So today is Second Life's 19th birthday (!) and I myself am 18 1/2 in SL, so I'm going to tell you the best lots to go to at the birthday -- simply because it is sprawling, there are 200 or more of them, and the Destinations only contains 84 of them. Sadly, I didn't make the cut, but then the Lindens have to put their favourites in first (Bay City, Crystalshard Foo, who is back, and other assorted Feted Inner Core (FIC). More to the point, Destinations doesn't tell you which of these lots have GIFTS.
And GIFTS are why a lot of people bother to go, as they could see the exact same builds -- or already saw them at other events -- in less laggy environments.
You can pick up a folder of my suggested landmarks right to these lots at my main office in Maryport.
The sites with gifts are marked GIFTS to help you sort even these.
That way I don't have to struggle to put SLURLs in this post now.
So first of all, my main impression is how utterly shocking it is that most lots DO NOT HAVE ANY GIFTS WHATSOEVER, NOT EVEN A BALLOON OR A T-SHIRT. My God, why is that? Answer: the Lindens nerfed the rules even further this year, so that you could not even show a logo. You could have a notecard or landmark giver, but said object could not contain your company name or logo. Therefore, no company has any incentive to gift, which after all, is a form of loss-leader to help business. (And even non-profits have to attract the attention economy.)
Other answer: the SL economy, like the RL economy, has been shrinking and headed for recession (since the Gatchapocalypse, from which some never recovered) and the sudden imposition of sales tax in the US. So not every creator can afford to make you a gift especially for SL19B, or give up one of her creations that sells for free. Because you cannot sell anything or collect tips at this event. (What a different event it would be, if at least tips were allowed!)
So instead of going down a neatly arranged list of well-known merchants such as at Shop 'n Hop, and picking where you want to go, or recognizing your favourite artists as you fly around, you stumble around from lot to lot in the murk (there's no directory), trying to figure out by going into edit mode on objects and waiting for them to load just who has made them and where they belong.
The Lindens want the event to be devoid of the usual tacky and spammy commerce of SL -- understood. But this is so scrubbed you can't find things or appreciate them. No doubt I've missed some important ones, or claimed some builder didn't have a gift when he did -- but ok, you'll correct me. And this isn't my last post on the subject, hopefully.
So given that there are VERY FEW GIFTS and what gifts there are can be paltry, I suggest you first go to Shop 'n Hop (was that always held at the same time? Obviously in the first few years they didn't even have it) and stock up on the 400 gifts there, or as many as you can stuff in your inventory, because the Lindens make the merchants put out gifts there. Use the merchants' list to TP directly to any promising ones or ones you like, rather than crawling like a sleep fly from sim to sim.
Second, go to the Tapestry of Time lot where the Lindens have dioramas of their accomplishments over the years (history is written by the victors or the tyrants), and pick up the dozens of gifts there, so that you can get this yen for gifts sated, and be free to admire the builds -- which is what you are there for.
Warning: there are so few gifts there, that at the last minute, the Moles raised the quota for us from two to three. So typically people who put out three, like me (in addition to my 21 at the lot!) are not, shall we say, top creators but just floundering amateurs trying to get attention to their stuff or their activity or venue. I can't say I have found anything outstanding here, although there are a few nice ones (repeated at the exhibits). I would estimate that less than one third of the exhibitors left a gift here (and maybe some missed the cut-off).
As I just said in a Twitter thread (which was deleted because I realized that the expo wasn't open yet, just the Shop 'n Hop, and there is a press embargo for builders, everything is dwarfed by the spectacular build by Ancient Mole called Arboretum on the sim Exhilarate -- it takes up its own sim with 13,000+ prims. More on that later.
So perhaps END with that build after you have viewed hundreds of renditions of gears, gears, gears; clockworks; jittery copper robots; and steampunk hats from your confreres, usually, like me, building far below that level. In fact, while there are at least three free steampunk tophats in this fair (and probably three times that many I didn't see), you'd be better off going back to Shop 'n Hop and buying the one made by Rozorogalia for $250 or thereabouts, which is far higher in quality -- although the one free one made by monomura at the exhibit is pretty good. Oh, and it's free lol.
In fact, I'll tell you my absolute favourite expo, which is called Just Glue Some Gears On It. That ought to be the motto of the whole event, of course. (Strangely, most people, in applying this cliche, stick sculpty gears rather than finding the more expensive mesh models on the MP, likely because they get them free from Aley or other hoboes making them for "the commuuunity." But shouldn't gears be sharp-edged? OK.
