Elle in City of Eternals: Happy Holidays for Who?

OK…Hmm…well…hmm…

I was in City of Eternals and in New Valencia Downtown, one of the first areas you are exposed to in-game and came across this merchant. What made its developers think that a prostitute-looking NPC in her undies was a good idea? Holiday-colored booty shorts, a miniskirted Santa elf costume or something else wouldn’t have sufficed? I mean…anything else that would have at least been a pretense towards clothing. I don’t know…it really stood out to me.

Remember, City of Eternals is based in Facebook. It recognizes you as being male or female as soon as you start playing it, so you don’t get to choose what gender your avatar is. In other words, for the most part, female players probably really are female and I’ve seen a lot of them, myself included. One thing I’m not seeing is male NPCs standing in the snow half-naked.

So really ohai…was this necessary?

Caledon in Blue Mars

Well, I can finally talk about this now…

Desmond Shang has announced Caledonia, Caledon’s “colony” in Blue Mars. Reactions about the upcoming 4 million sq m Caledonia have ranged from “What?!” to “Oooo” to “Whatever.” Its preview will be available in a few days. As Caledon is one of SL’s significant “showcase” regions and he is one of its most well-known land owners, this is a big deal.

I’ve been a part of this project since May and for me, it has been interesting to see the evolution of a brand new virtual world. I’ve been exploring Blue Mars in general due to the fact that checking out other virtual worlds is what I like to do. I will not sit here and tout it as the end all to be all, because as I have said in previous posts, it still has quite a long way to go until it’s truly ready for primetime. In the meantime though, it is the possibility of what it can do that is intriguing.

Will Blue Mars be a SL killer? No. I don’t think so. SL has more danger of killing themselves off due to their company’s practices and general perception than another virtual world popping up. And I seriously doubt SL is going to go anywhere for quite a while. Its draw–as it was for me and for others who are content creators–is still the ability for anyone to be able to make something using its built-in tools. I’ve always loved SL and still believe in its possibilities as well. Those who like SL will continue to be in SL, or they might be like me and check out both worlds. Right now, the two worlds are like apples and oranges and it’s still way too early to guess at an impact one way or the other. In the meantime, can’t blame a person for checking out the other options out there.

Elle in City of Eternals: Vamping It Up

I was intrigued by City of Eternals because it is supposed to be the “first full-fledged Flash-based MMO”. So what’s the big deal about that to non-techie-type folks like me? Essentially, if you have a browser, you will be able to run it. No big downloads. No computer implosions. I’ve found that it runs just fine on my piece o’ crap computer.

You are a vampire in New Valencia–a colony comprised entirely of vampires. Sure, vamps aren’t the most original concept in the world, but you have to admit that you would already get an idea of what’s involved. In this case, you complete missions. You fight. You wander around. You level up. For someone who has been used to an open-ended world, I’ll admit that I actually enjoy mission/quest-based gaming sometimes. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that sometimes all that I just want to do is take up my sword/claws/weapon at hand and beat the crap out of something/one.

Only tradeoff is that unlike other MMOs, you lack anonymity. Which is why you don’t see my name titler in yellow above my head as it is my RL name. Remember, this is Facebook-based right now, so I think that ohai is banking on players using their built-in friend base to get involved. So if you are comfortable with that aspect of it, then by all means, jump in. It’s definitely easy enough to do so.

Groovy Man! Raglan Shire’s Wootstock Festival

For two days, the tinies of Raglan Shire had their Winter Wootstock music festival featuring live musicians, DJs and lots of fun…
Ohh groooovy man…don’t bogart the wootberries…Musician Gina Stella returned to Raglan and finished the weekend’s performances with her tiny crowd pleaser “Wafflelujah”…All of us even had our lighters out. Nobody parties quite like tinies!

Kenroku-en Gardens

Sometimes I like to wear an avatar that makes me really happy and go to a place inworld that seems…peaceful. Tonight, I wore my “Wabi Sabi” Ollipog tiny steampunk Japanese doll avatar and went to Kenroku, the sim of the Able Seed garden shop. Here I am at a re-creation of the Ishikawa-mon Gate…
Based upon the 300-year old Kenroku-en gardens in Japan’s Ishikawa prefecture, the gardens are beautiful and the architecture has fantastic texturing… Here is the Kotoji stone lantern that sits on the pond, which is named Kasumiga-ike in real life. The gardens are considered one of the most beautiful in Japan. This is one of the wonderful things about SL–being able to visit wonderful re-creations like this inworld!

Chaffro’s Wedding in Raglan Shire

My friend Chaffro is getting married in RL. He and his fiancee Kitti thought it would be fun to have an inworld ceremony in Raglan Shire as well. Here is the nervous bunneh groom…
All of Raglan turned out, including tinies creator Wynx Whiplash herself, to hear their genuinely sweet exchange of vows…Afterwards we all went to the reception and partied like only tinies can!Congrats to the two of them in both lives!!!

Laval Point Decked Out for the Holidays

Mrs P made some beautiful holiday wreaths and swag, so I thought I’d make Laval Point a bit more festive. I was going to set out the mistletoe again this year. Hm…