SL21B – Beguile, Blissful, and Breathtaking

SLB Beguile

Starting at the top, Beguile is the north-west most of the main exhibit regions. The Nimbus flies to its west and the ocean and shoreline region Fame is its southern boundary.

Crossroads – New Orleans

The first stop is a role play exhibit for a group whose focus is 1890s New Orleans, the dark side (A World of Darkness Role Play Sim). Click the sign on the boardwalk for a notecard with landmark.

SL Coast Guard (SLCG) & SL Environmental Corps

Both of these groups have been around a while and I’ve seen their exhibits from time to time. This year they are doing a joint exhibit. Lots of information from the panels in the exhibit.

Asgardian Temp & Bifrost Bridge by Bonny Greenwood

Very impressive entrance! The place gives off a bit of a Marvel Amazon/Wonder Woman vibe. Make your way inside and across the bridge for a gift from the very creatively designed gift giver. The gift contains a notecard about the exhibitor.

ATG Productions

ATG is a virtual world news organization of which I had not yet heard. There are several floors of information to be had. Grid News with avatar anchors, Around the Grid, Dating Game, Show and Tell appear to be a few of their brands. They even have a news chopper warmed up on the roof!

Ascend to the office floor for gifts.

You can stop for some tea out front if it’s that time of day.

Sitearm’s Interactive Multimedia Expression Kits

The past couple years, Sitearm has had exhibits focusing on music and its production, including interactive tools. This year, the topic is 3D building. The exhibit is, as usual with Sitearm, packed with deeply thought through information about process and techniques. I’m on a quick browse through everything at the moment but will almost certainly return here later to go through it in detail.

Art by Schimmelpilz

A small gallery of RL works by the exhibitor.

Pride at Home

A Pride exhibit for SL21B. Click the information panels for group joiner, landmark, Discord. T-shirts are also to be had, gratis.

Up Up and Away

An installation about hot air balloons (and somebody seems to have been tipping them).

SL Sammelsurium Magazine

A SL publication, apparently German language. Includes an exhibit on Guttenburg’s printing process. Touch the German information panels for English translation. There are news stands you can touch for current issues.

Unicornium Elements

An art installation where vari-coloured crystals drip essence into collectors that pipe them to a central area where the rainbow crystal is made, or fed, I’m not sure which.

WK Dragon Mountain

Pretty self explanatory, here be dragons, lots of ’em.

Museum of Telecommunications

A museum exhibition of the history of the telephone and telegraph on the way to the mobile ‘smart’ phones we all know and loath today! Points for including a red English telephone box, but without the usual collection of, um, “business” cards.

LGBTQ History Museum and Cultural Center

Inside, in addition to the expected group joiners, are exhibits on activism, influential people, HIV treatment, and LGBTQ marriage.

Ukraine Wonderland Journey – The Four Elements of Natural Beauty

Work your way around to the entrance, they make it obvious, and walk into a Through the Looking Glass like world populated by Ukrainian folk art and folk tail inspired art. Do not be intimidated by the 50 foot tall Ukrainian peasant girl. She seems nice enough.

This is reminiscent of a Ukrainian themed art exhibit at SL20B, but I don’t have my notes handy to see if this is the same artist.

The Four Elements of Successful Scripting by Peter Stindberg

A software developer offers lots of sound advice on how to script better, including use of recent features such as linkset data.

Use a professional code editor, check! Implement version control, absolutely. If you’re a beginning scripter, drop by this exhibit!

Untitled Haunted Teahouse Exhibit

Milk Motion has created a spooky little ruin with tea to be had if your comfortable with the offerings.

SLB Blissful

The second exhibit area along the north shore of the SLB lands, Blissful sits just to the west of the welcome areas. Its southern border is Ember, another ocean and shore region.

Second Life Topography

The first exhibit I come to his Erik Mondrian’s enormous relief map of the Second Life continent Heterocera Atol. Click the tent card at the south-east corner for information about the artist.

The Elements of Tarot: The Fool’s Journey by Honey Heart

This looks like a very comprehensive and compact introduction to the Tarot, all in one exhibit. There’s a 22-stage quest in this exhibit. Read/click-on the panels next to the Page of Coins for instructions.

I think we may be seeing a lot of the Tarot, it’s a natural foil for the SL21B theme of the four elements as each suit in the Tarot maps to one of these elements.

Bryn Oh – The Skyfisher

The Skyfisher will be Bryn Oh’s next installation, opening on July 6^th. This exhibit is an early peek at the work. Bryn Oh’s projects are always thought provoking and invite interpretation on more and more levels the longer you are with them. I’ll make a note on my calendar for this opening!

