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January 19, 2008
Dining Digitally
A good friend of mine recently decided to write an article about cooking and food in virtual worlds. She called me, and we talked about cooking in World of Warcraft (I'm never going to get those last 4 skill points... grr!) and other MMOs. In MMOs, cooking is a way to create substances (i.e., food) that can restore your health. This is important because in MMOs much of the time your avatar can be running around trying to kill things that are themselves trying to return the favor.
But she also mentioned a full-service restaurant in Second Life called Sublime. It sounded fascinating -- Sublime has a real waitstaff that seats you, presents you with a menu, takes your order, and brings you the meal you ordered. Dining at Sublime can get expensive, too. Writeups of the place mentioned that meals can cost up to $3000 Linden (the currency in Second Life) per person!
Well, I have an avatar in Second Life with some Linden to spare, so I invited my foodie friend to a sumptuous meal at Sublime. I went shopping and picked up a snazzy new tuxedo and a more formal hairdo (than the mohawk I often wear), and I ... or rather my avatar, Kam Prevost, was ready.
Dressed-up Kam with Shrimp Cocktail.
Unfortunately, it seems that sublime ceased to exist sometime during the first part of 2007. So, I did some searching for an alternative. This is what I came up with: a restaurant with a buffet in the Imzadi Resort, a Star Trek-themed resort.
The buffet.
The setting was lovely, the buffet quite fun, but, inexplicably, the eating animation didn't include any food or utensils.
"Dining"
It seems that dining in Second Life is now mostly a "date" activity. It gives users a more natural-seeming setting in which to interact, and provides their avatars with actions to perform while "talking" (and now Second Life has both traditional text-messaging and voice-chat, though I haven't yet experimented with SL's voice client) with each other. It's an interesting set-up. What do we do in the physical world while on dates? We look for things to do to keep us physically occupied: movies, dinner, mini golf, bars. It's a bit like a reason a friend once gave me for why she smoked at bars -- it was something to do to keep her hands and mouth busy while she was out prowling for love. (FYI: I bought the argument about insecurity and need to satisfy one's oral fixation, but I'm still strongly anti-smoking.)
I am sorry, though, that Sublime has closed and there doesn't seem to be another full-service restaurant in SL. I was really looking forward to the heightened sense of both reality (this is really like being at a snooty restaurant) and unreality (I can't taste or smell the food).
Maybe one day...
Posted by reparent at January 19, 2008 6:30 PM
Comments
It was fun meeting you in Second Life -- although I do regret the hairstyle I had at the time. I improved it greatly the following day. Your outfit and hair were perfect, however.
I'm also disappointed that Sublime is no longer there, but I'll keep an eye out. Somebody will eventually create a fancy restaurant, I'm sure of it. After all, I discovered models of a KitchenAid mixer, wedding cakes, a convection oven and many Mexican dishes, so I know there are foodies out there!
The article will be out tomorrow. Now I'm trying to think of clever ways to apply SL to my job.
Posted by: suzanne at January 22, 2008 11:02 AM