White Walls
May 28, 2020 4:10 am Leave your thoughts
For those playing at home, you know the last few months have been tough in the world of Ever so I’ve been looking to pass the time when I don’t feel like working on Red Cowboys.
Again, hear me out if you aren’t a gamer or don’t usually play anything, this post isn’t totally about a game.
This game is called Occupy White Walls, and you are a curator of an art gallery you build. You get a slab of concrete on open water and then some funds and access to paintings. These paintings are well known from history, others are not, and there are even some digital prints etc from artists in the last few years. You construct walls, hang your pieces and then open your gallery for NPCs and other players to visit. You pay to expand on the open water and each grid you buy increases in cost as you move up levels, but you get access to different types of building materials and lighting too.
I like art, so it was good to learn about some of the history behind the paintings I was selecting to hang in my space. I also liked the Second-life and SIMs-type games where you construct mansions you would never have IRL. I began to build rooms in OWW, and it looked like a regular place of business, before my creativity kicked in and I started coming up with themed rooms and colours I actually liked.
I have an Alice in Wonderland room, a burlesque area with paintings by Toulouse Lautrec, a sexy loft of risque photography and a games room that boasts portraits of people playing poker. I built the majority of it (I’m still expanding,) and it was fun to make some money/credits by having other people visit my space, but it wasn’t until I built what I call my private sitting room that it became more than just a way to pass the time.
As we move more towards an AI/VR/technology-driven society things aren’t science fiction anymore. These things are already utilised in society; eg virtual reality tours for older people confined to retirement homes. And, if you want to go deeper, used to train soldiers for battlefield situations. I’m kind of jealous that I’ll be old AF when VR reaches a stage where I’d really have fun with it. And deeper still, if you subscribe to the theory we are likely living in some sort of simulation already, then the following paragraphs are probably something you’ll understand.
The game gives you opportunity to change your backdrop; you can keep the original open water and daytime setting, choose a night sky, an 80’s retro digital sun and others. I tried a few but something about the open water and seemingly eternal distance was good so I kept it.
I had a vision of a glass-paneled room away from the other parts of the gallery, not totally off-limits because it needed to be accessible and open to people who found it. I wanted it to be a definite change in the overall mood of the main space and an area that was mine but others could enjoy if they stumbled upon it.
I like grass and trees, I thought about having the floor a bunch of swaying grass and then how cool it would be to sit in that box and paint or create. I wanted an easel and some chairs in there because if it was real life, it would be a very inspirational and relaxing place. Luckily, these things exist in the game, as well as a really awesome “Secret Garden” doorway. So I built the fucker. It didn’t take long at all and placing trees inside a glass box wasn’t easy but it all worked out.
This box has served me well the last few weeks…I load the game, open the gallery so I can make some credits and I visit the box to watch the water for a few minutes. The sunlight on the fake waves is real enough that you can suspend belief and take a few deep breaths before moving on to whatever you were doing in the game or in your day. It is nice to take a deep breath. I forget to do that. A lot of people do. It seems we all survive on shallow breaths until someone tells us to stop and breathe.
Tags: alice in wonderland, alone, art, belief, breathe, calm, cc, contemplate, credits, depression, gamer, history, in real life, IRL, meditate, money, NPC, Occupy White walls, reality, relaxation, sims, technology, virtual reality, VR, water, Wisdom