Where Are The Cities On The Mainland?

As Angel Leviathan pointed out in this post:

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There are other cities on the Second Life Mainland. Some, like Kissling, that predate Magellan's discovery of the Lost City of Nova Albion:

/3/7c/11098/1.html

There are also many cities, towns and villages that have sprung up in the private regions, like New Babbage. But I'm more interested in the other Mainland cities like Kissling, Bay City and the city on the Island of Nautilus (as opposed to the continent called Nautilus).

What other cities are there out there on the Mainland? How did they come about and what are their stories? Which ones, like Hank Ramos' multi-region city in the Phobos area, have come and gone leaving no trace?

(Coincidentally, the Phobos region is located in the general area that was known as the Islefen region many years ago. There was a village called Alfendale in that area that vanished one day prior to the Great Erase.)

http://web.mac.com/salazarjack/Site/Valdora_Graysons_Letter.html

It sounds like you are more qualified to answer this question than many of us, having been a resident three years before I came along and I am barely into my own third year.

I don't know of any more cities than you have named (on the mainland), but your question got me curious if anyone is writing a history of the Second Life world. It might be important someday.

i thought one of the reasons they created Bay City was so we COULD have a certain metropolis.

Well, you'd think so, but I keep pretty close to home for the most part in the older part of the Sansara continent, near Nova Albion, the Abbotts Aerodrome and the Forest of Kahruvel. Every so often I join up with a ragtag group of explorers and we check out a newly gridded area:

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But these excursions are usually done before civilization really takes root. I haven't been back to the southern continent (now called Jeogeot) or Gaeta much since then so I don't know if any new cities have sprung up there. I'm pretty unfamiliar with the Heterocera Atoll, Corsica, present day Joegeot and the greater Nautilus continent. Usually regions develop as a sort of sprawling residential landscape, but I was curious if any other cities have risen from those fertile Mainland areas.

Indeed. Those Linden-lit urban areas are a way to fast track development of a large city. The city blocks are already laid out. All the residents have to do is put up their storefront, high rise, warehouse or factory and they're in business. There is still cooperation and coordination needed among the stangers that end up in the same region after the auctions are done (as anyone in Bay City, Nautilus or Nova Albion can attest to) if that is desired. But for the most part the city is ready to go.

Much more interesting to me are any cities out there on the Mainland that have developed without any Linden infrastructure help or, like Nautilus City, have just suddenly appeared and been taken over by residents:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Nautilus_City_investigation

Where everyday Ruths and Joes worked together and built a city or town on their own.

Wild West Town (debatable, as it is a ghost town)
Lusk Estates
Kissling
Dark Wood (Possibly)
Nexus Prime
Brown
Boardman
De Haro (Camp Linden)
The Suburbs (Blumfield, Shermerville, West Haven)
Nova Albion
Bay City
Nautilus City
Kama City (not yet open)

I was trying to locate some info on Hank Ramos' Living Cities project that use to be in Phobos and I came across this old post of his that outlined some of his urban development ideas. There's even a mention of an old Mainland urban area, Chase's Manhattan, that I'm not sure still exists.

/120/61/27709/1.html

This is a really good question Salazar.

I'd arguably call the infohubs 'villages' because while perhaps a bit different, each one is a sort of village green. In days of old, they were centers of commerce and effectively 'downtowns' also before the destruction of the telehubs. Hubs have always been powerful zoning entities.

Without getting too zenlike, perhaps another question ~ where *aren't* the cities ~ is informative too. Some areas of the mainland are remarkably wild terrain, all things considered. For instance: Kerchal (solid trees minus a bit of road) and some of the old lakes district.

Kerchal would be an interesting example of wilderness amongst a bunch of more developed regions if it weren't for the fact that the entire region is owned by the othah Guvnah, Governor Linden. The Gov can well afford to keep an area like that wild ’til the hippos come home. A much more compelling tale would be if Kerchal was owned by some individual or group with a reason for the gentle woodland area. I wonder if Kerchal was ever owned by a non-Linden? Was the entire region abandoned at some point?

Don't forget the self governance astronauts of Neualtenberg.

Perhaps related, some old maps, nicked off of http://www.slmaps.com/oldmaps.htm



Note the white-texted areas, many of which I mentioned above. Nexus Prims, listed here as Nexcorp, Lusk Estates, her as Lusk Court (not to be confused with the Luskwood community, which may also fit when talking about "cities", etc. Note also Venice (all I can find was that this was a group project, presumably like Yamato and Wild West Town -- but little seems to remain of it today) and Little Tokyo in Sage -- a long-gone attempt by Residents to make a Japanese-themed city. Likewise, there is Americana in Blue, built around American pop culture and monuments, and the site of the great tax revolt. Taber also had a "old world" city feel for some time, though I am not sure what it was called at that time.

Also...



I found this one notable because it shows Nexus Prime, Darkwood, Venice, Yamato, Killing, Boardman, De Haro, Brown, Green (Camp Green), Lusk Court, Wild West Town, etc -- but those two sims to the far left are not Miramare and Grignano -- but Coney and Luna before it was seen in its current location (and current topograpy!). This might give a good idea of what city areas were around prior to the discovery of Nova Albion.

Oh what the heck, two more things that relate:

http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?id=24764

and

http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?id=24765

A nice pair of aerial photos. In them you can see some beautiful images of what Nova Albion looked like "back in the day," as well as Darkwood, Venice, Lusk Court, Nexus Prime, etc.

Also, as I recall, the sim of Liome became a city after Raymond sold it.

It would be nice if they had a world map somewhere on the sl website that lists the various continents in sl. Like the world atlas in rl. It could note places of interest, landmarks and some historical tidbit. You could move the cursor over and it gives you a slurl so you can tp there. This would really great for newbies that has no clue where to go as well as oldbies that don't know either.

I have suggested stuff a couple times at the Documentation office hours. Its not viewed as their responsibility. :-/

Here, have a handy map...


(big one at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marianne-mccann/3567710058/)

I wrote the key to that a couple weeks ago, but it was even too geeky for me.

Liome is a great sim, it was great when Raymond had it too but Avion has turned into a great looking city area.

I can understand if they view it as if its not their responsiblity. But seriously, it would not hurt them to bubble it up to someone or dept that could. That is just plain silly. In any community, there are maps and such for the public to view. That is a way of drawing visitors to their communities. If they want to draw and keep new members and perhaps some existing members this would be a very good start.

Perhaps there is some Linden out there looking for a promotion, bonus or even the coveted employee parking space at entry door maybe willing to take a stab at it.

::koff:: I could do it for them, too. Not that it'd happen.

LL has always wanted to forge a new path with their corporate culture, but I think that they have thrown out the baby with the bathwater by never documenting anything.

I don't know HOW they justify never documenting LSL, they grudgingly permit Philip to tinker with mapping SL as a vanity project but show no interest otherwise, they continue to starve the knowledge base of deep content.

It is laughable that the most visible form of user documentation is a set of video tutorials. They don't even bother to post transcripts, so that you can search them meaningfully. I don't know about you, but when I want an answer to a question, i don't want to strap on the headphones and sit around for 10 minutes waiting to see if this video happens to answer it.

/end rant. Sorry, Salazar.
.

I would love to live in a Mainland city, but all the established ones (the Nova Albion and related areas) plus Bay City are so exhorbitantly expensive (for me) that I just settle for visiting every so often.

Love to have you in Bay City, too.

Awww...thanks, Mari - you made my day