ISM's 20th

It's a common belief - you could even call it a truism - that pixel creations in virtual worlds don't last long. Builds come and go, as do the people who make them. This week we made a return visit to a sim on Kitely that has proved this is not always the case. It's the International Spaceflight Museum which these days is an 8x8 VAR region, having grown quite a bit since our group toured it in 2017. 

The HG Address is as always at the end of the post. 

The museum, called ISM for short, was founded just over twenty years ago in SL and moved to opensim in search of more ... space (no pun intended) for way less money. Also for the building opportunities that outperform SL every time. 

Rosa Alekseev

The trip was facilitated by Rosa Alekseev a longtime citizen of the hyperverse, Kitely resident, DJane extraordinaire, community organizer, and member of ISM. To meet us on the day was Kat Lemieux.

Kat Lemieux welcomes us all - with Max and (in the space suit) Forest 

Legendary Mobius

Our first stop this week was on an unforgettable region on Mobius Grid, one of the most unusual and colorful grids in Opensim, run by the unparalleled Royale Mobian. It's a great place to visit any time, by yourself, but to be there with Royale, standing in for the grid's creator, was a real treat. 

Not only is the storyline of the Legend of Zelda an epic, the video game's history is also of legendary proportions - beginning in the eighties, the game continues to be popular and has grown with the technology - the latest version is Hyrule Warriors, Age of Imprisonment. 

However for most of the Safarians on this trip, it's associated with early gaming, with their youth and the wonderful sense of adventure and agency that Zelda supplied. This post about the Zelda 'back in the day' captures the vibe.

Zelda has interesting parallel with opensim in that there are opportunities to go out exploring and do side quests within the game and if you do, you will often pick up useful items, or gain experience that will come in handy as you progress from level to level. Just like the HG, but with less hair loss, and more sword-and-shield action. 

The sim and majority of the model work is brought to us by Diana Dismantled, says the Notecard you get when you arrive, which also credits Meme Resident with some of the extra model work, with a nod to the resident builder, Geminai Resident. 

A large landing area awaited the crew of the Safari, and while waiting for them I can't lie, I played with the Chaos while waiting, they are just too cute.

A Night at the Museo

Our second stop was on the great grid Craft, one of Opensim's oldest grids. We visited the MdM, with owner Rosanna Galvani.
 Rosanna Galvani: The Metaverse Museum (Museo del Metaverso) is a virtual institution that replicates a real museum, featuring exclusive content and collections designed specifically for the Metaverse environment. It combines elements of virtual reality, interactivity and global accessibility, offering virtual exhibitions, art galleries, digital replicas of artworks and cultural objects, learning labs, event spaces and more.

Rosanna Galvani: The Metaverse Museum project was created in Second Life for the enhancement of the artwork present in that virtual world. It was founded on December 5, 2007.

 Over the years the Museo del Metaverso has been quite successful, creating permanent and temporary exhibitions. The Museum has participated in many valuable art/cultural events in the physical world, has helped many students of Fine Arts Academies who were coming to Second Life to make their theses and has collaborated with the Academy of Fine Arts of Macerata, participating in several meetings, with the aim of presenting the project of the Metaverse Museum, which was very innovative for those years.

Rosanna Galvani: Today the main Museum resides in Craft-world (a virtual world based on OpenSimulator) and preserves and exhibits purely digital works, i.e., works made on computers, replicas of works made in the physical world, and most recently also images generated by programs using Artificial Intelligence. It continues to work on different platforms, Second Life, Craft-world and Spatial, organizing exhibitions , lectures and discussions. 

Tosha Tyran: but tell me Rosanna, what was the reason to transfer the Museum to Opensim/Craft?

Playing the Market

Our first visit this week was to Neverworld Grid and as usual the group assembled at the clubhouse on HG Safari to pick up the travel pack by clicking on the Giant Prim, which is super low tech and includes a very brief Notecard, and the necessary LMs. I love low tech, it rarely breaks.

People begin showing up about 10 minutes before Go time, (12 noon Pacific) and that gives them a chance to read the notecard and say hello to all. Many arrive last minute, oor even after we've started, so they just rush along to find us at Destination 1. It all works!  Anyone can join us, we are not an exclusive club, but I can't promise Forest won't gently tease you though.

