Thursday, March 31, 2011

Some Resources For Your Second Life

In a brief departure from the recent norm I wanted to highlight some of the resources available to those of us living in Second Life that I use most often. The photos may or may not have anything to do with the content of this post - in most cases they are of places I just haven't had a chance to mention as of yet.

One of the best sources of information on Second Life, with links to answers for questions you haven't even thought of yet, is Daniel Voyager's blog. Daniel is one of the most active correspondents we have on the grid and if you go through the tabs at the top of his page you'll find a wealth of information gathered in an easily accessed format. If you want to know more about this world Daniel is always the "go to" person.

If you want to know how to make something for Second Life but don't know where to start the best place is the MetaLibrary. Compiled and maintained by Indigo Mertel this is a treasure trove of smart and invaluable information about everything from Blender to poses. Take advantage of all of Indigo's hard work (and support the library if you find it helpful).

Speaking of poses - I'm certainly not a model. However, I do on occasion like to tell stories and include illustrative photos with them which requires my "character" to look at least semi appropriate for the narrative. If you want to start creating a "pose library" then you need to visit Status. Elusyve and Gidge display a wonderful sense of humour and I haven't found anything there so "precious" that I didn't want it. The icing on this cake is that the prices are fabulous! Besides, how many designers do you know who create a colour scheme for their store which somehow magically mirrors that of the two cats playing outside?

Words are important, even in a virtual world, and there is a rich culture of book clubs, writing and literature in Second Life. Locations such as the Milk Wood Writers' Colony & Showcase and Book Island are good places to start.

Crap Mariner writes a 100 Word Story every day and invites others to do the same in his weekly challenges. In addition he performs his story readings every week on Edloe and at various storytelling gatherings around the grid. Follow him and his adventures and find links to this active group of verbalists.

To find those residents who feel the same way you do about your favourite author just use search. You may be astounded at the number of sims and groups that share your fascination.

I realize that this is just a small sampling of the resources available to us but they are some of my favourites. I believe that all of the inworld sites mentioned or photographed (with the exception of Milk Wood) are rated "Moderate". I'll get them added to the page that sorts by maturity rating as soon as I can. :)

3 comments:

Jennifer Fiddes said...

MilkWood is a General location, we wanted to make sure any writer that came into sl could find a beautiful place to write. Thanks for the mention Honour.

Honour McMillan said...

ahhh good! Thank you for correcting me :) I'll make sure it's in the right place on the page.

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