So, I was thinking....

First I will clue you in on why the furry friends wandering the sim after I said originally that we would only be a human sim. In all things there is a chance to learn and I have to thank Cotton for that lesson.

I had thought that to invite furies to the sim would bring only problems. I had accepted that we should invite both vampires and Nekos as they are mostly human in shape, but I was against opening the sim up to anthropomorphic avatars.

Then came along Cotton, a wonderful wolf that showed me the error of my ways. Having furies in the sim would not be the end off all things that I thought it would. I had wrongfully assumed that most furies were juvenile delinquents that would bring ruin to our lives. Cotton showed me through action and deed to be no more or less than the rest of us. She has proven to be a great asset to the city and I am open to all types that wish to come now. It also allowed me to expand on our desire to be inclusive to all. Saying all this doesn't mean I wish to have Godzilla or My Little Pony wandering the sim. I still have it down that we are not allowing for large or overly cartoonish avatars.

The next big thing i'm working on is a photo contest in conjunction with LumiPro. When I designed the sim, I wanted to create as much detail as I could and allow for the deepest amount of immersion. I had a visitor the other day tell me that the sim felt like a movie set. This got me thinking...PHOTOS!!! This is something that is kind of near and dear to me as I am also an amateur Second Life photographer. Feel free to take a look at my flickr.. https://www.flickr.com/photos/181886545@N02/...yeah a shameless plug if I ever saw one....

There is another reason for the photo contest. As most people have seen wandering the sim, we have an Emporium. Originally, I wanted it for a vendor "show" kind of thing, but alas, we were able to draw only one vendor to the sim. Thank you for the support, Robin, we do very much appreciate it. I know we can keep at it, but I hate to have it almost completely empty for so long. So, we decided to turn it into a city gallery. The first pictures that shown will be the winners and other "gallery choice" pictures that we will be considered as honorable mentions. Everyone can look for the contest to get underway around the middle of March.

Thanks again for reading my babble...next...dances and live music...another event we hope to bring to Isle of Elar.

We're off to the races!

As I guessed, people like the idea of watching half naked girls run around a track pulling a cart. So Elar has had 3 races so far and so much have I learned. I would like to thank our racers and their owners for showing up and making the races a success. I would like to thank Magpie, Surni, Evie, Maggie, and Harley for being my first ponies to give this a whirl. I would like to also thank their owners for letting them and participating.

I have made a few changes to the race track after each race. The first and biggest change I made was in the way I give out the prize purse. I have done away with a "Best in Show" as I felt this was to subjective a catagory and set up a chance of hurting someones feeling. I decided to just increase the split I gave the winners for first/second/third.

I also added some physical changes to the race track and surrounding area. The first race had everyone standing around the entrance to the track, boy did this look stupid. So, first came the viewing stand. Building this lead to it's own issues. I had to flip the track and if you have never flipped something that big in SL, that was a pain. I guess I should have been smart and just re-rezzed it. Note to self, next time do it the easy way.

After the next race, it was brought to my attention that adding a viewing stand took away my pretty pony stalls. I didn't think this would be an issue as I didn't think anyone wanted to do more than race in pony play. I was wrong. So, next came a small set of stalls. Now if you want a stall, you just need to let me know. If we have an open stall, it's yours. If we need more stalls down the road, I will look at what I can do.

Finally, I decided I wanted to add ribbons to give ponies more recognition than just a small amount of L$. I know they have 3d ribbons available, but my desire to keep the prims low lead to me using my graphic designer skills. Yes, for those that don't know, I have a degree in graphic design. That being said, I made a ribbon board. I will just add ponies as we have girls sign up and keep track of the ribbons that way.

Finally, I am interested in feedback from my ponies. Would any of the ponies wish more role play and might enjoy a grooming station beside the stalls. I am always open to changes that make the sim more fun to everyone.

I was going to add more pictures to the blog, but realized how many there were. I added them to the Gallery. Please jump over and have a look at the ones that are there.

Next post I will explain in detail my reasoning for adding Anthropomorphic avatars to the sim...

More about Elar...Mazes and Libraries

So to start with if this is boring, I do apologize. I was never sure where to start a blog, but figured giving some information about the city might be a nice place to begin. So why a maze? Well, I wanted the city to have a feel of polish to it and a garden maze would help with that. Furthermore, I liked the idea of a unique dungeon for the city. Most BDSM sims have some form of dungeon, but I wanted to get away from the cold brick look that is associated with a dungeon and again the maze allowed for that. The maze is full of some of the finest toys available in SL. I will say that if anyone knows of any others they wish to have in there please let me know in SL or leave a comment in the blog. I do intend to keep my eye out for new pieces that are released and update the maze as we go.

The library totally serves a different purpose. I wanted a small cozy spot for a couple to roleplay/scene in that would have a unique feel to it. In fact the whole sim is built around the idea. roleplay that is casual and not structured. All the buildings allow for that. As I said before, I have an extensive background in SL Gor and wanted a city that would feel different from a traditional Gorean city.

There are a few "roleplay" specific buildings down by the game parlor, now I know I said I was getting away from structured roleplay, but after a cute birdie..ie Maggie chatted with me about it, I decided not to totally exclude people that might want a structured version of roleplay and added the buildings. I thought, won't hurt to have them and they would be something that would be fun to walk through even if they don't become active parts of the city. So, if you are the type that likes to do "city" roleplay. They are there for you and feel free to stop in and use them.... I would even, welcome people to take on those roles if they wish.

So, I built it and they seem to be coming to enjoy it. Where do I plan to go from here. I love the race track and contrary to what someone said to me last night....no you cant drive your own personal race car on it, but if you want to feel like a pretty pony feel free to grab a cart and have a run around it. Right now we have the Saturday night races, but I do hope to expand on that as time goes on. Other events I currently have planned are Monday game night, Wednesday Discussion night, and soon a Friday night dance or live music. The two will alternate as finances allow. Dances are easy, live entertainment can be a bit expensive. On that note, I want to take moment to thank all for the Elar donations we have received. We are continuing to funnel those back into the sim.

Well, that is all for now. I will touch on the Emporium in the next post. Thanks again for making Elar a great place.