I seem to have a difficult time explaining to friends and family just what it is about Second Life that draws me in and keeps me there. Maybe if I explain it here, I’ll develop a better sense of how to explain it out there.
One thing people ask, both in and out of world, is “what brought you to Second Life in the first place. It wasn’t any one thing in particular, but a number of elements all coming into focus at roughly the same time – reading Neuromancer by William Gibson; my ongoing love of Photoshop, 3D graphics and animation, and an idea for an animated short; and an article in the Wall Street Journal about a virtual world and economy known as Second Life. Once in world, I learned quickly the craft of building – crudely at first, playing with a friend making mazes in the sky, but from that, I learned the basic tools of SL. My technique improved with each successive house I built, and friends started to ask me to build for them. Sadly, as it does for many, SL got “dramatic,” RL demanded my focused attention, and for a couple months I was largely absent from the grid.
When I returned to SL, I made a conscious decision to not jump back into the same social scene with the same bad actors, or even the same friends, but to start fresh and re-focus on what I truly loved about SL – creating imaginative and interesting structures.
I bought a small parcel high on a hill in Avendale Ruins, one of Mystical Cookie’s wonderful sims, and built what one builds on the highest hills. An observatory, with an antique telescope!
Avendale Observatory
Of course, such a thing used up my prim count, and so, the next parcel over was bought, and a pavilion was raised, overlooking the gorge. It was ideal for dancing on a moonlit night, or wandering among the wildflowers and trees, perhaps taking an afternoon nap surrounded by the sounds of nature. Before long, my prim count was looking pretty low, so the next two adjoining parcels were purchased. As I built first the telescope, and then the pavilion, I began developing a history to match the builds. The pavilion had been erected on the site of the cistern that had provided for the needs of the observatory. That cistern was made obsolete by the waterworks I built on the furthest parcel.
Avendale Waterworks
The waterworks drew water in from the river, filtered it in 3 large tanks, and provided water for drinking and the hydraulics used to power the movement of the telescope. Note: the texture below for the wall of the intake pipes came from a photo I took of an old cistern in Portland Oregon. Art imitates life!
Intake Pipes
Water Treatment Tanks
Waterworks Control Desk
The space between the Waterworks and the Observatory I devoted to Waterworks Park. Here was a pond surrounded by lush autumn trees, with leaves drifting down and romantic dancing poseballs strewn about for my partner and me, and our guests.
Waterworks Park
I began to notice a curious thing as my little slice of SL was born – people started visiting it. Not just friends or family, but people wandering the grid. I’d frequently find people at the pond, or at one of the many dancing locations scattered about the sim, slow dancing with their honey. Avendale is a friendly bunch of sims, and so I took no steps to boot them or even prevent anybody from enjoying that build. What I did do is run out of prims again! This prompted me take that big leap of faith – buying my first sim – Symphony.
More on that later, though. It’s late and time to post. Stay tuned for more as the story continues!
-AJ
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