I've visited here in RL and its so much better than its 'prim' cousin!

Oh buggery bugger! I think we've all screamed something like that when we've been crammed onto a Japanese train or you've been wandering around Berlin and you realise that you've left your favourite hat on the bus. Travelling has its downside and that lack of space or losing your favourite hat could indeed ruin your holiday. Although you'd be a bit weird if you let it.

Now, we've all wandered aimlessly around Second Life, a little like a drunk who is looking for a stool to sit on would. It can get rather boring at times as you see the same-old type place, but with different faces and varying degrees of lag. I've spent hours wandering and logged off thinking "Well, that was boring". Well be bored no more! Step forward the folk who are recreating towns, cities and other Real World places, into LagLife. Ranging from fantastic to "This is supposed to be where?" it can certainly be more fun doing a wild tour of RealLife places than going to The Zany Funky Club, or whatever tonights dance hall is called.

Until some idiot decides image rights on buildings and towns belong to someone else and thus sues the pixels out of virtual people, it looks like the Real World in the Virtual World, will only grow. Indeed i'm thinking of building my own SL version of Eccles in Manchester (Well, actually in Salford). I don't live there myself but when I have passed through its always struck me as being a crap place. People don't visit Eccles in RL so why visit in SL? Perhaps the crime rate will be lower, but will the trackies and hoodies brigade be any less pregnant or intimidating?

SL airbrushes RL places like Esquire Magazine airbrushes a celebrity's tits. I visited a SL Liverpool and didn't get mugged once! I loved what they built, it was pretty nice and it really tried to take all Liverpool's culture and put in on a Class 5 server with little lag, but to totally exclude any tracksuit wearing 'yoof is spoiling things. I want to visit SL London and get stuck in a traffic jam. I want to visit SL Paris and get insulted by various French people. A SL Costa del Sol would be great so long as the beach is packed with British lobsters. I visited SL London, and to be fair the tube system on it didn't work properly (Although it was pretty ace) but everything else was too holiday brochure style. You could also buy land and not have to sell a Kidney to afford the mortgage payments. Tube problems aside, that's not the London I know and somewhat despise.

My favourite of all was SL Manchester as there was nothing there. They'd tried to build Modern Manchester, and SL had displayed a truth that many virtual city builders may soon realise... there's bugger all in substance the RL city they're replicating. Whereas some places make the interesting seem almost perfect, there are others that will realise that their place just doesn't have any charm or anything that outsiders may find interesting. SL cities certainly cut through a lot of the RL hype and bragging. Now, i'm not saying that RL Manchester is rubbish, just the architects of the SL Manchester have clearly forgotten the city's charm. Instead of centring their Virtual city on the Real city's industrial history, science, media and musical achievements, they instead picked out shiny 'new' buildings and tried to convert them into prims. I guess its supposed to impress people, but quite honestly, those buildings are in every developed town around the Real World so why would I visit it in SL?

In fairness; you can visit The Hacienda in another part of SL. The Hacienda being a former nightclub and certainly something the SL Manchester should have had at its heart. Back to SL Manchester and I have to ask, Where was the area recording the citys place in the world-wide cotton Industry? The Manchester Ship Canal? The kickin' indie music scene, the sporting history and even Coronation Street! With the right angle, every town in Europe could probably build a great SL area about itself. It just has to rip away the current 'highstreet' look of most towns and think "What makes this place great?". Even the crappiest of towns - yes, this includes Eccles - can fill a few thousand sq. metres with information, entertainment and fun... or you could visit SL Random Town and have a drink in a Random nightclub that has a picture of a local celebrity on the wall. I know what i'd rather do... What? Barton Aerodrome in Eccles was the original location of Mancehster's Airport and is the home of the UK's first airport control tower! Wow!! Can i walk around it?