I'm Miss Fortune, Miss So Soon, I'm like a bottle of pain

The Pushkin sim features a mainland tour? But it's on one parcel? The blurb doesn't clear things up, but does at least sound like a haunt:

Want to have some scary fun this Halloween? Come visit Red's Haunted Mainland Tour..Take a tour through the Haunted Lake House, Zombie Barn, Path to Hell, Graveyard, Asylum, Haunted Greenhouse and Haunted house.

Sure. Hit me dead in the face with two gorram game rips right off the bat. Not cool, kids. Not impressed.



Was I here last year?



Warning came too late.



More game rips...



Is rips all this place has?



Yep, I'm done here. Avoid this one. Sound effects are too loud, too many game rips, total waste of a haunt experience.

there’s a thirst in your eyes when you’re looking at me

The description for the Missing Mile Dark Rural Community says of itself:

Once the host of ritual murders, disappearances and biochemical experiments by the government, this town hold its fair share of secrets. Residential with opt-in roleplay. Vampire, Werewolf, Zombies , Witches, Alien , Ghost , Redneck , Hobo, Grunge, Soap.

When I landed, I was IMed:

[14:10] Soap (soapco): Hello Emilly! Welcome to Missing Mile dark rural community!

We are a residential sim within WoS. We feature affordable rentals and opt-in roleplay. Accept the group invite for the latest sim news and your starter RP tag.

NO TAG REQUIRED FOR OOC VISITORS OR PHOTOGRAPHERS!

Oh, that's good news. I still may change my tag to something that more reflects what I'm doing here.

[14:10] Soap (soapco): Looking for a home? Check our map for available rentals. For more roleplay information, visit our website ---WOSRPG

I'll keep that in mind.



We begin in a run-down train station. Appropriate.



Of course a "dark rural community" has swamp shacks. And the ghost crab is a nifty touch. What I want to know more than that, though, is--what's the X in the water for?



Apparently, there are also shops on sim. Behind the two mannequins are vendors, mostly for clothing and urban accessories, boots and the like. There is a vendor just to their left, though, that somewhat matches the outfit on the one closest to it, and it's reflective of Clockwork Orange. What does Clockwork Orange have to do with the World of Soap?



Oh, Missing Mile, you were doing so well...until this. On the other hand, the fast food restaurant behind this bus stop is Mooby's, and Soap itself started out as the Paper Street Soap Company, from Fight Club, so...yeah. Maybe they've always had copyright infringement going on.

Here's my thing--I've been involved in a lot of fandoms over the years. In SL, in RL, and there's always a fine line between homage and absolute infringement. For instance, someone who makes a nurse costume from Silent Hill and wears it to a convention, that is more fan tribute than direct violation of intellectual property--though, as I said, I will grant the line is fine.

There's at least two Silent Hill sims I know of in SL, and if I saw Robbie anywhere on those sims, that would make sense. Yes, it would still be a rip, because that doll comes directly out of Silent Hill 3, but it would be an understandable in the sense of fans creating things for fans. It might still be actionable, if someone legally cared to pursue it, but it would make sense.

This? In Missing Mile? Makes zero sense. It's clearly copyright infringement, it has nothing else to do with the rest of the sim, it's jarringly out of place.



And Totoro. Which is even more jarring. Maybe it's just something about the bus stops in town? Is that it? The rest of the place is basically okay but the bus stops are nightmares of actionable content?

driving me to the airport and to the friendly skies

See, this is the thing that kills my brain. I don't want to cover the big haunts--I will, but I've done some of them two or three years in a row--so that leaves me with a TON of abandoned house groups. Or things like this, where the group says

"FREE SEX/ORGY/BDSM/ESCORTS/STRAIGHT/BI/LESBIAN/GOTH/GOTIC/HAUNTED HOUSE/VAMPIRES/F**K/WHORES/SLUTS/SEX CRYPT/SEX COFFIN/BEACH/ART/EROTIC/NUDE"

and pulling up the owner's profile says the same name is a rental stop. So, haunt or not? Who can tell?

