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April 17, 2007
Dorms: Free Space for You and Your Friends
The STA Travel Dorm system is a free service provided by STA Travel, to give students who are new to Second Life a private place to hang out, chat with friends, or just have some privacy.
While most land or apartment rentals in Second Life charge you a monthly fee or a down payment, the STA Travel Dorms are free for anyone to use. The Dorms also come ready to decorate, with 5 fun and exciting design schemes - everything from beds to desks, wallpaper to windows - all preprogrammed into an easy to use menu interface on the wall of each dorm building. Mix and match, or stick with a theme, the choice is yours!
The STA Travel Dorms are also a unique first to Second Life, in that the system has been designed to allow an almost limitless number of users. There's no need to join a group or deed your objects, or sit on a waiting list until a dorm room is available. Its easy, fun, and there will almost always be a dorm available for you!
Here's how it works:
When you log into Second Life and land on the Orientation Island, fly to the north. You'll see twenty dorm buildings set up on a smaller island. Find an empty dorm building and walk in. The room will be blank, but the fun part is about to start - decorating!
Click the Claim Room button on the right hand wall to open up the menu system. If this is your first time setting up a room, click the "New Room" button at the top of the screen. From here, you'll have options to pick a design theme, add furniture from that theme (or different themes), or clear the room to start over.
Adding furniture is easy - click the Add Furniture button at any time to get a list of available furniture items. Click the name of the item, and it will appear in the center of the room! You can move and place the item by right-clicking the item border box and selecting "Edit". Drag the box along the X,Y or Z axis lines to position the item. When you're done, just exit out of the Edit menu and click the item once to remove the border box. You're done! You can now add more furniture if you like by repeating this process.
Want to move that desk to a new position later? No problem - just click the desk and choose "Edit" from the blue pop up menu to get the border box back, move the item the same way as described above, and exit Edit mode and click the item again to remove the border box.
Once you have your room the way you like it, there's no need to manually save your layout - the system does that for you as you add or change each item. Just relax and enjoy!
Let's say you want to leave your dorm and go exploring. But when you come back, your dorm room is gone, or someone else is in the building you were using before. Don't panic! The STA Travel Dorm system is designed to maximize the number of people that can use the dorms without a waiting list, so if you leave your dorm room empty for ten minutes, the room will reset and will become available for someone else to use. But since the dorm system saves your unique layout, all you have to do is find another empty dorm room, click the Claim Room button on the wall, and then choose "Load Room" from the menu. Just like that, your unique dorm room setup will load and be positioned for you to enjoy again!
One question you may have is "What about decorating with my own items, not just the ones provided by the menu system?" Due to the way that Second Life has the permissions and object limits set up, the STA Dorm System will allow you to place your personal items from your inventory in the dorm room - for example, a vase you bought at a shop - but the system will return that item to your Inventory after 20 minutes. This will give you a chance to check out new purchases or show things off to your friends, but will keep the dorm areas neat and tidy for the next person to use the dorm building. If you leave something out and its returned to you, don't panic - you'll get a message on your screen that the item was automatically returned, and you can find your item in your Lost and Found folder in your Inventory.
You can find these instructions outside the Dorms on the Instruction Board, or if you need help, just ask an Orientation Island Staff Member for assistance.
Enjoy your free dorm room in Second Life, courtesy of STA Travel!
- Cory
Posted at 4:46 PM in STA Travel Dorms | Comments (2) |
Comments
I find the idea of "shared dorms" very compelling. I often think of how silly it is to have a permanent home in SL when I am only going to be there a few times a week.
Having a shared space where you can rez your own configuration at will seems much more sustainable and cool. And a lot like living in a real dorm. I love it!
Posted by: rikomatic | April 30, 2007 10:16 AM
i'm wondering if you're in the room for very long dose your stuff still stay there after 20 or 30mins ?
Posted by: Luther | May 19, 2007 8:13 PM
