OMG you guys are probably gonna have such amazing stuff from all over the place! I really only do Second Life, and lately I’ve had a bad RL obsession so I’m hardly even there. 🙁
Anyway, I thought about how awesome your tropical beaches or strange worlds or incredible architecture will probably be, and all my picks are, hahaha, boring! The thing it made me realize is that sure, I love an awesome spot, but I guess for me the virtual places I love the most are the places where the people I love the most hang out. So anyway, here it is.
CHEERTOPIA
It’s the greatest place I’ve ever been in virtual space. It’s the home of SLCS, the Second Life Cheerleading Squad. It’s really just a football field with a million bleacher seats, but there are so many great people there who work together and care about each other and about SLCS. And, hahaha, yes, that’s me on top of a human pyramid – who ever thought I’d do that! 😛
Cheertopia is open to the public. There’s a million practices there and you can come watch. Or maybe think about joining the squad. SLCS practice is mostly at Cheertopia and then events can be pretty much anywhere.
♦ Cheertopia ♦
Second Life is an MMO but not really a game. There aren’t goals or quests, you just do whatever. It’s free to join and pretty much everything you want to do there can be free too, but if you want your own apartment or fancy clothes (yes please) then you’ll probably end up spending money there.
secondlife.com
SPANKIES
hahaha, yes, I’m picking a store as one of my favorite places, lame I know. But I picked it partly cause Spankies has SO MANY awesome leotards and skirts and sweaters for cheer and gymnastics, but mostly because the owner, Adriana Princess is one of the awesomest people I’ve ever met online.
Right before I discovered SLCS I used to play SL as a teenager, and I decided to start an SLHS group (Second Life High School.) With cheer uniforms,duh! So I asked Adriana if she’d make uniforms for us. She was so fast and did such an awesome job and was so nice! I paid her double what she asked for and I still felt guilty for not paying her enough! I know she’s a “merchant,” but honestly I’ve never had so much fun or been so happy working with anyone IRL, so Spankies is totally one of my favorite places.
♦ Qyest ♦
BTW, the wolf on the platform behind Abbie’s shoulder is Starry Rae – cool peeps!
DANCE ISLAND
There are so many awesome dance places in SL that it’s really hard to just pick a few to tell you about. kk, it’s actually not hard. There are so many awesome places, but here’s the 3 awesomest: Dance Island, IYC, and Tunaverse.
Dance Island, the name pretty much says it, huge lit dance floor, awesome DJ’s, sexy people, 2 levels, awesome music. Fun, fun place! Oh, BTW, when you arrive you’re a ways from the club… they make you walk thru a bunch of shops before you get there – hahaha hot dance club and savvy marketers! Anyway, there’s giant moving arrows on the ground to get you to the club, so it should be pretty easy.
♦ Dance Island ♦
IYC
The International Yiff Center, is a Furry club. I’ve never actually tried being a furry, but I just love to go dance there anyway. Not to be stereotyping about it, but maybe it’s kind of like going to a gay bar. You know how gay guys are usually more fun to dance with than straight guys? Well, maybe it’s kind of the same thing. Like being a furry makes you less inhibited or more out of the box or IDK, but it’s just such a fun place. Honestly IDK why more, hahaha “straight” people don’t go there! Lucky they don’t I guess or it’d be overrun and then back to normal. Anyway, IYC is probably the craziest funnest place I’ve ever danced.
♦ IYC Addictions ♦
TUNAVERSE
IRL Tuna Oddfellow is a magician, and his dance club is pretty magical too. He does the most immersive light & video shows I’ve ever seen IRL or ISL. It’s crazy. Once the show starts you don’t even really know where you are, you’re just dancing / swimming in a sea of streaming video. Tuna’s place is like being on ecstasy. Not that I would know of course.
♦ Dragonhenge ♦
Like most dance clubs in SL, Tunaverse is free and all-ages, BUT, unlike places like Dance Island, IYC, etc, which run 24/7, Tuna’s amazing video+music stream only runs a couple of times a week, I think Wednesday nights and Sunday midday, North America time. In SL you could join his group to be informed.
KANNONJI ZEN RETREAT
hahaha, I know I talk a lot about cheer and dance, but this is my other favorite place. It’s pretty different. But it’s really nice to calm down sometimes. Also, IRL you can close your eyes or have a nice cup of tea or whatever, but online we’re kind of like constantly wired, so Kannonji is such an interesting way to be wired and calm at the same time.
♦ Snowlion Mountain ♦
Agnes Sharple
Botgirl Questi
Bumblebee (Wendz Tempest)
Canary Beck
Carissa Arthurine Somerset
Eva Marie
Fuschia Nightfire
George Coghill
Ironyca Lee
Jeremy Owen Turner
Joseph DeLappe
Kathleen Cool
Katie Vizenor
Krista Hoefle
Kristine Schomaker
Lizzie Gudkov
Aero Bigboots
RMarie Beedit
Marmaduke Arado
Isabella Medici
Nadya Tolokonnikova
Nathan Shafer
Pixel Reanimator
Ravanel Griffon
Scarlett Luv
Strawberry Singh
Tabitha Raincloud
Toni Tyldesley
Trilby Minotaur
Vanessa Blaylock
Xue Faith
Yordie Sands
This is a really sweet collection Liz. haha, I’ve actually dealt with Adriana Princess also and I think you’re right, she’s really a wonderful merchant-designer-artist to work with. But, haha, her living room doesn’t quite measure up to some of the incredible places other peeps have shown us! 😛
I guess though, it’s as you said, yours is a different sort of travel guide. Sometimes in art classes I like to ask students to draw a map of the campus. Psychologists call these “Cognitive Maps,” they’re often not very good for getting from point A to point B because they can be kind of distorted – Google Maps are really better for getting places…
But what Google Maps don’t tell you is what matters. Where life is. Where humanity is. Where experience was… and remains…
Some of the cognitive maps students have drawn for me, both high school students and college students, are remarkable… the places they care about can be drawn in excruciating detail… and then half the campus can be barely represented.
One HS student drew every single sink and desk in the art room, it was over half of her map, and then outside the art building was a loosely drawn circle labeled “All The Rest”
Anyway, your map of “experience places” may not be the most visually stunning places, but it’s interesting to think of space and place in this alternate perceptual dimension.
Hey, speaking of Cheertopia, I heard that they now have a 2nd squad that’s for child avatars – do you know about this? It might be cool to do an article on them!