“Sakura Fubuki” Observation Deck – momomura zehetbauer

Click the arrows pointing up to stand amongst the impossible in real life landscapes that make up this installation. I found this a good location to switch into mouselook, all the better to be more immersed in this surreal environment.

Pick up a couple SL21B themed gifts at ground level on your way out.

The Temple of the Elements by Tindallia Soothsayer

Inside a black pyramid – lots of pyramids this year too – with a rainbow coloured top and whose sides are decorated with symbols of the elements, is a display of the four elements and “a few ways in which avatars might simulate the elements in Second Life.”

Giant Snail Races

One of the longest running sports in Second Life, the giant snails are back for SL21B. Here are earth, air, fire, and water themed giant snails surrounding a pair of cubes from which you can get information about the giant snail races and a tiny ‘wind’ snail.

Elements by Unity at SL21B

An expansive art installation with sixteen paths marked by paintings and mandalas suspended around a circle. (Caution as you walk around, the surface is mined for some reason.) Click the central sculpture for a folder of information about the display. There’s a notecard with details about how to interact with the installation.

Arcadia Asylum Library & Freebie Center

A very steampunk, 20,000 leagues under the sea style display. Many of the items are freebies you can buy with a click. (I picked up a Nautilus minisub immediately. It looks like a classic prim build, but I’m sure I can find a use for it.)

Climb the stairs to visit a richly decorated hydrolab pod, itself and contents apparently all for sale at the low low price of L$0, and an above water furniture shop, all with the same prices. You’ll also find a guestbook here if you care to leave a note.

Team Baa

Climb into the giant yellow golf ball and click the screen to start a 10 minute plus video on the frustrations of golfing while tiny. (I think Team Baa’s sympathies might be with the Da Daists.)

Casting the Circle by Holocluck Henly

Click the welcome mat for information. This display takes the visitor on a multi-cultural spiritual journey, following a “widely observed spiritual path that spans several cultures worldwide.”

One part of the exhibit is a snowy winter scene, which feels very good today.

Bay City’s Elements!

Bay City always has a great build ready for SLB, and this year is no exception. It’s a bright, light place to gather all the information you could wish about the oldest Linden/Mole built theme based community in SL.

Atelier Vanessa @ SL21B

An art gallery presenting sixteen inworld art panels. Artist bio and landmark giver.

Caledon Oxbridge – Elements of Teaching and Learning #15

Caledon Oxbridge has been doing education in Second Life for as long as I can remember. This year, their display covers teaching and learning strategies as well as the effects of technology on education. Tea is on upstairs.

Second Life Mobile

A large display to inform residents about the developing iOS & Android mobile viewer. Links for the mobile, signing up for Premium (which you’ll need to join the beta programme), and a free mobile phone. I really should give this a try.

Museum of Contemporary Art

A couple levels of RL photography.

Virtual Ability @ SL21B

Virtual Ability: “building communities of support for people with disabilities in virtual worlds since 2007.”

Relax by the waterfalls and read through the information cards about this great group.

SLB Breathtaking

Breathtaking is just to the east of the welcome areas. It’s bordered on the south by Blaze, another ocean and shoreline region. It also, at least at the moment, appears to be a particularly rich source of elements if you are collecting them.

KittyCatS! Camp Meow!

Once again, KittyCatS have created a special birthday pair of cats that you can get for free by clicking on the models. There is also a megapus rezzer if you’d like to ride instead of walk for a while.

The theme of the display this year is summer camp. As usual, there are abundant cats in adorable poses as they swim, fish, roast marshmallows, and otherwise enjoy their week or two away at camp.

Bear Castle

Bear Castle is back again with a small SL21B museum with many examples of Linden & Mole bears. There’s no way the whole collection could be shown on an SLB exhibit parcel. Landmarks to the main castle available at the door.

Ayuda Virtual Communities Gateway

Providing getting started in Second Life education and basic tutorials in Spanish.

BBB – Bellisseria Bureau of Bureaucracy

This year’s BBB build is The Waterworks. It covers several floors starting with a building sized aquarium on the ground floor, a bar and lounge at the surface side of the aquarium on the first floor, and an enclosed garden above that. A GTFO freight operation appears to be attached to the side.

If you are collecting stamps, there are two special ones associated with the building along with whatever BBB bureaucrats you can find hanging about.

Unnamed Volcanic Desolation Display

Just west of the BBB Water Works is a small parcel covered in pumice with large lumps of glowing and smoking lava in the middle. There’s no information and the parcel has its generic title. ?

Hawaiian Disasters Memorial

The Hawaiian islands have not had an easy time of things of late. This is a shallow pool with models of the islands and floating plaques describing some of the state’s recent travails. Names of those lost line the exhibit.

