Steamed Custard

By Becky Shamen

While he was still dressed for the part, we sent Josh to yet another Steampunk location. Starting 2000 meters up, in the middle of a tangled nexus, where map and compass are useless, you might think our explorer would require some time to get his bearings. Not so. Like some kind of Dr. Who, he made a bee line for the most unusual feature on the sim, breedable penguins. Really? Have we now seen everything?

Perhaps not. Turning about, shaking his head, with a big grin, Josh spots a shop with clothing and vehicles and heads for it. True to the period, the vendor display pictures are all in sepia tones. It will be a hard sell, for one accustomed to HD colored ads, but Josh needs a wardrobe and loves unusual vehicles, so scrolls through the entire catalog. The clothing didn't measure up to Blak Opal's, but they had some great vehicles, two of which were only $1 each, so guess who added to his garage.

At the next area, a female robot, carrying a tray of drinks, offered refreshments and conversation. He had read that there were robots here, so this seemed quite natural. Shortly thereafter, he found a shop that sells that model and a host of others, either avatar or autonomous styles, including classics like R2D2, Buck Roger's "Twiki" (bidibidibidi) and the one from Space Family Robinson (danger Will Robinson...).

There were also some nice park areas and a multi-level freebie shop. All of this, so far, was in the sky, on interconnected floating platforms. Having seen a sign announcing land for rent, Josh jumped off to go have a look at ground level.

Back on terra firma, we find the land office, some homes and more breedable penquin areas. Having seen everything, Josh returns home to Sunweaver Bay to open and test drive his new rides. Since Josh and Sha do most of their exploring late at night, they seldom meet residents, so can't say much about the social scene. We can say; there was no lag and there were lots of new, unique, interesting things to see. It is an enjoyable, entertaining adventure. We give it thumbs up and recommend it to our readers.

 http://slurl.com/secondlife/Custard%20Developments/197/202/2000

Becky "Sha" Shamen

Neo Victoria

By Becky Shamen

 In recent months, the Newser has had some great articles on Steampunk communities, like Caledon and Steelhead. Reviewing the Destination Guide, Josh discovered a collection of other Steampunk communities, ranging in size from two to thirteen sims. Names and addresses were gathered into a notecard and he began exploring each of them.

After touring the first four, beleaguered by lag and yearning to yawn, it began to look like his report would be titled "adventures in adversity." While it was true, he had noted a point or two of interest at each location, there are only so many ways to say, it was beautifully, ornately textured, but beyond my meager budget to buy. Such a list would not be something he, or Sha, would be willing to sign their name to.

Thank gods and faes, our next stop proved to be an adventure, worthy of a story of it's own. Landing in Neo Victoria, we find ourselves in the visitors center, where me must prepare for what lies below.

By it's own definition, Neo Victoria is, "Dark roleplay, Steampunk style - A small community of gifted artists, working together to bring their stories out of Second Life, into the world of the real."
Avatars of all types and species are permitted, as long as they are not "cartooney." An anthro coyote is OK, Wile E. Coyote is not.

Orientation and shopping is in the sky. The two, ground level sims serve as home for members and a film lot for Machinima videos. If you are not a member, or out of character, you can visit ground level, but must get and wear the OOC (out of character) tag. To engage in roleplay, one must conform to the local story line. No cross story lines are allowed. As a means of learning the lifestyle, notecards are given as you walk down the dark halls that lead to the TP to ground level. Alternatively, there is a web site, giving more details and samples of their videos at www.NeoVictoria.net . They also have a web site for members only, which has community news and personal pages for each member.

Other factors that made Neo Victoria a great place to explore were, no doubt, the bi-product of using the sims for making videos. There are fewer mesh scenery objects, making it almost lag free. They also allow you to rez things there, with auto-return after 15 minutes. Using this, I rezzed my airship, for a birds eye view and saw the entire place, in far greater detail than was possible at other places visited.

Becky Shamen

Club Zero of Nocturna

One of my friends kept talking about a “Industrial Gothic” club she frequented, Club Zero of Nocturna Urban Designs. “This is what this club is,” she told me, “Industrial club, Gothic club, Live DJs, ... a lot (of people) love this place. Ans we have great bosses here. They actually care about their staf and patrons of this club.”

Getting to the place, from the outside it looked much like a huge old-time theater, but in dark tones, black and dark red. The place had an audience inside, so it took a little time for things to rezz, a few vampires chatting in the lobby. The inside of the place continued the dark gothic look. The dance area was on the second floor, getting there taking a walk down a hall that wound around and up. And getting there was a healthy-sized crowd, close to a couple dozen in size, with club owner Musette Demonia and head DJ Hazard Fizzle leading the party.

Chatting with Musette, she told of the club recently celebrating it’s one year anniversary with an all-day event, “24 DJs in 24 hours.” Of the reasons the club was built, “I wanted a place where people would feel comfortable, bring in really good DJs, some place to feel home, blow off some steam, something that reminded of the club scene we grew up in.” Asking about how big attendance can get, she told me the two dozen at the time, “this is average. Late night it gets busier. ... Anywhere from 10-40, depending on the DJ.”

Hazard felt happy of the 24 hour event, “that was fantastic, so fun... rapid fire DJs all day ... We had so many great DJs doing short sets that the crowd just stayed. Evening was most popular. Saturday night, all of our best House DJs played that night. Pagan, Glitch, Kittynes.. they had the biggest.” But the club also has other events, “We do a cross dress night that is always very popular ... girls will be boys and boys will be girls, changing gender for the event. We do it every few months. People have fun with it. We also do Dj battles every now and again. ... 1/2 hour sets, back and forth. Any thime the DJs get to show off, it brings something special.”

Club Zero is at Nocturna Urban Designs at (228, 187, 34). It has a website at http://clubzeroradio.com/, and also it’s own Facebook page.

Bixyl Shuftan.