Ridgewood Enclave Commercial, the New Bellisseria Shops
I was playing around with the Solaris glow in ReShade the other day when it hit me that I can already do this in the Aperture Viewer. This is still my favorite viewer right now, but it looks like the creator’s stepped away from the project since last year, which is really sad. It feels like every third party viewer I end up liking either doesn’t get updated enough or just gets abandoned completely.
This post isn’t about TPVs though, I just needed to say that.
You might’ve heard about the newly released Ridgewood Enclave Commercial shops, or maybe you haven’t. Even when something’s “big news” to some people, most Second Life residents stay in their own bubble and don’t follow updates or read blogs. And that’s fine. A lot of people just want to log in and play Second Life at their own pace.
I’m not one of those people, especially when it comes to Bellisseria.
Last week in the middle of the day, my friend messaged me saying “omg, shops dropped!” We’d been waiting for these for months after the Lindens hinted at them during a land meeting. Even though I already knew I really don’t like the Ridgewood Enclave home theme, I still opened the map, teleported, and claimed a shop.
It’s free for Premium Plus, doesn’t count against your tier or your Linden Home, so you really do get to have everything here.
I’m not going to complain about a free perk. The experience has been nice so far. I ended up on a full block with friends because we all rushed over at the same time and grabbed one.
Some people are upset that they didn’t get one, or that the Bellisseria Citizens group heard about it before the official blog post went out. It sounds like it was shared a couple of hours earlier. But honestly, that’s just how things go sometimes. If you’re in the group and paying attention, you’re going to hear things sooner. If you find out later, then unfortunately on a limited release, it’ll be sold out.
There will be more shops. Probably Monday, based on what was said at the land meeting today.
Even though it’s been less than a week, residents are already creating events and websites around the new shops. I’d barely started moving in before I was getting messages asking me to pay for advertising or join groups to promote my shop. No thanks. I don’t want to advertise anything. I just want a quiet little shop. I’m a Lifetime Premium Plus member and I’m just enjoying the perk.
I also think Linden Lab shouldn’t make too many of these. I know the demand is high right now, but the number of shops should stay small compared to homes. If there are too many, Bellisseria starts to feel less like a place to live and more like a mall.
When something’s limited, people get weird about it. Sometimes ugly. Or maybe some people just aren’t used to how Bellisseria works yet. If I had to describe it in two words, it would be “sold out.” And that’s not a bad thing.
Some themes are always sold out, and that’s fine. It’s better than being undesirable. We’ve already seen what happens when there are too many. Chalets, Fantasy, Log Homes, Houseboats. They were all in high demand at one point. Now there are more than people want.
We don’t need everything all at once. People move on, and when they do, the community around something new fades too. It’s better to let something stay a little rare.
Also, we don’t need to overcomplicate how people use these shops. If someone wants to pretend to sell virtual coffee, let them. Commercial doesn’t have to mean serious business. We’re all already paying customers anyway, no one deserves a shop more than others.
“Your shop, your way” feels like the right idea. With some rules, just not a million of them.
At the end of the day, this is supposed to be fun.