And it doesn't matter anyway, because that landmark no longer exists anymore; I tried to port and it failed utterly. Why aren't dead groups de-listed? Why aren't people taking down the ads--which surely, they must be paying for--when they're no longer running a haunt? I do not understand, it seems pointless.



Well, I'm officially terrified, so congratulations, Dragonheart. You win. I want to flee.

But gritting my teeth--and ignoring the repeating calliope music loop--I looked around. Was there any more to this than multiple Robbie the Rabbit rips? And turns out, if one turns left, there is. Well...sort of.



Okay, just as cluttered and full of rips as the main port-in point, but at least it's seasonal copyright infringement? That doesn't make much of a difference, though.



I walked up the partially ablaze stairs of the "HALLOWEEN SHOP"...and promptly fell through the floor into a cavern. Okay, we might be somewhere in the near vicinity of "not awful". Let's see what we've got here.



...Oh, that's, uh...that's it? Just this cave space? No other chambers anywhere?

...Right. Fleeing was the correct response. Moving on!

perfect murder, take your aim

There's apparently a "Bloodlines friendly" haunt on Shivering Pines. Their blurb states:

Explorers welcome Thirst Bloodlines Vampire Clan Rage Lycan Haunts Hybrid Demon Angel Human Family Club Games , 7Seas Fishing Space, Hallow's Eve .

"Family". "Games". Huh. So...good haunt? Bad haunt? No haunt? Not yet sure.



I rezzed into a quite decent witch's cottage, rife with potion bottles, some old palmistry posters, and a self-sweeping broom. Neat.



Right outside the door, I mean RIGHT outside, as in it's the very first thing seen once through the door--a P.T. rip. Really? But the cottage was so well done!



Turning left brought me to pumpkins, gently glowing in the chant-filled night. I miss new trails. Are they even still around?



Turning right brings me to witches, conspiring to create potions.



Going (mostly) straight from the coven gathering, there are several slat bridges and walkways. I saw something in the distance, and when I got there, it turned out to be a fishing shack.



And, past a rusted fishing boat, another fishing shack (with the Broken-Neck woman from Fatal Frame drifting around inside, not shown). Great, more rips.

Overall, it's not terrible, I've seen worse this year. They capture a certain haunted bayou feel, and that's no bad thing. I'm just irked by the rips, and keep in mind, if you travel yourself to see, you may be hassled by spampires.

blossom falls and clouds the air, powder trails the one in care

Now wait. The blurb for this sim says:

Daddy, Daddy's, Daddies, Daddys, Babygirl, Babygirl's, Baby girl, Babyboys, Femdom, Singles Boards, Singles, Dating, Home Rentals, Voice Hangout, Games, Daddy Dom, DDLG, Submissive, NO Nudity, Haunted House, Halloween,

Huh. So, I was wondering why this pastel nightmare ad was in the middle of the haunts, but I guess the last three words explain it?

I vaguely remember, like, 2016? 2017? Hitting some Daddy/babygirl land that had a haunt, but...I honestly don't remember more than that. It had a really creepy teddy bear, I think, but that's about it.



Hoo, boy. The pastel game is strong.



All right, there's a port down. Good, let's get away from the unicorn taffy madness, kthxbai. (I waited five minutes for the pumpkins to rez in on the hay bales behind the sign; I gave up and just ported down.



Cute entrance. Can't tell from the shot, but the skeleton takes off and puts back on the cowboy hat. Clever.



Here, you'll find skeletons. (And you don't normally see skeletons holding up skeleton parts that aren't theirs; I have a picture of that I can upload later, or you can just go see it in person.) You'll find at least one visible spider, warning to the arachnophobes. There's at least two Silent Hill rips (from SH4, The Room, and from P.T., if it matters). But most of the haunt is, overall, fairly clever.



I really liked the hand lights.



These skeletons fade in and out to the sole repetitive sound byte that's somewhat annoying: a thick, repeated "Boo...". Still, I do like the ghosting in and out, that's pretty neat.

Overall, I'm going to recommend this one, but keep in mind you'll have to wade through uber-kawaii pastelerie to get there, and due to the heavy scripting both upstairs on the main sim, and actually in the haunt itself, things can get pretty laggy. But all in all, I think it works pretty well.

why so sad, bunny? can't have mine?

