April 4, 2015 Metaverse Tour

grid.kitely.com:8002
grid.kitely.com:8002:Inis Coilt
hg.osgrid.org:80:CrazyEaster
(also at hypergrid.org:8002:CrazyEaster)

First we stopped at Seanchai Libraries’ new region, Westworld. This town is the setting for tales of “Outlaws & gunfighters, buried treasures, running off cattle rustlers, sitting out a winter storm in a cave-adventures like these were all part of everyday life for the cowboy. From all corners of the great Western expanse – Montana to Mexico, California to the Mississippi. (Pulled that right off their description page.) We stood knee high in mud and chatted with Seanchai legend, Shandon Loring. The town is fun. Avia ended up in jail, no surprise.

Then, how could we resist? We visited the Crazy Easter project by Nani Ferguson & Ange Menges.  Besides being an absolutely magnificent build, it’s also fun. There is a game you can play alone or with others. And of course, there were eggs to gather. Nani and Ange hid these eggs really really well, but the gifts inside make it worthwhile to hunt them down. The region will be taken down at the end of April and then destroyed. This is a temporary art exhibit, and when it’s done, it is done forever. What an amazing project.

March 28, 2015 Metaverse Tour

grid.kitely.com:8002:Kitely Welcome Center
grid.kitely.com:8002:Witchy’s
grid.kitely.com:8002:Vana Bazaar
www.outworldz.com:9000
grid.3rdrockgrid.com:8002:Robstock

The tour began as usual at the Kitely Welcome Center. We ended at the big RobStock celebration on 3rd Rock Grid.  In between are floating islands, freebies, furnishings, and DRAGONS.  We spent most of our time really digging in to the dragon experience on Outworldz.   What fun!

 

March 14, 2015 Metaverse Tour

grid.kitely.com:8002  (The KWC World Showcase Hall)
grid.kitely.com:8002:Lost in Time
grid.kitely.com:8002:Rings
grid.kitely.com:8002:Inis Arcain
world.narasnook.com:8900:dankoville

March 14, 2015.  It was a busy tour this week as Dot whipped us around the Kitely grid and then out to Dankoville. Big fun was had by all. First we visited the Kitely Showcase Hall on the Kitely Welcome Center. It’s a big building full of landmarks to some of the featured regions on Kitely.  We took a look at a new featured world, our very own Metaverse Tour home, Crossroads.  Dot took us there to see the new interior of the the pub called Schrodinger’s Cat.

From Crossroads we went to a new build on Kitely by Miguel Rotunno called “Lost in Time.”  This is a region to wander in. Around every corner is work of art, often a magnificent large sculpture that make you pause and consider. The sense of scale is palpable – you are smaller than the art. Or put another way, the art is majestic. Wander this world –  you won’t be disappointed.

Next we went to Paislee Myrtle’s new region called Rings. (Does this builder ever sleep?) This region is om to mysterious systems of energy and flows. There are mysteries to be discovered in the sky and under the water.

We forged on to Inis Arcain, a Seanchai world.  In honor of their 7th anniversary in virtual worlds. Seanchai is holding a treasure hunt on Inis Arcain which is really just a great excuse to go visit this lovely region. We split up, hunted treasure and took pictures.

Our last stop was Dankoville out on the hypergrid on the Nara’s Nook grid. This place is like no other region I have seen in virtual worlds. For one thing, it is covered with pictures of Mr. Danko in a “Dear Leader” style of decoration. But as you wander you get a sense of americana, baseball, cornfields, ancient gas stations from a gone by era. It feels like Nebraska to me there. Somehow we ended up in the little convenience store at the gas station.  Nara showed up and chastised us for not letter her know we were coming. Of course it’s hard to take reprobation seriously from a cartoon cow in a pink tutu, but we apologized and made nice by wearing tutus as well.  These kind of spontaneous get togethers are one of the best parts of the hypergrid opensim community!

 

Mar 7 Metaverse Tour

Just like most of the Metaverse, we couldn’t get into our first destination, the Museo del Metaverso on its opening day.  No big surprise there.  The very popular Museo del Metaverso is an epic museum space, full of some of the biggest and most mind-blowing art in the known Metaverse.  The art is so big you have to teleport between the exhibits.  Go there. Teleport. Marvel.

We dove into our second destination, the French Quarter on Kitely, with gusto.  So much gusto that +virtual christine was blown offline a couple of times. ( virtual christine here!! I crashed six times in the first half hour, a new world record!! Serene is T-O-T-A-L-L-Y jealous!)  But, you can’t keep a good woman off the grid and she came roaring back every time – with her gigantic spirit and runny nose.  What a trooper!