Tower of the Elements – Vanessajane66

This one starts with a swim. From beneath the surface, you can begin climbing the stairs. Climb past the dragon (fire) and kites (air) to the garden (earth) up top where you can find a landmark for her gallery.

Love the way the vertical columns are decorated.

Stillwater Cypress Preserve – Cube & Raven

A pretty convincing micro-cypress swamp, complete with interpretive panels along the path.

Venture Bellemort

This is a very, very Goth castle. No surprise, it holds information about a Bloodlines vampire role play community. Information on joining inside.

Spirit of Chiaroscuro

A wheel of fortune like plaza surrounded by ancient standing stones, but with a cozy campfire and blankets to sit on on the sides. This is a LGBT themed fantasy and pagan themed role play group, open to all. Click the crystal for information and pictures.

The Elements by iSkye Silverweb

An art installation where abstract disembodied heads appear to be communicating telepathically. Or is the big one mind-controlling the smaller ones?

The Council of the Elements

Quite a lot of brightly coloured panels describing the relationships of the elements in many languages.

Suoh Elements: Inspired by the Elements

Several colourfully framed panels cycle through inworld portraiture above elemental themed landscaping. Information and gift at a separate panel on one corner of the parcel.

SL21B Pod Station

Where the pod and balloon tours leave from and return to.

Progeny

Muir bloody vampires. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) Another highly Goth castle containing lots of information on another vampire role playing system, distinct it is to be assumed from Bloodlines.

Eclipse Ridge

Supernatural role playing, does this mean more vampires?! I think it does, but other things as well.

SL21B – Pod Tours & The Tapestry of Time

Dang! I very nearly missed today’s town hall at the Aquatorium. RL did its best to wear me out before lunchtime and I very nearly napped through the event. I did manage to take in the last half hour and heard a lot of very interesting things from the Lindens and Moles. I will have to hope this will be uploaded to their YouTube channel. (So glad the Lindens hold these events!)

The Tapestry of Time

Much of yesterday was spent on one of my big SLB indulgences. I don’t spend all that much time living in the past, at least I don’t think I do… *eyes her enormous collection of 70s and 80s vinyl and rolls her eyes*. But I do have my nostalgic moments. The Tapestry of Time is the SL21B exhibit which is guaranteed to trigger one of those.

I started my climb up the tower starting at 2003 and working my way up. I stop at every platform, read each blurb about the year’s happenings and view every picture on the displays. It’s just as well I do most of my SLB exploration on my own because I’m sure my incredibly slow progress would drive anybody else mad!

I was going look through the whole 21 years at one go but…

Interlude at The Aquatorium

Along about 2019 I got the group notice – you have joined the Second Life Birthday group right? RIGHT?! – about the Moles setting up some aquatic and other activities around The Aquatorium. Over I went and had a great time. There was bowling, bumper boats, jet skis, water balloons, vicious pool noodles, and some terrific water slides. There were even a couple slip-n-slides set out and I swear I felt RL cooler after sliding down them. I’m sure there’s a psychology paper to be found in that fact somewhere. Whoever came up with this idea, well done! Awesome idea!

After a couple hours play, and total chaos as the Moles tore down the temporary activities, it was back to complete my alpine traverse of The Tapestry of Time tower. The 2020 section used to have one of my displays built into it, but that went away with the new architecture. Pity, but the result is a much cleaner look, and the Bellisseria development slide show can be seen in a couple other places anyway.

Pod Tours

Very soon I will begin walking the exhibit areas of SL21B. In preparation, to gather some of the highlights and figure out some landmarks, I took the YavaScript Pod tours of the main and adult themed SL21B areas.

In years past, I either complete ignored the tours or put them off until the second to last day of SLB. This year I decided to flip the script and see if it could leave me better set up to explore the exhibit regions.

The Main Pod Tour

To begin at the beginning, head to the main Pod Terminal and click on the waiting pod. (A new one rezzes every time one leaves, so there should always be one ready to go.)

I grabbed a pod at the start and rode the tour all the way through at one sitting. You don’t have to do either of these things. The pods tend to run every ten minutes or so. You can pick one up whenever you see one and continue the ride from there, hopping off as you like.

The whole thing ran an hour and twenty minutes for me. The route this year is straightforward. Beginning from Breathtaking, the route winds along the major avenues of each region going around the SL21B lands in a clockwise overall path. Turn outs are made at each of the large event venues and the welcome area.

The pods don’t move excessively fast, and in fact slow down to a craw at region crossings. I never had trouble with region content not loading before I approached it. Nor did I have any major region crossing issues. A smooth ride throughout.

