Reality provides us with facts so romantic that
imagination itself could add nothing to them.
Jules Verne
From
time to time, I sit back and think (Significant Other (SO) has other words for
it but it’s true, I’m not napping.)
about the people whom I meet inworld.
Every twelve months or so, I write a story about one of the most
interesting of these people. There are
many possibilities. However, as I spend
more time in Second Life (SL), the person I write about is becoming more
someone I’ve spent a lot of time with then not.
Previously,
I’d written about Morsmordre
Furman. She is
a true Renaissance person who can be found with increasing frequency inworld
these days. Morsmordre exemplified to me
the creative spontaneity of SL. Her
creations are original and show SL’s true potential.
This
year (Yes, I know it’s over a year since I wrote my last story in this
series. But as I’ve said before, it’s my
blog and I get editorial privilege. Contrary to what SO says this is not the
reason I write this blog.) I’ve selected one of my oldest friends in SL, Perryn Peterson. I was introduced to
Perryn (not “Perry”) by a mutual friend, Eleanor Banx, in 2011 when I began blogging and was visiting inworld to meet
different communities, in this case, steampunks.
Perryn
is currently the mayor of Mieville, a prominent steampunk community in SL. He is also the producer of Historical Hunts Ltd. hunts and
events. Perryn had been formerly the
Vizier of the late City of Piedmont, a Gorean community. “A series of
unfortunate events” in Real Life (RL) took people away from Piedmont and led to
its closure.
What
brought Perryn to SL originally was a referral by someone in an AOL chat “looong” ago. (Do I need
to tell my younger readers what AOL was?)
He can remember first arriving inworld and not knowing what a sim was or
how it differed from a sim.
During
an interview, I ask Perryn why he stayed in SL and do what he does here. Perryn says he stayed because he’s found
plenty to hold his interest. He can’t
understand people who claim they are bored inworld. (Neither can I.) Perryn does what he does here because he
loves to assemble. Perryn doesn’t say he
can build inworld but he has learned to mod stuff. He displays his characteristic modesty here
because Perryn assembles more than prims.
He assembles residents and builds communities and that is why he’s the
subject of this story.
His
proudest achievement to date is the Dickens
Christmas Village.
But he’s also equally proud of STEAM, the Renaissance
Faire, and his other hunts. Although, he’s quick to
point out that he’s not responsible for the concept of hunts in SL. He continues by saying the hunts and events,
while fun, are secondary to building up Mieville. Perryn would like to see more residents and
Mieville. Now that he doesn’t have Piedmont
to worry about, he should be able to devote more time to these goals.
I
next ask Perryn about what he enjoys most about SL. He enjoys meeting people getting them set up
in residences and shops, and producing the hunts. He also enjoys the sort of building which he
calls “assembling”. He’s thrilled by all
that there is to learn in SL.
I
inquire about Perryn’s SL interest in steampunk and he claims he didn’t really
know about it until he arrived inworld. But
Perryn is eclectic. A future project is
the Chinese Lunar New Year. Recently,
the Frost
Fair has been introduced to list of annual events. The latter will be a recreation of an ice
festival that used to take place when the Thames froze over. (In case you’re not current on English weather,
this last happened in 1814.) The idea
for this event when he was reading about Elizabeth I who is the person from
history he’d like to have to dinner if he could. And, of course, there will be Mardi Gras in
Mieville Poe which is the French Quarter.
My
final question is about his thoughts about the future of SL. Perryn’s view of its future is guarded. He keeps hoping that more people will
discover it and will stay. However,
frustration with the way Linden Lab runs things is rampant, himself included. Perryn has been critical since I’ve known him
about the policy of eliminating surnames for noobies which he believes creates
second class citizens as long as there are residents with surnames.
This
brings us to the conclusion of our interview and I thank him before we return
to RL.
Perryn
is an exemplary example of that entrepreneurial spirit which characterizes
SL. He has created communities and
events. Building on scripts and prims,
Perryn has brought together many people who live together inworld and enjoy
themselves. (BTW, Perryn throws great parties.)
I
want to thank Perryn not only for this interview and his frank and candid
answers but also for his friendship.
Much of what I’ve been able to do in SL has been with Perryn’s help and
for this I’m grateful.
I’ve
included pictures of Perryn and some of his events. But please go and see them for yourself
because my work does not do them justice and some of these places have to be
experienced to be truly enjoyed. There’re
also the people who have to be met.
As always, I’m grateful to
all for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was
passing through their lives.
I welcome feedback from
readers, please either comment on my blog or
e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com
.
If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.
If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.
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