So, it’s official. After a long period of being relegated to a small area above Innsmouth, the great city of Arkham will be finding a new home, one which will hopefully finally give it the recognition it deserves.
The nature of Second Life being what it is, sims tend to disappear sometimes, and this loss of a living work of art is a blow felt by the entire community. When it happened to the venerable city of Arkham, and, unlike Innsmouth, there was no way of rescuing it from oblivion as a complete sim, Arik and the team made the decision to salvage the best of it and host it above Innsmouth.
Allowing visitors to at least experience some of Arkham’s former splendor has been worth it, although having moved things in a hurry (not having had a great deal of advance notice), Miskatonic University hasn’t exactly had the positioning and presentational advantages it once had as the centerpiece of a beautiful New England city, and in the face of the day-to-day challenges inherent in hosting and managing a sim community, Arkham has spent some time on the back burner. It hasn’t exactly been neglected, but it also hasn’t been able to receive the priority it deserves.
While this certainly hasn’t stopped avid roleplayers from utilizing the build in the best ways they can (nothing can stop them, short of Armageddon, maybe), and live readings at the library have been a fun success all around, and people still explore and find fantastical hidden things as they always did, it was decided that perhaps the time has come for Arkham to return to Second Life the way it was meant to be; the size of an actual city. In a landmark decision (no pun intended, honest), Innsmouth and her sister sim Dunwich, in a great feat of nostalgic necromancy spawned of the desire to see a beloved part of the old Miskatonic Valley return to life and take its rightful place as a part of the region, have agreed to co-host Arkham across both sims, on an upper level above them.
This will not only give Arkham an official home again, but a spacious one this time, finally allowing us to do real justice to this legendary Lovecraftian city. It will take some time, and a LOT of work by our dedicated staff, but the streets are already being built, the University library is already nearing completion, and the rest will be sure to follow after. It is our hope that in rebuilding this fabled city, both established and newer residents will have a chance to experience what otherwise might have been lost forever, a living vision of a city that has inspired writers, artists and fantasists for the better part of a century.
We’ll keep you updated on this and other news in future posts, so do check back, and thanks for reading~!
Lovecraft in Second Life 