If you're house is fast becoming taken over by your DVD collection, imdb.com is one of your most used bookmarks, and you spend those rare nights away from SL down at the local multiplex, you may be wondering if there are places in Secondlife where you can explore and embrace your love of celluloid within the virtual landscape. If so, you aren't alone, as I also was wondering something similar, but of course, anyone who has put the words "movie" or "film" into the SL search engine will know that this is a recipe for a long and painful search through advert after advert for porno theatres, porn filled inworld television, or randy webcam girls at reasonable prices. So, fear not, I have attempted to save you the effort and possible blindness that such a search can bring, by tirelessly scouring the grid to find some of the best places in SL to visit if you consider yourself a bit of a cinema aficionado.

There are various movie theatres in SL, where you and your friends can go and catch a film together, and many of them cost you absolutely nothing. One particular sim, the suitably movie inspired named Amity Island, actually has two. The Second Cinema Movie Theatre is a traditional cinema with one screen but plenty of seating, showing a variety of largely horror films (on the two occasions I popped by, they were showing "Scream" and "Interview with a vampire"). However, if you would prefer to enjoy a more open air movie experience with a charming retro feel they also have a superb Drive in Movie Theatre next door, showing films like "The Goonies", which you can view while sitting in one of the stylish American automobiles they have put out for the enjoyment of patrons. Once you've seen one of the films on offer, you can also head down to the beach to enjoy the little tribute to the film Jaws, from which the sim gets it's name.


If your film tastes extend to the more art house end of the spectrum, you might want to check out the small yet modern cinema that the BBC Film Network have set up on the depo sim, playing some superb documentaries. On show when I popped over for a look was "I Expect Jean Feels The Same" an interesting and touching story about two WW2 war widows, and the love and losses that they have experienced. Definitely more thought provoking than your average popcorn fodder.


Another small but perfectly formed moviehouse can be found on the Desperation Kelly sim, at the Redrum Public House and Cinema. Upon my visit, they were showing the frankly legendary "Full Metal Jacket", and if you piece together the clues from their film choice, and the name of the Pub, then you can probably figure out some of the other film related delights to be found nearby. If you go exploring, you may well discover a door to the Kubrick Rooms, a tribute to the much missed director, with lovingly detailed recreations of the sets like the war room from one of my favourite films, Dr Strangelove, along with the bathroom from The Shining, and a Moloko bar from A Clockwork Orange. You can even enjoy a documentary about the man himself, inside the room detailed after the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Once you have experienced these delights, you can also find some superb recreations of the shack from Evil Dead, and also the 80's Cafe from Back to the Future 2, but in addition to being able to have a look around these, you can also buy copies of them for your very own, to place on your own land, if you so wish.


For more items of purchasable film related goodness, you can do a lot worse than visiting the Paper Street Soap Company. Ah ha, I hear you cry, I know what this will look like then. And while you would be right that the signature pink soap from the Fight Club posters does feature heavily, and you can buy a fine recreation of the house on Paper Street, the actual main store building actually owes more to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, although put through something of a grime filter, and producing soap instead of chocolate, in appearance at least. Other prefab buildings for sale, that should interest any film fan, include the desert church from Kill Bill, Sweeney Todd's barber shop, the Quickstop store from Clerks, and a smashed up version of the Mooby's fastfood restaurant from Clerks 2. There are also some nicely crafted film inspired outfits on offer, which you can wear while you pop to the neighboring sim, to check out some of these buildings out on display, so you can have a look around before you buy.


It would be remiss of me to talk about films and Secondlife without talking about the large community of Star Wars fans, who have decided against playing one of the other Star Wars themed online games, preferring rather to make their own roleplaying areas in SL, and becoming a Jedi or Sith inworld. One of the best places to go to dip your toe into this galaxy not so far far away, is Little Mos Eisley, a highly detailed slice of the planet Tatooine. If you decide that you'd rather not get involved in the lightsaber battling, and rather just look around the Cantina, or marvel at the creatures, buildings and vehicles littering the sim (including a gorgeous Millennium Falcon), you can get a free visitors tag at the arrival point, and walk without fear of attack.


And finally, how could I look at the perfect places for a film buff to look at without suggesting a visit to the Hollywood Sim. This is a beautifully glamorous place, complete with it's own walk of fame, and Hollywood sign for you to gawp at, and if you're lucky you may even be able to catch a show at the sims very own Hollywood Bowl venue. Sounds like a potentially perfect end to any movie fans day in the world of SL.

One of the most valuable resources available to you in Second Life is the people who surround you. A community, always willing to help and offer a guiding hand. Ryker Beck is one avatar who has first hand experience of this resource. A talented, and respected artist, Ryker is also a jewelry creator who recently released the first of an anticipated new line of Second Life skins. A featured (SL & RL) Avatrait artist who has had feedback on her photography through her Second Life journey. Ryker has recently used the very popular outlets of Flickr and Plurk to her benefit as she created Eden, her first skin.