So when the theme was first announced, there was general groaning on the forums about a theme many felt was too overworked (and we had just had a Steampunk hunt and event at Mieville), and Walton Wainwright of Contraption - THE premier Steampunk creator in SL -- also spoke eloquently about the cliches of Steampunk and how to depart from them (not in relation to the SL19B but to Warehouse, one of the top merchant events he organizes).
I don't know what prompted your intervention here, and I figure it is likely not this: https://t.co/vxiFWIeDIn in which residents express dismay at the theme for SL19 which is "Steampunk" which drives people mad with the sepia toned hat goggle gents and all.
— Prokofy Neva 🌻 (@Prokofy) March 28, 2022
Oh dear that is new to me -- For me, I was addressing someone who publicly discouraged the designers of The Engine Room Event for not being on theme, whilst trying to dictate what is steampunk and what isn't.
— Walton Wainwright (@SLContraption) March 28, 2022
Gatekeeping, so to speak, while not reading what the theme is.
— Prokofy Neva 🌻 (@Prokofy) March 28, 2022
Ah, this is the perfect contribution, how could I forget these beautiful illustrations. I couldn't have said it better than this - so much colour! Thank you very much.
— Walton Wainwright (@SLContraption) March 28, 2022
Apparently he has an exhibit called Steamworks at SL19B which I haven't located yet.
So Jj Yowahoshi, who made this site "Just Glue Some Gears On It", seemed to be making a sarcastic statement with just a few prims tossed on a bridge with a mirror. However, if you had the patience to click on the mirror the right way (I must get that mirror, from Quills and Curiosities), you would find yourself transported to an underwater realm decorated tastefully in the Art Deco steampunk style, with a minimum of gears, where you can sit and contemplate styles and themes AND pick up a gift. Yay!
Now I will also immediately root for two very old groups: The first is the Isle of Wyrms, one of the oldest (now the oldest surviving?) RP groups in SL. As should be required, they have provided you with a free dragonlet. And that sets the bar high. That's what all the exhibitors should be doing, instead of having nothing or a balloon. Of course, the Lindens stress that this must be about BUILDS, but you know, people are tired of builds by this time of the year, having gone through not just Fantasy Faire, which is build heaven and the premiere event of the year, but dozens of other events like Sci-Fi Con and Silk Road, many related to Relay for Life, which are all about the builds.
The second group is the Snail Race by Racer Gullwing and friends -- the longest running event in SL? Every Saturday morning and many other times too. It's like "The Fantasticks" of Second Life. And -- again, doing absolutely the right thing -- Racer has a little mini racing snail for you.
THANK YOU!
Now, we'll skip over my own lot, which has 21 -- count 'em -- 21 gifts, although I'll be the first to say that they are, er, charmingly amateurish and mercifully on mod, or just plain stupid. Well, ok, some of them are posters or images from real artists so that's something you can use, thank God. But although my Dinkie Cathedral Icecream Fountain is a veritable tour de force, I think most people will only take it because it's free.
Onward. London Junkers, who does all his own work, has another fabulous Asian build (he did one last year) with many twists and turns and best of all, A GIFT.
This is the god of multi-tasking.
BTW, I'm not going to tell you what each and every gift is, go see yourself.
Bryn Oh has not one but two exhibits, and is one of the luckies to get 996 prims (the rest of us got only 468). Of course, anyone can ask for the double lots, but your installation has to justify such gifting and glittering, as Yuki calls it. In the past, I managed to score two just because they didn't have enough people in the exhibit, really, and could spare it. It is very hard to chisel a build like this down to 468. I was literally back there today backing and filling, believing the site already being locked against placement of new objects, trying to fix clouds around a backdrop with no back or underlying floor to it (like so many mesh things), big them up, and whittle away prims on other things to cover the difference. Then all of a sudden the word in the group was that lockdown had NOT happened, so I HASTENED back to my sim to put out something I had wanted to do originally, but had forgotten: to put out E.V.E's gatto rose RARE.
Bryn needs every prim, as on one lot, the statue alone is a whopping 850 or so. It is graceful, nonetheless. The other lot looks like what she already had at the event Enchantment, I believe, from one of her stories, with mannequins and props, which I forgot to go back and buy. It's a story about these girls and... well, go see. I think there's a gift there if you click around the desk, but not sure the thought bubbles were meant as gifts.