The Balloon Tour

This was not my luck when I tried the balloon tour. I got dumped at the crossing back into the exhibit regions after flying by The Aquatorium. I teleported back to the start and tried again, with no issues the second time.

The balloon tour is only twenty minutes long and follows the same basic clockwise path. It moves right along and flies a little ways up. You may want to up your draw distance accordingly and you can expect some things to rez just before you reach them.

Aside from moving at a good pace, the trip is made faster because the balloon flies right over the exhibits in a direct line. If you have shared environment set, you’ll see a lot of lighting shifts. If that bugs you, set the sun to midday and relax. There’s a similar effect with audio streams. I paused my playback as it got a bit annoying.

The Adult Pod Tour

Finally, I rode the pod tour though the adult regions. (And no, I didn’t see anything that shocked me out of my wits. First, I’ve been in SL a little while now and would really take something to shock me. Second, I really wasn’t looking that hard.

Like the main pod tour, you can hop off and on at any point. The start is at the adult pod terminal. From start to return was 30 minutes for me.

There was one surprising moment when east-bound, the car teleported up to the Firestone Keep stage entrance and offered me a chance to hop out there. After a couple clicks, it teleported back and continued on its way.

The adult Shop & Hop regions are joined up to the exhibit regions and the pod tour takes them in as well, making a circuit through the shopping regions to join up the roads entering them from the exhibit areas.

Folding in a couple false starts, getting dumped from my balloon and Firestorm crashing surprisingly in the adult Shop & Hop part of the tour, along with a two hour detour to the super fun aquatic activities, I’ve spent all the time on SL21B I can for today ☹. Tomorrow, it’s on to the exhibit areas!

SL21B – The Nimbus and Stonehold Stages

The Nimbus

What could be more evocative of the element of air than an event stage on a flying sailing ship. The Nimbus’s deck, which is the event area, straddles the four regions of Amaze, Imagination, Astonish, and Astound.

Getting to The Nimbus requires a sort of leap of faith. I was not 100% convinced that using a cannon to launch oneself to the dance floor was entirely safe. But it turned out to be quite quick and painless.

The texturing on the ship is lovely to see. I presume there are lots of PBR materials being employed here. Look closely at the play of light on the deck surfaces as well as the details of the carvings on the sides of the ship.

This build appears, based on the creator field of just about every element I inspected, to be a product of Ancient Mole. Also the ancient tome Easter egg which you can hunt for looks like a static copy of his sometime avatar.

Stonehold

The final stage on the list is Stonehold, which spans the regions of Wonderous, Dazzle, Exhilarate, and Fascinate.

Last in our list of elements is earth. Stonehold, grounded firmly to the earth with its heavy stone architecture, surrounded and indeed even partly overgrown with plants represents this element well. A seemingly simple, if immense, structure, the detailing of this build is amazing. Look closely at the columns and other stonework, particularly with low angle lighting. It’s really great work!

There’s a lot more to Stonehold’s surroundings than most stages. Out front are two enormous hedge mazes that I will have to explore soon. Behind is a thick pine woods with paths and a meandering stream that empties into the ocean. Hunters may wish to give this area some attention 😉.

And now it’s time to find a place to relax after a busy day’s exploring.

Alta’s Pocket Guide to SL21B

Here’s my completely unofficial pocket/quick-start guide to this year’s SLB. For all the details, you should start browsing through the Featured News blog on the Second Life site.

If you’re arriving from a link on the community blogs or the Destination Guide, then you’re most likely going to begin at the Welcome Area shown above. Some things to take care of before you zoom off to the event spaces or exhibit areas:

Hunt HUDs

Pick up your hunt HUDs from the givers right at the Welcome Area plaza. There are two hunts this year. There’s this year’s edition of the Swaginator hunt which works much as it has for the past few years. There’s also The Elements Hunt, which has its own HUD.

For those new to the Swaginator hunt, just wear the HUD and follow the clues. You’ll know when you’ve found the prize stations. Touch them (in order!) to get your prize and the next clue. Tips: Don’t over think the clues and focus on the big public areas and event spaces. Swaginator prize givers have not, yet, been seen in the exhibitor areas.

The Elements Hunt is new. This hunt does encompass the exhibition regions. So, there’s a nice big scope for your searches. The HUD comes with a note card explaining how it all works. The important bits are:

• Wear your SL21B – Elements Collection Hunt HUD.
• Collect elements across the exhibitor regions.
• When you find one, walk over it or walk within 5 meters of it and touch it.
• The Elements Collection Hunt HUD will now increase by a point.
• Find another element and repeat!

