A LOT of you made ponies since we posted up the Open Pony article back on May 9th, but one bit of feedback a lot of people are seeing is that the newer people have no idea what to do now that they have their cartoon horse made. Second Life is a huge game and finding things can be pretty daunting. If you search for My Little Pony in the in-game browser, there is a good chance you will find a pony "sim" (the Second Life name for server), but you probably won't find many people there. Where is everyone hanging out?
This post will hopefully give you a little bit of direction on where to go next. Pony Town is where the guide originally had you begin, but it's more of a display piece than a hangout these days. I'm not going to bombard you with words here about everything there is to know about each area since we have a separate community focused post coming up, but I will give you some links to check out and hopefully find some other pony fans to talk to and interact with. At the end of the day, Second Life is a social game. There aren't ladders to battle it out on or stats to level up (outside of specific sims that are essentially games of their own). Your pony is simply an avatar to customize and hang out with other cartoon horse enthusiasts with.
Anyway, get a location guide below!
Some general notes before I begin:
- There are three levels of maturity on Second Life - General, Moderate, and Adult. General being the squeaky clean safe sims, Moderate being places where adult content is not allowed but more mature themes may be present, and Adult, where pretty much anything goes in terms of violence and NSFW material. I'll tag each in the title.
- Sims have their own set of specific rules which they will usually deliver to you via notecard when you enter, so just being labeled "adult" doesn't give people free reign to do anything they want. It could limit it to only allowing adult content inside your personal private houses, or have specific adult topics completely banned altogether.
- Regardless of what sim you enter, be sure to read the rules and understand that they will definitely ban you if you do anything at all trollish. It's no secret that the game has been a target for abuse since it first appeared, so most people have a zero-tolerance policy in place for causing trouble. Don't do anything you wouldn't do at a public venue in real life until you know the culture of each particular place.
- Use the in-game Radar to find people. Sims can be huge, and this gives you an idea of who is in the area.
This is one of the newer sims to visit on Second Life, and plenty of ponies run around and hang out here throughout the day. Zoom on over to the hangout area
Neighberry - Moderate
Neighberry is the most active Moderate level sim, complete with weekly events (which you can find on their Discord server), holiday games with lots of freebies to deck your pony in, and tons of residential and commercial areas to explore. You will find everyone's uniquely crafted houses along with shops to buy things for Open Pony, or older ponies if you've picked up a different model.
Outside of event times, most people in Neighberry are hanging in their houses, though there are common areas where you might run into some ponies chatting or playing games.
This is also the most "anything goes" sim of what I'm are covering here, so be wary of the adult tag if that sort of thing bothers you. There are people with anatomically correct ponies, and also a pretty big group of furries.
This is also home to the H-Mart tower. which has a full gift shop filled with free stuff for your OpenPony along with a bunch of shops from people that create assets for it. If you want sunglasses, shirts, hats, full outfits, and a bunch of other accessories completely free, this is definitely something you want to visit. Also ride the elevator up tot he night club. It's probably one of the coolest in Second Life.
Due to the topic at hand, this is an adult sim, so avoid it if you want to stay clear of that. The wasteland isn't known for being safe, though in my experience it's usually just ponies running around with heavy weapons.
Moonshine Springs is another sim with a pretty active little set of ponies that hang out in it's central area near the stage. Adult content is only allowed in a specific adult room, though some people have anatomically correct ponies so be wary of that. Like the other sims, they sometimes run events and give out freebies for OpenPony and older models.
This is where we start you out if you are following the OpenPony tutorial. Step through the doorway in the HMART store and you will find yourself in Pony Town proper. It is essentially Ponyville re-created, with completely separate linked areas for major locales in the show. You will find Sweet Apple Acres in its own dedicated area, Twilight's castle, a giant maze as the Everfree Forest, and lots of small explorable buildings if you click around and visit the landmarks.
And that about covers it for major pony locations to visit! There are thousands of other sims out there to explore if you find a fun group of friends to play with. Everything from futuristic cities, real world locations re-created, haunted theme parks, alternate realities, and bizaare funhouses filled with riddles. You could even hop into a random-mode portal and hope it sends you somewhere fun. Second Life is ancient, and there are relics from even the early days of the internet. You never know what you will run into, both amazing and horrifying.