The blurb for the conjoined stores reads:

gothic..zombie..fairy
Come over and enter our asylum, if you dare!
we have cool Goth stuff, Monsters, props and of cause

Or try your luck at our Cute Munsters Gatcha!

Gothic, Ghosts, Fairy,

You've left a dangling comma, there.

I'm fairly sure I've been here before, as well, but as it's been at least a year...



The first thing I saw was fluttering pixies and sakura trees, and...if this is their idea of a store selling Halloween decorations, they have a weird concept of the season.



Then I turned around and reevaluated. Okay, that's more like it.



Rip. Also, thank you, ever so much, for yet another completely pointless use of Robbie.



Rip. Also, Jesus, at the least pull her out of the goddamn bar. It looks like her leg snapped off in the middle.



Rip. This is getting insane. None of these match a theme, it's like Halloween in a blender.



RIP. I am done here. This is beyond pointless, into the realms of almost laughably inept design. And bet me, BET ME, they didn't import all these game rips themselves. Oh no, they found them in full-perm versions on the Marketplace, and likely those people didn't import them in, either. And who really knows--beyond the Lindens--who first imported all the violating game rips onto the grid? And they won't tell us because of the safe harbor provisions--as long as they can honestly claim they don't know, legally they don't have to do a single thing to stop it. It's so infuriating.

I'll hang you higher than before, bloody hammers and burning hot pins

What the way to start the morning. Got an email from Flickr:

"Hi Emilly Orr!
♥(`'·.¸ [incomprehensible characters] ¸.·'´)♥ (Kxxxxxxxx Pxxxxxx) is following you!
Follow them too?

Nooo, for two reasons. One: in addition to posting shots of fellatio and other sex acts (which, look, I'm fine with nudes on Flickr, but I tend to prefer erotica over just...y'know, blowjobs in sneakers) which are on the tacky side, two: she has tiny little baby hands. Nope, and double nope.

She does have some good composition, and she's better at lighting than I am, and she has the ability to use shadows in SL. These are good things. I'm just not feeling her subject matter.

In other news, it looks like soon we'll be able to 3D-print furniture, since we can already 3D-print houses, statues, bones, some organs, and skin.

And speaking of homes, how about instructions on how to build an off-grid log cabin, apparently for free? I mean, you'll have to find (or buy) a patch of land, it mostly involves hand work, which will take some time, and there's no power or water instructions, but...hey! Cabin! Just in case.

And for Silent Hill: Homecoming fans (well, can't really say fans, NO ONE is a fan of the buggy, disjointed, badly written mess that is Silent Hill: Homecoming, but I do like some of the situations and the main theme), this is the most singularly original theory I have ever heard on the whys behind the story, and virtue of virtues, it actually makes a lot more of the game make sense.

Don't get me wrong, Silent Hill: Homecoming is still, and forever will be, a buggy, disjointed, badly written mess, but...with that theory in place, it does make some of the major annoyances of the game (from monster designs to the main character's inexplicably bad-ass fighting skills) actually relevant finally.

in the order of life, they know you there

Found another haunted hunt, only this one's set in...Silent Hill.



Silent Hill in general has an intriguing history on the grid. Because it's such a foundational horror game, a great many fans have turned their energy to making fan-based media in various venues. So on the one hand, faithful recreation is blatant copyright violation, but on the other...we get experiences like this, of walking into the games we love, of being there, on the ground, as it were, living through the same things.



One of the game series' most iconic moments was from the first game, and a section from this video is pretty much what you first see when you rez into the sim. It's eerie how well it matches, nearly perfectly realized...down to the car.



The experience/haunt/interactive game started in September, and goes through the end of October. Now, apparently one must be a member of the group to get some prizes on the hunt itself, but the group's free, and it's not required to go on the experience, which is worth it all by itself.



The...Shiba Inu...from the...dog ending... *collapses into giggles*



Well, this does not bode well. (For those not in the know, this is a major feature of the game's internal mythology. This is the Halo of the Sun, a symbol of the faith of the Order, the main game's main antagonist group. Having it as a sign for the subway? Pretty much tells me "Monsters this way; come on down!")



