Time to connect dreamland and hiroland to the mainland

I'll third Lordfly's prediction. The mainland will continue to be the place with the most action for a long time yet. The main difference I see between the mainland and the islands is simply that the hodgepodge of different builds is built on a smaller, closer scale, rather than being spread out over huge isolated estates.

The other thing is that everything in SL tends to move on an accelerated timescale compared to the real world. Different areas in cities go through repeated cycles of blight and gentrification. I don't think SL is any different. Linden Lab may have a problem on its hands concerning areas where old lifetimers own property they have long since abandoned, but most people are not going to continue paying their monthly fees for land unless they are using it.

With the new market conditions coming up on the 15th, I think on the mainland you'll see a number of areas that are rather run-down now get bought up on the cheap and developed into much nicer locales. It'll be the equivalent of the artist's lofts in the inner cities of America before they all got yuppified.

"A dog's breakfast" is quite tasty and appealing to the dog, for whom it is intended. I think it is quite true in the case of SL as well, the mainland does all right. LL makes regions that flow into each other relatively smoothly. To tell the truth, Ansheland fits more into the "dog's breakfast" as there are desert sims next to forest sims next to snow sims. (not that there is anything wrong with it) and the idea she is better at terraforming is ... opinion, subjective at that. Quesoland, I haven't been to yet Hiro so I can't comment.

I'm not opposed to "overlords" who buy and maintain sims but I'll be damned if I'll have one imposed on me on land I already have builds on. I wanted tropical and I got tropical, I wanted water front, I got waterfront. I sure as hell don't want it changed on the whim of some arbitrary overlord. The idea is ill concieved.

I rent land on an island from Hiro, who by the way, is an excellent landlord. I don't see your logic Blaze and no way would I want to see this island lumped in with Anshe's and attached to the mainland.

When I sold my own land instead of deciding to buy more, I looked at the rental options and considered Hiro's to be the most straightforward. I love the island and have not been disappointed.

So no thanks Blaze.

Alexa

Anshe, Alexa .. that's exactly the problem.

What we have here, and I think only Khamon got it, is that the current status quo is untenable.

I even suspect that LL really has no intention of keeping it up. They need to slowly deliver SL into the hands of others, so that they can

a) control who connects to the 'grid' (root servers) .. the 'skype' model
b) control the economy
c) sell the software
d) host the servers


In my opinion, the ideal scenario for LL is probably a. Simply be the root servers and if you want to to play in the metaverse you need to get permission from the ICANN of the metaverse, LL.

LL doesn't write the software, they don't have to control the economy, they don't have to host anything.

It's a network effect.

Unfortunately, as we migrate forward in this universe, people are going to have to suffer and we're going to have to take the necessary steps to do the best or risk delay, pain, and potentially full destruction.

The right step at this point is to properly leverage the Anshe's and the Hiro's. To not destroy their business just to maintain the status quo - press on with the vision.

I believe over the next few months you will see that. Zoning overlords will become the mainstay of SecondLife. Either that, or risk stagnation and death.

I don't think it's a good idea at all to join them, the whole point is to offer something different, not more of the same. Having many options is surely the way to go.

On the terraforming issue, the island communities will often have different landscaping. When LL first release sims, they terraform beautiful sims with with regions that do roll into one another. They are creating them with the big picture in mind. I can only speak for myself, but expect it's the same for others, but when I create landscapes, I have the individual plots more in mind. I try to make the sims look great as a whole too of course, but when ever you concentrate on one, you make compromises on the other. It's not easy.

In an ideal world, both could be done with near perfection. I am sure the residents in these communities would welcome rolling landscapes in their island communties, though I think few would want them at the expense of their beautifully terraformed plots.

Hiro is right. LL did start the terraforming of the sims with a larger picture in mind. When was the last time you actually zoomed out of the map and looked at the entire land structure? We have mountains and valleys, and snow and desert, and forests. Roaring rivers, and streams, with cliffs, and more. I think the mainland is a beautiful place. a lot of it is changed with teraforming by the individual land owners, but it pretty much remains the same.

I also have to agree that the mainland is more united and flowing from sim to sim, rather than ansheland where in one sim you have snow, and across the border in the next sim, you have desert. The mainland makes me feel like I am flying through a giant non-stop world, rather than just sim after sim. sometimes you don't even know you crossed the line into another sim! If the private islands were attached to the main grid, it would completely destroy the flowing landscape of the mainland. Oh yes, sorry anshe, but your "people" will definately know when they left your so called dreamland sims and hit the mainland, because your sims would stick out like a sore thumb on the main grid. I personally would think it would be a bad design if the private sims attached to the mainland as stated above.LL isn't creating just a game or land, they are "...Creating a Country."
And a beautiful one at that I might add.

Sure, it's all beautiful, but when probably the best thing that happens to all that land is to 'leave it alone', then you know you're in trouble.

???????????????????????

Is it just me, or did you just not make one bit of sense at all?

You know what? I don't get it. I don't get what you are basing these predictions on. I don't get what foundations your assumptions have.

I don't understand any of what you have explained as to why you believe this is inevitable. Or "untenable".

So, my original postion remains unchanged. Its not broken, and doesn't need fixing. Leave it alone.

