadpool Reborn

As noted above, this is the place where the clowns and zombies roam for those who fancy going hunting – although I confess that, after Hell’s Crossing, the zombies here are pretty tame, both easy to locate and easy to dispatch, either with the supplied weapons or your own. This tends to limit the appeal the region might have as a shoot-em-up.

The carnival isn’t the only echo of past builds; within the city are elements reflecting another of Megan’s designs: A Little Bit of Soul. While this is now gone from Second Life, you can read about it here, and recapture aspects of it in the split-level design of Deadpool Reborn’s city, notably the overgrown motel building, and the nearby backstreet market area.

Deadpool Reborn

Which is not to say this area of the region is merely derivative: there is enough here to make it unique in its own right, and offer plenty of opportunity for photography. There’s also some nice touches in menace through the positioning of static NPCs (look up for some of them).

So, if you’re looking for somewhere a little more unusual to explore, why not celebrate Deadpool Reborn? When doing so – keep an eye out for the cavern system!

Deadpool Reborn

SLurl Details

• Deadpool Reborn (Dead, rated: Moderate)

Frog Hollow – click any image for full size

Note: Frog Hollow has closed and Stella has created Winter’s Hollow – read here for more. Because it has closed, I’ve removed the SLurl reference from this review.

Frog Hollow, occupying the north-east corner of the Full region Blue Nile, is a 8176 sq m parcel that has been exquisitely landscaped by Stella Mahogany and offered to the public as a place of exploration and rest. It is also another shining example of why a full-sized region (Full or homestead) isn’t required to create something special and personal in-world.

Bounded on three sides by tall cliffs, Frog Hollow has a nice – but not overpowering – feeling of an enclosed garden, a personal space to be enjoyed without due worry about others looking in. To the west, it faces open water, where a wooden deck sits as the landing point for visitors. Lily pads below the decking offer a place for frogs to hop as lanterns drift on a slow breeze overhead.

Frog Hollow

A single trail leads inland from here, winding between banks of wild flowers and the trunks of silver birch whose leaves are turning golden in reflection of of the changing of the seasons in the northern hemisphere. Fallow deer are to be seen among the tree trunks, and further inland, wander along the looping path or curiously exploring the spaces available for visitors to enjoy.

The largest of these spaces can be reached a short way among the path, where a little bridge branches away to arch over a dry steam bed and arrive at a set of gabled gates. Beyond these is a large brick-and-glass pavilion (another superb design from Cory Edo, for whose work I have a particular fondness).  This is presented as a romantic, magical place. An old grand piano sits at its centre, sheets of music floating and tumbling magically above it as if Harry Potter has recently been by in a playful mood. Cats play under the piano’s lee, and close by a painting, easel and paints await the return of their artist.

Frog Hollow

To one side of this pavilion sits a small terrace, itself bordered by vines turning to gold, home to a setting for afternoon tea. A further befountained terrace lies to the pavilion’s rear, a paved path winding into the trees beyond. Also reached by a grassy path passing under a Rowan arch and alongside another snug little seating area with cosy bric-a-brac, the paved path leads to yet another patio, marked by a smaller, curtained pavilion presenting a place of rest and comfort.

Whilst all relatively close to one another, these little spots have been designed with considerable care; an eye for the considered use of space and for studied design ensuring that they do not feel clustered one atop the next, whilst also allowing each of them to have its own unique nature.

Frog Hollow

Nor is this all; facing the front of the pavilion is a further paved area, complete with open fireplace and neatly set out for a formal meal as delicate little lanterns float overhead.

Should you opt not to cross the little bridge into the brick pavilion’s domain but instead follow the path onwards, it will carry you under bough and around twist and turn to a second bridge, and a further enchanted area. Here a chandelier hands from a stout tree branch, and a giant game of chess is set before comfortable armchairs, watched over by more fallow deer even as the trail winds onwards through an old metal gate – and arrives at the brick pavilion.

Frog Hollow

In this the further genius of Stella’s design is revealed: no matter which route you take when following the path, it will take you through the garden to reveal all the major points of interest before looping you back the to landing point. Along the way you’ll pass many places where you can sit and talk and / or cuddle, engage in a game of chess, listen to, or play, a piano, observe the local fauna – and simply appreciate the beauty of Frog Hollow and Stella’s creative skill and eye for detail. And keep in mind that there are a lot of little touches to be found throughout I’ve not mentioned here (just observe the little pumpkin at the landing point for a couple of minutes, and you’ll see what I mean).

Magical and marvellous, Frog Hollow is a true delight – but it will apparently only be around as long as the leaves are falling. So don’t miss the opportunity to visit and share in the enchantment.

Frog Hollow