A big round of applause for everyone who submitted their ideas and feedback for the new street names contest—the results are in! Congratulations to the ones we have selected—your street name will be featured in one of the three neighborhoods! Tell us if you can find them, and share with everyone where they are once you do!

These are the winners of the street name contest:

• Hillside View Lane (Felie)
• Rocky Road (Darthvader)
• Bolton Way (Katara)
• Maple Drive (Legion)
• Tulip Lane (Jesusfreak012)
• Strawberry Drive (Legion)

With Memorial Day over and summer vacation around the corner, what are your plans? Everyone I've talked to so far is into traveling with the good old fams or just getting together with friends for the whole traditional greasy barbecue grill—you know, the kind where you dig in with your bare hands and eat like a savage while baking in the hot summer sun? Well, maybe not—though I think it would be awesome to watch if we all just ate our food like starving barbarians fresh out of boot camp.

As for myself, my goal this summer is to take my sweet tooth out to the beach on Isla Del Sol with my stunner shades and fresh-baked cupcakes (still toasty and with some milk, of course). Ah, the life!

I've been bumming around all these great homes lately, and I just can't wait to see what you guys are going to send in for the best house contest! What is that, you say? Well, it's the contest we had mentioned from the open house event. It's simple: Basically, you email us a photo (screen shot) of your home whichever way you want us to see it. From there, we trim a bit here and there and post it up for everyone to see. Then we'll have a panel of judges, and the islanders vote to decide who takes home the BEST house title!

Some wicked new homes to mention—and I mean wicked cool—belong to Mauz, C P, Felie and Cbow. If there's a home you think is worth mentioning, comment here and then we'll go scope it out and try to get a shot up for them if they can't. This is going to be awesome! Come show off your hard work and hip home—seriously, make 'em jealous!

 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

I spent Saturday perusing the world as usual and decided to play Bingo with some new islanders. I was always ONE away from winning, while Seashell got Bingo really fast, along with lala2201. I did win one game, though, and that was basically the highlight of the night! Lost poet found all the hidden things like the jet plane under the Bingo hall, the sunken submarine, Nessie, the abandoned alien spaceship, and much more! It’s awesome to see everyone adapting and learning so quickly!

 

In case you missed it, the open house event was a huge success—there were a lot of people who came around and toured the homes of Stagecoach Island! If you want the scoop of what happened, you can track down one of these happening islanders: Gmoney, KC, King Rafa, Restless Mind, Rosabelle, Jesusfreak012, Mrobbins, RandyLH, Sooze, Player, Willis, Numba1stunna, studentakajoey, Freckles, Scorpio and probably a lot more that I forgot to mention.

We visited RandyLH’s house, Scorpio’s garden, Matt’s country villa home, Badjer’s artsy loft, Jesusfreak012’s gigantic palace, Ashleyxoxo’s country cottage, Kai’s awesome house, Darth’s decked-out pad, Seashell’s resort-like home, and Darthvader’s sky pad, to name a few. I think it’s really nice for us to be able to check out some new pads and get ideas for how we want to decorate our houses. We welcomed a lot of new people, including Zorkan, who stood out the most because he looked like a red box (technical error).

 

For all of you that have been working hard on building your dream homes, get ready to show them off at the first Stagecoach Island Open House Extravaganza! We’ll start with an Open House on 5/18 and follow it up with a Dream Home Contest (details to follow). Open House viewing will begin at 4pm PT in Isla Del Sol and is your chance to showcase your home and tour others as well. Start putting the finishing touches and decorations in your home now and get ready to open your homes to the Stagecoach Island community.

Let’s mix it up everyone! I’d like to welcome all the new people on the Island and really get a chance to meet each and every one of you guys and see what’s up. Many of us have been super distracted by building, including moi, and I want you all to know we’re working to bring this whole building thing together—SHA-ZAM style!

In the past couple of days I’ve been in world checking up on things, and I am really loving the houses! RandyLH’s house is sick, and Scorpio’s garden is absolutely ridiculous! I can’t even imagine how much time she spent putting all those flowers in. The good thing is that it looks amazing! Matt’s home is awesome to tour, and Restless Mind’s home has this big blue glowing orb thing that just floats up and down his home. For those who are new to Stagecoach Island, go check it out—and don’t worry, you’ll have a home before you know it! I know you guys have lots of questions, so feel free to post your comments here on the community site.

The end of the street-names contest is coming soon, so if you have any more ideas, submit them by the end of next week and we’ll pick the most awesome ones to display. Also don’t miss out on the Open House party tomorrow to mix, mingle, party, and to just catch up—it’s time we take a little break from all this building and reward ourselves by enjoying the homes we’ve built. See you there!

 

In my quiet time in world this week, a thought crossed my mind that I wanted to share with all of you. There are times when everyone's busy in world and doing their own activities: snowboarding, swimming, exploring, or bike racing. Wouldn't it be nice to have your own little pet in world to keep you company and explore the island together? I think that would be awesome!

Remember those good ol' days when we all carried around a virtual pet called the Tamagotchi ? Even if you didn't have one, they were a huge hit and the "in" thing to talk about at the time. It was the first time in history that virtual pets came into the lives of humans! These "pets" were small and compact; we had to take care of them by feeding, disciplining and playing games to maintain a healthy heart for each one. It was almost like those sea monkey kits that you can buy through comics, except these were way more high-tech and cooler to have.

If you don't remember Tamagotchis, Bandai  created them in 1996 and sold more than 40 million "pets"” worldwide . During its popularity, about 15 Tamagotchi pets were sold every minute in the U.S. and Canada, totaling $12 million in sales! Wouldn't it be cool if we had virtual pets, too? Not Tamagotchis, but a little in world companion. I think that would be pretty sweet—don't you?

