I have come up with a couple different possible ideas for my extra add-on to the virtual world. I was thinking it would be neat to have a whale watching boat to watch the orcas in the waters off of the island from. These are common in the real world where we live.
My other idea was a tour booth somewhere on the island. Instead of a store, I would be putting up a virtual tour agency! It could also be an information booth of sorts for the island or the hero’s journey.
Today I decided to visit several different types of SL locations and report on them.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kismet%20Northwinds/35/50/3506
I didn’t expect to find this! Apparently jousting in SecondLife is a thing?!? I was super intrigued. In face I might be interested in participating in this at some point myself! I really enjoyed the architecture of the building, fonts and colors used in the graphics, and the interior textures. I will certainly revisit this place at some point. Only issue I had with it was the location wasn’t wanting to load very well at first. However, that could have been an issue on my end.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Inspiration%20Island/16/202/701
Inspiration Island is a non-profit project that has been around for 12 years. I decided to visit its Hall of Heroes. This was a very unique place. Here you can add a photo of anyone whom you consider to be a hero to the display. I couldn’t help but notice that Richard Dawkins is there. He is definitely one of my personal heroes! The welcome hall that you first arrive in is well laid-out and does a good job of showcasing what this location is all about.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Contraption/116/66/119
This store was awesome! I don’t currently have any Linden dollars yet so I didn’t buy anything here but there was tons I would’ve liked to have! They have a wide variety of Victorian and steam-punk styled outfits and accessories. The layout of the store was very neat as well. It appears to be an old warehouse and the pictures of the items are hanging on stacks of crates. Love it! Feels very steam-punky. I will certainly return once I have gotten myself some Linden dollars.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lusiana/111/26/2501
I decided to check out the Metaverse NFT Gallery because to be perfectly honest, I still wasn’t totally sure how NFTs worked in the first place. Upon arrival, I found the entrance to be very welcoming. The lower level had all kinds of information about what NFTs are and how they work. They even had a YouTube video posted on the wall that explained it. Today I got to learn how NFTs work and I got to see some breathtaking examples. This one in the screenshot particularly caught my eye.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Royal%20Opera/103/126/3601
I’ve never been big on opera, except for The Phantom of the Opera of course! However, this ad for an upcoming show has me intrigued. I might just have to add that to my calendar and come back to see what it’s all about! It is fascinating how intricate SecondLife is. I had no idea that people come here to a virtual world to put on virtual performances in a virtual opera house. Super cool. The design of the building is another feat all in itself. It is beautiful!
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/140/85/3501
This was a real blast from the past. I saw that there are loads of different role-playing communities in SecondLife. One of the most unique ones is this one right here, where you step through a time portal back to what a small American town looked like 70 years ago. It’s really interesting seeing what things looked like back then and I very much appreciated all of the detail the designers paid attention to here. The only thing I was bummed about was I was not able to interact with these sweet bubble gum cigarettes. It’s pretty crazy how much the tobacco industry used to promote smoking to the little ones back in the day!
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Venezia/204/72/23
This was my favorite location that I visited so far! I got very excited when I saw that there was this virtual replica of the city of Venice, Italy. The reason for this being the fact that I am planning on going there in real life in September of this year. I’m super excited about it and it’s pretty much all I can think about. I can’t wait to see all of the architecture, experience the food, see their culture, and more. Everything I tried to play with in this location seemed to work and I was actually able to give myself a bit of a virtual tour to prepare myself for the real thing later this year!