I saw this Cerridwen's Cauldron Mythspire build in the distance and I thought, poor Elicio, he should never have let those beautiful Mythspire prisms into the wild (he sold them at an event after FF), because chuds like me will use them awkwardly in their builds. I have to confess the first time I laid out that Mythspire pack from The Warehouse, I wept because they were so beautiful, I was never going to figure out how to put them together, and it was all wasted on me. They weren't that expensive, but still...Nevertheless, I did soldier on and put some of them in my installation.
But then I realized...that build at SLB19 WAS by Elicio HIMSELF. Whew. And a very fine build it was. No gifts, but then, ok, the build itself is the gift I suppose. To be sure, the Literary Club from FF also used Elicio's stuff, as they had back at FF, and this somewhat disappointing repeat was not mitigated by a GIFT. Honestly, I clicked everywhere guys.
Now we come to SPAM, as its acronym turns out to be, the Society for the Preservation of Architecture and History in the Metaverse. At first I was interested to see that someone else made a Society about architecture, as I did, but it turned out to be a spoof. There were displays of the paltry Linden grass of yesteryear, various newbies with boxes on their head, etc. AND NO GIFTS SOB. But what was notable here was a display made by Crystalshard Foo, who used to be famous for distributing a free TV -- but never providing service for it, as it was free. The relay that was supposed to go with it for group land was often lost or not understood, so I ended up doing the service for this free thing, which was part of what formulated my negative attitude toward the FOSS movement (and much else). I think the paid TVs, even if the principle of their scripts were the same, looked better, sometimes had some added features, and best of all, often had service.
Still and all, Crystal made a cool thing -- a computer. This is something even a non-geek like me can appreciate. I hasten to explain that she did this not by hooking up a prim to a pipe and an external server -- that's done all the time. Rather, she made it totally inworld, using existing LSL (and probably some duct tape and WD-40 spray). So this little computer does some routines.
It says, "Hello!" for example. (But not, "Hello, avatar!") By the 20th SL Birthday, I'm confident that Ms. Foo will have created a sentient being like that Google guy and it will probably take all our land and gives us all free TVs that don't work on group land, should we manage to hang on to said land. Still, it will be cool.
All the time I was building I saw this giant cat near me, and just assumed it was part of the KittyCats exhibit, which they always put next to me, for reasons that don't make sense, although this year I had the Dinkie theme, which relates. But it turns out, that giant cat, finished at the last minute, was from the Catznip viewer, run by the annoying forums maven Coffee Pancake. Regardless, she made a very good build with a hipster/hippie lounge inside which even has glowing wireframe cats and the edgy BackBone Cyber Bonsai - Black w/ Pink Leaves which I must get.
But no gift. How about a shrunken version of the kitty on a keychain, guys? Again, the build itself is supposed to be the gift, dummies. Catznip itself is a gift, being an all-volunteer viewer that works better than the SL viewer, where search has not been destroyed like on the bog standard viewer.
Bay City's building isn't in that urban Chicago vein that the city itself seems to be, a style so beloved by the Moles, but in fact looks like a mall in Geneva, New York, circa 1964. Oh, actually, that style extends into the 1960s, according to Governor Linden, so it's all good. There is a curious gift box in a display case which is NOT A GIFT and there ARE NO GIFTS that are non-promotions of the city itself. The prim says on it, "Really, We Care" -- which is a message not to us, the viewing public (although it could be), but to their erstwhile frenemies, Caledon from some forgotten drama.
No wonder these guys feel so special, look at what Governor Linden said to them at their founding:
The Confederation of Democratic Simulators also had no swag, not surprising, given their socialist beliefs, but the build reveals that curious Austrio-Hungarian/Germanic underpinnings to their culture (once shaped by Ulrika Zugzwang, who I believe was actually American) when they were first on a snow sim, then their own Linded-gifted sim which I used to call NewFriedsWithThat. Now you tell me what the actual name is, and you will never likely remember it again, let alone spell it.
The chancellor's pendant and the state jewels -- well, socialism always ends up having this sort of thing.
monomura Zehetbauer has an interesting and well executed build and best of all, GIFTS! Yay!
A Mild Case of Abyss is an odd build but then that's what you want at an event like this, odd, quirky, creative. It also has some jazzy music undersea. And GIFTS!
