Dorms: Grand Opening!!
That's right folks, the dorms are finished and finally ready to open ! We are excited to unveil them to all residents of Second Life on Thursday, July 12th .
We will start the day at 9am SLT by holding our weekly Lonely Planet trivia contest at the dorms, where one lucky contestant will win a free RL Lonely Planet guidebook in addition to the cash prizes. Throughout the day the dorms will be open to the public and staff will be available to answer questions concerning the dorms. That evening we will be having an event at the dorms, to celebrate their opening for all those people whose hard work has made this a reality, and for those who look forward to calling the STA Travel Dorms their home.
If you have any questions , please contact GlobetrekkerBob Lane during his office hours at the main island, otherwise we look to seeing y'all soon!
-Bob
Posted at 9:55 AM in STA Travel Dorms | Comments (0) |
Dorm Update!
As many people have noticed, the dorms are still being finalized. We apologize about the delay. At this point, we are running some final testing and working to bring the entire dorm system online.
Please rest assured, the moment we have a date, we will let you know! We are excited to introduce this new concept to Second Life!
Posted at 12:36 PM in STA Travel Dorms | Comments (0) |
Dorms: Available End of Week
Today is the day - STA Travel Islands open for everyone at 11 am EST or 8 am SL time! Please enjoy everything that STA Travel has to offer on these islands, from customizing your own avatar to learning how to build via their sandboxes and entertainment and shopping galore at the STA Travel Main Island.
The Dorm system is one of the most engaging and thrilling part of the STA Travel islands. The dorms will be available to you by the end of the week. Please make sure to check out the blog for the exact date and time when they will be ready in Second Life.
Can't wait to see you there!
-Cider
Posted at 9:51 AM in STA Travel Dorms | Comments (2) |
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
