The importance of building in SL

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So once again, I haven't had much time to write ...or much to say. But that doesn't mean Dio has only been slaving away in meatspace. No, I've been able to have a bit of fun doing some building. You'll perhaps remember Alsium, the roman sim where I had been spending time, and which underwent an ownership change. We had an"earthquake" which required a totally new build and that's been underway for some time. Ultimately, final completion of the build was taken on by members of the community, and folks like CJ Escher, Clint Saxondale, and Caius Septimus, among others, have done some wonderful work. Yours truly got in on the act as well, and here's my contribution, an Iseum, or temple to Isis.

The build is very loosely based on the Temple of Isis in Pompeii, but it does utilize textures on the interior that include examples of the actual frescoes from the ruins of the real-life temple. You will note to the right side of the illustration below, the temple itself (which has several inner chambers to which only initiates and officiants may be admitted), and a ritual bath in a smaller structure to the left of the main "house of the Goddess."

We had a dedication ceremony a week or so ago, and had a good turnout. It's a modest little build, but I certainly enjoyed working on it, and I learned a great deal in the process. Until I became involved with Isis-related projects for Alsium, I had no idea how massively popular the romanized "Cult of Isis" was (after initially being persecuted in the late Republic and early imperial eras). I also really didn't realize how colorful ancient roman buildings usually were.

After I finished the temple buildings, I also constructed a palaestra, or exercise ground, that incorporates elements of the real palaestras that exist in Pompeii, particularly the smaller, older one which had been built by the Samnites early in the city's history. I was pleased with how this build turned out as well, though due to its size and primminess, it isn't being used in Alsium (the version shown below is in fact, a second, smaller, lower-prim version, but it still came in at 100 prims). Even so, there is something so rewarding about taking an artifact that you have pictured in your mind and turning that mental conceptualization into reality (even if that reality is only a virtual one).

Both of these builds--the Iseum and the palaestra--were produced for very specific purposes, to provide the settings for specific aspects of roleplay and events. But I will freely admit, the greatest joy I am likely to feel in connection with these structures is the sense of accomplishment and sheer fun that came with the construction process. I know we have talked about this before, but if I couldn't do these kinds of projects, I would find Second Life a whole lot less engaging. Despite my abysmal building skills, I have the ability to visualize something and execute it in Second Life, and by golly, have it turn out looking not half bad.

I know the Lindens are working on various "improvements" to the platform. Christ's bootlaces, I sure hope they don't make it harder to build, or even worse, somehow decide they have to take this god-like capability away from the majority of us in the interest of simplifying the product and trying to make it more appealing to the mass audiences that other, less wondrous online destinations seem to attract.

Today was my sixth rez day. I know I would not have made it this long without being able to do cool creative shit like this.

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RP lives on in SL

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Hey y'all,

Yeah, I know I've been an irresponsible old doxie and haven't written or posted much lately except for the silly little bit about the "Chanuka Cham" at Wally World. And I'm pretty sure that don't really count.

To some extent the lack of productivity on this ridiculous blog has been the result of work and other demands of rl eating my brain, like a Zombie Andrew Zimmern (who, by the way, I have enjoyed the times I have seen his show--not only will he freakin' eat goddam near anything, he does it with considerable gusto and cheerful elan, and what seems to be a genuine respect for the cultures that produce the various bug-and-slug-based cuisines he seems to so thoroughly relish). I just haven't had much mental energy for writing lately.

The other thing is that--believe it or not--I have been really busy in Second Life, because there are exciting things going on in the world of historical rp. Let me give you a little update.

First of all, as you will know from a previous post I recently made, the core team in Deadwood has embarked on a mission to revitalize the sim. The good news is that we are making progress. There are new people showing up, there are nights when there are a substantial number of folks in the sim at once, and things like gunplay, death and dismemberment are flourishing like they did in the old days of the sim. Just the other night I had to patch up Rod Eun's leg, and pull a bullet from C.T. Kungler's shoulder. There are others kinds of fun stuff going on as well: among the folks who have become regulars there is a player whose character is a mute orphan girl whom we have dubbed "Silence" (as we don't know her real name). In order to help Silence communicate better, Dio is teaching indian sign language to the child. I'm doing this by drawing on a wonderful web site that offers a "vocabulary" of native American sign language elements that were commonly used in the latter half of the 19th century. Although "in character" Dio of course knows sign language from the times she has spent among various indian peoples, for her typist this is one of those wonderful self-directed learning opportunities. I was delighted to discover that the standard northern/central plains sign for "friend" is constructed from elements that literally mean "like two brothers who have grown up together."