Now that some of you have been able to buy land, and neighborhoods are starting to take shape, it’s time to customize the street names.

Would you like a street named after you? Or perhaps after your favorite flower? Post your suggestions (with coordinates) in the comments here so others can see, vote and choose. Only the best ones will be picked, so get creative and let us know what you think the streets of Stagecoach Island should be called!

All the cooperative building going on in world makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, so I wanted to share a real-life warm and fuzzy story. MegSRP recently took a trip to Mexico to help nearly 100 people build real homes, and I interviewed her for a special on building in the real world. The shocker for me: “No power tools—just cement and stucco from scratch!” she said.

“Well, our group (of about 10 people) built a total of five houses this year, which is really cool since we normally only build four. Each house had two groups of people working on it, so I personally only worked on one of the houses,” said MegSRP. She said all the groups combined built a total of 55 homes in 2 ½ days! Wow—those are mad skills. I could barely build my virtual home in SI with 2 days, let alone a real house.

MegSRP described the building process. “On the first day we have to level the site and then make the foundation,” she said. “The second and third day we finish all the building of walls/roofs, and then we put it all up on our nice dry foundation and finally connect it all together, wrapping wire around the house and putting up the tar paper on the walls.”

I've received lots of telegrams from people telling me that they can't afford to buy their own plot. No worries—if you can't finance or borrow money from friends to buy, you can always rent! Millionaires like RandyLH and others are planning to buy multiple plots to provide apartments and affordable housing for those who are interested to rent.

If you decide to rent with roommates, make sure you can share a kitchen, bathroom or pool with them. Hey—it happens—there are some people who just work better living apart, and it's better to find out sooner than later. I mean, you don't want to come home and have your furniture reprogrammed as plants or something. Also make sure their name is on the lease ... you don't want to get caught holding the monthly payment if they move out or have to pay for them painting their room purple.

Now here's a Cassie tip to keep in mind when you rent or buy a home: Anytime you're making payments, those payments should not exceed 32% of your gross salary. So for all of you who are planning on getting jobs once we launch them, start planning ahead. Another one of those iffy things to keep in mind is to make sure that your payments are on time so you don't get charged a late fee or get your property taken away. You don't want the Repo Man  to come after you!

For more info, you can go check out Hands on Banking!

Big thanks to everyone who showed up to the building party—so many new and old faces!

For those of you who missed it, the Island was crowded and buzzing with people who were searching for their special land and super-focused in watching others build. I know Kai was frustrated in the beginning, but if you go check out what she’s done to her plot now, it’s pretty awesome. It has a medieval look, but 10 times the size of those small cottages. Her neighbor, Darthvader has a pretty tripped-out place with sliding doors, a plasma television display and other really great features. He’s also rigged his second home so if you try to go and peak in, it teleports you somewhere else—talk about privacy!

Jesusfreak012 is my neighbor on my left and right, and she’s begun some building here and there—the layout and design both look really good. Cbow and Seashell bought in Desert Hollow and took the liberty of helping other people with tours and buying land.

Let me know where you bought so I can check out your pad—and if you haven’t purchased your land yet, you better hurry! If you’re having problems with buying, building, or just need some ideas, you can post in our feedback, read the tips in the real estate building, or ask me or a friend. It’s so exciting to see all of this creativity on our Island … I can’t wait to see how your house turns out!

 

 

The day has finally arrived! The ability to build on Stagecoach Island has officially launched. Purchase land, create your masterpieces, and invite your friends to build together.

You may want to start at the Real Estate building, where you can find building instructions and teleport to neighborhoods and Builder’s Paradise (the ultimate in building supplies!). Since it’s a new function, it can be a little tricky, but be patient and let’s learn together.

Cassie will be in world this week every day from 4 to 5 p.m. PT giving tips and helping people with building. Let’s have fun experimenting, and if you have any questions, feel free to post on the feedback page!

In celebration of the launch of building, we will be hosting a block party from 4 to 6 p.m. PT so that everyone can come together and share tips and ideas for their new homes! Party central is Cassie’s house in Isla Del Sol (127S 92W), but I’m sure we’ll be touring all the neighborhoods and Builder’s Paradise. See you there!

Building can be difficult at times, and we realize that you may have lots of questions. We would like you to post any comments, tips, or questions about building here so that you can share with everyone in the community something you learned or something you’re having trouble with. Someone from the community may be able to offer some good advice on how to fix your issue. We look forward to hearing from all of you!

Thank you so much to all of you who have helped me build—especially Darthvader, my personal building consultant! Because of him, I now have an elevator which I think is pretty sweet. Kai, Whopperjr, Cbow, Cam, Ashleyxoxo, RandyLH, Rosabelle, Tenissball, and so many more also came by to help or even just to watch the building of the glass house—check out the screen shots!

I know my house is all clear and doesn’t have much privacy, but I hope it gives you guys some idea for your own home. It took me a few days to get the idea of how to build and to put everything together. It takes a lot of patience and time, so don’t let it get you down!

Cbow knows this, but there were many times when I got super frustrated because I couldn’t get the floor boards to match up. It’s not as hard as it may seem at first—just remember to read all the building tips in the Real Estate building.

Of course, if you have questions or just want some building company, you can find me in world kicking back in my new plush pad every day this week from 4 to 5 p.m. PT. The coordinates are (127S 92W), I don’t have a door, so there’s no need to knock … just come on in and check it out. Oh, by the way, no more driving and getting cars stuck in my walls—that’s what roads are for, numba1stunna!

The countdown to this Wednesday’s building begins—are YOU ready?