“You’ve not been to Apollo?” my friend asked. Text-based communication is a fairly sterile medium, but even I could clearly sense the incredulity behind the question. Having been bumbling about in Second Life for almost a year, compared to my friend’s mere few days, it probably seemed odd that I had never seen what must be one of the most renowned of SL’s virtual tourist attractions. I put it down to my obsession with the tinkering and fiddling with the building tools, and indeed, I can often go for four hours at time without ever actually moving my avatar at all, so engrossed in the prims am I.
Perspective is important though, and I imagine hearing ripping yarns about pine cubes and script-based coding must get rather dull for you folks after a while, so off we went.
SLurl: The Lost Gardens of Apollo
(Play along at home if you have SL installed!)
There’s also a piece about the creator of it all, and some background here:
New World Notes: New World Slurl: The Lost Gardens Of Apollo
I’d heard of the place for some months, but never really got around to visiting myself. A few friends, eager to capitalise on my ignorance, insisted we go and take a look, and the place truly is worth a visit. While they relaxed and chatted, I took off into the sunset skies with my camera in tow, and had a more detailed look around.
The Gardens occupy the entire of one ‘Private Sim’, a separate self-contained server, distinct form the ‘Main Grid’…the contiguous continents that us plebs mostly occupy, and that alone shows an enormous amount of commitment on the part of the owner – these things aren’t cheap! (~1200USD to set up and USD195/month to maintain). That he seems to rely on donations alone, and the occasional rental of part of it as an in-game wedding venue is quite remarkable.
Owners of private sims gain much greater control and power over their environment, including the sun itself, and the Gardens are a remarkable sight from the air; dark rocky shores, draped in luxuriant foliage, studded with tree crested hills and elegant exotic minarets, all adrift in a calm wine-dark sea, and bathed in the perpetual crimson light of a frozen and ever-setting sun.
Lost Gardens of Apollo: Landing Area
Visitors arrive at the area in the middle-foreground, by the darker buildings to the right. Elegantly crafted gazebos, each containing outlets from some of the more tasteful clothing designers in SL. Ordinarily the presence of a shopping mall like this is generally quite irritating – thousands of textures being forced down my throat all at once, when odds are I have no intention of shopping anyway. In this case however, it’s tastefully done, and presumably the rental fees for the stalls help pay for the island a bit.
In front is a surprisingly well crafted statue, of two men doing handstands. This kind of sculpting work is especially tricky in SL, as you can’t just get a block and start carving. Instead you need to work with the eleven or so preset Primitive shapes, and try to warp them as best you can to achieve the desired result. This kind of artistry pervades the island, showing up the smaller touches as well as the larger structures; lamps, benches, signposts, exotic and unusual plants, all extend far beyond the merely functional.
Following the path around from the landing area, one arrives at a colonnaded harbour, complete with half-loaded barges and circling flocks of gulls.
Lost Gardens of Apollo: Harbour Gates
Thin fluting towers of a decidedly Persian influence guard the gates out to what appears to be an empty, limitless ocean surrounding the island. This is a mirage however, and how Second Life deals with the ‘edge of the world’ – an invisible force-field and ‘Truman Show’ style optical illusion of endless waves – one of the more elegant solutions to the ‘Zone Boundary’ I’ve seen.
Heading inland through the lamp-lit verdant gloom, more sculpture is on display, this time a very intricate angel-like figure being dragged to earth by some kind of subterranean demon.
Lost Gardens of Apollo: Sculpture
Surrounding this statue are little Notecard (in-world text file objects) dispensers detailing the rules and mission of the place, most of which seems rooted in common sense, although a ‘no-sex or nudity’ rule surprises me. Clearly the place is something of a romantic getaway in SL terms, and indeed, the mini-map shows a number of pairs of little green dots (other players) secluded in the various groves and towers of the place, but the notecard is clear, essentially telling people that if they want to get jiggy-with-it, they should get a room…elsewhere. It seems reasonable enough, and god knows enough of the rest of SL is more suitable for that kind of thing. We at Van Hemlock do not condone ‘yiffing’ in public gardens, unless you actually are animal, rather than dressed like one!
The wooded trails continue around the island, branching out to various shoreline coves, or gazeboes, all equipped with any number of snuggle and chill-out pose balls – places to sit and chat, and stare dreamily into another avatar’s eyes. Personally, my staring was largely outward. The rest of the graphics may be below cotemporary standards, but I’ve always liked their sunsets and sunrises, and here, the thing never ends.
Lost Gardens of Apollo: Coastal Sunset
The pillar to the right is just one of many seating areas, all designed to offer spectacular views across the place, and yet provide a modicum of privacy. This isn’t such an issue, partly because nothing that dirty goes on here, and partly because the place is quite old news, and while still reasonably busy (10-15 other people there besides me), the place does not go in for the more sensational populist event-based rabble rousing that most SL clubs engage in to artificially boost popularity. It sells itself, and is impressive enough to be able to count on dontations.
The real centre pieces however are a number of extraordinarily well designed and constructed towers which serve to frame the whole island, visible from all points and lending a unique character to it.
Lost Gardens of Apollo: Lofty Heights
Lost Gardens of Apollo: Causeway
Lost Gardens of Apollo: Floating Repose
Quite inspirational, taking themes from Arabian Nights, and something altogether more fantastical, and a far cry form the mall-riddled club-land and lifeless devoid suburban timeshare replicas that make up the majority of the Grid. The place is quite heavy on the PC, but acceptable. You ceertainly wouldn't want ot play PlanetSide here, no matter how good a sniper point the towers would be, but strolling is smooth enough, once the palce has fully loaded enough...maybe 3-5 mins after arriving.
It was somewhat depressing in a way – seeing what sorts of things can be achieved, and then comparing my own prim-raising skills to it, knowing that I’m neither talented enough, not motivated enough to make anything nearly as spectacular. I’m one of life’s dabblers, and this is the work of a true master.
I was in an odd mood as a result, when I returned to the tower my friends were lounging about in, and snappy – riddled with all sorts of emo baggage about self-esteem and inadequacy. I never really saw myself as an ‘Achiever’ Bartle Type – hell, Lv54 is my best in WoW – but I find a strange kind of reversal in response to Second Life – in a game almost exclusively designed for Socialisers and Explorers, I find myself trying to ‘win’ somehow. Of course this is a path to madness, and an impossible task – no-one can possibly be better than everyone else at all the various disciplines involved in creation in SL, and anyway, as my friend pointed out – ‘It isn’t a competition.’
Yet one more piece of MMO baggage I’m finding myself having trouble unlearning…