The French Quarter is an ambitious project. It’s  a recreation of some of the famous streets and mansions in N.Orleans.  Check out the huge cathedral, the voodoo shop, and pick up a few freebies in the corner store.  I hear they are renting apartments, houses and stores.

Next we were off on the hypergrid to Mimas on the 3rd Rock Grid.  We kept most of the crew together as we jumped, though there is always a wee bit of a delay as everyone has to wait for me. I am slow.  That’s the way I roll, people.

Mimas is a gigantic mountain forest build. You follow a looooooong trail.  Looooong.  Lots of walking and climbing.  The views from the mountains are magnificent.  The bridges are terrifying. The climb is steep.  Once we reached the very tip top of the mountain, we decided to try the Museo del Metaverso again.  A few of us made it and others didn’t.  And another Metaverse Tour met it’s messy but satisfying conclusion.

grid.kitely.com:8002:French Quarter
sanctuary.homelinux.org:8012:Eld
grid.3rdrockgrid.com:8002:Mimas
hg.craft-world.org:8002:MdM

 

Feb 28 Metaverse Tour

Below are my snapshots from the Metaverse Tour Feb 28. Thank goodness +Avia 3D  was taking photos because I didn’t get to two of the destinations! I went to Crossroads, the new Metaverse Tours village currently being developed as a Crossroads of OpenSim grids. Built by Paislee Myrtle.  Then I saw the amazing Gatsby build at ExploreSeanchai. Those Seanchai people are extraordinary builders!
You can see Avia 3D’s photos here: https://plus.google.com/113922813642717659153/posts/3yztgidFTJw
Here is the text of Dot’s Tour Description:
Openings and closings is the theme of this week’s tour.

We start at Waymarker 88221, Ruby O’Degee’s latest build, in which she is offering regular Blender classes specially tailored for building in OpenSim.OpenSimWorld is the new Hypergrid Destination Directory. We can pick up tools for our own regions, and even a HUD.Crossroads is a new region put together by Paislee for the Metaverse Tour group (http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Paislee-Myrtle/Crossroads). It is still in development, but it’s already a great place to explore and hang out in until it’s time to go to our last destination…EXPLORESeanchai — inspired by the Great Gatsby — just in time for its closing party at about 2:30 pm Pacific. Caledonia will be there, reading live in voice
grid.kitely.com:8002:Waymarker 88221
hypergrid.org:8002:OpenSimWorld
grid.kitely.com:8002:Crossroads
grid.kitely.com:8002:EXPLORESeanchai

Feb 21, 2015 Metaverse Tour

First stop was Hosoi Mura – Edo Honshu Japan on Kitely.  Amiryu Hosoi has created some of the most epic and realistic regions on Opensim.  The wide open vistas are jaw-dropping. The building interiors are meticulously textured. There is even realistic steam at the baths. I am sad to say that my little laptop could not render fast enough and so these photos are full of gray areas that are actually very lovely textures.  If you want to see what opensim is capable of in the hands of a master environmental artist, visit this region.  http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Amiryu-Hosoi/Hosoi-Mura-Edo-Honshu-Japan

Our second stop was on Dorena’s grid.  We visited theBeeblebrox region, where we visited a speakeasy a theatre, an art exhibition and train station. This region is also home to the Hyperzette which all of you should be reading.  http://the-hyperzette.blogspot.de/ Min gave us a whirlwind tour during which my computer once again let me down and did not render everything properly. 🙁  Sorry.

We ended our tour at the Littlefield fashion show just at the grand finale moment.  It looked like a fabulous set and show. I hear there will be a video coming out soon!  Well done!

grid.kitely.com:8002:Hosoi Mura – Edo Honshu Japan
Dorenas-world.de:8002:Beeblebrox
lfgrid.com:8002:Smithville

