The setting of Always in Season Island is based on the August 7, 1930 lynching that occurred in Marion, Indiana, where more than 10,000 white men, women, and children came to watch the torture and murder of two African American men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, and the 16-year old who narrowly escaped, James Cameron. Someone in the lynch mob stepped forward to say that James Cameron was innocent, and the rope was removed from his neck. He was subsequently imprisoned for five years. James Cameron lived until June 2006 to the age of 92 and became a businessman, civil rights activist, author and lecturer, museum founder, and a husband and father of three.

Always in Season Island mirrors the tenor of the crowd of thousands that gathered to participate in this lynching; however, we do not use gratuitous violence. By assuming the roles of the people involved in the Marion, IN, lynching and completing tasks and responding to prompts that can encourage or stop the violence from happening—visitors interact with multimedia displays, visit real world websites that explore related issues of violence while still in SL, and share their experiences with others in the virtual world and out using social media.  the goal is to gain a personal sense of the extent of the human loss caused by lynching and intimately learn how our own choices can help end dehumanization and violence today.