The Laws of Attraction

Party in the Basement Club

Baron and I had just finished putting out the new vendor in the Ironworks and Light shop and decided we needed a little play time.  We noticed that a spontaneous party had broken out just a stone's throw away from where we were standing.  "The Basement Club" is a smokey little hole in the wall beneath one of the shops on Sanctum Sanctorum.  Baron threw a wonderful concert and party there last year for my birthday, and since then people have sort of adopted the space.  How could they not?  He filled it with rich, dark wood, old crates, lush ferns and a walk-in humidor, all fashioned after a sultry little "cigar lounge", speakeasy-style.

A handful of groups and secret societies have spawned around this hidden little space, and also at The Standing Stone Pub.  It's wonderful to see the spaces come alive with people that just seem to "fit there"

This got me thinking today about something that Baron does very, very well.  He understands the intrinsic value of "attraction" versus "promotion".  He knows that if you cultivate a space with character and ambience and care that the right people will naturally find it.  He diminishes the retail side of our SIMs in favour of creating wide open spaces that beckon people to explore.  He's passionate about interactivity, especially when it means we can secretly inject opportunities for learning along the way.

We joined the crowd in the Basement Club this afternoon, largely German, and kicking up their heels to some fine Irish Rockabilly music by the time I walked in.  Baron was sitting in a deep, comfy chair, smiling like a Cheshire Cat.  I know that smile.  I see it when we break our hermit-dom and get out on the sims to mingle (something we are trying to do more) and have the pleasure of seeing how people are making our spaces their own.  That smile is like Christmas.

We're seeing this happen at the Opera House too, where first life magazine photo shoots are being done, concerts with first life artists and opera singers being planned, and even a Gilbert and Sullivan production afoot with an off-broadway crew.  None of these things were our doing.  We simply created a space and allowed people to find it and decide how it would come to life.

We're about to do a major overhaul of the sims once again, with a fourth one arriving imminently.  It's nerve wracking to think about the beloved haunts that will disappear to make way for the new, but I'm learning with time that one of the most valuable things Mr. Grayson imparts is that constant reinvention is the stuff of passion and renewal, and it's always better than ever when it's done with an eye to creating spaces that allow the accidental communities they attract to shape the life within them as they grow.

There's a difference between "attraction" and "promotion", and a reason that Baron has never been one to advertise.  He knows the wisdom of creating something you truly love yourself, and letting the right people find it.  The rest simply takes care of itself ...