I see that the MetaReality Podcast team have risen from the dead and resumed their show. The word on the street was that they’d all been poisoned and assimilated into Flufee!
Linden Lab have blogged about The Destination Guide, which is good to see. They’ve also fixed a bug with the ad widgets by the looks of it, which is again good to see but my Jira on the issue hasn’t been updated, I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be these days with the new Jira nonsense, however I’ll just have to let that slide.
Destination Guide is a useful tool, although there have been concerns over how well it is maintained, LL tell us that the editorial team receive dozens of new submissions every week for their team to review. What I like about this blog post is that it highlights a variety of things to do and see in Second Life, which is why I believe posts like this should be more regular.
Dryland
A giant dry lake bed, a parched and barren place where hulks of rusted ships rest on dried, cracked mud. A once desert island with decayed warehouses now holds art galleries, while the surrounding landscape hosts gypsies, carnies and tradespeople. This is Dryland, the new sim design by Anita Witt.
Visit in Second Life
I also love those create ad widgets, I wish we had them for advertising inworld events too and I picked the Dryland ad because that’s a pretty funky picture, yes yes I know, don’t judge a book by a cover.
What we’re seeing here is promotion of art, games, entertainment, socialising, basically things for people to do, which is the road to retention. There are other shoes that need to drop to make it ideal, such as finding someone else to do things with too, but plugging the destination guide is very definitely a step in the right direction, as is fixing the ad widgets!
Dwarfins
Banished from the land of their birth, separated from their creator, the Dwarfins must find a way to survive on their own. Will you help them build their community and learn the secrets of creating life? Simul8 Studios is proud to present Dwarfins, a fantasy dwarven community building game, to the world of Second Life.
Visit in Second Life
There are always ways to improve things and the destination guide is no exception, some categories are a little too large for browsing these days, the art category for example but there’s no easy fix there. There’s also no search feature, it’s a browsing resource, ideally browsing and searching is the best solution.
The Garden
The Garden is a mysterious respite full of whispers and secrets. Within its boundaries stand seven lost spirits, charged with the care of protection of The Garden itself. Each of these fallen spirits committed a sin of betrayal and each was sentenced to a penance for their transgression. By discovering their fates, you can help lead the spirit Guardians toward peace and Forgiveness. More at http://thegardenwhispers.com.
Visit in Second Life
However the destination guide does give a good overview of just how many diverse ventures are here in Second Life and it even speaks to Facebook for extra reach!
Isle of Dee
Discover Dee, in old England — a welcoming, charming isle for lovers of medieval roleplay. Get lost, find secrets and meet other travelers along the way!
Visit in Second Life
I think one of the concerns isn’t so much about new entries, but whether older entries are removed. That’s a real challenge for the editorial team but ultimately it’s one they really need to face. This is a useful resource and it deserves better coverage, but people will be irritated if they follow a destination guide link and land in a location that isn’t as described. I’m also not sure how people go about updating landing points and such like if they alter the layout of their sim.
Overall though I’m pleased to see LL giving it a plug in the blog, let’s hope there’s more of this during the year.