As we have presented the "
Wunderland" here in "
The Hyperzette" we asked
Brenda Geissen the owner and builder of "
Wunderland" for an Interview which she agreed.
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| Brenda ?? |
Hyperzette:
Hello Brenda, looking at "Wunderland" one can see a great constractive and building talent. We assume that you are in virtual worlds for quite a bit. When did you have the first contact with Virtual Worlds ?
Brenda:
I started February 2007 in Second Life. If Virtual World Years are counted as dog years of life, I am close to retirement. :D. Up to that first moment I have never played on a computer nor any console game or even been in a 3D world.
Hyperzette:
Would you have the kindness to tell our readers a little bit about your virtual career and how and why you finally arrived in METROPOLIS ?
Brenda:
To tell this in detail would fill a book, so I try to make it short.
First it was exploring and marvel at everything I saw and about what was possible. In the course of time I started my first attempts to build something and after a time I concentrated only on building. I had seen almost everything, things repeated and started boring. Second Life mutated more and more to a theater of war due to disputes, fraud and intrigues.
Looking for an SL alternative (...I was keen on building and did not want to give up on it) I searched Google and in March 2013 I arrived in METROPOLIS. For me it was and is as a little vacation for the soul.
The move from one virtual world to another wasn't a big deal, cause long-standing relationships accompanied. It was only the question to find "THE" perfect Virtual World for us, and we found it in METROPOLIS.
Hyperzette:
Are you still to be found in other Virtual Worlds ?
Brenda:
Not anymore. METROPOLIS is mine/our virtual home now ;-)
Hyperzette:
What makes METROPOLIS so very special for you ?
Brenda:
At the beginning the helpfulness and kindness took me by surprise. I was not used to that in Second Life. For example another resident helped me over hours and days to set up a server. Just like that without any claim of service in return. I was speechless. On problems somebody helped you immediately. It was unbelievable.
And this is still the way it is.
Here you will find no way of commerce or the hunt after profit. It is a classless community
"Each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"
I do not have to count on the prims and to check if the land can hold the rest of the prims.
That I have found a big german community, cause my english is not that good.
That I can have a look behind the curtains of Open Sim and learnt how it works Which gave me a different view on the technics and software that keeps this world running.
In Second Life you have been degraded to be a user and being subject to the caprice of others. Here I am responsible for my own. It's a permanent process of learning, cause it is under permanent development by many people. For me it is simply wicked science.
And the people behind the avatars. I do have found some "gems".
Hyperzette:
"Wunderland" is something special, where you have stretched everything into giant. What was the idea behind creating "Wunderland" ?
Brenda:
It started with a "Snow Globe"
I wanted to build a walk-on-able snow globe. At the end I have had three of them. Then I thought: "Nice, where to put ?. So I built a shelf. And the shelf itself had to be a little bigger than normal, to hold the snow globes. But only a big shelf with three snow globes did look a bit silly. And so one followed the other and it was getting bigger and bigger. It just happened and I couldn't stop it ;-)
With each prim the region changed and born was The Little Tininess.
Hyperzette:
How difficult is it to build such a world without loosing the view on the proportions ? And can you give away a few internal building secrets ?
Brenda:
Well my biggest problem is, that I do not have any view on the proportions, everything I build is "swanky". The if I build in the animations or stand aside the object I think: "Oh it's bigger than I thought". Laugh
Well, I do not have any secret in building, I do cook my objects just with boxes, sculpts, or spheres.
Maybe the textures are the public secret. The texture is the kingpin of the look of an object. If I have a good texture and set it sloppy on the prim it is as bad looking as I have used an ugly texture. I could have stopped all my efforts, because it never will look right and nice.
Another advice is that one should texture prim faces one cannot see. This might not be really necessary but for me it is, I am a fetishist on textures ;-)
Hyperzette:
How long did you build on "Wunderland" to the point we see it now ?
Brenda:
I started approximately mid of December 2013. The rough structure was done within 4 days. But since then a lot of things have changed. I added more and more stuff, fine tuned or rebuild. Did I have an idea or saw picture, as for example the castle made from newspaper, I tried to implement it. The last idea was the suitcase underneath the bed. It contains a little Western City. You have to spend a lot of time to find all the hidden things and animations.
Hyperzette:
Are there similar projects like "Wunderland" ?
Brenda:
In contrast to "Wunderland", there is the "Dark*Forest". Smaili Geissen and me created a little magic forest. The starting point was a tiny little Pixie Avatar. Similar to "Wunderland" the question came up where should that pixie live. That was the beginning of the magic forest which is build for that little pixie.
Hyperzette:
Are there more projects existing or in the planning ?
Brenda:
I never have a plan, it just happens.
Each region has its own theme.
In Dark*Ocean you will find all the ships I have build during my time in SL and which are a piece of my heart.
Dark*Dragon is a mixture I can't describe and you have to look at yourself
Dark*City was rebuild not so long ago and is "fresh from the press" so to speak and is the home of Observerin Geissen.
It all depends on how I feel to build, to rebuild to tear it down and to create new.
Nothing is for eternity ;-)
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| The real Brenda |
Thank You very much Brenda
Interview partner:
Brenda Geissen
for "The Hyperzette"
zaphod Enoch
Translation into English: zaphod Enoch
