Many residents like to play or watch sports in Second Life. From soccer
and football to wrestling or racing but one sport which has stood the test of time
in Second Life is golf.
Sports venues have come and gone in Second Life however, one venue which
has every golfer talking about is AERO Golf Club, owned and created by Kaja
Ashland.
Kaja was kind enough to sit down
and have a chat with me about the club and to also tell me a bit more about
herself.
Piers: How did you get into golf in
Second life and turn this into a business?
Kaja: An RL friend had to move to another country and we missed each
other terrible much. We talked on Skype often but one day she said she found a
cool
place where we could meet, Second Life! This was in September 2006. Very
early I figured out that I was a business woman in SL and this was just the
right forum for me. I got a renal sim and started to build for RL companies.
Piers: Can you tell us a bit about
your golf club?
Kaja: I and my partner liked to go play golf in SL but the best golf
clubs closed and we could not really find any that we liked much. So we had
this idea to create a very pretty golf club that was also very realistic and
both easy for beginners and challenging for SL golfers. My partner Mikal had
designed golf courses in SL so we decided that he create the tees and greens
and I do the landscaping. We had much fun creating it and originally the idea
was to just have it for fun for a while. But lots of visitors came and enjoyed
the sim and the golf course so we decided to keep it. We met many nice people
on AERO Golf club and we are happy that we decided to keep running it.
Piers: In the early years of Second Life golf was one
of the popular sports. Now 2014 has this still remained one of the top sports
in sl and if so why?
Kaja: I think it is because it is very realistic and pretty much just
like playing in real life. Also it is a game where you can play in your own
pace while you spend time with your friends and have fun.
Piers: Running a business in Second Life can be
hard, what do you think are the reasons why your club has remained as
successful as it is?
Kaja: Probably because the landscaping and the golf course looks
realistic and you can play for "real". One reason can also be that we
created many places to sit and socialize and relax in a nice environment. Now
we also connected a few sailing sims to the golf sim with lots of sailing water
and there are also cottages and boat houses to rent.
Piers: What do you like to do when
you are not working in Second Life?
Kaja: Photography and gardening, love to terraform in RL too :)
Piers: What is next for you?
Kaja: Next is to finish our yacht club and marina and see how that goes.
Would be fun if people came just to hang out there. We have no commercial
interests in the golf sim or the marina so anyone is welcome to just relax or
chat a little, all for free.
To join or find out more on the AERO GOLF club:
AERO Golf Club- Play golf LM
White Sails Marina & Yacht Club
Portfolio: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35992644@N03/
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