I managed to grab Ryker for a chat in her busy schedule to discuss her progression in Second Life and how valuable the other residents of Second Life have been to her advance into the skin making world.

How, when and why did Ryker first come to Second Life?

I originally began playing Second Life around November 2006. Ryker was born on February 22, 2007 (after I decided I really hated my initial SL name). I began playing the game when a real life friend mentioned it to me in passing. It got what I can only assume as the usual answer of, "What's that?" That led to Googling, Googling led to account creation and well... you know the drill. :P I had no idea the amount of content creation and artistic possibility that was in store when I first rezzed onto the grid. Now, I'm glad to be able to look back and see the things I've done, how the metaverse has changed, and how much more evolved everything and everyone has become.

Can you tell us a little about your Second Life achievements?

My achievements, hahaha. Hmm. Let's see. Well, I am first and foremost an artist and photographer, having started photography in SL in April 2007. I've been featured in Vain Inc Magazine as artist of the month, took third place in the Stiletto Moody photography contest, had a very successful exhibition at the Avatrait Gallery, was a participating artist at the real life exhibition "Renascimento Virtual" at the National Museum of Anthropology in Florence Italy, and have had pieces published in a real life book, "Avatrait: From Second Life to
Florence", among other mentions and achievements.

I began crafting jewelry in January 2008, and launched my first store on January 1st (formerly known as Beck's Fine Jewelry). Eventually, real life took over a bit, and I stopped releasing new products for several months until October 2008 brought the Jewelry Exhibition. It was then that I really kicked back into high gear, and created 10 all-new pieces of jewelry, and a one-of-a-kind set for the silent auction at the expo. It was at the expo that the brand "Genesis" was truly born.

I followed, with great excitement on Plurk as you shared the concept, and initial drawing of Eden, your first Second Life skin, can you tell us a little about the process that brought us, Eden?

Eden was a two year dream in the making. Ever since first rezzing on the grid, it was my ultimate ambition to make skins. I always thought that when I did, I could finally say, "Veni, vidi, vici," and be truly happy with where I had landed in my content creation ambitions. I can't even explain the excitement when I finally found the inspiration to sit down and start creating my first skin. Long, long days of hard work and burying myself in Photoshop and neglecting pretty much anything and everything. It was a single-minded, bee-lined track to the finish marker. The name Eden came from the theme I am maintaining with Genesis. Eden sort of just... "fit" as the first name for a skin from my brand, however it didn't hit me until about a week before release that that's what she just had to be named.

How valuable was the feedback from Plurk and Flickr to your process with the skin model?

Oh, the feedback from Plurk especially was invaluable. I was able to get a substantial pool of beta testers, honest and on the spot feedback, and a plethora of pictures of people wearing the skin so that I could see it on other shapes and pinpoint trouble spots. I received around 30 notecards of feedback and photos, many with very useful tips and pointers of what could be better and what was fantastic about the skin. It was from that giant pool of feedback that I made enhancements and adjustments to the beta skin, and thus Eden was born. She was in no way a single-minded project, and despite having made her, I can't take complete credit for her final state. There are opinions from about 50 total people resting on that skin. And I wouldn't have had it any other way.

What's the future for Ryker Beck's skins?

I am currently working on a new skin, Candace. She is a much more detailed, very catwalk-y skin that I aim to market more at the glamour model industry than I did with Eden, which was a much softer, girly skin. Candace is currently in the beta testing stages and should be released, hopefully, in early to mid May. I already have a plan for a third skin which will also be in the works soon, along with ideas that have been bounced off of me by my lovely and talented sister, Vernice Burks, to make a child skin. And of course, a male skin is in the future too.

For any would-be skin creators out there, can you share any tips you learned along the way?

Don't rush it. Go with your gut. Get feedback! It is the best tool in your arsenal. Invest in a good resource photo website meant for skin creation and 3d texturing work, unless you intend to fully hand draw your skins (or in my case, do both). And above all, find your niche... the quality that will set you apart from the rest. Never stop learning, always keep growing, and never give up. As Napoleon Bonaparte said, "Victory belongs to the most persevering."

*All images reposted with the kind permission of Ryker Beck*

Regular readers, or anyone who knows me, has probably figured out about me, I love a good game. Whether it's board games, consoles, facebook apps, or anything else, I adore emersing myself in many forms of time wasting virtual adventures or contests. Bearing this in mind, it should come as little surprise to anyone that when, some time ago, a friend of mine in SL gave me a game HUD trial of a game called Tiny Empires, I became engrossed in it, and soon got my friends playing too, spending a good deal of my time inworld on the scroll in the corner of my secondlife screen, keeping an eye out for land for sale, any potential subjects I could try to recruit, or trying to solve the puzzles that would hopefully reward me with more gold, so I could increase my land holdings, and hopefully move up to the next level in the monarchistic hierarchy.

