On the Reef

Moonrise Azalee: Okay - well, Hey everyone, welcome to Ravens Reef- a small town, urban 4x4 region- It's a fictional town with a modern North American pacific coastal theme - Roleplay is encouraged here but not mandatory. Ravens Reef was inspired by a few different things - first, I really loved the little immersive regions I found in The Big Grid, but these places came and went pretty quickly it seemed - I would fall in love with a place, then one day it would be shut down, which was sad - but while in InWorldz, I met Curt Halberd who created very realistic builds, and who created a town called Backwater that felt so real - I would wander around his little town, able to imagine myself living there, and I loved how it felt.

Moonrise Azalee: I realized I wanted to make something like that, something I knew I would be able to financially afford for the long term, a place that people could go to and maybe create their own story in a small town setting, and so Birchglen, Ravens Reef was born - it existed in a smaller form in InWorldz, but I had a large land mass in OSGrid where I continued working on it, with help from Curt, and eventually I brought it into Kitely since I had already been a resident here as well.

Moonrise Azalee: It has also been in 3rd rock grid, because i liked the idea of it being always online, but when 3rd rock grid shut down Ravens reef remained here permanently

Moonrise Azalee

Moonrise Azalee: Something that was important to me was to use content from some creators I really enjoy and admire, Curt Halberd and his REALized Mesh, as well as Koshari from Four Winds, Chic Aeon and many others - it can be a challenge to find good, legitimate content in OpenSim but I wanted to show that it was possible - there are some urban buildings that are actually sold on Marketplace in the Big Grid with permissions to bring outside of that grid into OpenSim, and there are of course the  Arcadia Asylum, Urban builds - there are other things that from the process of going from one grid to another have lost the creators names , or some items that may be questionable, but the intention was to build a town that could showcase the work of OpenSim creators.

Moonrise Azalee: *nods at Koshari*  - glad you were here so you could hear that part Koshari ! So that's basically it, that's the intro - this is a place that i wanted to make feel as real as possible, to live, play, whatever it might be.

Thirza Ember: I think it's a very interesting project you set yourself, to source all material... what kind of roleplay would you want here?

Beth Ghostraven: Sourcing material like that in OS is not simple, either

Moonrise Azalee: Agreed - it is a challenge. As for the roleplay, it is 'small town urban' so just think of it kind of like a virtual world soap opera, the struggles of the average person

Thirza Ember: these days real life feels like a soap opera so yeah that is a great idea!

Moonrise Azalee: It's really open to the person, the town has its basic history which we have listed on the website at ravensreef.weebly.com but other than that its pretty open

Moonrise Azalee: which is the info area for roleplay citizens and non roleplay citizens alike- it has the Maritime Harbour, a library, town hall, and another little restaurant/pub up the way.

Star Ravenhurst: I could use a drink

Thirza Ember: < never knowingly without wine

Beth Ghostraven: ooh a pub!  a library too!

Thirza Ember: Can you tell us a bit about your experience in changing grids?

Forest Azure: /me looks for the bartender

Moonrise Azalee: Most people who know me will know how hard it was for me when InWorldz went down - it was literally my life saving escape during some really dark times - especially when my daughter passed away in 2016 - having a safe place to just be 'me' was so important. I bawled my face off when IW sunk and it took a long time to recover, it made it easier to adapt since I already had a presence in other grids, but IW was my home, so it was rough.

Thirza Ember: pixels matter, i guess that is just human nature to care about places and things even when they're virtual

Moonrise Azalee: yes, agreed Thirza. I have had a few good friends that I've grid bounced with, but finding something stable has been hard

Star Ravenhurst: I can totally relate to that. Some of you know how long it took for me to finally get Land Of Xzar built.  We creators have to do everything we can to hang on to our stuff.

Moonrise Azalee: Keeping the content is definitely a challenge, especially since I am not a creator

Koshari Mahana: I think that the "feel" in virtual worlds is real, if I'm in a very tranquil place I feel relaxed in rl, if I'm in a busy chaotic place that's how I feel in rl.

Koshari Mahana

Moonrise Azalee: Very true Koshari, I can relate

Forest Azure: /me thinks of some other examples :)

Moonrise Azalee: Most often I had to re-purchase items, unless they were things that one version of me could bring to another version of me - Curt Halberd was hugely instrumental since when IW shut down I lost everything there, no way to 'pass it' to myself

Thirza Ember: re-finding your feet in virtual worlds - starting from scratch - that's so hard, and probably the number 1 reason more SL people don't leave SL and come here

Moonrise Azalee: Curt went with me to the different grids and helped me rebuild, and also has a Kitely market presence so had a lot of things he could help with - he in fact was here last week helping with the airport :D

Thirza Ember: Curt sounds like a great person

Moonrise Azalee: he is Thirza - one of my best friends I ever made in opensim

Our teleport took us out into the countryside and close to the region's airstrip complete with a range of vehicles.

