Monday, August 9, 2010

Third Rock Grid's Rising Sun

Rising Sun Sim, 3rd Rock Grid
Location: Japan, Edo Era

One of my first assignments for Prim Perfect will involve Third Rock Grid, where a small but passionate group of "Citizens" are building the virtual world.

My story about "3RG" will feature an interview with PhD candidate Margaret Dashwood (Margaret Michalski in SL) who had made her home in the grid.

We had begun a tour of Rising Sun when a crash stymied me. I came back later for another tour and more photographs, with graphics pumped to high and the MacBook handling it fine, even on a wireless connection. I used the notecard feature of 3RG (nice to have this in OS grids) so I could ask the sim owner, Dartagnan Nakajima, a few questions about what makes 3RG special to him. As his profile notes, he “came here in August, 2008 and have been here ever since.”

I'll run his answers here as well as more details about this grid.

Nothing profound to say yet, except the grid is usually stable and its content impressive. What I'm seeing conveys one clear message at least.

If virtual worlds have a future, it will be in network of small grids rather than Second Life's "one big metaverse" model. As soon as some entrepreneur contracts with bespoke designers to make multi-grid inventory possible without violating IP, the game will change for good.

1 comment:

Iggy O said...

No apology needed! You deserved a vacation and, besides, no grid worth its snuff should require a docent for a new visitor, especially one like me who knows his way around the client software.

I'm enjoying 3RG and looking forward to some feedback from Let's Rock, who agreed to answer a few of my questions.