Building a tourist region is a challenge. You want to promote the unique character of your city while making it interesting in Second Life. Do it wrong and you run the risk of being excruciatingly boring. Of course, it helps if your city actually has some character. Nonethleless, when you land in Second Gijon and you see the location description “SECOND GIJON – Spain Spanish Latino DJs La Isla Extasy World” you can see the delicate balancing act they’re trying to pull off. Happily, they are somewhat successful.
The real Gijon is an old seacoast town in the north of Spain, noted for it’s museums, port, and old world charm. The builders have obviously taken great pains to preserve the look of city by photosourcing building facades without being slavish to the layout of the city. You get the good parts. Some buildings have beautiful squares or art museums. Others are multi-purpose facades. One building looks like a church, but when you approach it from the side you can see the space is used for retail space rental. The city is dotted with little shops like this, and you have to take your ime strolling around to find them. It’s not a bad way to spend a few hours.
Near the Jovellanos theater is a what appears to be huge walled church or museum. One of the downsides of Second Gijon is that they don’t seem to have any notecards up yet. There’s no information on what this building is or it’s history. So while you get a good feel for the look of Gijon you don’t come away knowing much about it, except that it is very pretty. The only thing that mars the experience is the occasional shouting from the nearby Spanish orientation region.
In one of the central squares and in the next-door region of La Isla are dance clubs labeled Extasy (their spelling, not mine) World. Despite the name they are just dance clubs, not escort areas. While the clubs don’t seem to have real-world equivalents, they are actually (gasp!) being used. If you can understand Spanish there is something unique something about partying under the stars with a view of old world buildings around you.
Overall, Second Gijon is doing a good job with the balancing act. The region looks like Gijon and gives you a sense of what it is like there while keeping you interested with shops and dancing. It’s one of the more successfully executed tourist regions I’ve seen.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Second%20Gijon/17/243/39
