“We
cannot escape history.”
-
Abraham
Lincoln, 1862
The oldest object on the Second Life (SL) grid is ‘The Man’
created by Oldjohn Linden on Friday 19th July 2002, over ten years
ago.
One of the interesting things about this object is that it
actually pre-dates Oldjohn’s rez date by around six weeks! The reason for this,
according to the Second
Life wiki, is that it was originally built in the Alpha stage
of SL then known as ‘LindenWorld’.
It was built before any non-employee users had even logged into SL on a region
called Natoma, in a test-city informally named “Linden
Town ” or “Linden City
Although the city was deleted before SL opened to the public
in Beta, ‘The Man’ object was somehow overlooked and managed to survive!
A small number of coveted copies of ‘The Man’ exist in some
oldies Inventories. Philip Linden, for example, has a copy. Another copy is
owned by Erwin Solo who told me about its existence
and got me interested in ‘The Man’s’ history.
‘The Man’ has passed into Second Life lore and some
residents have been known to leave “offerings” to it. Indeed, some even say
that good fortune will come to those who stroke against it.
‘The
Man’ is still at Natoma region situated on a grassy knoll called ‘Philip’s
Hill’. Go visit and be part of history!
A really interesting post. I think that Second Life would be a more interesting place if there were more objects, and locations, gathering this kind of status, history, and interest over time.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately lots of places come and go due purely to finances. Things of real interest can get over written or maybe never happen at all if funds are not there.
Permanent places and objects would make a more real world and universe to be immersed in. I think maybe taking heritage out of the equation does hold back that side of Second Life. Maybe stopping it becoming more.