Neighborhood/Zone descriptions

Has anyone done a review of the neighborhoods and zones that talks about the "flavor" of them with respect to ambiance or cultures, etc? It would be interesting to see if interests (like Goreans for example) are clustering. Might help folks decide where to buy land and settle.

MN

Hello Michael -- yes, Residents have already done some great overviews of many locations in Second Life. Some are listed on our Resident Sites. There isn't a dedicated directory that I know of, but I'd like to learn if there is. Sometimes I resort to googling the region name, along with "Second Life" of course.

In some cases, it's a good idea to talk to locals actually living in a neighborhood -- it sounds like such a cliche but they may have historic info and other goodies to point you to.

I'll move this to Resident Answers so anyone with more info can share!

I'll take a stab at answering this.



Furry sims:

I was invited along for a tour of some of these sims with a friend one night, and it seemed like a pleasant area with pleasant furries.

Seems that these sims normally come in clusters of several, and are often supported by a store, or stores, or donations with benevolent benefactors.

Generally clean, neat, well laid out, and pleasantly devoid of too much architecture. I've heard all sorts of stories about drama, griefing &c, but in my short visit I saw none of this.

I did see some 'sex poseballs' and such here and there, but honestly, no more or less than what you would see anywhere else. I was not bothered by *anybody* for being a human.




Cyberpunk sims:

Hard to do a review on this, because I have so many friends in these

The vibe in such places is clearly intended to be dystopian, perhaps a tad anarchic, but the dystopia wears off fast, soon to be replaced with an 'arty' feel.

The long term sense of it is... anarchy, but an anarchy in which everyone has *chosen* to cooperate. Some of the best collaborative, group owned builds can be found in these sims.

You'll often find strong crossover into the traditional arts, when talking to the residents - real painting, real drawing, real talent.

This translates to a powerful sense of inner space that the cyberpunk sims have, more than any other. You'll find their sims have a 'huge' feel to them - that you can get lost in them.

The architecture has the similar effect that the New Brutalism movement intended to convey - a sense of insignificance in the face of massive forces either architectural, corporate, or social. A must see.




Gor:

Yes, Desmond finally saw some Gor sims, believe it or not - it was with a bit of trepidation, but now I can honestly say I've seen for myself. What I saw was NOTHING like what I imagined.

I was given a tour by someone who is well known and fairly influential in their community - my first surprise was being told not to worry about any of the rules at the door before entering the sim, &c.

As many have mentioned, yes, the architecture is generally really good in these sims. As are the wilds. From deserts to mountainous wilderness, a lot of care has been put into these environments.

It was explained to me that there are roughly twenty 'Gor' sims, and few are linked together; each tending to have their own flavour.

Seems the community is evolving possibly more rapidly than any other in Second Life. They are growing very quickly, but apparently, a huge percentage of the new folk have never even read the books that the sims are based on, nor ever will.

Thus, various forms of 'mentoring' take place, but at the end of the day, your average Gorean in Second Life will be a casual participant, not someone who is deeply into the 'lifestyle' or whatever it should be called.

There are ritualistic elements in 'Gorean' life on the grid. For instance, one steps outside of a 'safe zone' and participated in a sort of ritual combat. I was invited to wander about anywhere with my tour guide friend.

Of course, running across Desmond Shang in the Gorean wilderness is about as odd as finding an accountant wandering through Jabba the Hutt's Tatooine desert. Nobody bothered me.

During the time I visited there were some naked avatars - perfectly acceptable and casual as far as I'm concerned. I saw no disrespect toward others, no sex or sexual items like poseballs, and in fact if I wasn't told by the entry note that it was a Gorean sim, I wouldn't have known.

So in my small experience, the Gorean sims remind me most of... a first person shooter game.




Private island "continent" sims:

There are literally several hundred 'regular' sims where people simply live or conduct business in a modern, normal fashion - often in agglomerations of dozens of sims and laid out in an intelligent manner.

