Jessa told me the other day that Gibson guitars has an island in Second Life. I figured it would probably be another one of those dry, corporate regions, but I was happy to find that it ain’t necessarily so. There’s a lot to see, some amazing builds, and a real dedication to bringing live music events to the region. It gives you hope that business just might figure out Second Life after all.
When you land on the island you’ll find a set of signs that will teleport you to various points of interest on the island. These are your friends, and you’ll miss a lot if you don’t use them. Some of the best spots in the region aren’t easily noticed just by flying around, hidden as they are in the components of the giant earthen guitar body that makes up the island.
If you do decide to fly around the first thing you’ll notice several lovingly gracted giant guitars. These alone are worth the price of admission (which, okay, is L$0). I may be biased, seeing as I love monstrously huge builds so much.
There’s a lot of video to see in different parts of the island. Videos of famous performers (using Gibson instruments, of course), the making of guitars, and various features, (Robot guitar, It tunes itself! I waaaaant it!). The island is strewn with freebies guitars, too. Many of them are clustered near the Guitar of the Month display, but if you don’t look around you’ll miss gems like the Angus Young guitar. Pity the poor guitar seller in Second Life — these are all excellent.
Most importantly, there are several performance venues, both large and small. Signs at the rez point note upcoming performances, and there’s also an update group you can join.
There’s the inevitable freebie t-shirt store, of course. What the shirts lack in quality (as usual, no shading to show body definition) they make up for in quantity. What I’ve shown above are maybe a third of the selections. I’m still not wearing them, though.
All in all it’s nice to see a business making such good use of an island. The layout is a little jumbled and unpolished, but that is almost part of it’s charm. It makes me think that this isn’t totally just a marketing thing.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gibson%20Island/78/50/49
Gibson is a unique company. It’s not publicly traded so Mr. Gibson can do what he pleases and he likes to hire very creative type people.
Had a friend who used to work there. Unfortunately he moved over to Apple, but he had some great stories about Gibson. While I haven’t looked, I bet Apple has a location in SL and it’s not nearly as cool.