Tiny Empires is a medieval-themed game, the full version retailing inworld at L$799, with the aim being to get more and more land and gold, and recruit other sl residents to be your loyal subjects whose land then contributes to your own count, helping boost your way up the social ladder. Having spent so much time, and had so much fun, with the game, I decided to hunt the creator, Ultralite Soleil, to have a chat with him about how the game came about:


Voodoo Buwan: So, how long have you been in SL, and what originally drew you inworld?
Ultralite Soleil: Let's see, I started in August 2006 because I read about SL on some techie website. Slashdot, perhaps. I didn't care about the shopping or the so-called adult activities, but I was fascinated to learn that you could build and script things, and retain ownership rights. I used to play MUDs where you could create things, and the idea of SL reminded me of that.I made a few things in sandboxes but nothing too interesting :)
Voodoo Buwan: So, how did Tiny Empires come into being?
Ultralite Soleil: Well, I was looking for something to do, and I noticed that the games in SL at the time were mostly like checkers, or bingo. I sort of wanted a game that I could play with other people, but I didn't want to have to be in the same sim with them. And I also have a background as a RL game developer (my former career). So I just started with a basic idea of a hierarchy game, and it sort of went from there. I got out of game development several years back, because it's a ridiculously insane industry, but the urge to make games is still strong.
Voodoo Buwan: How much of the project was your own baby, and how much help did you have from others inworld with the development?
Ultralite Soleil: Well, as my most loyal players would tell you, I'm a control freak :) I didn't have any help :)
Voodoo Buwan: So kept it all very much to your own vision?
Ultralite Soleil: Yes. Well, in the earliest part of development, I knew I wanted a hierarchical game that 1) could be played anywhere, 2) took advantage of all the people in SL, and 3) was extremely simple to play. But the specifics of the game environment took a while to settle. Of course it was launched as a medieval, feudalism style game, but early on I considered making it a corporate management, ladder-climbing simulation :) I had just left a company in RL that was a bureaucratic nightmare on the order of Brazil, so perhaps it was the hatred of that seeping out :) (Brazil the movie, heh)
Voodoo Buwan: How easy was getting word out in SL regarding the game, as it's definitely one of those that benefits from having a lot of people playing?
Ultralite Soleil: It was quite tough, which is true for any new product in SL. I advertised quite a bit, in-world and in the various websites. But after a few weeks there were just a few dozen players. Then I think it reached some kind of tipping point. The fishing community started to play, and that's when it really took off.They'd fish, and play Tiny Empires at the same time :) But in those first few weeks I almost packed it in, thinking I'd try a different game approach. This was in July 2007, btw
Voodoo Buwan: So perseverance and luck ruled the day?
Ultralite Soleil: More the latter, I'd say :)
Voodoo Buwan: You mentioned about advertising Tiny Empires. How difficult was funding for this, bearing in mind that, once you have the game, it's not exactly a money spinner in the same way games like Zyngo are?
Ultralite Soleil: Funding wasn't really an issue. I spent only my spare time developing it. And after launch, I deposited 10k lindens (I think) as my advertising budget. I don't think I used it up before the game finally took off. But personally, I don't like games with subscription models, so I didn't want to inflict that on my customers. Pay once, play forever. Of course, the add-ons aren't free :D Tiny Empires has one add-on, called Tiny Empires: Federation. It could be called an expansion pack. Basically it lets you do more things in the game.
Voodoo Buwan: How much of a factor is financial success in your assessment of the success of Tiny Empires?
Ultralite Soleil: For me, I'm just blown away by how INTO it people are. That's the biggest factor for me. There are websites about the game, entire sims devoted to the TE theme. There have been RL marriages between people who met through playing the game. For some reason, it seems to bring people together into big families, which is much more fulfilling to me than the L$ it brings in.
Voodoo Buwan: So, what should the residents of SL be expecting from you next? Any upcoming projects you can let us in on?
Ultralite Soleil: Well, I recently (March 10) released Tiny Empires 3000, which is a sort of sequel to Tiny Empires. You play as a space-based merchant, 1000 years in the future, building your spacefleet, and cultivating colonies after a devastating galactic rebellion. It is a game similar in structure to Tiny Empires, but has quite a different feel, as its players will tell you. I'm currently working on an add-on to Tiny Empires 3000, as well as constant improvements to both TE and TE:Federation.
Voodoo Buwan: And finally, do you have any advice you would give to developers thinking about following in your footsteps?
Ultralite Soleil: Hmm, I'd say, start simple. Many new games I see are complicated, over-architected frameworks that are daunting to a new player. Make a basic, simple game, and then introduce complexities as the player advances. One last thing: Tiny Empires is really a simple game, even for high level players. The thing that makes it complex (and interesting) is the people. So a game developer should keep in mind the human element when designing social games. That's it, really.

