SLWTF – A Second Life travelogue by Garth Goode

Journey has a Second Life island. It’s not just a fan region, they actually commissioned the thing… and it’s good. But don’t think that it’s just a marketing piece. It was obviously built by people who have a love for the band and put their heart and soul into making the island what it is.

The main thing you’ll notice about the island is that all around the edges are displays highlighting each Journey album. Each display is inspired by the album cover and includes a tableau inspired by it. The display inspired by their Escapealbum is particularly impressive, as the scarab spaceship causes exploding planetary egg debris to fly at you as it escapes (naturally) it’s planetary egg prison. I’m sure that made sense in the 80′s.

The displays remind me what an art form album covers used to be, back when they had something the size of an LP cover as a canvas. Silly me, my Journey LPs sent to the landfill along with the rest of my collection when I switched to CDs. Anyway, set your music controls to Play while inside a tableau building and you’ll be treated to a narrative about the album and some song samples. Like I said, they put a lot of love into this.

Whenever I’ve visited the island there always seem to be a few friendly regulars there, playing games or chatting. As you’re exploring, play around with the duck launchers on top of the JRNY radio building. They don’t have much to do with Journey, but they’re fun. I lobbed a duck into the stadium where people were playing games and was complimented on my shot, so they don’t seem to mind.

The island is covered in content, so I can’t list everything here. Well, I could, but this would be a very long post. Among the highlights: There’s a field with signs about each band member who has come and gone (and come again). There have been more than you’d think! In the stadium there’s a fine streaming video of a recent Journey concert, featuring their new lead singer (who I have to say sounds excellent, and they found through YouTube of all places).

There are lots of freebies available in various spots on the island, including song lyrics, band pictures, and some pretty decent freebie start kits (for those who need them). They also sell nice quality Journey-logo clothes, which (like everything you find at a concert) are somewhat overpriced. The rest of the freebies make up for it, as much of it isn’t the usual stuff.

So, if you’re a big Journey fan, you probably just found your new home in Second Life. If you just like Journey or remember them fondly, this is a great way to catch up with them.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Journey%20Rock%20Band/129/199/41

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 8:27 pm and is filed under music, wow. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.