Galonge and the effect of web2.0

Not a big post, this one... In fact, it's really just an excuse to show you some of my travel snaps. The subject is the strange, mythical sim of Galonge. However, before I wheel out my snaps, I think some context is in order - hence the title of this post.

As regular readers are surely aware, I use Flickr for storing the many snaps I take on my virtual travels. A day or so ago, I got a new follower, hidenori glushenko, and so I checked out his profile in order that I could add him in return, and check out his pictures. In the course of this, I found the Galonge group on Flickr - and saw a familiar name: Ravenelle Zugzwang, real life wife of everybody's favourite Linden, Torley. Following my 2.0 route, I got a link to this post on Ravenelle's blog - and stared, in awe, at the photo of 2 huge, elongated giraffe-like creatures, reminding me strongly of Dali's painting of the Temptation of St Anthony, which features elephants with grossly out-sized giraffe legs. I got the SLURL from Flickr and hurried along as soon as I could.

Galonge, like the Flickr group, is Japanese in origin. It is described as: "a mysterious unknown civilization in Second Life. (like ancient Egypt or Roma or any old civilization)" - which is fair enough, though the architecture reminded me more of native American Hopi design. I have no idea what the funding model might be for this sim - or the rationale for its existence... and I don't really care. There's a few shops, but nothing that would make tier. There's also some unusual freebies... like your very own Sun god! I just thought that, as it was a really nice sim that caught my eye, I would tell you about it.

Oh.. and finally - here's the snaps!
My thought on this is: While the 2.0 chase was more convoluted than it needed to be, how would I have fared in a 1.0 web?

Rodel

Torley Linden... no matter what you think about the "growing pains" of the company for which he works, Torley somehow transcends it all. It is as if Torley were the walking embodiment of what S~~~~d L~~~e is all about. What's more, his tutorials are a marvellous blend of the chaotic and the educational - like being shown how to do something by an enthusiastic friend, rather than a distant teacher. But that is more than enough fluffing for one post.

Torley, nevertheless, is the start point for this post. I dip into his excellent SL Flickr stream from time to time, and today noticed a particularly interesting and arty set of pictures of the Rodel sim. This evening I had the chance to whizz in for a look. This appears to be a "water sim", with only a little over 3000 prims to its name - and an island that is little more than a blip on the surface of the Protected Ocean. So where's the fancy stuff? I will leave you to find that - but as a clue: if you ain't got flight assistance you won't find it. The sim seems to be Torley's - I have no idea how many he has - and this light show is best seen on midnight setting. It would be really nice to see a well-made machinima of it - but until then, you will need to make do with my pictures: