Showing posts with label Linden Labs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Linden Labs. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Becoming a Landlady

I was looking through my landmarks the other day and clicked on one of my all time favorites. When I landed at what used to be Blues by the Lake, I was saddened to see that it was no longer there...gone...kaput! The land had been abandoned and was completely devoid of anything. I stood there for the longest time, so tempted to purchase the land, since it overlooks a lake, which has been recently redeveloped into a beautiful fishing spot. But I caught myself just in time and didn't push the 'buy' button. Instead, I decided to go look around and see what other types of parcels are available on the Linden Mainland.

No more Blues by the Lake!  :(

Before I continue, I should explain that one of my favorite things to do in Second Life is to take properties and fix them up. I love to place houses and I love to landscape and place other decorative elements around. Some people have told me that I am good at doing this. All I know is that I enjoy it so much and I can easily lose track of time when I am happily fixing up a property.

I have never owned land on the Mainland before. I have only owned property in private estates where the tier is paid to the estate owner, rather than the Lindens. I had always considered that Mainland property was not as desirable, since you cannot control what kind of neighbors you might have and how they might develop or landscape their land.

I flew around, looking at parcels for sale (of which there are an abudance!!). Eventually, I came across a nice little area with sailable Linden water and some parcels for sale. One particular parcel seemed so perfect and located right on the shoreline. I checked the price...it seemed reasonable. I clicked on the menu to purchase the property and just held it there for a REALLY long time before I finally took the plunge and pressed the 'buy' button and immediately thought, oh no, what have I done!

I am now the owner of a parcel on the Linden Mainland!

Now, WHY do I need a parcel on the Mainland when I have beautiful property in the New England estate? That's an excellent question. And I've been asking myself the same question, actually. I thought...well, this can be a little place for me to escape. Then I realized that SL is ALREADY an escape. Do I need an escape from my escape?

Since the deed was done, I went ahead and placed a really cute little beach cottage on the property and began landscaping. I soon discovered that you cannot terraform Linden land extensively...they have built-in constraints so you cannot vary the land too much from how the Lindens created it. But you can do some tweaking...and tweaking I did. I placed trees and flowers around, some rocks with water spray and other decorative things. I stood back and admired what I had created and thought, ok...now what?

Then I had a brilliant idea! I would rent it out and become a landlady! So...I pulled out a rental box that I had created last year and never used. I already even had a group created...Schimmer Properties. I had a logo. I was set! I placed a classified ad for my Sea Haven Cottage and waited for people to beat down the door wanting to rent my little cottaage. I set a people counter out...and went back the next day to see how many had come looking. I was surprised...the count was...ZERO!  I signed and figured, oh well. I should have known better.

But less than 24 hours after I set it for rent, I did receive notice that it had, indeed, been rented. I met my new tenant and made sure she was all set up. I acted like I was experienced in the land rental business. I'm not sure I had her fooled though.

She has decorated the cottage in such a cute way! I think she will be the perfect tenant...especially for a new landlady like me. I sure hope she decides to stay for while.
Sea Haven Cottage...my first rental!

To my tenant...if you are reading this...please stay!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Premium Gifts and Other Things Linden

Kiosk SLURL:   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sandbox%20Admiranda/73/24/53
This week, Linden Labs announced some perks for premium members…furniture designed by Colleen Desmoulins of The Loft and an exclusive sandbox for premium members only. My first reaction was…how nice of them! Especially since one of my favorite stores is The Loft and I really love the creations of Colleen Desmoulins. I thought to myself…wow, she is really getting some free advertising here and I wonder if she will see an increase in sales as a result.

What didn’t really occur to me until a little later was that this whole concept is perhaps very unfair to those who create content in Second Life and then try to sell their creations. It seems unfair to be giving away quality things to all those thousands of Linden Home owners who might otherwise be purchasing them and helping the SL economy. And also unfair to the other quality builders who were not chosen by Linden Labs and will not reap the benefit of increased store traffic as The Loft probably will.

Nevertheless, I do confess that I did go get my free gift. The sofa, tables, lamps and other goodies that were given away are very nice. Most have menus to allow you to change the textures so as to better match your SL décor. Here is a picture of the sofa: I think I might end up using it in my Linden Home. Yes, I have one…I used it very occasionally as a hideaway, but it is very laggy and I cannot spend much time there.

Free furniture gift, 8 prims, made by Colleen Desmoulins of The Loft

The kiosk for the free furniture is located on the premium sandbox. When I was there, it was nearly empty. One other person was there rezzing a building. The sandbox appeared to be four sims together, so it was quite a large area.



As I explored and looked off into the distance, I became distracted by something I saw off in the Linden water. So I went to investigate and found a curious wooden rack-like thing in the water with some kind of net traps suspended from it. I’m not sure the purpose.





Nearby was a sunken, rusty submarine and strange mines attached to chains and floating in the water.




Sharks were swimming around protecting the whole area from interlopers, but I managed to befriend one of them and hitched a ride around the area.

 
Underwater Sunken Sub and Shark


Underwater area in protected land next to sandbox

I confess that I enjoy exploring Linden lands and water. They often have some interesting, unusual and fun things lurking around. I’m sure I will enjoy my new Linden premium gifts too.