Feb 18
Journey Rock Band Gets A Second Life
Journey Rock Band Gets A Secondlife - By Mozy Pera
The Rock & Roll entertainment giants Journey have opened a new virtual island in Second life.
On February 1st the multi-platinum rockers held a grand opening party to celebrate their new virtual world sim called Journey Island. I got the news a couple weeks too late so I can’t say first hand how the event unfolded although I am sure it went well.
After hearing about the new Island, I teleported over to have a look around and was greeted by one of the Island welcome committee members and also a nice pre-recorded voice greeter. Journey fans were dropping in to my left and to my right. Many of the band’s fans are new to Second life and are signing up through the bands newly designed website Journeymusic.com – via the link to Second life.
The band is currently on the road doing a world tour to help promote their new album (due to release in 2008) and this virtual platform will allow them to stay connected with their fans while touring, as well as their off seasons.
Journey Island was built by Industrial-Design.com, Journey’s long time web developer and features work by SL builders Farrokh Vavoom, Argus Collingwood, Jocelyn Sands and Adrian Harbinger. The Second life region is named Journey Rock Band.
I was fortunate that the two sim managers Farrokh Vavoom and Argus Collingwood were hanging out on the sim and shortly after meeting them; they offered me a tour of the island and an informal interview. They teleported me to a quiet little water world area under the grid where I was greeted by several friendly ocean critters including sharks and jellyfish. Whoa!
The entire sim has been setup very well and a lot of thought and planning went into the development, layout, design and function of it. Owning and designing sims myself, I can appreciate all the hard work they did there.
Journey has been known for their stage designs and keeping up on cutting edge technology so creating a Second Life Island for fans to enjoy was an easy decision for them according to Argus.
The Island features dedicated areas for each album along with audio and video presentations. There are also two venues on the island, the Escape Club and an Amphitheater, where live SL events can be held. I joined in for a few hours of fun and really had a good time dancing to some well liked tunes. They also added some fun things to do like jet skis, paddleboats, Vespas and skydiving!
The real band members, Neal Schon (guitar), Jonathan Cain (keyboards), Ross Valory (bass), Deen Castronovo (drums) along with their new lead singer, Arnel Pineda (“pin-eh-da”) will be dropping in unannounced from time to time so be sure to look for them in avatar style as they all use their real first names along with the last name of Henly.
On the sim your will also find many neat surprises hiding in many area’s. You can click on an album cover prim to discover a neat book of song lyrics gets delivered to your inventory. You simply click and wear it and soon you will find yourself singing along to your favorite Journey song. Too Cool!
Added By Stone:
Just realized we had this video of the sim, check it out.
Popularity: 80%
12 Comments so far
Leave a comment
OMG!! I LOVE Journey! They are my all-time FAVORITE band!
I had the wonderful experience of seeing the original Journey perform live at a Texas Jam concert (back in the 80’s), and I also saw the new lead singer perform with the band a couple of years ago…all in all, both experiences were magical!
I’ll HAVE to go to the sim as soon as I log in!!
Thanks Mo!!
WOOOT! YAY Journey! It is wonderful to see the big bands picking up on the SL phenomenon. See you at the next Journey concert!
Second Life is more than just a game and Journey Island is all about the music.
Stop bye and say hi you wont be sorry.
Thanks for the story on it - I snooped at it quickly and plan to go back for the full tour.
In addition to being a helluva lot of fun, I also thought it was a great example of how SL could be used as an educational tool - with the voiced commentary and ability to explore and listen to the music.
Here’s my photo opp pic: http://flickr.com/photos/kerryank/2276406140/
Opening Day was a blast. I wrote a short piece on it at http://tychoberesford.blogspot.com/2008/02/journey-island-opening-day.html
Oh thank you for sharing that info Tycho! I was hoping someone would remark about their opening day event. I wish I could have been there! Darn it!
[…] Island, Second Life, SL, Steve Perry On February 1st, classic rock band Journey launched the Journey Virtual Island in Second Life. The island offers information on the band’s albums, in the form of structures each designed […]
“…their new virtual world sim called Journey Island…”
“…The Second life region is named Journey Rock Band…”
I’m confused… Is it called Journey Island or Journey Rock Band?
>> From the Second Life Wiki: “Region” is a synonym for sim, which is short for “simulator”.
Hi Wrath, Sorry to confuse you. I will try my best to explain. Every Second Life Sim has to be given a Region Name and an Estate Name when purchased. Each sim owner has the option to use the same name for their Region and Estate Name or they can choose one name for the Region name and another for the Estate name.
Consider this example:
I buy five Sims (Regions) and I want them all to have a certain similar naming convention such as “PERA ISLAND.” I would then register all those sims with that same region name while for the Estate name of each of the 5 sims, I would give a name such as PERA ONE, PERA TWO, PERA THREE, etc. Hence, they all are part of my PERA ISLAND collection of sims - yet they all are unique Estates names.
I am going to TP over to the JOURNEY sim right now and double check it. : )
Well…I just went to the Journey sim and I must make a correction here. Thanks for pointing that out Wrath!!! The new Journey Sim (Region) is Called Journey Rock Band. The Estate name is simply ” Journey”. You can click the map button and type in Journey or Journey Rock Band to teleport there.
*I think people call it Journey Island because in Second Life we usually refer to sims as islands. By the way, they have just uploaded an amazing broadcast video of the band playing live in Chile a few days ago. It’s something to see for sure!
lol Thanks for checking on that, Mozy! I’m not able to get in-world at the moment to do the research, but I just know that it seemed like every blog I had read referred to it differently and I was just wondering what the correct title was. When I first heard it was going to be called Journey Rock Band, seemed like an awkward name and I was kinda hoping maybe it really was supposed to be Journey Island. Which is what I bet the majority of residents will end up calling it anyway.
Thanks again for the clarification!
Journey is amazing, Second Life is amazing, and I am happy to be a part of it! Come on over and have some great fun!!