Is that fuckin' poetic, or what?

Among other projects we have going on, Addison Leigh is building like a maniac, adding some wonderful new structures to the Deadwood streetscape, and sim Owner Caed Aldwych has constructed a new and simplified OOC orientation/Vendor area that will save prims and be easier for new folks to navigate once it goes live. And my friend Serenek, a relatively new member of the Deadwood community, has worked with Addi to create a dandy boarding house, where respectable gals can find decent accommodations and a nice little island of civilization in primitive hogwallow that is our town.

So we are seeing some progress there. The team feels like we probably have a pretty good shot at keeping the sim going for some time, and more importantly that people feel like they are getting something out of the experience provided by the sim. It's not just another dead and empty interesting build.

Speaking of interesting builds, in other news, 1920s Berlin is continuing to make progress. The build recently relocated to a full sim, with more variety (including a super Brandenberg Gate) and more activity. There are more stores, more dwellings, more public spaces, and more businesses in general--there is even an active taxi cab service that will pick you up at the trains station and deliver you to wherever you want to go in the city.

IC, I am still bartending regularly at the Keller, a more-or-less run-down dance hall and bar in a moderately shabby neighborhood...the job augments my income from my day job as an organizer and office worker for the anarcho-syndicalist labor union, the Freie Arbeiters Union-Deutschland (which frankly doesn't pay that well).

Once again, Jo Yardley has done a splendid job of recreating the look and feel of Weimar era Berlin, but on an even grander scale and with more complexity and depth than before. The community is growing, and there is more interest in doing roleplaying in the sim: I have been asked to lead a couple of "intro to RP " discussion and they were well attended.

Finally, I wanted to update you on what is going on in Alsium, the roman sim that that I have been involved with since it opened earlier this year. It has undergone a change in ownership, and is being rebuilt. It was beautiful before, but was clearly more"inspired by" roman culture and architecture, rather than standing as a "recreation" of a roman community from the time of Marcus Aurelius. Now, a new builder, Lexusz Mornington, has been engaged, and the future of the sim looks extremely promising. The new owners are working with that new builder and the community at large to collectively plan and develop a new kind of Roman sim that SL has not seen before--one that represents iconic elements of historical roman life and culture, featuring historically plausible composite buildings, organized into a coherent--and still visually appealing--roman coastal resort city.

I am really getting excited about this project, especially as I have had the chance to see mock-ups of some of the proposed architectural elements, which the designer has based on actual ancient buildings, but adapted to be functional within the context of SL. In my humble opinion, the new build is gonna knock your socks off.

So, you may ask, what's the point here, besides the fact that Dio has kept her saggy ol' ass busy running from one time period to another in her off hours?

The point is, to my delight (and a certain degree of surprise) historical roleplaying and creative sim building continues in SL, and, in fact, is attracting some new adherents (bit by bit). After a long dry spell this fall when activity seemed to be dropping off, I am seeing it come back.

That is, of course, a purely subjective conclusion and based on my limited experience in the fairly restricted sphere of places I wander around in. And I don't have a good explanation for it--are people finding they have more time on their hands to fill now that it gets dark earlier (and let's face it, what television has to offer blows beyond belief)? Is the economy actually getting a little better and people have the confidence and spare cash to buy some clothing and build or buy some new structures in a virtual world?

Yes there are a lot of sims that remain empty and lifeless--some of them wonderful builds, and others that deserve to go the way of the dodo--but in places where people are refusing to give up and keep trying to make the sims evolve and activity happen, people are showing up and having fun.

Maybe the sky still isn't ready to fall, just yet.

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Looking for signs of ancient life in SL, part II

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In my first house in Alsium.

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I've been putting this one off for a while, for no discernible reason other than laziness and a temporary preoccupation with so-called real life. But I guess it's time.

I had promised that I would follow up with you all both on the subject of "looking for signs of ancient life" in SL, as well as providing a bit more detail about what I've been doing with myself during the last three months or so. Not that it really matters what I've been up to, but perhaps talking about my ongoing journey can shine a bit of light on some interesting aspects of what is taking place in certain corners of the historically-themed sims in-world.

As I have noted elsewhere, I have been spending less time than I used to in Deadwood--not because there is anything wrong with it, but just because I was in a weird place emotionally and mentally, and not enjoying it as much as I used to. Similarly I have completely dropped out of Hogwarts United, mostly because I found that I couldn't bring myself to make the kind of mental effort, and fulfill the necessary time commitment to do it well.

