Last night one of my biggest wishes in SL came true. Bethy let me play with Starax’s Wand, an almost-mythical toy in Second Life. At the time it was one of the most expensive items you could buy in game, and, in my opinion, the item that most took advantage of everything that makes SL special and creative. Then, apaprently because of difficulties with Linden Labs, Starax left SL last June and you couldn’t get the wand anymore.

The Wand basically listens to what you say, and then rezzes items/sculptures/animations in response to over 150 words. Starax’s sense of whimsy and humor make trying to guess what will happen a blast.

Kong

Cthulhu

Throughout the time we played, I tried to take pictures of almost every item. Much is lost by not seeing the animations, or not hearing the sounds, or not seeing the way the item rezzes (for example, in one case a giant statue rose from underground in clouds of dust). Still, I think this slideshow can give you an idea of how amazing and diverse this experience was.

Probably my favorite wand item are the gallows. You hang yourself, and wake up in a long dark tunnel… Walk toward the light, and you reach this heavenly waiting room, complete with old issues of Playboy to tide your stay. 🙂 Unfortunately, you’ll be waiting a while, as St. Peter’s gone fishing…

As you may be able to tell from the pictures, we played for a *long* time — afternoon led to night led to morning, until we finally had to stop because we crashed the sim 🙂

This is definitely something that I’d like to machinima, as it’s a piece of SL history that many resis will never get to see, unless we can someday convince Starax to come back and entertain us once again. When pigs fly, of course.

I know I’d be first in line to buy.