The prize is a decorative/huggable/animesh Cobalt Boopie. Once you’ve completed the hunt, return to the welcome area to receive the prize from the giver.

In another change, sadly, they are not giving away an EV this year.

Getting Around

SLB is big. To find where you need to go, the Destination Guide’s SL21B category provides a great list of locations.

If you want to get a quick(ish) overview of the whole SL21B space, there are once again Yava Pod tours running. There are POD terminals for both the main and adult regions.

• Main POD Terminal
• Adult POD Terminal

Climb into a pod, and take some notes, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what’s where as you start your serious explorations.

Finally, there are the teleporters. Somewhere in each region, usually near the center of exhibit spaces or the entrances to event venues, will be two panels (see above) with teleport locations for main and adult SLB regions. Just touch the label and go.

And if all that isn’t enough, there are usually volunteer greeters around the welcome area who can hand you a notecard of links to interesting locations.

Events

The Opening Ceremony…

…has come and gone. However, Vic Mornington live streamed the session on YouTube and has posted the video here. Note that the video starts well before Patch’s speech and includes lots of camming around the attendees and presenters. If you want to skip to the opening ceremony itself start about 23 minutes in. Vic also recorded the fireworks show after the welcome speech.

Town Halls and Community Roundtables

A series of four town halls and the second community roundtable will be held over the course of the next week. All of these events will be at the Aquatorium Water Stage.

• Tuesday, June 25^th at 1:30pm SLT – Town Hall with the Product and Engineering teams
• Wednesday, June 26^th at 1:30pm SLT – Town Hall with the Product Operations
• Thursday, June 27^th at 1:30pm SLT – Town Hall Brett Linden interviews the Founder of Second Life Philip Linden
• Friday, June 28^th at 1:30pm SLT – Town Hall with the Moles!
• Monday, July 1^st at 11:30am SLT – Second Community Roundtable with Oberwolf Linden and Patch Linden

In my experience, some of these sessions can be very popular. It wouldn’t hurt to plan on showing up at least half an hour early.

Live Music and DJs

As is traditional with SLB, live music and DJs will be playing at all the stages pretty much solidly through the first ten days of SL21B. Big thanks to all the volunteers that make this happen as well as the musicians and DJs.

For the schedule of who’s playing what where, see the Google calendar here.

There are again four main events stages where all this music will be happening.

• Firestone Keep (Adult)
• The Aquatorium
• The Nimbus
• Stonehold

The Gift Area

The gift area is on a sort of mezzanine level at The Tapestry of Time. The gift area needs no explanation. Just head on in and start clicking. (Oh your poor inventory!)

The Exhibit Areas

There are sixteen main and four adult exhibit regions hosting some 310 exhibits! A full list of exhibitors can be found here in the community blogs. The full list of exhibitor regions, with SLURLs, is below.

Main Exhibit Regions

• Beguile
• Blissful
• Breathtaking
• Captivate
• Celebrate
• Stupendous
• Delightful
• Spectacular
• Electrify
• Sparkle
• Enchant
• Outgoing
• Marvelous
• Incredible
• Glamorous
• Fabulous

Adult Exhibit Regions

• Alluring
• Daring
• Euphoric
• Irresistible

Shop & Hop

Shopping? Of course there’s shopping. There is the traditional SLB Shop & Hop as well as a half a dozen regions of adult themed Shop & Hop. See the full vendor list here.

• Shop & Hop (well, it’s just one region, but it’s a place to start.)
• Adult Shop & Hop can be reached by walking or flying from the Firestone Keep stage. The adult shopping regions are directly attached to the east end of the adult exhibit/stage regions.

Did I leave out a fave part of SL21B? Let me know what I missed!

SL21B – Welcome Area, Firestone Keep, and the Aquatorium

SLB Awesome and SLB Magnificent

The main welcome area landing point is at SLB Awesome. The welcome area plaza stands under a huge lattice work pyramid. Head down the steps to the north to get to the rest of the SLB regions via the other welcome region SLB Magnificent.

But, before you head down the ramp toward SLB Magnificent, and The Tapestry of Time beyond, make sure to collect everything from the welcome area. Around the landing point, you’ll find a number of panels.

• The SL21B gifts giver
• A group joiner
• HUD givers
  • For the Swaginator hunt
  • For the Elements hunt
• Panel where you can add a texture/image to the community gallery
• Directions for making sure you’re getting the full PBR experience
• Teleporters to the general and adult regions
• And a portal to the Welcome Hub (where there are portals back and to the Shop n’ Hop

Magnificent is mostly empty with paths bordered by fountains leading to a central pyramid. Along the paths are displays that will show the images submitted to the community gallery.

