Even its name – ‘Park’ – infers a new thinking. I’ve had a good look around now, and met some of the lovely people who are members (all sporting a ‘Naked and Unashamed’ group tag). You can too, for the piffling sum of L$250 and membership to this new naturist sim.

I’ve also been in conversation with the park’s owner, Instant Karma (or ‘Karma’ as he appears to be known to all), and I drew from this that there’s a drive for ‘purity’ within the sim. What the park is seeking to achieve is a sense of a garden of Eden, unspoilt by man (or woman), with even bridge crossings over water subtly disguised to offer a sense of an unspoilt world. I like this, I like this a lot, because the lack of ‘things’ makes one focus solely on the social interaction elements of SL. Which is rather the point of it all.

Too often we TP in somewhere to find it’s more of the same. More malls, more dance intans, more buildings, more…of everything we’ve seen before! So to drop in to somewhere that lacks all of that, and just to sit (or swim) naked with other naked players is so refreshing, so novel, so unique, it makes for an odd, yet uplifting, experience.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience because, 1000+ days into my SL, and having displayed all manner of ennui at spacesuit wearing giant rabbits wielding samurai swords, I suspect that this might have been what SL was like when it began. A world not having become a commercial rat race with sim after sim displaying the same elements again and again.

Note: I have a few days off work now, in which I plan to spend substantial time at several of the grid’s naturist hotspots, and hopefully get into conversation with some of you. I’ll be at Su Casa, Lost Garden, Eden and a couple of other places over the coming days. More reports, interviews and photos to follow.