Meeting Again For The First Time
A little before I started this blog, I came across the second_lifers community and found out about places like Kadarin Hall and Grizzy's Cafe. I was there when kateamdahl was first asking for ideas for a place she wanted to build where people could have fun in a more intellectually stimulating fashion than Second Life usually provides.
The result was The Diversionarium, and I'm a bit embarrassed to say that it wasn't until recently that I finally gave it a visit, having been such an enthusiastic supporter of the idea from the early stages. But, I finally made it and the landmark now sits in the "Hangouts" folder in my inventory.
My first few visits were solo experiences, as there were no scheduled events, but there are still ways to keep oneself amused even alone. Quoste (a guess-the-word game that involves notable quotations) can be fun in a group, but can also be played by oneself. They also have games like Chess and Reversi for duos, and Mystery Build for larger groups (more on that later.)
I went another night when the lovely nox_pinion was hostessing. We had a long chat about ideas for a sort of newbie tips website I've been thinking about creating so people entering Second Life for the first time would be a little more prepared. We were joined by featherfoot Fadoodle (azureavian) and she in turn invited a few more friends (whose names and LJs, if any, I have lost track of.) I played a game of Reversi with Nox (I won, but probably because Nox was too distracted by hostessing duties to pay full attention to the game) and then we decided to convene upstairs and ended up playing a few rounds of Mystery Build.
I really enjoyed Mystery Build, because it is one of those things you can really only do easily in Second Life. The closest RL equivalent would be Pictionary, but instead of drawing, you have to build a representation of the word out of prims. The slightly frustrating thing is that the scripted object that runs the game decides if someone has guessed correctly, and close guesses don't always count. I had to create "a bowl of cereal" and someone guessed "cereal bowl" very early on, but the script didn't parse it as a successful guess, but did accept just "cereal". Of course, by that point I'd not only made the bowl, I'd made the box and was tilting it over the bowl and adding little bits of cereal streaming from the top. Anybody who wants practice their building skills, my goodness, it's a great way to do it.
On another visit to the Diversionarium, I ran into another LJ denizen, argent_bury, inworld for the first time. I'd been wandering in boyshape at the time and she was a bit surprised to see me thus. I showed her one of the few male outfits I have--the Blaze tuxedo that I still treasure--and she changed into her little black dress to match.
I got a notice that DJ Lysander was doing his thing at QTLabs, and I decided to wander over there for a bit.
I have a little more time to work with than I did, so I may be spending a little more time inworld. Just have to be careful that I don't get too absorbed in it at the cost of those pesky RL obligations.
The result was The Diversionarium, and I'm a bit embarrassed to say that it wasn't until recently that I finally gave it a visit, having been such an enthusiastic supporter of the idea from the early stages. But, I finally made it and the landmark now sits in the "Hangouts" folder in my inventory.
My first few visits were solo experiences, as there were no scheduled events, but there are still ways to keep oneself amused even alone. Quoste (a guess-the-word game that involves notable quotations) can be fun in a group, but can also be played by oneself. They also have games like Chess and Reversi for duos, and Mystery Build for larger groups (more on that later.)
I went another night when the lovely nox_pinion was hostessing. We had a long chat about ideas for a sort of newbie tips website I've been thinking about creating so people entering Second Life for the first time would be a little more prepared. We were joined by featherfoot Fadoodle (azureavian) and she in turn invited a few more friends (whose names and LJs, if any, I have lost track of.) I played a game of Reversi with Nox (I won, but probably because Nox was too distracted by hostessing duties to pay full attention to the game) and then we decided to convene upstairs and ended up playing a few rounds of Mystery Build.
I really enjoyed Mystery Build, because it is one of those things you can really only do easily in Second Life. The closest RL equivalent would be Pictionary, but instead of drawing, you have to build a representation of the word out of prims. The slightly frustrating thing is that the scripted object that runs the game decides if someone has guessed correctly, and close guesses don't always count. I had to create "a bowl of cereal" and someone guessed "cereal bowl" very early on, but the script didn't parse it as a successful guess, but did accept just "cereal". Of course, by that point I'd not only made the bowl, I'd made the box and was tilting it over the bowl and adding little bits of cereal streaming from the top. Anybody who wants practice their building skills, my goodness, it's a great way to do it.
On another visit to the Diversionarium, I ran into another LJ denizen, argent_bury, inworld for the first time. I'd been wandering in boyshape at the time and she was a bit surprised to see me thus. I showed her one of the few male outfits I have--the Blaze tuxedo that I still treasure--and she changed into her little black dress to match.
I got a notice that DJ Lysander was doing his thing at QTLabs, and I decided to wander over there for a bit.
I have a little more time to work with than I did, so I may be spending a little more time inworld. Just have to be careful that I don't get too absorbed in it at the cost of those pesky RL obligations.