As my neighbors in Second Life have noticed (and been amused, it seems), I have been rather fickle with the the various buildings for my home. Most of the time I have purchased low-cost structures built by someone else. All of them have looked great, but none have been what I wanted: a building that would allow me to cover all the goals for my property while being low-prim enough to meet the requirements of my plot.
Lately I have been interested in building my own homes. I wanted to target a more commercial aspect (hoping against hope that my efforts would pay for the land I have purchased). In order to do so, I would need to build something that is all my own, yet looking professional. This is also important for me as I wish to have a learning environment for my students to visit for “extra credit”, and for office hours.
I started with an idea for an English Country Pub. From the many pictures I have pulled from the Internet, I came with a very well constructed approximation of a pub as my first home. It’s currently for sale in my new digs for a price I think reflects the level of construction. I also built a number of low-prim accessories for the building, which I will have up for sale soon.
But it was too small for what I wanted, and I didn’t feel that it fit in the neighborhood in Caledon Downs. That, and I didn’t have enough room for everything I wanted in the house. I tried a parachute platform, but since you can fly in Caledon, why would someone want to parachute around the land? It just didn’t make sense.
So, I found some nice textures for a Victorian Brick building, and set to work. I built a new Victorian Department Store that is just large enough to fit in my land, and gives me 4 floors to provide a store (first floor), a Cinema currently showing the 1916 version of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” (second floor), a third floor with a whiteboard and slideshow viewer for online courses, a fourth floor Restaurant with Fish and Chips and Tea for all, and finally an attic for changing clothes without anyone looking in on me.
I’ve since had two neighbors who have not talked to me before comment on how much they like the new building, and are quite impressed with it. As such I posted it for sale inside for the benefit of anyone else that would like the building.
Now, I have heard some people mention the fact that they find Second Life a “game” that equates to something similar to Facebook or MySpace. And all I can say is many Universities are using Second Life as a solution to their physical classroom problems, and there is a reason. Soon I hope to have a solution for some Technology Education classes to be taught in the new medium. And this new building is large enough to provide for those classes, and provide a fun environment for students to enjoy.
So if you are new to Second Life, or have land and want a nice large building with a small footprint, feel free to visit!
