Five Favorite Places

A few months ago (July 12th actually), Gogo (author of the lovely JuicyBomb blog) suggested that I write a post on my favorite places in Second Life. "Do a post, your top 5 fav sims," she prodded. And being the lazy blogger that I am I never got around to it, but now it seems like it would be a fun post for the start of a new year. It's also pretty difficult to select just five places—and some places that would have been contenders for the list are sadly now gone, so maybe I'll list them in a follow-up post—but here are the ones I'll pick today, in no particular order.

The photo above is from Wendy Xeno's gorgeously beautiful sim HuMaNoiD. I love its vistas, its colors, its expansiveness—just everything. Wendy has crafted some lovely sky boxes above the land, too, so there's more to see than first meets the eye. (This is Wendy's home, by the way, so she sometimes understandably closes it for a few days now and then to get some peace and quiet!)

And then there's Roche (photo above), created by ddsm2 Mathy. This too is just a perfect little world: I love its lines of sight, the terrain, the evocative landscape. A photographer's delight. Whenever I'm there I don't want to leave.

When we say that in Second Life we can do what's "not possible in real life," we're talking a Petrovsky flux (photo immediately below), created by blotto Epsilon and Cutea Benelli, and hosted by the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas. Here, in an ever changing and wildly chaotic world, immense structures are built, only to collapse under their own weight. It's a marvel to behold. Go see it. You'll smile.

We may have lost AM Radio's masterpieces—The Quiet, the Ferry, Surface, and many other incredible places—but we still have The Far Away (photo below). It's filled with AM's magic, of quiet, of distance, of playfulness, and it's just delightful. It's hard to visit without meeting a stranger and striking up a conversation. (It's only a quarter sim, but I have to cheat and include it.)

Finally there's Venexia, an incredible city and roleplay community (below). I'm only a visitor here, not too interested in the goings on of the inhabitants, but I was stunned when I first visited and still am whenever I return. The detail of the architecture is amazing, and I know that after many visits there are still many nooks and crannies that remain to be discovered.

And what are your favorite places?