20/10/2019

Nostalgia and Second Life (& revisiting old Linden homes)


When I first joined second life I hadn't anticipated the recurring feeling of nostalgia...


Earlier this year I managed to snag one of the new Linden Homes, which meant giving up my first generation Meadowbrook house. I've had a few Meadowbrook homes, changing occasionally 'till I landed one at Owl Point which I loved. I remembered last week that when the new Linden homes are finally all rolled out Linden Lab will be getting rid of these first gen homes, and this thought made me want to go back and visit my last home.

View of surrounding Meadowbrook homes from my old balcony at Owl Point 
I was surprised to see that no-one was living there, because it was a nice location. But I imagine that quite a few of the first gen homes are now vacant with their owners having moved to the new shiny Bellisseria homes.  The feeling I didn't expect in revisiting the house was nostalgia. I think because I was so fond of the location and the house I felt a tinge of regret at having had to leave it. Well, okay I didn't have to, but I chose to get a new home as I would have to one day anyway...But I didn't expect to feel so attached to the old one.

It's not the first time I've felt this way in Second Life. It's striking I think because I rarely feel nostalgia in real life by comparison. In Second Life many builds and locations are created by inworld residents, so this naturally means they are likely to disappear one day, as those residents move on to build new things, leave Second Life, or just choose not to build anymore for whatever reason. So when I find places that I love, that I find beautiful and give me joy, and then a year or more later they are gone, I feel quite sad and nostalgic, knowing they will never be seen again. In real life buildings and locations don't have such a short life span, therefore these feelings about places don't really come about in the same way. And that, I think, makes it more pronounced for me inworld.

I've been in Second Life for many years now, with one of my favourite past times being exploring, so I've come across numerous places /exhibitions/events that I've really enjoyed and would like to visit again and again. Sadly many of those have disappeared. It's one reason I started this blog and my flickr channel. I wanted a record of  some of those lovely sights. I've  taken in the past were saved only to my inventory in SL (in the early days), and now they'll be too small in size to really be featured on my flickr pages, so now I usually save to my computer instead.

Considering the regions which house the first gen homes will be gone within the next year or so I decided to take some photos for memory. In doing so I discovered some really cute little places that I hadn't known existed. The landscaping does seem a bit sparse in comparison to the lovely design over at Bellisseria, but nevertheless there were some really nice spots.

I wandered around looking at the different styles of home...

Sahreta Osumai style home in Izumi
Tahoe style homes in Rock Moss
Elderglen style home at Astrella

...and I also found some cute parkland separating the different themes of homes, and underwater features too:

Park Osi


Giant Mushrooms at Park Thoron

Underwater at Patish
I also ventured to a couple of the old Info Hubs, the areas that were central community points with a little bit of info for users. Sadly whenever I had visited my nearest info hub in the past there were never any people there. It's a shame because these were actually really nice places. I think perhaps if Linden Lab had made them available for events (just as Bellisseria fairgrounds is) they may have been put to better use...


Info Hub at Ravensbrook
I'm glad I visited these places before they are gone. It'll be nice to look back on one day:)

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