One Week at Chesapeake

The Chesapeake Bay sim has been open for just over a week now and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.  Over 900 people have visited, many of them several times over, and for long periods. The sim is often full during afternoons and evenings, and at weekends. We were pleased to see great reviews of the sim by Maddie Gynoid, Inara Pey, and Diomita and Jenny Maurer, and we are grateful to everyone who signs the guestbook.

Perhaps most strikingly of all, the Chesapeake Bay Flickr group has grown to almost 450 pictures in just one week. As ever, we have enjoyed seeing many different perspectives on the sim. We felt sure that the place would prove to be photogenic, not least because it features some ‘original’ buildings and structures that cannot be seen elsewhere on the grid. Moreover, because of the layout of the sim, there are plenty of angles from which these can be photographed. It’s never easy picking out highlights from such a large pool of pictures, but here are some observations on what has been posted so far.

First, I’ve been struck by the number of great wide-angled shots that have been taken at the sim …

There are also a good many photographers who have imagined the sim in what I’d describe as a ‘painterly’ way, with stunning results …

By contrast, there are photographers who seem able to render the sim with an incredible degree of realism, which in some cases leaves one scratching one’s head and wondering whether an image was taken in the ‘real’ Chesapeake Bay …

As for the ‘signature’ builds on the sim, there have been some outstanding shots of the house that Stephen White fought to save …

… Sharp’s Island hotel …

… the Holland Island Bar Lighthouse …

… Sharp’s Island Lighthouse …

… the sunken church …

… various submerged roofs …

… the cemetery …

… and the Tangier Island cross …

Finally, the sim’s massive bird population has proved to be popular with photographers …

We usually spend between two and three weeks working on each sim that we open, and much of that time is taken up by the rather obsessive attention we pay to details. So we’re pleased to see photographers who notice – and highlight – features of the sim we worked hard on. Thanks to everyone who has visited and posted pictures. And do keep going, we’ll surely be staying open for a little while longer …