![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/353/70/320/map1.jpg)
The map of the place. The white borders to the site - North Laguna Beach and South Laguna Beach - promise that the world will grow in the future. See how the virtual town compares to the real one on Google maps.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/353/70/320/map2.jpg)
A close-up view of the map. Quite a few places to hang out and shop. Names of the streets are real.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/353/70/320/vlb_street.jpg)
Zooming in closer - a virtual Laguna Beach street. No billboards yet.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/353/70/320/vlb_decorations.jpg)
The houses on the hills are actually flat decorative facades and create a weird Truman Show kind of feeling. VLB is not connected to the rest of There; you actually need to download a separate customized client. The place is physically limited by mountains that you can't climb over. The blimp in the sky advertises the Emporio-Optic store (I think). A store with the same name exists in the real world.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/353/70/320/optic_emporiom.jpg)
This is the in-world version. You can buy glasses there.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/353/70/320/vlb_shop.jpg)
A surf shop where you can buy clothes. Your avatar comes endowed with 5000 MTV$. You can buy more money at an exchange rate of $1-MTV$ 1800.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/353/70/320/atm.jpg)
ATMs are conveniently located around the city and allow to get virtual cash from within the game.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/353/70/320/vlb_cinema.jpg)
The cinema plays an episode from the show. Don't know if there are any commercial breaks. That would be fun, though.
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/353/70/320/vlb_beach.jpg)
Quite a few people on the beach despite the early AM hour.