Gritty streets, rundown facades, a torn slip of a propaganda poster flapping in the wind, a buzzing larger-than-life screen showing off animated Coca-Cola logos, graffitti on the walls, freshly lit, but orphaned smoking cigarettes in ashtrays on barcounter tops … everything overtowered by a high-tech skyscraper reminiscent of the “↑Half-Life 2“ Combine Tower—must have been a lot of work to get all that right, to finally create the real thing in “↑Second Life“ (SL). Most of the island of Merricks Landing 2 is covered by Sector 13 of Abaddon City. To me the most perfect cyberpunk ambience in whole SL … and I already have seen Devil’s Moon, Nexus Prime, Shalida Bay, and the post-apocalyptic landscape of The Wastelands. Geometry and textures are gamelevel-designer standard, not a notch below. The architecture, the furniture, and the countless details are pure class. Effects and scripts as well. When you are desperately seeking for the experience of flying through a large window pane, the shattering shards flying around you, then go to Abaddon, enter Bar Substance—the place’s Gentleman Loser, where hard men fight in pubs, get mixed up in a brawl, and there you go. But there are also way more peaceful delights at Substance, like dancing to the tunes of the jukebox, your avatar moved by high-quality motion-captured animations.
 


 

Sector 13 is the work of ↑Detect Surface, who really knows his stuff. Go and check out his weblog, and you will know what I mean by ‘the real stuff’, seen from the perspective of a game modder. The place is also home of Detect’s shop ↑D&D Creative Labs, where you can buy his amazing creations like the Kravatac at bargain prices.
 


 

Let’s ↑listen to Detect himself:
 

 

The Kravatac is the first thing in SL I am longing to buy. While I am writing this lines my avatar dances his ass off on the other screen—earning money, just 125 L$ to go. People tell me that the “Refract” suit is the best Detect Surface has made so far, both mesh- and script-wise. Furthermore I heard through the grapevine that Detect is about to release yet another “six huge things.” Things to come. Furthermore, if, and I say if, I ever will be ready to rent a space in SL, it will be the appartement above Bar Substance, because that’s the kind of people you meet downstairs:
 


 


 

And then there is yet another strange thing. Whenever I visit Merricks Landing 2, the map shows me two other people, always at the same spot. I wandered through all levels of the building there, even went below, to the sea’s surface, as I suspected some underground system, looked for a skybox above (there is none), and never could find anyone at the spot the map indicates … ghosts in the Sim.