So where did I go?

Well, you might recall that back in May, I was exploring the ancient-themed sims. In part this was because I was just looking for something new to experience, but also because I had been inspired by the ancient environments in Heritage Key. It made me wonder, so what's available in SL? The builds in Heritage Key are beautifully done, but not consistently populated, and not really designed for role-playing. They are much more like immersive museum exhibits than a place where you form a community and interact on an ongoing basis with other interesting people. Heritage Key is about teaching, not learning; it's about visiting, not building a set of relationships; nor is it about enabling the creation of your own content--and I have come to realize that those are the elements that do the most to keep me in Second Life, rather than wandering off to places like Blue Mars (which also hasn't made the effort to accommodate Mac users, so fuck 'em).

Anyway, back in May, at the time I wrote the ancient life article part I, I found that there seemed to be a number of historical Egyptian, Roman and Greek-themed builds in Second Life, but generally speaking they were largely devoid of any humanity (at least when I visited), or were mediocre builds, or both. And when I say "mediocre," in some cases, I am being extremely generous.

Not long after I wrote the article, I stumbled across two new places, Alsium http://slurl.com/secondlife/Alsium/113/100/23/ and The City of Hydra http://slurl.com/secondlife/City%20of%20Hydra/138/218/21/, and by golly I found myself being drawn in.

When I first saw it, Alsium was literally a brand-new build. It is a representation (or perhaps an "interpretation") of an ancient Roman resort town that actually existed, but for which there is relatively little historical information or physical remains to draw upon for guidance in doing a recreation. While there are things that I would have done differently if it was my build--some improbable statuary, a superfluity of banners, and some other things like limited seating at the arena and a lack of certain public structures that most Roman towns had--it's freakin' gorgeous, and it's a fun place to explore and to play. And hey, it's not my build, not my sim, so at this point I will just shut the fuck up regarding what is or isn't there. Cuz after all, if I really wanted to have an ancient build that met all the criteria I would like for one to meet, then I need to cough up the jack and build one myself someday, right? Well maybe I just will, because the experience of being a part of the Alsium community has been very positive.

Alsium--a pretty resort town on the coast, about 35 km from Rome. This is in the suburbs, away from the town center with its arena, baths and forum. The multi-story structure with the private dock is my current domus.

And in many ways, I was pleasantly surprised at how positive the experience has been. The vast majority of Alsium's players--and characters--are gay males. I have no issues with gay folks, but you could argue that I didn't really fit in. Also, many of the guys are players who have migrated from Gorean sims (and my only previous contact with Goreans had been somewhat ridiculous...I'll have to tell you the story sometime). Initially, I was the only female player and/or character present. So in a lot of ways, on the surface, it seemed like it should not have worked for me being there. But somehow it did, in large part because of some key decisions that were made by sim owner Noah Shepherd: he gave the sim a particular time period to work with--its timeframe is during the latter part of the reign of Marcus Aurelius, roughly in the era from 170 to 175 AD, so there was an historical context; he quickly opened up an adjoining sim that offered a variety of rental properties (a bit pricey, but with huge prim limits), so that residents could do exciting and interesting things in terms of not just decorating but structurally adapting the interior spaces they rented; and he made it clear that what he wanted was not a particular type or style of roleplaying to take place--he just wanted good roleplaying.

The character I created was a Greco-Egyptian lady from Alexandria, the widow of a wine merchant who died of a fever while I was accompanying him on a buying trip. My premise was that I was sort of stranded in Italy, and needed to keep the business going in order to meet his obligations and settle our debts. And as time went on, with the help of his "servus" who had helped him run the business, the enterprise was becoming profitable and my character was finding that she enjoyed being a wine merchant.

Keeping the business going: the cellar of my first house in Alsium, filled with casks and amphorae.

I soon discovered that this character and her little storylines did fit in pretty well with what was going on, and that the guys all treated her with the greatest respect and consideration. Yeah, I kind of made it a point to not be around when they would get into their...well...being a bit randy, enjoying their "boys will be boys" grab-ass, slightly Fellini-esque fun and games. But there were plenty of times that we collectively had storylines going in which that I could be a contributing player.

I decided to rent one of the houses that came available, and put considerable work into researching Roman life, business, society and decorative arts. I had a wonderfully good time learning new things purely on my own, inspired by the roleplay, and then, as time went on, I found other people in the sim who were very interested in sharing information as well. Members of the growing Alsium community (which is gradually becoming more diverse) put on classes for each other, discussing matters such as food, daily life, the Roman client system, classes, and slavery.