The Firestone Keep Stage

The theme for SL21B is “The Elements”, meaning Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. The Firestone Keep stage is most definitely constructed using the element of fire. The ruined cathedral where the stage itself is found is filled with large burning braziers. An orange black sky is dominated by a huge red planet hanging in the northern sky.

The Firestone Keep stage is in the adult area of SL21B. Last year was the first year SLB hosted adult exhibit regions. This year is the first where an event stage has been placed there.

Like the other three stages, Firestone Keep is composed of four regions (Steamy, Feisty, Spicy, and Smoldering), but not in the usual way. The stage is off by itself in one region and the other three are mostly for decoration.

There are back doors into the adult Shop n’ Hop from Smoldering http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Smoldering/239/128/23 and Feisty http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SLB%20Feisty/248/129/23.

Watch your feet on the northern path through Steamy. The lava is running across the road. And there are even lava bombs falling in Feisty.

The Aquatorium

The Aquatorium, covering the four regions of Mesmerize, Pizzazz, Spellbound, and Stunning, is the water stage. It’s also the marquee event stage for SL21B. This is where the welcome event was held and I’m pretty sure this is where the townhalls and community round tables are to be held.

The water theme runs thoroughly through the whole stage build. Sea plants grow around the inner walls. Water spills down the sides of the stairway to the secondary stage. Canals surround the main stage. And the whole edifice sits in the middle of four regions of sea.

I’ve only seen two of the four stages, apart from quick glances, but it looks like the Moles have outdone themselves yet again. Looking forward to exploring the air and earth stages next.

Hope to see you at SL21B!

SL21B is Underway!

Second Life’s 21^st Birthday event has kicked off! I’ve been waiting this since the end of SL20B. At noon SLT today, some 45 general and 8 adult SLB regions opened to the public. That includes four, four-region stages and a number of filler regions in the central sea that, I don’t think, contain event or exhibit spaces.

Still, I have 53 regions and 310 exhibits to explore and 10 days to do it all in. Over that same time, there will be five town halls and community round tables. Over this coming weekend, the Lindens will host DJs and live artists at all of the stages, of which there is one at the adult regions this year. Starting Monday, dedicated volunteers will host 24 hour DJs and live musicians at those same stages.

So, I will have a nice busy time!

Patch delivered the welcome speech at 2:00 PM SLT. There were no big announcements this year, but he did make sure to thank all the people it takes to put on this huge event.

The opening was well attended, with nearly 300 avatars filling the seating areas around the main stage. A few years ago, when similar numbers were approached, the regions had to be restarted. A couple of years back, there were glitches here and there. I have to say that this whole thing ran very smoothly even with hundreds of AVs looking on.

(Note, ones frame rate could suffer badly if one accidentally cammed back into the audience. It sook some patient flycam tweaking to line up the last picture above.)

I’m off for tonight, but I’ll be found wandering SL21B over the next week plus. Hope to see you there!

SciFi Con 16 Continues

I finished wandering through all nine regions of SciFi Con 16 yesterday. Usually, when I finish exploring an event, it has already gone past its scheduled end date and is living on borrowed time. For once, I’ve finished going through all the regions, shops, and exhibits, and there are still days to go! The con is scheduled to run through Tuesday the 4^th of June. So, if you haven’t been yet, there is still plenty of time. Get out there!

Shockwave

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Shockwave/128/192/64
Sponsor: UFW
Creator: Kippy Numbers

Shops & Organizations

• Unified Furry Wrestling
• I.C.U. Photography
• KC Fashion
• Lazy Cats KittyCat Market
• Jazabelle Boutique
• Urban Boy
• Red Rocket
• Eclipse Ridge
• Fawkes Landing
• A Fine Grind
• Second Life Exelsior
• The Iceberg Lounge
• Wrestlecorner
• Decibel
• Furry Wrestling Federation
• The Astro Star
• The Moonstone Studio
• CODEZ
• Supernation Comics
• Savoy Ballroom
• Whymsical Marketplace
• The Library at the End of the Universe
• Hall of Justice
• SomeOne Stole My Sign
• The Creatorverse
• Wayne Enterprises
• Pendragon Designs
• Phoenix Ascending
• Justice

At first glance, Shockwave is a perfectly ordinary late 20th century city getting through another night. Except, the night sky is filled with more stars than I’ve ever seen above Manhattan and some of the buildings are strangely… dynamic. They pulse and throb, swelling out laterally in sudden bursts and then contracting back to normal.

If that wasn’t odd enough, above one can see a pair of co-orbiting orange planets. But, they’re not some distant prospect up in the heavens. They are orbiting around the top of one of the buildings. Not everything is going normally here.