Well, the fact that Philip feels the need to reduce the discount at the large tier means that the status quo needs to be altered.

However, that option, while feasable is going to undermine SL in terrible ways.

Ah ....


Now I get it. I never saw that you were talking about the tier discount. Must have missed that in your posts in the thread.

Now that I know what you are basing this prediction on, I've rethought my position.

However, it still comes out to "wait and see" as far as I can tell. And my postion remains "its not broken, dont fix it."

We know what he said; but not what he plans or what he will do. We don't know that the discount is going to be changed, the extent of any potential change, or if it will, in fact, be eliminated. Nor do we know what other circumstances might mitigate such a change. All anyone has is speculation.

That is, of course, unless certain people are privy to inside information? But then if that were true it would lend credence to other allegations I've read in other threads.

Thanks for clearing that up for me; I've been genuinely puzzled about what was driving your contention that it needs to change.

To quote a line from P.C.U. "Dude, lay off the pipe!"

Not to jump on a bandwagon, but I'll wager a nice bottle of port on being able to say, I told you so as well.

A long time resident, who shall remain nameless, recently visited my build, which is amateurish, after I requested he move a couple of Linden trees that stuck into a building of mine. He was very cooperative and moved them for me, but then, proceeded to rail against me in a tirade that was very distasteful, basically ending in, and I am paraphrasing, 'You suck and should not be able to build what you want on your land'.

Many of us like the mainland, it flows while maintaining diversity of builds. There is nothing broken there, except sim performance perhaps, that is my personal opinion, so yes, let's not fix what is not broken.

I'm glad my neighbors are more understanding.

I have a house that is not quite complete ... somehow in the past year I've not found time to actually finish it.

And, I use part of my land as a personal sandbox. So its always a mess, always multiple projects in progress.

So, I'd have to say I've been blessed in the neighbor department. Hearing stories like this makes me appreciate that even more. I think I'll go in and tidy up a bit this evening.

Yeah, the status quo is an option, but that'll mean ruining perfectly sound business models.

I like the mainland. I do ocassionally cringe at what people do to a landscape that could be so much nicer, but I find that people do improve their builds over time.

I like being able to build what I want. I just wish I had a few more prims. I wish that the land tiers went by 512 or 1024 jumps, instead of doubling at every tier, so that at 4000 sq m you could afford just to buy that little lot next door without such a huge jump in tier costs, for example.

This would help people spread out as they become more prosperous and successful, and I think it would improve the appearance of the mainland.

I would like there to be the option to connect islands to the mainland by way of a large line of void sims. Connected, but a decent hike. (If voids require mostly water, then boat ride.)

Of course I would also like there to be a continent completely free of telehubs, so perhaps it is just that I have a thing for long walks.

Doesn't it seem like its only the rich and powerful people or well off people in SL who think it is broken? Oh, wait. Maybe its because its not built around their empire and money making schemes. I have no pity on those who bash LL, and I think your acounts should be deleted to save the rest of us the headaches from listening to the whining.

I fully agree with you Jim, and second your notion.

edit: bah, can't be arsed.

I think the goals would be A & C, and I think LL is working towards them. However SL is a baby, just 2 years old. I think that LL is doing everything they can to help this baby grow, and that sometimes means changing pricing and policies to ensure it's health. The sky is not falling, the Lindes are just trying to strengthen the grid by making policy changes to make sure it will still be here in a few years. Let the grid mature, let the Grokster decision shake out, then lets talk about a decentralized metaverse.

Where is the mainland anyway?

lol.. the mainland is the main landmass in SL..

And I thought that was precisely one of the different business models LL wants to achieve. I can't believe some people haven't seemed to read their purpose statement well: LL is NOT in the business of managing the land, nor the builds, nor the politics, nor the events, nor nothing else than the raw tools we use to build the wolrd we see today.



What? I don't see how any of their work is harming the world. In fact, it's a benifit to us all. Everyone who is willing to pay money to live in a non *purina* type land has an option... and, um, by the way, "anshe / hiro" lands pay LL...



ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE ZONE zone zone zone zone zone zone zone ZoNe zOnE ZOne zoNE ZONe zonE ZonE zONe...
The answer to all who want ZONED land is exactly what is going on: GET YOUR OWN SIM AND ZONE IT.



Damn... where do you spend your time in LL? Tracking the Ansheland - Mainland border? What people will move there? As I said... Anshe land (whatever that is, by the way. I never heard of it) is satisfying a gap. So they are actually doing LL a favor. Kinda tough to get LL to break that model...



As I said. Zoned communities are a niche. Some people just want some freedom to build anything they wish. Maybe their builds are beautiful, but they just don't want the hastle of HAVING to adjust it to specific details imposed by the zoner.

Some of your lines seem kinda doomsday man... better stop reading the apocalypse a couple of nights.



Until the final days of destruction and molten lava blah blah blah...
Amen.

That was the most intelligent post I've read in a looooooooong time.

What are you talking about? Where the business models not based on the "status quo"? So by changing the way it is done, does that not ruin the business model? I really wish you would be more clear on what you are talking about. Maybe I am just dumb, but please say what you think is wrong and then we can talk about it.