What will the grid look like in 6 months?

I know what you mean, but I think that the regions still retain their own feel even after people move in. If I tp to the snow sims, I know exactly where I am in relation to the rest of the grid. Same with the lake sims. Even the older areas of sl are identifiable by the road textures and ground textures.

I guess this will boost the value of the 'core' sims and ones that are already terraformed and not flattened or 'stain glassed' in parcel pockmarks everywhere.

If its like blockland out there, then people won't stay, I guess. Or they will, who knows. I tried to lead the fight about aesthetics a long time ago, but honestly, nobody really cares. I still do, but I won't try to make people 'see' the light anymore.

I'm guessing realistically that the new land will just be accepted because its all the newbies will know, and some will stay there, not expecting anything different. We'll grumble about it, because we do know the difference.

That is my guess.

SL being more like AW is a GOOD thing, given the fact that AW was once extremely popular and also managed to survive for ten years.
The good thing about having complete freedom is that you have the freedom to keep doing what you always did. Namely, build themed sims with roads etc... also, the older sims arent going anywhere

Nice "vision thing" but would being able to make their own system work be a necessary prerequisite to distributing it? Put another way, what rational customer would buy a mini-grid from a firm that said "yep, we wrote it, but even we can't figure out how to keep it operational, maybe you'll have better luck".

This rings very true to me. I can't work up a lot of angst over the loss of LL's landscaping efforts the beauty of which is so very fleeting. It is systematically aborted by the actions you described. To add a few points, consider the introduction of the snow sims and the Atoll continent. Both were greeted with the excitement of new terrains and landscapes. How long did it take before land values in snow sims dropped to the very bottom of the list and the Atoll was better known as Purina, and now the unusual land textures are more commonly described in a negative fashion. (A word of warning, Pham. You're walking on dangerous ground complaining about astroturf patches floating on water. )

I've never been interested in land holdings off the mainland so I wasn't too familiar with the endeavors on the estates. So I recently took a tour of Dreamland. Imo, it looks good. A variety of terrain and landscapes with reasonably suitable builds. Public spaces and commercial areas. There exists a vast community which is varied and achieves a balance that has rarely resulted from LL's efforts.

I can understand Ingrid's perspective in that she has stayed on the mainland and worked towards building a community there. To me, the many dots on the left side of the map represent a lot of people who have chosen isolation and escape from the community and the issues presented by the mainland. It reminds me of protests over the demolition of old buildings by those who have long abandoned the city in favor of the sequestered suburbs.

LL is faced with decisions regarding a limited number of manhours versus the many areas in which their efforts are to be deployed. That they streamline and focus their efforts on the infrastructure over costly and futile landscaped designs really can't be too unexpected.

I very much hope, that at least some residents really will appreciate "quality terraforming". This would a boon to Second-Life-as-a-whole. I would not rule out the possibility that residents one day will start projects - large scale enough to really create a "world feeling", too - that might surpass the Lindens works in creativity and versatility. Why not? Hmmm ... I can tell you from personal experience, that trying "to make people 'see' the light" is a job which only can satisfy you if you have some strong masochistic tendencies. "We'll grumble about it, because we do know the difference" is an attitude that is not uncommon with many a product or service in RL. (Ever watched a discussion between a Macintosh fan and a corporate Windows user? )I fall for it sometimes, too.

But, honestly, it's mostly personal preferencs. Who am I to tell others what's best or "better" ...

I know. And I usually don't tend to judge developments like that. Who am I ...

But (not only) in this case the behaviour often seems so terrible rude to me. Totally ignoring what damage it does to the neighbours. Saddens me sometimes, so I let my feelings show.
Now you should be careful. Defending any of Anshe's works can demolish your reputation from 100 to 0 in a matter of minutes ...

I can understand Ingrid's perspective very well and sympathize with it to a large extend. I am just not so pessimistic. I believe that, if only 10 percent of all residents really value the experience which Ingrid is describing, we will soon find it again - because SL will soon be 10 times as large as it is today. It will never encompass the whole "world" - but, honestly, I don't think it ever did; with the exception of a very months at the very beginning of Second Life maybe.
The decision by LL seems to be an inevitable one. There are many causes for it; "vision" being only one, "cost" probably another. I never occured to me before you mentioend it, but maybe futility is another.

Trust me, I'm totally beyond trying to force anyone to appreciate aesthetics It isn't so much saying 'this is better', just 'don't build like shit' that I was trying to get across for a while. Its subjective, in some ways, but in others it is technical execution (alignments, texture repeats, etc..).

