New World Notes

Three Visually Fantastic Places to Visit in Second Life Photographed by SuTol

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

SuTol’s picture of the sim “Wo Qui Non Coin” [teleport here] just grabbed me. As beautiful as the bucolic sims are, I am always entranced by sims that capture the frenetic energy of a city. She includes a link to a song of the same name. I love the energy of the city. 

Never fear, SuTol can do bucolic as well, click here:

Visit in SL: Rosemont, a Cyberpunk City Swallowed by the Forest

Click here to visit Rosemont District - Nirvanic Dystopia in Second Life, a cyberpunk city with a fun twist. Created by master builder Kaiden Tray (last seen here turning the Bates Motel from Psycho into a disturbingly beautiful SL experience), it's a fun twist to the usual dystopian metropolis: Basically it's what the city looks like after the people have gone away, and nature returns to consume it. Tray tells me the visuals were inspired by Horizon Zero Dawn, and set to work fashioning the place like it was a cyberpunk bonsai tree:

"I usually modify plants and trees and bushes," as he puts it. "Sometimes I will take sets apart and just use certain pieces from sets. I might resize different things to make a tree a bush or a bush a tree. I’ll also unlink and link different objects together or even retexture roads is I’m going for a certain look. A lot of the landscaping is custom."

Commissioned by longtime SL blogger Whoop C Daisy (gotta love her avatar name) Rosemont is actually a site for fashion shoots for her blog:

Explore in SL: A Group Art Exhibit in a Life-Size Apartment Complex

Click here to teleport to what seems like a six floor apartment complex, but actually houses a pretty ambitious group art project called Ed. Colonia:

The idea behind Ed. Colonia was exploring further the format of group exhibitions, preserving each artist’s individuality as we occupy a common space. No theme has been suggested, since the limitations of the apartments were restraining enough. Each floor, inhabited by a different artist, is an exhibition on its own. The lack of front doors encourages the visitors to walk inside and explore.

It's the latest project of GBTH Project, a Second Life-based arts space, and speaking of ambition, the group's official site is so well-made, I honestly assumed it was a real life gallery's homepage. The installations in Ed. Colonia are impressively varied in their theme and their success as installations, but setting it all in a six floor apartment is a smart touch, something you only occasionally see IRL. 

Hat tip: Artist Huckleberry Hax, who has an extended write-up here. Marina Munte, the founder of GBTH (i.e. "Grab By The Horns"), by the way, was recently featured in a Strawberry Linden interview:

This Week's Featured Banner: An SL Sim Based on Modern Okinawa

This week's banner features a photo from last Thursday's post on Maasya featuring the recent Okinawa SAKURA MATSURI Event, set on a sim made to look like a modern cityscape on that island prefecture of Japan, and impressively detailed at that.  Click here to teleport.

Submit your own favorite virtual world locations for featuring on New World Notes' banner or in Comments below:

This Week's Featured Banner: The Mass Effect-Inspired World Created in SL

This week's banner above was featured in my recent post on BluShock, a group of dedicated Mass Effect roleplay fans who have created an entire experience in Second Life inspired by their favorite game. Sample:

“It's our largest and most ambitious/compact base of operations yet,” BluShock leader Fazzy Constantine (above) tells me. “We have over 25 rooms and multiple elevators with 8 levels each, a huge arboretum dome, which is inspired to look like the Presidium Commons, on the Citadel, from the Mass Effect games, which our roleplay group has been inspired by, since 2010.”

But the base is only the beginning:

“The asteroid will be our base of operations in our fictional star system. Vanaheim, which is set in the Milky Way galaxy, in what would be known as the Beta Quadrant, if you were into Star Trek. We have three more main worlds we'll be creating, over the course of 6 to 9 months.”

Teleport link to start exploring yourself, but be sure not to interrupt any Mass Effect roleplay already in progress.

Submit your own favorite virtual world locations here or in Comments below:

Mass Effect Fan Community Creating Massive Roleplay Experience in Second Life Inspired by the Game

Click here to visit something fairly amazing in Second Life: A massive roleplay game world inspired by Mass Effect. It’s the creation of BluShock, a fan community that’s been creating entire worlds and experiences in Second Life based on the videogame franchise for over a decade. I recently made a small visit to the asteroid base, just a small part of the larger experience, and was duly impressed.

