Playing Ketchup

 Part one of this week's Safari was a visit to Aire Mille Flux, one of Opensim's oldest continuously operating grids, focused entirely on art.  There are a number of builds by the grid owner Marc Moana, and other builds that originally debuted in Sl, but have been ported here. This is an important aspect of Opensim, as a repository for installations that would otherwise no longer be visitable. 

Due to RL, our host wasn't able to join us on the grid. That is risky, because if anything goes wrong, the sim will crash (sometimes the whole grid, if it's a small one!) and there is nobody at the back end to start it up again. To try to mitigate any teleport shocks, we had a portal set up at the clubhouse on HG Safari, so we could arrive gradually.

Sauce is a build from about 10 years ago by Maya Paris. There's a post about it on this blog here. First impressions are always a bit confusing, but the rez is pretty fast here, compared to many opensim builds. Maybe because this was originally set up in Second Life.

Having grabbed the Notecard at the beginning, we went to the phone boxes that serve as tp devices. Rigorously need to take off your AO if you want the installation to work right.

It was one of those builds that is so absorbing and confusing that you lose touch of your fellow travelers half the time, and find yourself desperately trying to catch up.

Pretty soon we were in the sauce laboratory. What do they put in this stuff, and is that a reasonable way to mix it? It was really fun to see so many people exploring all together. 

The build is like no other. It has a concept that you have to think about, like a poem, so it engages your mind on that most universal of subjects, finding 'The One' - true love.  The slang of the build is very English, and it is tied into the classic seaside traditions, so may be a bit outside the common experience, too. It is a completely interactive build. 

Dabici risks drinking the sauce...with explosive results

All the rooms have poses, attachments, and things to interact with, like this love roulette - touch it and see where the cherry lands - or is that a clove of garlic?  The game is aimed to make you think about what categories you would fit into, if you were looking for a soul mate - do you want them someone flipped or frisky, sparky or quick? All great questions.

Perhaps the main question to ask is, are you a rule breaker? Watching people avoid the taped-off phone kiosk was fun, because until you take the risk and break through the 'Do Not Cross' line, you'll never find your way out of there.

Finding The One can be quite a journey - but it's worth it, just to see the fish guns that destroy the wall and give you the final clue.

That accomplished, you're for the high jump... that's pretty much where it came to an end for me.

But plenty were ahead of me. Kelso in particular seemed to be quite at home, in Sauce.

And so there we were, typing and nothing happening, and it became clear that we had crashed the sim. It did last a full 40 minutes of us touching things, doing crazy dances and wearing particles, so on the whole, not bad. 

Dabici Straulino: oh we crashed all, a lot of effects and interactivity but I did not get the point

Thirza Ember: yesss lol but not the grid, just the region

James Atlloud: I enjoyed the use of animations.  It's so immersive to make use of our avatars this way.

Thundergod Thor: finding love in a confusing world... at least that's what Thirza said.

Thirza Ember: very confusing! and very english too

Dabici Straulino: I am confused, perhaps in love :)

Thirza Ember: there are lots of things in that build, it takes a while to see it all... lol true about every place we go

Dabici Straulino: true

Thundergod Thor: I've been to many that I had to go back 4 or 5 times just to see all of it.

Dabici Straulino: damm, I am not so confused that I see double

Thundergod Thor: Maybe you had too much sauce? :D

HG Address: grid.aire-mille-flux.org:8002:Sauce and go up to 1800m, or use the Green art portal on HG Safari sim