Touring Historical Landmarks in SL- CeciliaRosalie Reporting…

I’ve been in Second Life for three years  and recently felt an impulse to research second life’s  historical regions. In this article we are going to travel back in time to the first years of SL. If I was asked to give a different tittle to this topic, It would be “A virtual nostos”.

My main resource for this task was the SL’s historical museum, which provided me with valuable information.

Second life  opened its doors to the first residents in 2002-2003.  It was named LindenWorld and then it was renamed to Second Life. At this time the grid was made up of 16 regions. Da boom, the first sim created. For most it holds a reference to the Big Bang theory conception of the virtual world. Da boom is a nice water front area with a lot to see and discover. I personally enjoyed the view of the marina and Lindens Playground. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Da%20Boom/128/128/2

As I mentioned the first second life resident, I was curious to see her first home.  This lovely mansion was originally built by Steller Sunshine way back during the Alpha (early, early testing) days of Second Life.

All other builds created during Alpha were deleted except for the Mansion and another build by Steller which was a cabin, her first home; The mansion which resides in Clementina, was given by Steller to the Linden's to preserve it for the cross over from Alpha to Beta testing. The mansion was home to Steller through-out the Alpha testing phases, and was the location for many of the first parties in Second Life and other memorable events. With its beautiful view, great architecture, fantastic use of prims, and friendly environment, this mansion still stands as one of the great historical builds in Second Life. You can visit it here http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Clementina/189/122/62

The Ivory Tower of Primitives at Natoma, is anoher historical locations. It is actually a library where you can find out more about SL’s building system. Useful tutorials and building lessons will give you a start if you are interested in building. Of course today we build with mesh so prims seem a bit obsolete but primitives were the raw material our virtual world was once built on so anyone who would like to start learning the basics in creating stuff should start from there. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Natoma/204/166/28

Moving on my journey to SL’s historical locations I stopped by Abbotts Airport, which is the oldest of its kind and well-known of the high-quality planes and other aircrafts.  It is a safe place for new comers to visit after the welcome area. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Abbotts/96/212/27

My next stop was the first freebie shop on the grid since 2004. YadNi s Junkyard is a paradise for newbies, it offer a variety of high-quality stuff from clothes to weapons. They also have a free learning area for new residents who want to make their first steps. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Leda/214/25/53

I’ve been running around many historical places until this final presentation. During my journey I always had a feeling that something is missing… and then … It was there, A Castle.  Blackmoor Castle’s construction started in early September 04’ and is still on going. Research was performed on various RL castles. Blackmoor draws some exterior influences from Cinderella's Disney World Castle. So, Let the fairy tale journey begin!!! http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Stillman/27/191/59

I hope you enjoyed your tour of historical destinations in Second Life. Learning the history behind Second Life and being able to go back in time and see how things once where gives us a better perspective of how far we have come in the virtual world.