I'm just dying for an authentic, interesting part of New York City to get built in Second Life. Nearly a year ago Versu Richelieu created a simulation of one of the most boring blocks in Manhattan, 39th and Fifth Avenue. Then for Christmas we had a virtual Rockefeller Center designed by Aimee Weber Studios for a virtual tree lighting ceremony. Could anything be more touristy and tacky than Rockefeller Center? Perhaps the Southstreet Seaport.
Now, Millions of Us has created ... a virtual Upper East Side. Read on for more ranting...
That's right, effete, boring, rich Manhattanites now have a
virtual place to hang, complete with a fake Barneys, pretentious cafes and bars, frou-frou art
galleries, and private schools for your pampered youngsters. All this
for the new TV show "Gossip Girl" described as follows:
The privileged prep school teens on Manhattan's Upper East Side first learn that Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants") is back in town the way they learn all the important news in their lives -- from the blog of the allknowing albeit ultra-secretive Gossip Girl. No one knows Gossip Girl's identity, but everyone in this exclusive and complicated vicious circle relies on her website and text messages for the latest scoop.
The promo ads alone just makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Check out this virtual UES apartment!
I know that Second Life often plays around with spatial relations due to the difficulty of avatars moving in very tight spaces. That said, I believe that there must be UES apartments that look like this. My pad is, well, not quite as spacious.
So what New York 'hoods and locales would I like to see in Second Life? Short list off the top of my head: Harlem (during the Rennaissance and current), the Lower Eastside Tenement Museum, Coney Island (historic since its about to get torn down!), Chinatown (Queens or Manhattan), the Socrates Sculpture Garden, and Ellis Island.
Meanwhile I guess I need to go hang out in the Virtual Lower Eastside.
</rant>