The theme of the region is announced at the entrances as “Heroes vs. Villains”. If that sounds superhero-ish, it is. There are quite a number of superhero themed shops and organizations to be found here. If Marvel or DC are your thing, this is the place for you.

Relicta Naufragium

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Relicta%20Naufragium/128/203/62
Sponsor: Solaris Base Station
Creators: Samuel Saito, Onyx Core

Shops & Organizations

• New Frontiers
• Sanna – Science and Art
• Radio Spiral
• TATU – New Triscalia
• Multifarious
• Solaris Base Station
• Starfleet Academy Experience
• CODEZ
• Urantia
• Dark Angel Rebels
• USS Advent
• Flashpoint
• Task Force 6
• Space Colonies: Utopia or Dystopia?
• Haunt
• Go-Sci
• Boai Honglian Companion’s Guild
• Scavenger Bin
• USS Durant: New Life
• National Space Society
• Warehouse 13
• Grimly Fiendish
• Rose Your Life
• International Spaceflight Museum

‘Relicta Naufragium’ translates to ‘abandoned shipwreck’. An appropriate name. This region is dotted with what appear to be the ruins of several colonies and many wrecked ships of a wide variety of designs. Overhead, the sky is mostly black but a large portion is filled with what look like streams of gas spiraling into a galactic black hole.

Are we in a sort of Sargasso sea of the distant future? [Apologies to Andrew North/Andre Norton] Is this the last planet or asteroid still going as the galaxy drains away into its central black hole? Either way, the region has a winding down/time is running out sort of feel to it.

The other theme here is Star Trek. There are several Trek role play groups that have exhibits in this region. Good to see these groups still going strong. The sponsor, Solaris Base Station has been at it for some six years now. Good work!

One spot I particularly liked is National Space Society’s place toward the south-west corner of the region. They put together a nice comfortable looking place to hang out.

MonsterVerse

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/MonstereVerse/49/130/62
Sponsor: USS Nautilus
Creators: Jingie and SF Lluminos

Shops & Organizations

• The Mustard Seed
• Boai Honglian Companions
• Dantooine
• Swamp Monster DJ
• Starbase London
• Dragon Forge
• USS Nautilus
• Hivid
• Section 31
• Firelight
• Coghaven
• CODEZ
• Belgroth Emporium
• Atlanta Spacecraft
• Yavin IV
• Stone Johnson’s Abduction and Robotics Warehouse
• Cupcake Contraband
• Zen Meshworks
• Starfleet Infinity
• Sweet Hearts

The final region in my traverse of the SciFi Con 16 lands is MonsterVerse. It’s a bit of a hodgepodge, stylistically as well as in the themes of the shops and organizations.

The basic build is a grassy enclave surrounded by high rocks. Occasional waterfalls spill from the rocks into quiet bucolic corners where primitive, feline?, natives live. The main path is a deeply rutted earthen way that winds between a wide variety of styles of building.

For shops, you’ll find everything from plants at The Mustard Seed to AI bots at Stone Johnson’s or movie rentals at Hivid. Organizations run from role play groups like USS Nautilus to Boai Honglian Companions (a very non-Starfleet type of role play).

But, MonsterVerse did not forget to bring the monster! Off the south there appears to be a sort of dimension gate in front of which stands a kaiju strongly resembling a popular giant lizard, famed of many films in its storied career.

Nearby, the adventurous traveler may climb an almost endless series of steps (or just fly up) to a floating stone platform that contains, incongruously, a wrecked sailing vessel.

With MonsterVerse, that’s about it for SciFi Con 16 for me. Hair Fair and Pride Month are already underway and SL21B will be here before we know it! And besides all that, I’m supposed to be working on my next product!

Exploring SciFi Con 16

SciFi Con 16 has been going for over a week now, but there remain a few days to enjoy it. If everything goes to plan, it should run through June 4^th.

Over the past few days, I’ve gradually explored a few more of the shopping regions at the con. Sadly, SciFi Con comes very shortly after Fantasy Faire, and I often overspend at that event. So, I haven’t been going shopping mad here. So far I have limited my self to a couple donations and one steampunk blaster from Novatech.