Moonrise Azalee: ooh it looks like we all survived the jump - fantastic!... the airport is just down this way... I feel like im Curt's spokes person haha - but these are his planes and blimp... the blimp i 'think' anyone can ride but the planes i think are locked to owner, a script glitch - but go ahead and try haha --- i crashed into the sims edge

Thirza Ember: Moonrise, how do you go about discovering people who make creations in opensim ? have you made a list or anything?

Moonrise Azalee: Well Thirza, once firmly in OpenSim the first place was kitely marketplace because they have a lot of good content so that was helpful, and there were people i knew from IW that were still creating outside of IW and so when i found them in new grids i found that they were still making things

Thirza Ember: as we have gone around on safari we've come across quite a few but I've never seen a proper directory - maybe that would be useful for the community, a sort of 'guild'

Moonrise Azalee: oh good idea ! I do a blog and I need to work on that more - getting a list of creators. I was blogging for InWorldz before but now its just for virtual in general  

Cooper Swizzle: Unfortunately, sometimes a creator needs to recoup their $$$ and will put a price on things in OpenSim.

Koshari Mahana: Star has a lot of great freebies that she made herself.

Star Ravenhurst: It is harder to sell in OS

Beth Ghostraven: People become accustomed to getting things for free in OS

Kimm Starr: Yea, a list would be great!  I stand 10 toes to the ground when it comes to original content creators

Moonrise Azalee: oh for sure - Curt has a store and sells, he has a few freebies but he definitely wanted to recoup some of the cost of the hours of time put into blender etc

Koshari Mahana: We are working on a freebie place for Curiosity Zone too, we are making everything in it. I love Curt's work.

Moonrise Azalee: haha i know you do, me too, and yours is amazing as well - we have so many great creators! ...ok so now i want to take you to the city! are you ready?

Moonrise Azalee: Fattyboom is the main club there and the city centre ... this is downtown core of Ravens Reef, and although it is dingy and run down looking, it was once a vibrant, bustling city - As the story goes, a pharmaceutical company had bought up some property near the river and ran their factory which although viewed with a bit of suspicion initially, was eventually tolerated by the citizens- The main source of income in Ravens Reef had been fishing, and the dock along the river in Pine Ridge was a busy port, exporting fish - however one day there was a huge explosion, the reason never being revealed to the citizens - but it resulted in the death of the fishing industry, as the toxins seeped into the water - Now the city is mostly abandoned except for a few unsavories, and a few who are determined to keep the city alive - there are sometimes clashes between the two.

Thirza Ember: wow unsavories already here before the safari arrives ! we usually supply our own

Beth Ghostraven: Thirza, speak for yourself

Moonrise Azalee: this club, FattyBoom is named after a song I loved by a band i love, Die Antwoord lol... a boyfriend i had made me the club sign, the building is of course, Curt Halberd. A trance DJ friend of mine from SL has come in here a few times and done a show, and its been a lot of fun - hoping to do that again soon

Koshari Mahana: I see some Kimm Starr animesh here, cool.

Thirza Ember: so this experiment in content has really been a big success for you!

Moonrise Azalee: Thank you Thirza, me too - its been a fun project

Kimm Starr: It's awesome that you created this huge build with no stolen content!!!

Moonrise Azalee: thank you Kimm - i was pretty outspoken about it and it sometimes got me unliked, but it was important to me

Moonrise Azalee: The Arcadia Asylum hotel is one of my favorite pieces, it has individual rooms, and such great textures... its all super slummy and just perfect for the place... want to take a quick run?

Moonrise Azalee: this is it - feel free to go look inside, its so awesome. Is it dated? yes but it holds all the charm of the best of SL. It was seeing stuff like this that made me fall in love with the urban vibe. I actually met her in SL in her slum region a million years ago and then in OS grid a few years later. I remember thinking she was Pippi Longstocking.

Star Ravenhurst: I have only ever met people that knew her. I wish I could meet her. Thank her.

Thirza Ember: she loved to build, and so didn't consider it time that she needed to be paid for. But I can understand not everyone has the same mentality... being all different is part of the joy of life

Moonrise Azalee: so this is the last place I thought of today - its stonehenge, Curt made it and this little island is just supposed to be a meditative space - in real life im in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and wanted to bring some of that charm here

Star Ravenhurst: Thank you for such an awesome tour. Great start to a new season!

Moonrise Azalee: I'm so glad you were all able to visit today and truly, please feel free to come back and take a wander any time, I love visitors

Thirza Ember: love it - this has been such a fun visit Moonrise, and so neat to hear a little of your story

eva Nowicka: thanks, Moonrise, sure i'll return

Koshari Mahana: I totally love it here, please let me know when you have events.

Moonrise Azalee: You are very welcome :)

HG Address: grid.kitely.com:8002:Ravens Reef