Sim Charters (for new sims)

Okay, this is an idea that evolved out of another thread of mine in the economy forum.

What do you guys think about having (some at least) newer sims that come online having 'charters' that would stand them out from normal sims as they are now (beyond just mature/pg and the one or two 'expensive land' ones).

Some potential ideas I've had would be a 'starter' charter, where the total land ownership or total prim ownership for any one person or group would be capped to a relatively low number. Alot of newer people are finding it very hard to start up in most of the current sims with nearly maxed land, or nearly maxed prim counts, and a server or server type setup with individual caps might really help people get started in SL by ensuring that there would be enough land/object space per person so that they could relatively easily setup their first home.

Another idea might be 'residential' charters, where prim density compared to land ownership could be regulated (and taxed if it got too high) so that creative and interesting homes could be built without the worry of a giant store moving in, ruining your view, and sucking the server dry.

Or 'commercial' sims, potentially centered around any new telehubs, with pre-made streets and block plots and the height/light taxes removed or at least lessened so that large commercial buildings could be facilitated.

Even 'theme' charters with landowers counting as 'council members' and able to kick out non-theme builders or spoilers might be biddable and selected by the lindens. So such areas as americatown or the dark woods areas etc would be easier to build and manage, and less succeptable to dying when one visionary builder or landowner goes away.



Existing sims wouldn't really be affected... it would just make for some more interesting, easier themable, and more new user friendly areas.


so what do the rest of you guys think? Any ideas for other charters, or a better way of implementin them? Lets hear about it!

There is a certain amount of this being done now, granted not on the scale you are talking about, I think its an interesting idea and one worth looking into but I can forsee a decent amount of neagatives to it as well....as with all things in games it just comes down to playtesting and balancing, but certainly worth looking into more.

-Neil

This sort of thing is already going on:

Boardman & Brown are sims where you can buy a reasonable size plot of land and build yourself a prefab house (that's the theory anyway, most of the builds in Boardman no longer resemble prefabs). Great for new starters with a little building knowledge. Very underused, especially Brown, although that could be because it's the back end of nowhere.

Green & De Haro are campsites, buy yourself a small plot of land and put up the starter cabin or a tent. There are some very pretty little cabins around these areas. Again, ideal for newbies. Lots of plots available.

Lusk Estates, where you buy a plot of land and build your own house, less restrictions than Boardman & Brown, but still has guidelines. (yes, I know the object limit has killed this one for the time being)

The Lindens have mentioned a shopping / commerical sim (see here ) which would have an object limit per plot.

The LindenWorld sims are split into fixed size plots, again with an object limit.

The older ones amongst us might remember Lindenburg in Tehama, which was a great little commerical district, complete with streets, lampposts. benches, newspaper stands etc. Unfortunately died a death, I think because of the massive lag in the area.

So charters do exist, and plans are being made. I am all for experimenting, so I'd like to see more, but there must be free-for-all sims also made available for those that prefer no restrictions.

yes, i've seen a few of those areas that were more loose.. i'm talking about sort of 'codifyuing' those loose buulding guidelines and areas into something a little more concrete, resembling say a local town government.

And I do know as well there are some sort of loose local associations that have more or less spontaneously formed over the last few months.. but i'm talking about giving the game the actual structure to formally and officially support that... as well as coming up with some interesting ideas people might have as to what types we'd like to see more of.

And yes I actually live right enxt to the lusk estates so i was thinking of that as a ssort of template, but one that could use an entire sim and *fixed* building limits within the game itself to avoid what has happened to the actual current lusk area.

Ah, I missed the player government thing in your original post, my apologies. I understand that player government is something that the Lindens want to introduce in the future; the group functionality is the first step along this path.

This sort of thing has been discussed in the past, to the extent of someone writing a constitution. Be warned - any discussions of government can get heated!