Second Life

Advice on building a Second Life Island?

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So I find myself in the position of needing to buy and help build up a Second Life island for the day job. I’m excited in about it insomuch as it’s a new project, and something I’ve never done before. Plus, hey, it’s almost virtual reality. Granted, it would have been far, far cooler if the college had gone ga-ga for World of Warcraft instead, but hey, I’ll take my virtual worlds where I can find them.

In the meantime though, I find myself having to work through questions I don’t really know the answers to. Specifically:

  1. Preferred Grid Location: I know we want our island to be on the public grid, but where on the public grid? Is it better to be off by yourself? Should you be next to another college? Or the New Media Consortium? Or does it not really matter, because people will be ‘porting in, not wandering the wilds of SL looking for college islands to explore?
  2. What island shape do we want? Is one type of island better to build on than another? For example, we’re thinking of either the “donut” shape, which is an oval island with a lake in the middle, or a mountainous shape, which sticks an mountain on one side of the island. Which is easier to build on?

Stumbling through a Second Life

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Jumping into Second Life is like jumping into a void, albeit one populated with the remnants of a half million flea markets. Moving around is awkward, and not just because your avatar inevitably looks like its been nailed to a set of wooden planks. The world’s interface makes it difficult to figure out how to … Read more

Radio Active #41: Harping Monkey’s Second Life, SysStat, Model Makers

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Sickness and teething played havoc with Radio Active’s publication schedule, but the podcast returns with a shorter show that catches folks up on happenings around the thermonuclear burg. In Net News, I take a look at the Harping Monkey Inn’s virtual digs within Second Life, talk about the SysStat widget for Mac OS X, and … Read more