Recharging with a Little Steampunk

A Visit to Babbage Square

The past week has been rough.  Heads-down run at launching the new SL Ubuntu project and SIM, and a ton of work in the background to do it.  Too many late nights and absolutely no downtime made me so cranky I didn't even want to be around myself.  I'm an incorrigible recluse, and like it that way, but two nights ago I decided to break stride and follow a link to The Willow Tea Room in the Babbage Square SIM, thinking it sounded like a nice little place to drag Baron away to for a bit of downtime that had nothing to do with work.  Moments after landing, I had to port out, because the SIM was being reset, but I was there long enough to run into the SIM owner, Shaunathan Sprocket, who I recognized as a kindred soul from Relay for Life last year.  After looking around for just a few moments, and then chatting with Shaun afterwards, I knew this was a place I had to come back to.

A Room with a View

The next evening I did.  Instead of working, Baron and I set aside the evening to simply go and explore.  The past month we've been brainstorming around reinventing our own SIMs with a Victorian Steampunk theme, each with a slightly different flavour.  We were delighted to find that Shaun's SIM was not only a page straight out of this genre, but a truly interactive, immersive city and people.  Steam rising from manholes in the cobblestone pavement, airships against dark smoke rising from stacks on the horizon, incredible machines and the rhythmic sounds of pistons and gears pumping all around.  The thing that we both loved about this sim was the attention to detail: papers strewn on the floors, intricate steam-powered machines brought back to life, every building different and meticulously crafted.

Reverence

We connected with things we'd been looking at ourselves this past while, in particular some of the machines, and moreover a genuine connection with "toys".  We plan on opening a series of shops on the new SIM that's about to arrive on our own continent soon, including one called "Remarkable Toys", a name Baron conjured up after a brainstorming session some weeks ago.  We found the same delightful fascination with these things in Babbage Square, and found ourselves saying "Wow!" over and over again.

Peering from the Rooftops of Babbage Square

Grand kudos to Shaun and the team that's been collaborating on this remarkable SIM.  He said that he's been working on it since January, which is astonishing given how thoughtfully it's been cultivated and in such a large way.  While steampunk embraces an alternative time, one that really doesn't exist anywhere but in the fantasy world, it's roots in Victorian renaissance are familiar and engaging.  In Babbage Square you can't help feeling transported back in time.  If you've not been for a visit yet, take a trip soon, and be sure to set aside a few hours to investigate every last nook and cranny.  There's a lot of really innovative and just plain entertaining things to see and do.