NotRobbienotRobbienotRobbienotRobbie--



And then I entered a very dark room, met a Nurse with blood dripping from her blade, heard a bunch of zombies moaning somewhere close by--and crashed.

So what's my takeaway from all this? This is a sim-size haunt. It is big. Allocate a few hours to the thing, or take it an hour or two at a time over several days. And maybe turn your settings way down, so when the zombies start rezzing in packs you don't get trapped in lag like a mosquito in amber.

Oh, and your game hud? Does have a health bar. So I'm assuming this will be one of the haunts in which we can, in fact...die.

like we're holding onto something that's invisible there

The House on Haunted Hill beckoned, and off I went. Water covered the grounds when I arrived, ankle-brushing, making me glad of the weatherproofed boots I had. Soft little gasps behind me made me turn, and turn again, but...nothing was ever there.



There was something very...odd...about the water, too. Especially farther out to sea...



I suppose it's in the nature of a warning sign, to have a corpse upended over the walking path.



And obviously, very bad things happened in this cabin. I'm going to leave quickly, before the man with the hand-ax wanders back.



Wait, am I walking into Silent Hill? Why are there ashes in the air? I walked into an old fort to get out of the ash rain, and...there were...things...inside. I'm not sure what they were, but...I don't think they want me here.



And if I wasn't convinced before, I'm convinced now--there are definitely direct rips from at least two games here: Amnesia (not shown), and a few iterations of Silent Hill. Now, I want to be clear--I'm not accusing anyone of anything. The person who used these as decorations may not have known they were rips; the person who made them may have acquired them from someone else who sold them full-perm, so may not have known. But the original person, the one who brought them on the grid, that person ripped these models directly from the games.

That's just not cool.



And, of course, Robbie, outside the main house, also from Silent Hill.



Because that's not creepy at all! Eeeuugghh.



Oh, HELL no, I will not pick you up!

Also...how did you get in here so fast?!?

So, overall, it's not a bad haunt, but I will make one clear point: Go expecting to see bad things. And "bad" has a number of varying connotations here. Yes, corpses, some gore, some screaming, which can be hard on those who might walk in with sounds all the way up. But also, game rips, which qualify as "bad" in an entirely different way. And at least one rip specifically from Silent Hill: Homecoming that can, depending on interpretation, be seen as pushing the haunt towards an Adult rating, over Moderate. (If you're curious which one, look up Amnion on the Silent Hill monsters wiki.)

So I won't say don't go, because there are some intriguing ideas here. Just go prepared, and expect less to be dazzled, and more just cool visuals now and again.

and if you still find yourself with nothing to believe in

And now, Angel's Haunted House, about which is said:

WERE BACK by demand! Hunt for free over 50 free items
Scariest haunted house in ALL OF SL. Clothing required!
children must be accompanied by an adult. Ghosts, werewolves, LIVE ACTORS TO SCARE YOU.
,furry friendly, fully interactive.

That is a direct quote, by the way. I saw no live actors, and I have to say, it's certainly not the "Scariest haunted house" on the grid.



So, it's a conglomeration of areas, two main haunts and some random scenes in between.



Why is it always creepy clowns?



There wasn't that much in the main house I hadn't seen before, so I crossed over to the other main haunt, a jury-built insane asylum. But before I got there...



...I found this. Cute little 'don't-do-this' photo pose.



Gosh. Twin bloodied armed psychopaths. Just peachy.



Now, was he the dolls' conjured, or their caretaker? Hard to tell.



Hello, Silent Hill. Another direct rip from the game. Who is doing all the Silent Hill rips this year??



I have no idea who Random Gory Dead Girl is supposed to represent, so...your guess is as good as mine.

So, is it a waste of time? Not totally? I mean, the two main haunts are fairly cohesive within themselves, and there's some cute moments here and there. Even though a lot of the themes are very overused, they're nicely presented. The soundscape is good, and while there's repetition, it's not enough to truly annoy.

It's just not stellar. I wanted more. Maybe you will, maybe you won't, if you go, I can't say. It just felt like they could have been more creative, less derivative, with both main haunts.