Rocking on Redwood

Our second destination for this first week of season two was Neverworld, the lovely Redwood Bay, HG Address at the end of the post as usual.. This is another crucible of creativity, in keeping with the theme of our first stop, people making wonderful content in Opensim. Our ship was a classic example of legitimate crossover between SL and Opensim (you can read more about that here if you're curious) and of course the Neverworld core team of creators - people like Nexus Storm and Mr Smokes, to name but two, are legendary for their builds. The Neverworld Marketplace too is a good source of original content, another one for Moonrise's list I guess! But our focus was having a few laughs, a bit of a dance and some April Fool's fun on a lovely cruise around some of Neverworld's signature sims. Organized by the great Gundahar Bravin, we were welcomed aboard by Govega, the grid owner, and also Joshua, Nine, Kaleera, Dakota and more - Neverworld's reputation as a crowd-friendly grid was confirmed once again!

Captain Ron: shouts:  Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking, we'll be getting underway very soon. Be sure to find your positions before we set off. Anyone not securely fastened may fall off the vessel. Enjoy the cruise and Thank you for joining us!  This is sure to be a fun and exciting adventure with great entertainment!

Dakota Steel: Yay!!

eva Nowicka: I prefer to sit down today... I fear Gund's jokes

Gundahar Bravin: Everyone situated? Media is Playing as well!

Kaleera Lefevre: I don't think we lost anyone, did we?

Nine Zero: hope not

Govega Sachertorte: throw out some lifesavers

Gundahar Bravin: The Coast Guard is active if we did

Thirza Ember: captain Ron seems pretty athletic, if anyone falls in, he can save them

Gundahar Bravin: He is a buff, must be all the Rum

Captain Ron multitasks as both helmsman and DJ.

eva Nowicka: I'm wondering why Josh is carrying a machete on his back... are we in danger?

Mokey Monkey: it's a safari!

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.

The Magic of Gimisa

  If you're an Opensim Oldbie, and still have your marbles, the name GiMiSa will stir some memories of adventurous scripting, and a small wonderland of a grid with lots of toys on it. Gimisa quit Opensim a couple of years ago to dedicate more time to rl pursuits and family. He leaves behind many traces of his life in Opensim, for example, on his user profile on the Opensimulator site, there's a neat glossary of OS terminology, which turns into a set of how-to's, explanations, scripts and a touchingly autobiographical survey of dozens of aspects of inworld creativity. On his website called  profil.gimisa.ca you will find a whole bunch of step by step tutorials covering subjects as diverse as removing megaregions, making mesh from a picture, and making a solar panel that tracks the movement of the sun in your EEP.   Despite having left the platforms in 2023, Gimisa was kind enough to respond to my request for an interview; here's what he said.

Gimisa

Thirza Ember: The early days of OpenSim were difficult and unstable. What kept you interested for so many years? Does it require a certain personality to 'survive' in OpenSim?

Safari Gets Gruggy

 Ozone grid was the scene of our final tour this season, and Spax Orion's two talking pigeons gave us the intro talk to his brand new project, aimed at encouraging more games in Opensim. 

It was a quick rez when we arrived directly at the game arena rather than the main landing Point on Atrius region. True, we missed seeing Dirty Helga at her receptionists' desk, but it meant we could dedicate all our visit to learning about IMAGE.

Spax Orion: make yourselves at home and I will wake up the birds

Thirza Ember: /me shakes the biker grit from my hair

Spax Orion: careful, the service androids are on strike

James Atlloud: should we go to the chairs?

Forest Azure: /me looks around for something to clean.. anything?

James Atlloud: You should travel with a towel Forest.

Guano Pigeon: shouts: Welcome to Ozone Miniverse @ xoaox.de OK... so now that your are here, settle down while we explain some VERY IMPORTANT details *** The GAME BOARD is DISABLED until we are ready to begin this exercise. *** Is Exercise a dirty word? *** Someone gave me a funny look!

James Atlloud: fertilizer

Safari on Track

The first season of Safari ended yesterday with two opportunities for playing - one classic and one brand new. Our first stop was on CCI grid with a return to an iconic build, Bikerworld, reputed to be the longest and biggest racing track in Opensim, by SoA BAD, the grid owner. 

SIWAS and SoA BAD, the owners of CCI Grid.

His name SoA comes from the TV series Sons of Anarchy, so it will be no surprise to learn this track is particularly made for motorcycles. SoA and his beautiful partner Siwas are both expert riders and can do the whole track in about an hour, going full blast from sea level, where you'll find the clubhouse and the group joiner and the various motorcycles that you can 'buy' and ride, to the highest point where there is a sort of gasoline dump with tankers and reservoirs. This aspect of motoring - filling your tank from time to time - is an essential part of the game, and you will need to get supplies a couple of times as you gradually rise up through the levels. The last time we visited we were all impressed by the way the region handled the lag made by the group, but that was over two years ago, so this was an opportunity for us to give it another whirl and remind ourselves of how much fun can be had here.

SoA BAD: Hello friends, welcome! Get yourselves a bike, but only copy or buy the bikes and then rez them yourself. Don't use the originals. Most bikes are also suitable for a passenger.  Additionally, you can find biker outfits in the display case on the left; also copy or buy them.

A Visit to Shark-ham

Felix Mafia is an Italian architect whose grid, Arkham, is almost four years old. Best known for the freebies, there's a lot more going on here, in terms of backstory and design, snd Safari wanted to know a bit more about that side of this popular destination.

There are quite a few seasonal regions on Arkham that provide explorers and freebie hunters alike the brief opportunity to visit, and we were invited to see Easter Land, in its 2026 iteration.

Felix Mafia with good friends Grid Admin and Andron Rae
were at the arrival point to welcome us all.

Felix Mafia: thanks for being here

Andron Rae: this is a fun region with a lot of hidden areas to explore

Felix Mafia [it→en]: Grid Admin is creator of the Arkham, he is English.

Grid Admin: I'll just hang out back here, out of the way

Andron Rae: hugs Cherry nice to see you! sorry if I am standing on anyone, I'm not fully rezzed and see clouds haha

Felix Mafia: welcome eva

eva Nowicka: hey Felix, nice to see you

Thirza Ember: we are not a gigantic group this week which is good for lag and for conversation... it's 'Shark city' make sure you see the shark while you are here, he is quite spectacular!

The Tao of Shenn

 Seduced by beauty in opensim, we visited some of the artwork of Shenn Tao, on Atlas grid. Shenn spends a lot of his time traveling in rl so it was an extra special opportunity to meet up with this influential and much loved French artists and to get a few insights into his work. 

Sure, we all know that good art speaks for itself, but that dialogue is always enhanced by a few hints from its maker, and also gives us a chance to thank them for their contribution to the collective cultural heritage of our virtual worlds.