Is the SL Metaverse "Ghetto"?

The closing of SecondLife's MegaTowers is a blow to the movement to create densely populated cities and urban areas. I find this a sad day for all of us who hope to see a transformation of the SL terrain from the current "Ghetto" one - in which buildings and objects are haphazardly and hodgepogidly strewn about intersparced with your occasional mall or club - to a more asthetically pleasing one.

What Say You? Is SL's current metaverse/terrain "Ghetto-fied"?

hardly. If it was, we'd all be logging in on 28.8 or 56k if were were bad-ass mofos. trading in our L$ to feed our babies and babies' mammas.

heck, most of us wouldn't be logging in.

Ghettos are a sad place to live, and until ya do live in one, I don't think you'll actually "get it." So I don't think you mean SL looks like a "ghetto" or is "ghetto-fied." Perhaps you mean to say that it doesn't conform to your accepted levels of... good-looking-ness-ified?

Very good point... you could easily replace my wording of "Ghetto-fied" with "Suburban Wasteland-ish"

MegaTowers closed? I just sent a newbie there last night to get an apartment.

Sorry Hank - I thought you had a great project going.

I hope it's not closed..I LIVE THERE!!!

Yeah.. thanks. Semantics... you know.

Or "fern-barish" or "hot-tubby-ized" or "boutique shoppyness"


Sorry to see the MegaTowers downsized...

Icon, I think he wasnt referring to the people logging in, but rather the status of SL itself.

I have to say, that while I wouldn't use the term "Ghettofied", SL's terrain is in a sad state. Noob builds and clubs everywhere. Especially clubs.

Of course, you still run across a few jems.. but I geuss there's one less of those now, huh?

Oh yeah, totally.

I dunno what the club issue is all about, but I claim ignorance in that respect. I only teleport to places that are interesting to me, don't walk around SL much, and only have land in group-owned sims.

But if we do want it "ghettofied" we could throw up some soap factories and sewage treatment plants, 8 lanes of trains everywhere and a noisey airport always within earshot.

Precisely. The people is SL are anything but Ghetto-fied.

However, as for the terrain itself... well, thats up for debate.

this is a point i've been debating with myself lately. it started with the irony of natural beauty in sl thread.

we asked for non-terraformable sims and terraforming limits that would help maintain the "natural beauty" of second life. the lindens not only granted us those requests, but also began spending an extraordinary amount of time creating fabulous landscapes as they add sims to the map.

we were wrong. we were very wrong. those area's, sim after sim, have been flattened, as much as possible, filled with large cubular buildings covered in a mishmash of irrelated textures. they don't look any better than the core sims did when we first started asking for the limits.

that's not necessarily a bad thing though. it was, and still is, the case that when enough people get together, and purchase enough land between them, they can terraform and build spectacular, cohesive scenery. if anything, the limits now prevent them from doing an even better job of it.

ghetto? yeah, if that's what the sim residents are willing to live with. natural beauty, well planned city scape, mountain village in the clouds or underwater paradise? yeah that's okay too if the sim residents can get along well enough to accomplish it. but the burden should, really should, be pushed onto the players' shoulders.

we were very wrong. the terraforming limits should be lifted and the landowners should be forced to group together and impose their own land and building limits in order to maintain whatever it is they want to surround themselves with.

Nice post, Khamon.

I, for one, would like to see a reward/penalty (Okay, maybe not penalty) system for good builds/ bad builds. Of course, beauty, being in the eye of the beholder, is completely subjective, so this could be *INCREDIBLY* hard to accomplish.


However, no matter what it takes, we really, REALLY, need to get SL back on track. I think the problem started when holding land became dependent on your pocketbook, rather than your ability to do something good with it.

I agree 110%. I never really thought about that until you mentioned it. But I agree, the no terraform limit does not seem to have had the desired results.

remember when there was talk of a terraforming charge to discourage people from arbitrarily blocking their neighbor's view. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Can't say I do. But that might not be such a bad idea, assuming private sim owners can terraform for free.

So far it appears as if most agree SL's terrain is either Ghetto-fied or Suburban Wastland-ish.

I would have to disagree about the effects of terraforming. I think overall the new sims are far better looking than the original group of sims, the builds within them non-withstanding. Take a look at Mavericks and you will see a sim with a beautiful coastline with mostly residential builds, Kelham next to it is the same way. Federal on the other hand has been gutted into a sort of generic wasteland because each person that has come in has tried to level it down to the sea or raise it up, most recently with half of a mountain being torn down to make room for flat little 512m cookie cutter plots, something that could not have happened with the restrictions.

My land has been terraformed in Mavericks, but with the limitations, it forced me to build a building that is suited to the land, and the build is far more interesting because of it. I built my hotel in Federal to the shape of the land as well instead of terraforming it, but many people just flatten it without thought since it is easier to put a Clasino on flat land. Removing the terraforming limits would just ensure that everything is flat, which is hardly the right move to make. I think overall the terraforming limits have been a success. The lack of zoning and any kind of cohesive theme in any sim is far more detrimental to the effect than the terraforming restrictions.

why don't they set up urban areas an housing or natural areas?

Urban areas for the big clubs that want to flatten everything out and such.. natural areas for that person that wants a house on the mountainside with a view of a marsh or something...

as for the ghetto thing... yeah... not the ghetto, no way, no how, unless we do like.. scripted driveby's randomly and other such things...

me.. being one who frequents clubs very often (makes me cash at those events haha) I will admit, I like it, I mostly go to the ones friends TP me to, or if I really think I can win an event there... But at the same time I just love some of the scenery, and sometimes when you see a giant box stickin out of the ground, with some texture slapped on the side, its pretty bad... although some clubs have a very nice look to them...

"Trailer-parkified", "Strip-mined-malled-clubified" and "Port-a-zonified" come to mind when attempting to apply otherworldly labels to regions in SL that are home to non-existent or unenforcible zoning.

While the reputation system is being re-thought, it might be a good idea to introduce some "neighbor-power"...that is, a way for those who own adjacent plots (not necessarily in the same sim) to register more heavily-weighted opinions on builds than those recorded by non-residents.

Perhaps weights varying directly with the net proximity to the rated build, up to some cut-off radius?

- yoshi

Terraforming is a fondamental tool we have. Yes, I understand that it, in the wrong hands, will become a nightmare, but wouldn't it be the same to have a fuzzy-green huge cube selling popcorns in the center of your beauty Linden-terraformed sim? So for this reason we would have not to allow fuzzy-green colors or too big buildings, or cubes? Or because we have maniacs wich write scripts just to harrass people with them, we shouldn't have scripting? I guess not. I strongly feel that terraforming is not often considered in the right way. In the majority of cases it isn't used at all. Anyway, I understand the reasons of who likes a sim remaining "as it was", but I would appreciate much more to see an SL made beauty by its inhabitants. And, for how I look at the thing, taking all the risks it comports, this pass by terraforming too. If you assume that, having terraformable sims this would never happen, then I can't see why we should hope in better builds.
We may start thinking at terraforming in the way it deserves. Just like you may choose to live in a 10X10 prim, or better link it to other prims to have a good build

i'd say stop complaining, buy some land, and start workin at makin it nice again.

not in a condescending manner mind you, jus honestly, really do it, you'll be suprised by how cool you can make SL if you jus give it the time, energy, and a lil bit of $

(speakin stictly from experience, as a luskwood founder)