3 Amazing Second Life Sims You’ve *Never* Heard Of
by Alphaville Herald on 02/11/10 at 1:16 am
by Cayce Urriah, Mandalorian Reporter
Kowloon
In February of 1997, a small time game company under the name Zeque released an adventure role playing game for the Playstation called Kowloon’s Gate. In the game, the destroyed Walled City, Kowloon, reappeared from the netherworld. Recreating itself in the streets of Hong Kong, it was
determined to be the first sign of a great calamity. In the game, the character (a ‘Super Feng Shui Practitioner’) traveled into the walled city to save the world. As a game, it was a cult hit, with strange characters and stranger stories. Famitsu magazine’s 2009 reader poll ranked it tenth in needing a sequel.
The game was such a cult hit that years later, it’s original creators, working in a group called JET GRAPHICS, made that sequel. The sim of Kowloon was constructed for all of it’s fans. Reborn, this time into the metaverse of Second Life. Kowloon is truly a unique and interesting sim. There are oddities around every corner, from phantom creatures that disappear when approached to a senior citizens clinic with a doctor that appears to be made of a fire hydrant, human legs, and an LCD screen.
Most of Kowloon’s citizens speak Japanese exclusively, and while there are apartments for rent, you must speak Japanese or have a third party who does to rent in the sim. There is a Kowloon Foreigners group if you’re looking to find those who do speak English or other languages in Kowloon.
There is a lot of shopping in Kowloon. While some of it is antique in terms of building standards, most of it has the fun of wandering through the markets in a Chinatown. Sure, there’s a good am mount of junk, but a lot of it is quite amusing. For example.. here’s a pork-centric shop.
Losthaven
Many people know of Lucia Cyr’s shop, which is a work of art in and of itself, but there is a Losthave beneath the Losthaven. A kingdom beneath the skybox shop that is a beautiful and intricate as any of the avatars seen above.
The Losthaven kingdom would make an amazing roleplaying sim, if that’s what it’s for. The sculpts are beautiful, and as with all of Cyr’s work, the textures are revolutionary. One would wonder why the land below the shop isn’t the focus of the sim. I highly suggest that those reading visit Lucia Cyr’s sim. Anyone with a penchant for roleplaying or fantasy garb will love her sim and her work.
Planet of Taris
Built to resemble the city of Taris from the video game Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic. The sim is a non-combat, and roleplay optional area for avatars of all kinds. There are regular cantina events scheduled that regularly feature DJ Leanne Karas, where freebies are offered to all-comers. The sim is owned by Furia Freeloader of Furious Avatars, and is home to her main store. There are buildings for rent as home or shop and the undercity has a large area for swoop bike racing.
However, the center of the Taris community is the cantina. Using Furia’s custom quest system, you can communicate with a number of NPCs to play out the local storyline and gain items as a result. The sim’s ‘wow’ factor comes in how cool some of the smallest facets of the sim some out. For example, a playable holochess game, straight out of the Millenium Falcon.
The sim also holds a good sized build of Endor, the home of the Ewoks and has a bunker based on the Death Watch bunker found in Star Wars Galaxies.
II Singh
Nov 2nd, 2010
A nice piece. Well done. If the days of SL are numbered, perhaps this would be a good idea for a continuing series to ensure some of us don’t miss something. This is particularly crucial with how many sims are going away. The two Nemo sims last week. I believe a good gothic cathedral/vampire sim went away recently as well.
II Singh
Nov 2nd, 2010
I was sort of fond of “sicko” a cyberpunk sim. Not sure if that one is still around either. Doomed Ship was an interesting build and is sort of around though going through a PG transformation and face-lift / update.
At0m0 Beerbaum
Nov 2nd, 2010
These were some of the few places that made SL a little more interesting to mess around in, but alas, the rest of the game and its management make it painful to use.
Emilly Orr
Nov 2nd, 2010
“sick” and its surrounding sims are still around, and still owned by the Korean game company that bought them in the first place. The scenery is fantastic, though if you don’t speak Korean, interaction is odd at times.
@II Singh: Doomed is going PG? Not that I’d heard…Whenceforth comes your info?
Tracey Humphreys
Nov 2nd, 2010
If SL does go under, I hope all these sims relocate to OpenSim.
I hope SL manages to keep going, but am not hopeful.
They keep making decisions that antagonise their existing user base, in order to attract some mythical new users who never appear.
At0m0 Beerbaum
Nov 2nd, 2010
I think they’re antagonizing their userbase to get them to leave so when they close their doors, it isnt as painful.
ie, they probably do not want to refund all those lindens to their userbase. They know they will be sued by a lot of people if they cut them off all at once. Especially those who have a lot of sims.
So alienate, make them leave, keep their money with no refund. There at least refunded players their last month of purchases.
Less users when things go south, the better. They know what they’re doing is unprofitable and are likely losing money on operations alone.
that or they’re just stupid.
Amazing Denial
Nov 2nd, 2010
Aww, you’re just saying that because the admins keep THROWING YOUR SORRY ASS OUT.
The Best (for me)
Nov 3rd, 2010
For me, the best place ever was Privateer Space.
I really miss that one – it left a lasting (positive) impression.
Yep
Nov 4th, 2010
Hmm here is another VW that is a multiplayer sandbox that is getting in legal trouble for copying Star trek. This is over a ship that looks like the Enterprise that was built and displayed on you-tube. Nothing was said about it beind sold.
I wonder how long until CBS sets their sights on SL and goes after Linden Labs for all of the trekie sims?
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/thr-esq/will-cbs-sue-over-awesome-26059
had enough
Nov 4th, 2010
Right all of these little pin heads on their witch hunts in SL looking for copy botted items fail to see the big picture. I wonder how many of these sims that have stolen IP rights to use names like star trek, star wars, gor and other names stolen from movies or books, will get the true legal owners of these names and themes to come after the Lindens.
If this was to happen, either SL would finally collapse or another round of content being deleted.
Better grab a copy of one of the copybot viewers and make an alt. So that you can back up all of those star trek uniforms and star wars armor on your hard drive while you can.
If you bought it, it is yours. Don’t let some pin head dork with coke bottle glasses at LL steal it from you
II Singh
Nov 4th, 2010
The “article” about the Enterprise-D star trek “lawsuit” in the hyperlink is really sort of a non-news item. The article’s thrust is WHETHER or not the builder will get sued by CBS or Viacom. Neither party has actually made any effort to sue the builder. It is, in essence, a rather pointless piece of journalism. I could have posted a similar article on the web asking whether or not Prince Charles might have dinner with me tonight. That is a far cry from an article that states that the crowned prince actually had dinner with me. A little to early to get feathers ruffled over the hyperlinked article. Perhaps a deep breath is in order.
Wordfromthe Wise
Nov 5th, 2010
@The Best .. yes Privateer Space by Aley Arai — wow that was the most remarkable Sim i ever saw on SL … it was really sad when he closed it because of troubles with LL and more sad when it was gone completly ..
http://hiberniaskids.blogspot.com/search/label/Aley%20Arai
http://thegridlive.com/2008/02/12/privateer-space-revisited/
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/01/second-life-b-1.html