“It's our largest and most ambitious/compact base of operations yet,” BluShock leader Fazzy Constantine (above) tells me. “We have over 25 rooms and multiple elevators with 8 levels each, a huge arboretum dome, which is inspired to look like the Presidium Commons, on the Citadel, from the Mass Effect games, which our roleplay group has been inspired by, since 2010.”

But the base is only the beginning:

“The asteroid will be our base of operations in our fictional star system. Vanaheim, which is set in the Milky Way galaxy, in what would be known as the Beta Quadrant, if you were into Star Trek. We have three more main worlds we'll be creating, over the course of 6 to 9 months.” Here's further details on the group's in-game news site.

Anyone can visit their worlds, but the group is serious about maintaining their roleplay narrative, even in their Discord server: People can join, he tells me, "Through application, and then we hold an induction. If they have roleplay experience, great. If not then it's pretty easy to pick up. If they want to just observe and become explorers of the asteroid and worlds then they can choose to do that and still get invited to the Discord server."

More from Fuzzy below, and some pics from BlueShock’s Flickr group:

Why Second Life's Most Famous Cyberpunk City Now Has a Homeless Camp

A descendant of migrants and anti-fascist resistors brings their memory to the metaverse

You can have a virtual home in Hangars Liquides, the massive and awesome cyberpunk city in Second Life which boasts a skyline of skyscrapers before which Oprah Winfrey once gave a speech, and William Gibson himself once praised. But why pay to live in a well-appointed penthouse of a dystopian future, when you can live in a tent from our near-dystopian present?

Click here to visit, and if you like, find a free place for your avatar to squat, in Hangars Liquides’ new homeless encampment.

“I know there are quite a few wanderers in SL that like to go around, so they could have a little spot in a place that is community-oriented to get together and talk and just have simple good times,” Hangars creator Djehan Kidd tells me.  “And of course I hope people will reflect on the subjects of current homelessness and migration crisis.”

Djehan spent many days creating the camp, not only making sure it worked as an immersive space, but that it evoked the homeless camps that have sprouted up across the real world in recent years:

This Week's Featured Banner: SL's Forbidden Retro Sci-Fi Planet Idun

Thanks to Caitlin Tobias for submitting this week's banner, featuring a breathtaking image she created of the retro sci-fi Planet Idun in Second Life. She reports that it's currently "open only to certain groups" (you know, like a forbidden planet!), but you can attempt to teleport to the private region by clicking here. Failing that, Caitlin has many more equally impressive images of Idun here on her blog.

Submit your own favorite virtual world locations here or in Comments below!

Virtual World Location Of The Week: Hiraya Village in Second Life

Via Nodoka Hanamura, this week's virtual world location gracing New World Notes' banner is Hiraya Village in Second Life, a community based around a highly-detailed recreation of modern urban cityscapes of Japan.

"It's run by Rydia Lacombe and a few others as a federated community (much like East River), it spans multiple regions and recently started expanding to cover all of Bedstraw and parts of Datana, as well as existing as a larger community that extends to Cisthene, Amella, Tersa and Gibbosa."

Click here to start exploring.

Know about another great virtual world location? Click here to submit an image, background info, and a link for readers to visit.

Virtual World Location Of The Week: Golgothica In Second Life

Courtesy Caitlin Tobias, this week's virtual world location gracing New World Notes' banner is Golgothica in Second Life, a roleplay storytelling region inspired by Game of Thrones and other fantasy classics. As Caitlin writes on her blog:

Golgothica is for role-play and upon arrival you are supposed to dress to theme. A broad theme, as described above, and since I am an Elf I didn’t find it to hard to find an appropriate outfit for exploring... [Lead creator] Golgothica is a cool place, you should go and have a look! And I suggest you don’t wait too long, Hera’s regions usually do not have a long lifespan.

Know about another great virtual world location? Click here to submit an image, background info, and a link for readers to visit.