by Alphaville Herald on 15/04/11 at 3:28 am

by Cayce Urriah, Mandalorian Reporter

Hoi Herald readers! It's been some time, but with the total concurancy of SL dropping, it's time for your favorite helmeted journalist to step in and show off some of the best sims in Second Life again.

Even as griefers pummel the grid, even as Redzone revivalists plot to gain your personal information, and yes, even as sims disappear from the grid... love can bloom in the shape of some amazing builds. Second Life doesn't have to be this dinosaur platform that never made it beyond the meteoric impact of bad PR. It can still be home.

Forgotten City

A realm far from our own, where men once prospered and lived in glory, where great steam powered automatons served their every need. The people, however, have long since gone, to places unknown. But their creations still care for their long empty halls, hearths, and havens.

I was introduced to this sim by a friend looking for an unaffiliated place to roleplay. From what I've gathered, it's mostly a residential sim. Those who rent and live in the beautiful structures of Forgotten City are expected to keep to the Steampunk theme, but it's not meant to be a roleplay sim. I've heard that the sim builder, Jenne Dibou, uses the sim as an example of her skills to show to clients who hire her to build their sims. I would greatly recommend her work.

If you're looking for a place to live, or are feeling like a tourist, Forgotten City has much to give. There are loads of things to see, and experience. The creator also has a skybox shop where some of the sim's accessories (standing lamps, fountains, etc) are for sale, including a working, scripted, poker table.

The Realm of Mystara

Mystara is an amazing roleplaying sim. Or rather, pair of sims, as it just added it's second sim in time for this article. And while roleplay in Second Life (or in general) tends to have a stigma attatched to it, Mystara overcomes much of that. With a decent, and definately caring, administration team, and rules that define what can be played, you will not see anything out of place here. And while some may cry foul because furred races are generally application only (with a strict avatar realism demanded), it does keep out a lot of the problems other sims have. Mystara has a definate canon, where werewolves are not just friendly furred people you'll find at a bar drinking with everyone else - they're terrifying beasts that come out of the hills on full moons to terrorize, murder, and leave chewed corpses.

Mystara's roleplayers are a varried lot, with dozens of pre-accepted races, and an application system for those who want to deviate, the sim is quite successful at creating a world of it's own, despite not relying on pre-existing medieval roleplay worlds. There are racial factions, such as the Elves, the Humans, the Greenskins, and even the Merfolk, who all vie for power in political arenas, or directly by attacking the others' lands. The roleplay transcends simple 'good versus bad' or 'this side hates that side'.

Anyone can come and visist Mystara. You're free to wander the sim without roleplaying as long as you wear an observer tag and don't interrupt roleplay. The sim is, as you can see, very beautiful, as are many of the avatars within it. Mystara has an expectation of quality very few sims uphold today. Good on you, Realm of Mystara, good on you.

Nar Shaddaa, Red Sector

In the cold depths of space, a single moon can draw only a gasp of both fear and excitement: Nar Shaddaa. Moon over the Hutt homeworld, it's a planet sized den of sin, vice, corruption, and death. Nar Shaddaa is to the Star Wars galaxy what Las Vegas is to America, but a hundred times such. The Hutts treat it like their own pocketbook, while the poor get poorer, and the rich get richer.

The Red Sector is a Star Wars roleplay sim, a newer one that hasn't fully taken off yet from what I've seen. It's a great build, with a lot of room for new groups to step in and take part in it's ongoing story.

As always, if you're looking to join Star Wars Roleplay, your first step should be to check out http://www.SWRP.net, or search in places for SWRP.

It's been a pleasure writing for the Herald again, thank you for reading.