Taarna Welles: Hello peeps

Tosha Tyran: hello, hello

Taarna Welles: Hoi Forest

Forest Azure: and yay, tosha! finally I get to tease you again!

Ange Menges: Bonsoir a tous

Forest Azure: hi Ange... wow, the tour this week includes a marketplace!

Thirza Ember: there will be a video explainer i think, and dancing... the first hour quite peaceful, the second will be more manic

Tosha Tyran: good, I love videos and have the popcorn ready here

Taarna Welles: Hi Nara

George Equus: Evening all

Tosha Tyran: uff... finished eating and hands free for typing again :)

Forest Azure: virtual life is tiring

Thirza Ember: It's 12:00 so when you're ready, TIME TO GO the Neverworld people are waiting for you

Tosha Tyran: oki, seems good

Dolma Dollinger: Hello Am I intruding?

Thirza Ember: of course not dolma you are always welcome!

Dings Digital: Hello, guten Abend

Tina Bey: Hola a Todos

Thirza Ember: OK we are all here

Craft's Sixteenth

 The Jubilee building on Craft is up and running and celebrating sixteen years of Opensim. It's an impressive achievement not only in technology but also in terms of community. 

The big party is on Tuesday, 27 January and the fun begins at 12 noon SLT, that's 9pm in most of Europe, on sim Jubilee, HG Address at the end of the post as always.

Craft owner Licu Rau is proud of his Sardinian stubbornness and credits that for some of the grid's success, but he's the first to say that it wouldn't be anything more than a private plaything without the residents.

That's why each year on sim Jubilee there is more than just a birthday party, there's also a fabulous display in the Expo Center, featuring work by people who have been here from the early days, and those who have called the grid home only for a couple of years. 

Safari Goes into Fantasia

Safine Mahoe's brand new sim Fantasia on Friends Grid is a magnificent new landscape and Safine very kingly offered the HG Safari group the first look. It's 16 regions of woodland, swamp, waterways and meadows, peppered with houses and creatures all of a fantastic kind, whether it's from folklore, literature, or her own imagination. All was perfectly planned for our trip as the second destination  of the week, when about 20 minutes before we were supposed to go there, it turned out that the region watn' letting people in. Very frustrating for Safine, since all had been fine just about an hour earlier when we had checked the LMs were working. 

Safine outdid herself by getting us to the region despite the glitch

There was no time to stand around asking ourselves why this had happened so Safine very rapidly got busy trying to stop the region telling people they were 'banned' - that was not at all what was happening! But as we all know, the standard messages of Opensim when something isn't working can be much ruder and less informative than desired! With swiftness and care, Safine quickly worked to make it possible for as many of us who were willing to power through the situation to get to her gorgeous new realm, and most of us did, including the newest Safarian, Neko Littlepaws who moments before had been accompanying us around the wonderful Exodus sim on Groovyverse - you can read about that tour here.

Our fairy guide, Safine Mahoe

Safine Mahoe: first off, thank you for coming......I am truly honored! I apologize for the access issue, it was fine two hours ago

Thirza Ember: yes that's opensim for ya

Tina Bey: lol

James Atlloud: yeah - we are used to it

Dorena Bree: a mystery wrapped inside a mystery

Forest Azure: those are the best

Dorena.Bree: I think so too

Clowning Around

 When it comes to detail-rich builds with an authentic feel of the real place and a quick rez, they aren't clowning around on Groovyverse which was our first stop for this week's Safari. The destination was sim Exodus, and about seven or eight of us joined the locals in a parking lot in central Nevada, which is a really good copy of a real life place in the town of Tonopah in Nevada, USA. It's called the Clown Motel - check out that link and you'll see how close this pixel version is - with a twist of its own!

The inworld version is part of a multi region build representing the desert lands east of California, and if those gloriously alien looking mountains in the distance remind you of a previous Safari it's because we came to this general area three years ago to learn about Burning Man, the virtual and the real celebrations. 

Doctor Dave at the Clown Motel

Much has happened since that memorable visit (people still talk about the amazing train ride!) and we were ready to be guided by Doctor Dave around the whole darn place and to learn a lot about a lot of stuff, including art, rl crossover, travel, ghosts, and of course, clowns. You can't be burning if you're not learning.