The Clopping Dead

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Clopping%20Dead/130/76/64
Sponsor: Progeny Mall
Creator: MysticQ

Shops & Organizations

• Second Haunts
• VSide Radio Streams (Empty?)
• Casterly Rock
• Amigo U.F.O. Creations
• The Grimm Funeral
• Dark Love
• Noxia
• Croquis
• Honor Pro Wrestling
• Pounce Architecture & Animations
• CODEZ
• Cyber
• Mojo Bone
• Demonpaws
• ZaikaVirus
• Gor-Jus Animations
• ZuE
• Jake Only
• Harbingers of Blood
• Meshed Up
• Veil of Night
• Daggers of Twilight
• Progeny/Insidious Tribe
• e.y. Fashion
• Red Rocket
• Avali
• WoRPG
• Nocturne Skies

There’s a region title you don’t see every day. Apparently, part of the theme of this region is a collision between zombie/undead mythos and the my little pony universe. Interesting.

With the streets all being boardwalks just over water, and the huge gas giant hanging in the night sky, my first guess was that I had strayed onto an ocean moon of some huge planet. However, near one of the region crossings is a panel with some background from the builder.

The Clopping Dead is the island of misfit ponies vs. the undead. The isle of misfit toys comes from the 1964 movie “Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer”.

My misfit toys are my little pony created in 1983. Their counter was the undead witch or vampires and zombies.

The concept of the clopping dead is set in the swamps outside of New Orleans Louisiana 400 years in the future. Global warming has raise the seas by 60 feet now.

The swamps have access to the underwater realm of the clopping dead. Full of undersea creatures. Look forward to pony and mermaid races on this region.

Now I’m confused by the gas giant in the sky. I’ll get over it.

A couple of areas besides the shops to look into: in the north-east corner of the region is one of the DJ/dance stages for the con. There was a good crowd there while I was looking through this area. Off in the south-east corner is a small swampy spot where one of the Tammy’s (enormous frogs) has escaped from Fantasy Faire and set up housekeeping in the SciFi Con lands.

Right next to Tammy, there is a blue spiral energy stair that will take you to the upper entrance to the next region.

Biohazard

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Biohazard/128/54/61
Sponsor: WHIPpet Radio
Creator: Carl Landfall and Missa Sprout

Shops & Organizations

• Vortech
• We Discovered Earth
• DUBZ Shapes
• Goodneighbor
• Weltenville Roleplay
• Dark Star Radio
• Model Desires
• Filly
• Vision Motors
• Angry Store
• Brewed Quest
• CODEZ
• Static
• Cassandra City
• PixilVerse
• Aeropunk Sky Pirates Coalition
• Crixus Carnival of Carnage
• Sacrificial
• Safe Waters Foundation
• WHIPpet Radio
• Artemisia (Empty)
• Amusement Rides
• Kranzworth Media Products
• Red Rocket Cola
• Neo Kitsch
• Kick
• Incubo Design

Biohazard is a very photogenic build. Buildings with a dieselpunk look to them surround streets not of gold, but made of a golden lattice just over the water beneath. A similar lattice walkway hangs high above the main streets.

To get to the upper walk, you can take the elevator in the clock tower, or climb the spiral stairs next to Tammy in The Clopping Dead.

Echoes of Endor

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Echos%20of%20Endor/127/41/63
Sponsor: Only Core Dragons
Creators: Brion Ravens & Rodhan Ravens (With puzzles by Sydelle Sanzibar)

Shops & Organizations

• Starbase London
• Raven’s Photography
• Tython, New Je’daii Order
• Tea Lane
• The Ages of Uru
• Autistic Resource Center
• What’s Lost Spirits
• Visualfreelancer
• Boozed Designs
• Dantooine – Star Wars Roleplay
• Grumble
• Ever Green
• Dragoos
• Beyond Star
• Old World Fantasy / Kitty Creations
• Panda Panda
• Sounds Great
• CODEZ
• Peeps Dinkies
• Lola Lane
• Trip Gear
• Tiny Explorers
• Naeya Role Play
• Dreamscaped
• MyTree

This is very much a Star Wars themed build. The northern portion is a single extensive diorama reminiscent of the setting for the end of the third movie, episode six? or whatever. The build comes complete with pint sized furry natives in primitive garb attempting to utilize archaic weapons against futuristic armoured vehicles.

Chatting with (clicking on) the diminutive natives of this region appears to be part of a local quest. If nothing else, they can help you find a lantern that will let you skip the stairs to the upper level. Teleport up at the Myst Library for a region quest HUD.

Aha, the con monorail appears to be running now. I saw it go by while exploring an elevated dome at the east side of the build. I made my way to the elevators up to the Echoes of Endor station on the line and caught the next coach.

It is indeed working. Hold on to your butts! This thing is fast. It zooms along at quite a clip, making a zigzag loop through all of the regions of SciFi Con.

I still have three more regions to explore but I have at least four days in which to do it. (In fact, I should be able to finish my con walk today.) All of this puts me suspiciously ahead of schedule.

Hope to see you there as I continue my wanderings!