From an era gone by...

Rest Area - AWTeen 2557.556s 1160.247e 0.4a 269

As a caretaker in AWTeen world, I spent a good chunk of my time in 2006 designing and holding events to keep the world population entertained.  It was fun work and with a steady -- though small -- stream of new users coming into the world it was usually satisfying as well.  One handy device I quickly learned of after taking the helm with events was that older builds can be great fun to explore, and ended up making that my focus for a while.

At about the same time, pcnate of historicbridges.org was still active in AWTeen world.  In AWTeen, pcnate is infamous for his AWTeen Interway -- a massive undertaking that criss-crossed AWTeen with very well designed roadways.  The network focuses around controlled-access freeways that exit onto smaller roads as they approach points of interest.  The Interway was invaluable for builders during the cities boom in the mid-2000's, as it was a literal networking of our cities.  Back then, you hadn't really 'made it' until a roadway connected your town to the rest of the world.

On the outskirts of Parkhaven.

Before pcnate, the big name in roadworks was Lord Perception.  Lord Perception did a lot of work in late 2002, building up the massive Parkhaven kingdom.  Parkhaven was more or less a solo project, and it had some outlying areas that Lord Perception was interested in connecting to.  Thus, roads.  He linked his road network as far away as AWTeen's Ground Zero, but not without making some interactive sights for passerbyers.  At AWTeen 420N 1589E you'll find the original "WAS HERE" Area, a marker-point for builders to leave a note of their presence.  When I was a brand new citizen in the beginning months of 2003, Parkhaven and the territories surrounding it were one of the first places I explored.  This interactive 'guestbook' of an area really left a good impression on me, because leaving my mark as a builder made me feel like I was a part of the process. In fact, it made such a good impression that a couple of years later...

...I made my own!

I've been a builder for almost half of my entire life.  I've built a lot of things in a lot of worlds, some of which no longer exist.  I've worked on a wide range of projects, and I can tell you that there are few projects I get continued satisfaction from like this silly, simple rest area.  Something changes every time I revisit it, and I can always count on a wave of nostalgia to rush over me as I see the notes left behind by friends who I haven't seen in years.  As a builder, this place was -- and is -- awesome.  As an events planner... builds such as this, as well as the road networks, offered great potential.

Spectre Highway Bridge

The potential here was for great tours across the world.  Tours weren't anything unique, heck there's a whole world dedicated to tours.  What was unique, what was new, was the realism and true distance afforded by the road networks.  If you've explored them at all, you'd know that pcnate's networks are much more than street1.rwx's spammed into the distance.  He worked hard and even created custom textures for road shoulders, and built a number of detailed bridges -- good builds in their own right -- and exits for future builders to plug their builds in at.  With all of these existing pieces in place, it was no great task for me and others to begin a trend of road trips across AWTeen.  Road Trips were and still are today some of my favorite events.  They were so simple -- you just announce a date and a time, and people will just show up... and off you go!  Sometimes they'll bring bots set to follow them.  After v4 objects came out, mover 'tour buses' became popular.  For the brief hour or two of the road trip, a group of friends and strangers could travel across the world while commenting on builds they pass... and sometimes even creating new builds!

A "Was Here" rest area from one such road trip on the Southway 1500.

Today in 2011, most of the active road projects take place in Cypress Hollow and related cities in the area.  While I was traveling to the site of the location pictured above, I passed a lot of what people would probably classify as vandalism where people who have built near the road tried to plug in to the network.  People still want to be a part of this great road network, which I think is a testament to how well-done it was. 

The common experience in Active Worlds is that old builds are active while they are being built, and then abandoned afterward.  There is no interest in an old build.  With the AWTeen Interway, this is simply not the case. By the nature of its own design, continued interest in this build by builders and explorers alike makes it very valuable.  It has a purpose as a network to connect builds together, and people also use it for navigation.

There are a number of builds that have similar interest dotted around the universe, but I just wanted to share this one.  It's been the vehicle for many a fun night of traveling, and is a good example of what a good time we can have exploring old builds simply by getting a few friends and maybe a bus with a comically poor design as well. :)