SPACE IS THE PLACE

So some guys went and built a galaxy above a popular casino, but it never really took off until the owner Guido had to shut it down.

The Inspire Space Park [direct teleport here] is high above Shinda, an ancient region on Second Life's main continent; that was my first surprise, after Eppie Hock messaged me, enthusing about the place.  Many of the world's best creators have abandoned the mainland, preferring to create on private islands where they can totally control the environment.  But instead, here was a dream cosmos and designated "chill space" of ambient music and vibrant, astronomical color, lovingly built high above the billboards and shopping malls that clutter the continents-- a place, as this video only hints at, capable of creating floating bliss.

Vance Sperber and Luvamp Bade in a sub-orbital tumbling

As it happens, Inspire Space Park is an indirect beneficiary to the Lindens' recent, sudden suspension of casinos and other gambling establishments.  For if the Lindens were motivated by a fear of real world legal intrusion, the announcement also shifted the traffic patterns anywhere that casinos had previously been, freeing up space once dominated by gambling.  In Inspire's case, it was the busy Matrix casino below them.

The creation of a three-man team--  Raphael Cremorne, Earth Primbee, and Grafx Newbold-- and after taking several orbital spins, I talked with Primbee about how they came to build Inspire, and where they plan to take it.

Raphael Cremorne and Grafx Newbold kick it with designated muse Ani Schnyder

Why not just build this on a private island?

We couldn't afford an island, and truth be told, I think the mainland doesn't get enough attention.  That's why newbies show up and say everything is ugly, 'cause they are just walking around.  I thought we would take a piece of PG [property], and make the mainland something special again... We do hope to have an island one day, but will always keep Inspire on the mainland.

How he came to create Inspire

I came into Second Life back in 2006 and spent a couple months looking at what was "out there", what was possible. I'd come from Star Wars Galaxies, where I built Nadir Island Resort-- a resort hotel in the middle of a galactic war. Go figure.  But I was tired of war, and felt something more peaceful and relaxing would be appreciated.

My friend Grafx and I had worked together on lighting design projects in real life for a long time then lost touch for several years.  [Primbee has also created an innovative lighting system for SL-- video demo here. -ed]  He called me up one day and… from the day he arrived, we've been here nearly everyday together since working on projects. We live about 30 minutes away from each other in real life but rarely come face to face, though we "see" each other everyday… We started slowly buying up parcels on that side of the highway and began our quest to make the perfect "chill" place in SL that wasn't about sex, or ads.

Making Inspire successful

The main struggle we had, though, was the Matrix casino. Was hogging Shinda with campers. We could never get more than eight people at one time in, if we were lucky. When Guido shut down we became an instant hit. Finally people could bring their friends with them. So we have climbed from a couple thousand Traffic to over 20,000 Traffic combined and rising… because no longer were there 30 away-from-keyboard avatars sitting in that building…

Guido was always cool with us, and would reduce his camping seats from time to time, but we had no idea how many people would grow to love our place until he closed his doors.

Inspire's Future

We are expanding our presence in the sim next door, Butsu, to be higher tempo dance area, and are considering some residential areas, higher above the park and dance planet for people who want to "live in space.” I will begin attempting to attract DJs from outside SL... I have a load of ambient music artists I'd like to have perform live.

Many thanks to Eppie Hock for first telling me about Inspire.  See more of her recommendations at her blog.

Comments

[Patrick]

Yes, Inspire is unbelievably cool. It is also (probably unintentionally) a stoner's paradise. Hehe.

[Earth Primbee]

Thanks for taking the time to check out, and review our place. It was great to talk to you.

Earth