On The Vast Ocean

It's amazing to look at the grand map of the Second Life universe and gawk at the thousands of islands (and the huge continents) that dot its ocean. Just look at them all!

And if you zoom in real close, you can pick out all little details. You can spot the homes and trees if it's a residential sim (most of them are) and sometimes the land is sculpted into clever little shapes (my university's is a cute little dragon). You can always tell a shopping mall: they're the big blocks or sometimes rings and split into little cubicles (although the divisions may not be visible from space).

Some people have actually made little continents of their own. I find that amazing because it must take some serious cash to run all those islands or some serious business skills to maintain whatever source of income the purpose of the continent is bringing down.

But what I find interesting is that this landscape isn't molded scenery like the main continents are. No, these are little parcels that are built up to the specifications of the buyer. Aside from providing the space, Linden Lab does nothing to interfere. It feels the most organic than most other games of this type, and I dunno whether it's the tools or what. Granted, teh graphics do bring it down with textures that don't load or don't fit and so on. But it's interesting to see what people make when they have full reign over everything. Maybe I need to expand my horizons, haha.

In any event, I try to imagine how long it would take to visit every island. And by visit I mean 'stay for ten minutes (even then probably too short a time) and poke around, then move on'. Even if it's just someone's home, like the little spy I am I enjoy seeing how they decide to decorate.

I should really do a show about it. Like that show that was on MTV where they'd visit the homes of these superstars. I can't remember the name.