Considered by some to be an essential for personal security, and by others as a hard-edged fashion statement, very few people can claim weapons evoke no emotion, even if they aren’t a hardened Role Player or fashionista. Simple truth is in this your second existence a large proportion of us own at least one weapon for whatever reason. Role Players must be armed suitably to handle any situation they face and likewise many fashion icons have toyed with the use of weapons, especially guns. “Girls with Guns” have quite an avid following, in both lives, by both sexes.

In this my essential list of some of the superior weapon manufacturers in Second Life, I will cover places to purchase your firearms or if you have a penchant for steel, a fine blade.

First on my tour is Breach. Breach is a popular creator of replica firearms for your virtual life. A small, yet succinct range of guns await you here all meticulously created with the vision to improve combat in Second Life. From the timeless classics of the 1911s and Eagles through the heavier powered Sawedoff Shotguns, Submachine Uziels, M5’s and MP7’s to the precision of the sniper rifle; Breach have it well covered, and their popular following is proof of the fact. Breach’s mission statement claims “…on par with normal first person shooters. We concentrate on "look and feel" and customisation instead of providing a hundred different types of bullets.”


Heading over from Breach, also on Overdrive Island, you arrive at the doors of C-Tech.

With a small selection of guns, only 4 in-fact, C-Tech provides an AK-47, Pulse Rifle, Mach 10 and quite possibly my favourite Second Life handgun the MK4 (Redemption Pistols). What C-Tech lacks in number it more than makes up in attention to detail and as well as this small range of weaponry, you can also purchase full body armour and aircraft that wouldn’t look out of place in the popular Wipeout games.


Leaving the two shops on Overdrive Island behind the next essential choice for a Second Life arsenal would be Black Ops.


Upon arrival at the Black Ops main store it’s plainly obvious you are at a fully-fledged military outfitter and in fact the store takes the form of an outpost in style. Various vendors await your arrival which are helpfully split into easy to use categories where you can select between the pistols, machine guns, assault weapons and snipers. Black Ops has the biggest selection of guns of the three places I visited on this tour. Ranging from standard issue Beretta M9’s to RPG-7 Rocket Launchers. Other vendors are in place offering armour and uniforms including replica armed forces uniforms. One major advantage which Black Ops has over the other stores featured is that it has it’s own firing range. You are welcome to go to the range and test your weapons out, provided you can abide by the few rules they have in place.


If firepower isn’t for you and you wish to recreate some epic moves with the shiniest and sharpest blades you can find you mustn’t miss out on Samurai Island – House of Blade Mall.


A vast array of shops awaits you here in a beautifully created, themed sim. From blades to Kimonos and other outfits this sim has it all. As well as a shopping destination and a visual delight, this island also has a growing and popular community complete with combat areas. Contained within one of the larger structures here are a few blade specialists. On my list for here is Musashi Blades. I am the proud owner of some blades from Mushashi and can report the quality of these weapons is unmistakable. With various outfits and 6 diverse Katanas on offer, at Mushashi you won’t be stuck for choice. As well as the high quality of these blades they also have arguably the best packaging I’ve ever seen. Each blade opening in it’s own unique way which is quite compelling. I have recorded a short video of the Sizuka naru Shi Blades, which I own; you must see it to believe it!

Leaving Samurai Island behind I pop over to Hanzo Blades.

Hanzo is a sizeably growing popular collection of Samurai outfits and armour. Coupled with the work from DirtyLynx, Hanzo offers eleven blades currently and numerous outfits and armour parts. Interestingly Hanzo also offers a full permission Katana, complete with scripts, for you to create your own custom blade. Most certainly not a shop to be missed if you seek Samurai.


The last place on my little whirlwind tour is TalTECH Weapons. TalTECH is a massive vendor location for pretty much any weapon you can find in Second Life. There are quite literally hundreds of vendors on location here. Featuring the likes of Omega Concern, aubreTEC, Galiko and some of those featured in my list above. Personally I prefer visiting the main stores where you can obtain more information generally, but this vendor location is a very good place to start your search for any Second Life weaponry. TalTECH also have firing ranges available to be used and even bought. So if you find your addiction to weapons in Second Life grows you can furnish your own land with an arena.

So, if you seek some protection, or accessories for your virtual life the places above are essentials not to be missed on your mission. Your mission (should you chose to accept it) is to use the list above to match yourself with your perfect Second Life weapon.