SecondHand Tutti is one of my favourite artists. I wish she had put out more at this build but she was busy launching her own exhibit with other artists in recent weeks in the same time for building SL19B. There is an intricate moving sculpture, and she turned in a steampunk tophat as a gift. The main thing in the busy life of an artist trying to hustle in SL is to show up, and so she has.
I would say I haven't heard of half the people in the show, and many of them are artists, quietly, without any glory from events like FF or Shop 'n Hop, going about their intricate and skillful builds.
So I never heard of something called the Skin Tower, but it is very cool and well done. These folks had some kind of Euro or world music track on their site (most people didn't bother to put on their own stream so you are stuck with the stream picked by the Moles with warmed-over Beatles and R.E.M. top 40 tunes. So this is where I heard a Russian musician I did not know and this is almost an anti-war song (although it's at least from 2016 or earlier).
BTW, according to the rules of this event, there can be no political content. So while lots of us would have liked to put in "We Stand With Ukraine," just like in Russia, it would have to be put in with using the blue and yellow colours or sunflowers in Aesopian language. Bryn Oh, to be sure, had a little letter on a desk with a small blue and yellow Ukrainian flag and if you clicked on it, it said "Fuck Poutine", perhaps to defeat automatic search functions looking for controversial words.
Linden Bear Collectors put out the giant bear of Kona Linden which I have -- could it be that the small version has more prims than the giant one? It's only 25 prims and not convexed (none of them are because they didn't have convex back when they were making these prim things). I periodically have to remove my copy of the little one due to its enormous prim count in the hundreds. No, there were no Linden bears to give out -- for that you have to contact them directly.
Time to Celebrate by SLEA was underwhelming -- but then it's a bureaucratic organization controlled by the Lindens for artists' endowments in SL -- and the artists themselves are too busy doing either the individual SLEA shows or their own shows. Odd that there was not even a few free photos or something.
FionaFei had an exhibit. You could not fly into it. It was pretty. There were no gifts.
Sitearm's 3D in Music Interactive Orchestra Kits had an intricate and compelling build if you had the patience to listen -- and people should do more of that in virtual worlds. I didn't realize Sitearm was still active in SL. I associate her with virtual educators with whom I used to endlessly argue as they began pushing a brand of Woke years before it became pervasive.
Krystall Rabeni has a build called Moonborne which is wonderfully done and compelling, and you will want to return to it several times. Krystall runs LOVE where you get bargain items at the weekend sales every single weekend. So she is totally excused from any social demand to provide any gifts whatsoever at an SL birthday. Instead, she should let her skills range free away from the demands of the mass taste of the 30L and 60L and even 99L sales. Yes, I realize that's what this exhibit is supposed to be about.
But I can only be truthful that I myself look for gifts at an event that is a BIRTHDAY, just like most other people. Whenever I go to an art gallery I'm always disappointed when people don't put the art to sale. It's not even so much a gift; we can pay. It's about taking a piece home with you.
What88 Zond must be totally strung out after doing an intricate build for FF with a demanding hunt (which frustrated the hell out of everyone but which we all soldiered through to get her amazing prizes). She then went on to do a complex build for Scifi Con. That would be enough. I think she mentioned she was going to collapse? But no. There was still SL19B where she turned out yet another amazing and disturbing build in the art deco steampunk theme as it actually should be done. OK, no gifts, but you are excused (because of that FF hunt).
Dr. Marinea's Fintastic Time Flipper Machine was interesting, skillfully done, and she GAVE YOU THE WHOLE FRICKIN' BUILD AS THE GIFTS. OK, Dr. Marinea, you win SL19B, hands down. Her Greenhouse is 40 prims but on mod, so you could in principle de-fat it, but you won't want to.
Botanica Cara's Crab Shack had a hunt where you find the gifts. Good! That's how you draw people into the build and give the gifts (I did this in the past, and Missy Mole called my site this year "a hunt," although I think they are all out in plain sight. I like Cara's things which are old school. She has this great apple cider set. I will be doing this hunt.
Septopus Urchin Grabber is scary, well done, but creepy -- and it's a good thing there are no gifts because they might give you bad dreams for months. Way, way later than it should, it dawns on me that "septopus" is like "octopus" but minus one arm. I need to go back and count and see what happened to that one a---no I don't.
