When it comes to Second Life cityscapes, dystopian cyberpunk and Gibsonian steampunk predominate, so I couldn't help noticing a skyborne metropolis that kept appearing on SL blogs, because it had a sci-fi vision way more old school that those two-- think Space Opera, two-fisted adventure in an ornate art deco future imagined in movie serials from the 30s and 40s. Last night I finally had a chance to visit The Planet Mongo, home of Ming the Merciless of the Flash Gordon series, and discovered its main builder was old school himself-- Lumiere Noir, who built The Ivory Tower of Prims, an indispensable (and beautifully crafted) self-guided building tutorial.
"It's complicated and not that far along except in building," Lumiere tells me, "but it's a post-Ming world domination retail center. The planet's surface is being themed for exploration." Not a roleplaying game, "I look at it as more of a general sci-fi hangout," he says. "Taglines are 'All your cliche are belong to us!' and 'The future of retro science ficiton.'" Works for me. Come see the future of the past's future under construction now-- direct SLURL teleport to Planet Mongo at this link.
It's a fantastic build! I can;t wait for it to be finished. Thank you for blogging it.
Posted by: Faerie | Friday, August 15, 2008 at 08:15 AM