Comments on: Ambergris in Second Life?

By: Denise Fleischer

Denise Fleischer — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:36:18 +0000

Get your butts over to Second Life. If you can deal with the lag, tp to Inspire Space. It’s totally cool. I have a coffee shop and conference center for all you SF writers out there. I’m Netera Landar.

By: Adam Rakunas

Adam Rakunas — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:59:18 +0000

This is part of my day job (which involves working with the aforementioned Jason Stoddard). Drop me a line and let’s get cracking.

By: Seth Merlo

Seth Merlo — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:19:52 +0000

I expect it would be a real time drain to maintain a world that’s good enough to keep current fans interested and entice newcomers. Maybe set it up with someone’s help and then hand it to them to do the day-to-day kinda things?

I am, of course, speaking from a position of total ignorance. I have no idea how much effort is involved in building a Second Life world, but I can make an intelligent guess that about the time drain factor.

By: Chris Billett

Chris Billett — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:18:06 +0000

I’ve never found it a time drain, but I was never too into it. I’ve maybe played a few hours over the last year? At least half of them a bit tipsy after the pub… don’t get into it without a plan, but Ambergris could be awesome in world.

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:04:10 +0000

Yeah, I’m still not sure. I am afraid of the time-drain aspects…

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:45:32 +0000

Would love to help, but I don’t have a laptop with sufficient graphics punch to use Second Life.

By: Chris Billett

Chris Billett — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:08:21 +0000

Whoops. I mean http://www.wahere.com/

Oh, and I forgot to mention, they just built Narnia. Although I haven’t looked at it yet.

By: Chris Billett

Chris Billett — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:03:31 +0000

I got an account for this when Imagination were looking into doing some work in it last year. In the end, the client had missed the boat, but my old housemates got really into it and have been setting up a virtual worlds design agency at http://www.wearehere.com

The main guy is a really successful designer in Brighton and London and they’ve done a few big events (like Sports Relief, a UK charity event) so you might want to talk to them. If you get an SL account, certainly let me know and I’ll log in for a virtual chat! Did you see George R. R. Martin’s reading in world? That was interesting.

By: Paul Raven

Paul Raven — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:07:26 +0000

I'd advise having a word with Jason Stoddard; his business is based around bringing immersive fictional environments to Second Life, and he's an sf writer too, so he'll be understanding of your questions and desires as regards how to get from idea to end result. Drop him a line; I bet he'd be stoked.

By: Deightine

Deightine — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:38:25 +0000

I’ve spent a fair bit of time roaming around in Second Life hobo style, and for a time even did some sculpting/design in a studio of my own there. It’s interesting if you can avoid the heavily commercialized districts that are just strip mall after strip mall of user made objects that nobody has any real interest in… and avoid the gaming parlors/casinos at all costs. They’re just like real ones only less imposing/grand.

I would certainly be interested in helping.. But it’s sort of an involved undertaking. You would need to decide first on how big you would want the outpost (you pay by Sq meter lots, yearly and monthly). The largest it gets are private islands where you get god-like editing power in return for an arm, a leg and a few months on a waiting list… but enough dedicated computing power to build an intricate area.

Personally if I were going to undertake something like this… I would join second life, get a premium account (which includes a 512×512m parcel tax free if I recall) and just poke around as a newbie to see if you could tolerate it before contemplating anything bigger. If you like it enough, buy out a few of the parcels around your space and begin spreading your mushrooms like a plague. My mind just spun out 2-3 really interesting viral marketing angles for that, actually… which I think I’ll let stew.

If you give it some serious thought and want someone to just drag you around and show you the place, I’d be more than happy to. Despite its more painful flaws at times, exploring Second Life can be a entertaining and educational experience. I would say if you look hard enough, you can find in SL every beauty and every horror of the human imagination.