Ah yes...slavery. A very touchy issue. But you can't represent Roman life without incorporating that element. It would be like trying to do "Spartacus" and claiming that it was just a labor dispute that got out of hand. I'll be honest, I am not terribly comfortable in dealing with the subject in rp--even though there are aspects of ancient slavery that are very different from how we understand slavery in the context of American history. I even have a hard time calling someone a slave, in the same way that I simply cannot bring myself to use the "N" word when playing a 19th century rebel widow. And I am not going to treat my servi badly. Historical authenticity be damned, there simply are things I am not willing to do. Oddly enough I have two very good friends who have decided to come in and play the servi in my household now and then. Sometimes, I may refer to them as "servus," but more often, I will say "this is my man, Serenek," or I will describe them as "members of my household."

Not everyone is so careful--but then that in itself is historically authentic: even in the ancient world, various people in different circumstances saw slavery in multiple ways and treated enslaved people differently than their contemporaries did. And in the roleplay we do, different people who play slaves are obviously exploring historical and personal issues in wildly divergent ways--I'm not entirely sure what all is going on, but I do know that in this sim (as well as the next place I am going discuss) there is an on-going effort to help the residents to distinguish between the historical form of slavery that is part of the ancient Roman story, and the largely BDSM-based style of fantasy slavery that is part of the Gorean canon.

By the way, that is one of the really interesting things that I have heard from some of the guys who came to Alsium from Gorean rp--they say a big part of what they found frustrating in Gor was the restrictive nature of Gorean canon and community life. They actually find this historical context to be more flexible. I'm still pondering the significance of that one.

Hard at work in my new house in Alsium.

So I have been having a great time being a part of this community, learning new stuff, going to the arena and cheering on the guys who have been working so very hard to master the combat system...and I have really had a great time building and decorating, rebuilding and redecorating, making textures of actual ancient mosaics, wall art, frescoes, etc....

...and not having responsibility. I just come and go, fiddle around with my "domus" and have fun.

Oh yes, and I also periodically go over to the City of Hydra. The folks there have established a grittier environment for ancient Roman rp--a representation (again, not a completely historically authentic recreation) of a generic Roman-occupied commercial port city out in the conquered territories somewhere (I think it's supposed to be on the Greek coast or something like that).

It is sort of a classical dystopia--urban, ugly, corrupt, crowded and crime-ridden. Hydra is an unplanned jumble of check-by-jowl town houses, apartments and stores that is hard to find your way around.

If I was the Roman governor of the city I think I would have simply sold the inhabitants, razed the buildings, and started over. But that's just me.

The City of Hydra.

Seriously though, I don't play here too often, not because of the stories or the build or anything like that--it's just that it seems to be mostly populated at times when I have to be at work. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see a place that is so completely different from Alsium.

Alsium is a beautiful place where the corruption, the penchant for violence, the tension between competing interests and factions is all under the surface, bubbling forth into visible form only periodically, not unlike some fictional Steven King New England resort town.

In Hydra, the unpleasant realities of life are pretty much all out there to be seen and savored, if that is how you like to spend your vacations. It reminds me a lot of New Jersey.

I will say that one thing that has kind of turned me off on Hydra (which by the way, should not be confused with a "Hydra" that apparently exists on a Gorean sim), is that they make a point in describing themselves as offering "Excellent, immersive Roman roleplay -- only the Best."

*coughs*

OK. I've met some really good people there. And yes, I've experienced some very good rp in Hydra. But I have also experienced some very good rp in Alsium.

A place like Alsium admittedly has a number of folks who exhibit a wide variety of rp styles and levels of experience. Some people are just starting out and some of what people do could be described as "RP lite." But you know, I find that Alsium's residents generally try to accommodate one another and adjust to make it work. That's about all you can ask for. In fact, I think you can make a pretty good argument that the variety of styles and skills and levels of experience is actually a strength.

Look, I think it's good to aspire to providing a quality experience. But when you give yourself labels like "only the Best" (as Hydra does on their landmark card), I find it just a tad off-putting, especially when there are so many interpretations of what constitutes "good rp," let alone what might be considered "the best."

Still, it's an interesting build and I encourage you to go look at it.

So that's the bottom line. In the end, I did manage to find some entertaining, engaging places for ancient rp in SL. There's even informal, self directed learning going on in these places. There's some great people to interact with. And I think, most interestingly, you might find yourself reconsidering how you look at certain groups of people, as your assumptions about the members of various communities are challenged.

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