1895 New Orleans by Guiniverre Despres I *think* is related to Sweet Revolutions but -- see above, you can't use logos. It is eloquent and beautiful -- especially the deep green water. She had the idea of simply putting wind-up alligators in a swamp. Perfect. It speaks volumes.
Arcadia Asylum Library and Freebie Center has the most gifts of anyone, and God bless Aley. Although they are sculpty and old school, the items hold up pretty well. I distribute them on some of my sites and every day people take them. I use them in some of my creations as well. And so does everyone else, which is why long before you get to Arcadia, you feel as if you have already seen it, especially with something like Steampunk. I actually I found some items I hadn't seen before there so do stop by.
Antiquity Estates has made a beautiful house with dinner that I think is supposed to serve but didn't (this is why I didn't attempt temp-rez on my build because the Moles were discouraging it). There is dancing and the refined life. I didn't see any gifts.
CassieEldemar Writer put out the wordling she made for the most recent Fantasy Faire. They have a system where you can propose a sim for the next year in this form, a miniature version in a kind of store window. She made a little miniature village. I hope she gets in next year, it's very different and well designed and laid out. While all the FF builds are fabulous, they tend to this kind of barely restrained BDSM lite thematic, to make a pun (it has to be G rated at the Faire). So it would be nice to have something tiny and wholesome. Sadly, no gifts.
Save the Bees doesn't seem to be the same site that used to be in Motocyclone, which is why I bought land there, I loved them to pieces and tried to remember to keep adding to their tip jar. However, there weren't enough prims, it was costly, and I believe the owner had a friend who sponsored her on another sim. Since then she has flourished but I'm confused, I think this is a different "save the bees". No matter, they have GIFTS! And mead, too.
Heartbreak Warfare by Enigma Greer and Dita Actor is not about the war in Ukraine but could be. Evocative and mysterious, because they write that this is their last collaboration after six years, and you don't know why. There are many such collaborations in SL - in some ways the world enables it - but then RL can interfere. No gifts, but then, ok, no sense in lowering yourself to the mundane.
Dream Machine by Allie Munro is a skillful build, like her two sims at FF (imagine taking on two!). She is one of those SLers who has improved vastly over the years. No gift, however.
Tutuland is another highly skilled build featuring dancing in the steampunk theme by Aelva, one of the dancers sponsored by Alia Baroque at his events, among others.
Nun by Alia Baroque is his FF build, which is awesome, of course. No gifts. It's ok, Alia knocks himself out every where at FF and later for his own Fallen Gods hunt so he is excused.
Bixyl Shuftan and Sylvia Ametza have a very nice build but no gifts.
kimblecoles has one of the best builds in the event because it is different. So you don't mind there is no gift.
Robokitty-Mini's Chronometrical Mission Mis-hap is just a fun build like a volcano. You wish you could take this home with you. You can't.
I was glad to see that EpitomeLove actually tried to make a scene that was immersive. This is awfully hard to do on these 2048 lots. I tried to do it the last few years and succeeded more; this year I had less time and the constraints of having to echo the painting. His backdrop is also more like Contraption's Western take on steampunk than the British gearshaft stuff. And there are GIFTS! Yay!
I spent a good 15 minutes trapped in the build of Bears Gone Wild, but it was not unpleasant, and they had GIFTS.
I see KittyCats did put up a build at the last minute and even has free kitties (find the group of off-white cats), as she has done every year for 19th years, as the build illustrators with birthday kitties of yesteryear.
Be grateful to the merchants who gave you gifts and TIP THEM DIRECLTY, which you can do. And go to their Shop 'n Hop.
So that's it for now, until I get all the angry IMs that these people did, too, have gifts but they just didn't rez for me. It's not about them putting them out late, as the sims are going to be locked down, or were and only hours remain before no more gifts can be put out even in the centralized area.
AND NOW FOR ADDITIONS AS I COME ACROSS THEM
nando Yip is one of my favourite artists. There are few galleries you can stay an hour at, but his is one of them. I have some of his works, he is very wide-ranging. His Perpetual Motion in SL is an underwater build you reach by steampunk-y stairs, and it has a viewing gallery with Hideki's Triple Chairs when you can watch how he does what he said he was going to do -- which, as he explains, is truly possible only in Second Life, at least until the heat-death of the sun. I don't know if you are meant to do this, but you can sit on the perpetually-moving ball and splash around the exhibit.
