Who doesn't like fall foliage? It's one of the few non-syrup reasons I go to Vermont. Autumn colors are my favorite colors, and I even like the air best in fall. I have turned down pretty good jobs in real life that would move me out of New England, partly because I would greatly miss the change of the seasons. People from Maine or Cape Cod often joke about how the tourists all bail before the best season comes, and fall foliage is a big part of that equation.
I'm easy to please with Autumn. I'll be upfront with you that this applies to SL as well. Looking at leaves while playing a game like SL- where you can do virtually anything that can be animated- may seem dull, but if something brings you enjoyment RL, why not check it out in SL? That is actually a pretty good policy to follow, as long as you keep an open mind for new things, or even things you just may not have thought to check out. That's why the gods gave us the SL Enquirer, we do a lot of the leg work for your imagination.
You lose a few things between RL and SL when leaf-peeping. You don't get the crisp fall winds, the smell of falling leaves, the sounds of leaf blowers, the cooling air... the whole October aspect. Some of this can be offset by leaving the window open in your office when playing SL, at least if you live in Massachusetts. We can't add "three hour drive into the mountain forest," but they have driving sims in SL, so you could just go to a few of those to recreate that part. You can even drink some cider or eat some pumpkin pie as you play SL. I can't do all the thinking for you, but I have done enough to kill this paragraph. I have like seven pictures to frame this story around, and tangents are both a writer's best friend and her worst enemy.
I drag my husband along checking leaves if I can't talk any of my girlfriends into driving to the Berkshires in real life. He goes, and claims to enjoy it, but I think he enjoys it like I enjoy going to things that he likes, such as monster movies or car races. "Yes dear, it's wonderful." He knows I'll at least feed him at some point, so it all works out. On such things are happy marriages built.
I went to Falloween by myself, but I usually work solo if I don't need a model. I do my dirt all by my lonesome, as the song says. I'd recommend that for serious Fall folks. A yapping friend or a disinterested spouse are distractive variables, and I don't care if "distractive" might not be a word. Hardcore leaf peepers know of what I speak, and they know that I speak words of Truth.
The good people at Cherished Melody must be fellow lovers of Autumn because they turned the sim out in full fall foliage regalia this year. The sim is known as Falloween, at least for this month. I went through it this morning, and it is lovely. I'd guess that the sim owners are New Englanders, but you never know. I went to a Plymouth sim once, and the owner turned out to be from friggin' Germany.
They have a path that winds through a fall forest, and there are little surprises along the way. Said surprises include a scary graveyard, a witch house, a castle sort of building, and perhaps a few other things. They also had an Autumn-themed art exhibit with pictures of girls in various orange and black. You could spend a good amount of time just checking that stuff out. The graphic artist was quite talented. In fact, whoever put the sim together is pretty talented his or her bad self. They hit Autumn out of the damned park.
Falloween is not a massive sim, you'd have difficulty getting lost in it. However, it was laid out cleverly, and you can kill some time strolling through it. If you need a temporary chill spot to do some messaging or chat to a friend, this would be good for it. If you own spooky clothing, this would be a good sim to go to and just pretend to be part of the exhibit. I do it now and then, people get spooked if the exhibits start talking to them. I didn't do that here, I was there in a bathing suit- as much as I love Autumn, I tend to let go of Summer with great difficulty. Stacey sometimes goes to her SL Enquirer job straight from the beach, player.
However, the real reason you go to this sim is to stroll around and enjoy the various leaves. You could conceivably do this on SL in July or January, but October is when you should be doing it. I don't know how long they keep this sim up, but there is a season for everything, and you should already be heading to this place. I don't write these articles for exercise. I actually write them for money, but helping out my readers is an added bonus.
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