A couple of entirely frivolous activities have taken over my SL recently. First, is kitties. When the Firestorm kitty from KittyCats came out I quickly grabbed one, promptly lost it by rezzing the box on top of a large mesh prim (“the owner doesn’t permit…” error despite it being my land) and then unpacked the free started cat from the included coupon. (Just because I think another set of parenthesis would look nice here I’ll note that the errant Firestorm kitty box reappeared in my inventory the following day.)
I’ve never been impressed with breedable pets before. All I’ve ever seen of them is a bunch of animals standing motionless with statistics hovering over them as the sim they occupy is slowly brought to its knees. The KittyCats cats are breedables but they’re also really fun pets. There are some well thought out ways you can interact with them; several hold and pet animations, playing with a ball. They grow on you very quickly. Naturally, there are all manner of things you can buy for your kitties.
Support is also fantastic. I managed to lose my starter kitty and was just about frantic. I left a support ticket with them and after a few hours — on a weekend — they returned my lost kitty.
The second big distraction has been cars. One of the family put together a very nice little race track. All I had to drive on it was a very squirrely motorcycle and a push cycle. After spending far too much on a car that I barely know how to drive I’ve set about denting all the walls on the track.
I’ve learned I’m a terrible driver. If this were a real car it would now look something like balled up aluminum foil on wheels, and I’d be in traction. Still, we’ve having lots of fun with the track and it turns out there are few things kitties like better than warm car bonnets.
If there’s a moral to this post it’s that one of the really nice things about Second Life is that we’re not dependent on what Linden Labs can dream up for our entertainment. Because most of the world is built by residents, the imagination and effort of thousands help to enrich our experience. Cats don’t interest you? Cars are done better in another game? That’s OK. Somebody is working on something else somewhere that will grab your attention.
Thinking Outside the Plywood Box 