the explorer in me

 I’ve become an eternal explorer these days. It’s mostly what I do when online SL.

In the beginning when I first came into this world I did nothing but explore, and then shopping became another habit, then I got busy with other stuff over the years until now, I’ve rediscovered this art form. I do believe it is an art, from choosing to what I do when I go anywhere, and not to be put off by the fact that so many places, sims, are most of the time empty. I am not deterred, in fact I’m spurred on to make the most- after all, fewer people much less lag, especially these days as some people over-mesh themselves (although I can’t speak, I tend to carry probably more scripts than I should, usually in HUDs).

There are some amazing creations when you take the time to look, and for me the real art comes in choosing sort of randomly, sometimes I may go by a recommendation, but mostly I’m opening the world map, findings a square that looks interesting for whatever reason, and teleporting to take a peek. Sometimes it’s the name that intrigues me, or amuses me, making me think, that’s got to be worth a gander. Other times it’s the way it looks on the map, something catching the eye. Lastly I may just go somewhere cos it’s on the edge and way out in the virtual sea all on its lonesome.

I wish I could collect XPs or something useful for exploring across the entire SL but as far as I can find there isn’t anything like that really, not anything that covers its entirety.

The other day I landed in a sim, an island out on its own, explored, as I do, then found my next destination only to then receive a PM from the sim owner just asking if I knew if before she was the owner it was a club or something like, because of so many people just dropping in briefly. I said I didn’t know, and I didn’t, I had merely picked it randomly and never been there before in any of its previous incarnations.

It got me thinking, wouldn’t it be good it all sims, properties, plots, whatever, came with the equivalent of property deeds, like you get in RL, which contain some history about the property, boundaries, any major changes, when it first came into being, previous occupants sometimes, previous uses, just for historical interest. I think this because the history of life in SL is mostly overlooked and because of that a missed opportunity, to not archive the history of how people use space, interact with it, including I some cases their lives. All we have are blogs like mine and there aren’t many, most are ad hoc and they don’t relate to one another really.

I think land deeds in some form with such details about previous use, etc, and passed from owner to owner or renter to renter would be a fascinating resource and all find its way into a larger archive. Of course I’m not sure how it could be done, I just think of these things, and if they did exist then that sim-owner who PM’d me would have the very information, history she was searching for.

I’ve kept loads of files and stuff on my activity here and only recently realised what a valuable anthropologically-rich database it could be seen to be. Ok, maybe I’m overstating it, but I am fascinated by people’s pasts as much as their present. Well, anyway, there I go thinking again, letting my ideas run amok.

~~Anan Eebus