It's a little harder to find an absolutely unifying community overall, but that's not to say that it doesn't exist. More accurately, it seems that you get several community 'clusters' based on common interests.

The clubbers are here, the Mafias are here, the vast normal majority are here, and their communities are just as relevant as anyone else's, just less well known, publicised, or feted.

In some of the larger agglomerations there is some thematic geographic commonality, such as Pirate / Nation-themed / Fantasy / what-have-you areas, but more often than not the community networks function just fine without geographic continuity.

The vibe to the traveler not on the 'inside' of any of these social networks is rather like... suburbia.




"Dark/Fantasy" sims:

There are a number of sims based on the mysterious side of Second Life, usually coming in small clusters.

Elves, Vampires, the Gothic, and other elements come together to make for some very interesting communities, often tied in with certain lifestyles - BDSM, or whatnot.

The sense I get from these communities is that they are fairly tight social groups, inclusive and generally very accepting.

I get a strong sense of moral 'codes' and particular forms of expression in these sims - sometimes even more so than the Goreans, say, in my limited experience.

I noticed politeness and gentility (at least toward me, a visitor) in the elven sims, occasional silence in others, and perhaps even an quirky sense of camaraderie where I least expected it - some of the really 'dark' areas.

These people have fun together.




"Government" sims/communities:

There are a number of areas where social experiments take place, often some of the most vocal and passionately community minded sims of all.

Usually these are single sims, but by nature the point is civic experimentation, not vastness.

They address basic questions that affect all of us: justice, how to address 'tragedy of the commons' issues, &c, and are at the forefront of discovering what works and what doesn't for our new information age.

From my friends involved in such things, I hear that the involvement can be very passionate at times. But of course, passion runs the gamut from love to hate, so one has to be fairly community minded to truly partake of these areas for the long haul.






* * * * *

So... what does Desmond really know about any of these communities?

Not that much, honestly.

My view should be seen as that of a day traveler, and I'd invite others to write the "inside" views that I simply didn't see.

Also, there is a fine line between "generality" and "stereotype" - I've tried hard to give the vibe of the communities while not stereotyping them.

Did I leave some communities out? Likely I did - if so, someone please add on.

As necro posting is in fashion I thought I'd look for something useful.

So, Desmond's list, can anyone add to it?

Furry, Cyberpunk, Dark/Fantasy, Government sims/Communities.

I'd count Insilico as cyberpunk, but maybe it's just sci-fi.

Furry, I don't think I've ever been to a furry sim, I've heard of Luskwood but that's it.

Dark/Fantasy I'm not sure what's meant there, Midian City?

Government sims/communities, I know Desmond has a form of governance on Caledon, has there been any other sims or communtiies that have developed this way?

the new NOMOS sim is very well done in Bladerunner style. a must see stop at some point.

Al Andalus and the Confederation of Democratic Sims (which recently merged)

Social Networking/Club Crawl Community. Social Networking was not the buzz word back in 2006.

Whoa, how do you even find posts this old?

laughing here... wow, Sept 06...



Governance on Caledon is pretty light, actually... not a whole lot to govern. I'm more of a gopher, or a junk~picker~upper most of the time.

Occasionally there's an argument between people over a parcel or two, but generally the person that bothered to pay tier (as opposed to the one who didn't) generally gets satisfaction. It's tough to be an evil overlord when people can voluntarily leave at any time... laughs

I must confess here, I'm a saddoe. I like reading the old threads, I don't usually revive them but I felt this one had some relevance even today. I started reading the old threads when I saw people posting that in the old days people behaved better and the forums were nicer, the archives here are valuable and should be preserved, they give a perspective of where we've come from and where we are now.




True but I wonder if people like the idea that there is at least some governance. You also do yourself a great disservice, you're far more than a gopher, you're the whole tourist board and government rolled into one. You do an awesome job.

I knew I wasn't in Kansas any more the second I saw Torley's response and Des' massive response (which is still very useful and I see why this might have been unearthed).

Fascinating, as Spock would say.