I was casually glancing at the Sunday papers when the following comment, made by a celebrity pedicurist no less, leapt out at me: “I came to London because I think London is the most exciting place to be at the moment.”
Now whether London is the most exciting city in RL at the moment or not is, of course, open to debate but it started me thinking about the city sims here. How do they measure up to the real thing? Do they give the SL traveller a flavour of the RL original, or have they become urban phenomenon in their own right? I thought I’d look afresh at the cities I know in both worlds.
I start close to home. It warms my heart to find that SL Belfast is a truly a labour of love. The sim is operated as a cooperative venture and its aim is clear: to create an authentic Belfast which reflects the cultural life of both Belfast and Ireland. Re-creations of two great music clubs, the Rotterdam and Van Morrison’s legendary Maritime Club, keep the flame burning for Ireland’s stunning musical heritage with gigs streamed live from Ireland almost nightly. Meanwhile, a permanent exhibition offers visitors a chance to study the murals that lit the walls of Belfast and Derry during the Troubles, a startling record of the inhabitants’ responses to an often violent and frightening daily reality.
But SL Belfast is not a memorial to the past. Like its RL counterpart, SL Belfast is constantly evolving and awash with creativity. The Belfast Arts Plaza is dedicated to the visual arts and offers space for artists from the “Oul' Sod" and further afield, and the Belfast Arts Cooperative clearly plan to develop the sim as an education and conference facility in the future. The city’s commercial centre is coming alive as well, with a variety of shops offering something different from the usual SL mall experience. SL Belfast here has as bright a future as its RL inspiration.
Visit SL Belfast here now
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