Feb 14 2015 Metaverse Tour

On today’s Metaverse Tour we visited worlds that show or teach something. We started at the Hypergrid Academy which has a growing collection of free objects at the landing area and a teaching dome up in the sky.  Previous classes are being boxed up and put on the shelves. Some of the folks on the tour are interested in giving and taking classes so we’ll need to get people connected up to do that. Next we went to LMPierce which contains demo buildings by Lawrence Pierce. It’s a good example of displaying content in a way that any beginner could navigate around with explanatory signs.  The Mars build has an adorable little rover as well.Next we went to Hinatore which is an amazing literacy education game created by Aaron Griffiths and Merle Hearns.  The game HUD keeps track of your levels and offers hints. The trees and lighting add to the jungle feel. You answer questions by typing into popup boxes. Stephan was able to get all the way through level 1 in the time we were there. There are 6 levels all together.  The butterflies give you clues. Check it out.Finally we went to the African Traveler Experience on the VIBE grid. This is one of the few places the Metaverse Tour has visited twice and it’s because the experience is just that good.  When you arrive you put on a backpack which contains medicines, a health tracker, and a manual. As you go through the experience you meet local people who can give you clues to keep you healthy, but you have to ask the right questions. There is a fairly good chance you will catch a disease or ailment of some kind. This simulation was set up to train aid workers who are going to Africa. It helps them learn real world skills that can save their own lives or those of others.  It’s the best use of an educational adventure “game” that I’ve seen in opensim so far.

Thanks to Stephen Gasior for all the hints and help at the African Traveler region!

Hypergrid Academy – grid.kitely.com:8002:Hypergrid Academy
LM Pierce – grid.kitely.com:8002:LMPierce
Hinatore – grid.kitely.com:8002:Hinatore
Vibe.bio-se.info:9000 African Traveler

Feb 7 2105 Metaverse Tour

Virtual Christine was our fearless leader today.  We started on the watery region called Aquaetas. Apparently this is one of the many places Mr. Danko calls home on the Opensim grids. The place is filled with mysterious Devokan/Myst references.  Next we explored the Devokan region. It’s a magical world in the sky with treacherous rope bridges connecting giant floating mountins full of fascinating objects. We could have explored much more but it was time to go to the party at Time Vault, another fabulously moody and mysterious Devokan region. The party was in honor of the Devokan’s 5 year anniversary in Opensim. What a long strange trip it has been for them. The master ambient sound creator Echo Starship performed for the party. There was dancing and dragon racing and general merriment. How lucky we are that the Devokans came to Opensim.

grid.kitely.com:8002:Kitely Welcome Center
grid.kitely.com:8002:Aquaetas
grid.kitely.com:8002:Devokan
grid.kitely.com:8002:Time Vault

Jan 31 2015 Metaverse tour

Today we had the pleasure of a tour of Devokan regions by the Devokan expert herself, Dot Matrix. We started on Evensong which includes the two regions that Paislee and Dot first built in Opensim 5 years ago. Being Devokans, there is a story that goes with the creation of each world (or age as they call them.) The move to Opensim is documented in Devokan journals here: http://devokan.org/arxiv/devokan-1/

The tour started with a special book which dispensed a HUD (heads up display) to wear. By touching this HUD, you can always get back to central Hub. This is important because Devokan lands are known to pop up and go away quite regularly and a hub is necessary to keep track of them all.  After we got our HUDs, Dot led us on a whirlwind tour of evensong including many magical and hidden places we probably never could have found on our own. Sometimes it was hard to tell up from down. Were we underground? In space? Was it a dream?

Next we went to the Hub itself on the ussc.com grid.  This is where you find the books that link all the Devokan worlds together. By touching a page of a book, you are transported to yet another age. The Devokan motto really should be BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU TOUCH!  We all touched the Primordium book page and were teleported to mountainous world with a mysterious observatory. It looked like a place where strange science would happen.

Our last stop was Ae’Gura (No, I have no clue how to pronounce it.)  This is an underground city with one of the largest single structures I have ever seen in a virtual world.  Parts were still under construction, but this was beautiful and impressive. It’s on the Lost Paradise grid.

Thanks, Dot for the amazing tour of these unique places.

grid.kitely.com:8002:Evensong
devokan.ussc.com:8002:Hub
grid.kitely.com:8002:Primordium
lpgrid.com:8002:ae’gura

Jan 24, 2015 Metaverse Tour

Karima Hoison’s regions are environmental poems. The Carima region on Metropolis is a masterpiece of building craftsmanship and detailed texturing. Both are highly recommended.  Sadly we lost a few travelers on the hypergrid jump into the Carima region this week.  Lag monsters gobbled them up.  We will definitely be visiting this region again. It’s worth the effort.

Karima Hoison’s Heresy of the Intimate
grid.kitely.com:8002:Heresy Of The Intimate

Carima castles and Villages on Metropolis Grid
hypergrid.org:8002:carima-castle