Anyway, I'll just try to preserve my own sense of pride when I make something, and not really worry about anyone else.

On a related note, here's an entry from Philip Linden's blog:

http://secondlife.blogs.com/philip/2005/12/country_or_plaf.html

Jeffrey's is good but I think he overlooked something.

Actually, I considered making islands that spelled "Impeach Bush!" - but I figured that'd be overdoing it.

i think we're already seeing results with the new auctions -- as you'd expect, there's diversity. Some have cut their sims up into lots of little flat islands because that sells reasonably well.

then again, others, like shaun altman, have put some real thought and effort into their terraforming and have created a rather interesting landscape

but yeah, I am talking about the raw, pre-sold land

(and jeffrey: nice 1 LOL)

the other day shaun gave me a tour of his project. i enjoyed how it was simultaneously breathtaking and commercially sensible. perhaps this auction experiment can work. given the alternative, i think gentle and meandering shorelines are much more appealing than flat grids of islands. it's good to see that that alternative is viable and available.

Oh, gods... I've slipped into an alternate universe again!

Oooh. I wonder if I'm dating Natalie Portman in this one! I hope so.

Let me take a wild stab:

1. vi

2. Edit coordinates.

3. :wq

That's my guess. But then, this is Linden Lab, where querying land logs isn't just a simple MySQL query, it requires an entire Python script. I suppose moving an island likely requires some ritual sacrifice.

It's always stuck me that having such a high "moving" fee for private sims is explained by one of 2 things:

1. It's an out and out scam on the part of LL or,
2. Their system is so excrutiatingly poorly designed that changing the position of an arbitrary block of land isn't trivial.

I kind of go for a 50/50 split between those two.

one thing i would love to see happen is the mainland being "finished". or at least mostly so.. compared to Heterocera Atoll, the shorelines/sim edges are rather sloppy looking at the moment. a lot of work has gone into private islands and the Atoll, but the main grid has been stagnating because of it.

i'm sure the plan wasn't to leave abrupt edges where land just *SCREECH* stops. and i think it's high time those edges were brought to a reasonable shoreline.

as far as terraforming goes, i would LOVE to become a terraformer for hire. as a matter of fact, i should start working on some hypothetical RAWscapes. i made the one volcanic island and saw it transformed into a couple 3D models.. and honestly, it made me a bit lightheaded at the inferred possibilities.

on another note, i agree that private islands should be easier to migrate to new positions and i'm sure it would encourage at least a couple people to join together to form small islands/continents with common themes.

as far as seperate worlds go, i think it would be a bad idea. while it may alleviate some lag and overcrowding issues, it would also serve to sever the cohesivenss of our world. and would it be a duplicate of this gridverse? or would the mainland/etc. have a different form altogether? would we be able to teleport form one to the other.. or would we be tethered to one gridverse? i fear too many answers would seperate the world/s too much.

Agreed

I don't think this is fair to people who paid premium rates for the low-lag, watery "edge of world" land. Namely me.

We'll relocate you. You can live next to the watery edge of the fountain in Boardman Park.

I agree. And having recenly had my low-lag watery "edge of world" taken away, I demand compensation!

Eggy, i hear you loud and clear! i once had an "edge of the world" plot at the south-eastern edge of Baker. there were no sims to the east of any derivitive. granted, my land wasn't in danger of losing a shoreline, but if i go there now, that once empty expanse is now filled with the view of other sims.

this is also the reason that if i want to own land that ends at the water that i only look at land that lies at the edge of a shoreline instead of somewhere with an abrupt edge that looks like more "simmage" is highly probable somedy in the future.

*shrug* i'm just thinking of the aesthetic value of the continents.

(yes, i know i responded with a much more detailed post than necessary )

that was my reaction to seeing the the parcels in the north of Arches. I was psyching myself up to spend US$200+ to get an 8192 that was for sale there. Then I had a sudden rush of brains to my head and decided to rent from Tony and Alliez instead.

I recently went back, and... ugly platforms with prefab houses on them.

Just... just... DAMN.

More mountains! Steeper! More vertiginous! And since people want prefab houses, make prefab houses that look good on mountains!

Does this mean it's now possible to land on the airstrip at Phase 5 without angsting about bouncing off the edge of the universe? o_O!

All of us at Cyberland would like to take a moment to think you for your positive comments regarding our AquaTerra development, which spans the Antigua, Bermuda, St. Martin, Barbados and Montserrat regions! We've put considerable time and effort toards the goal of delivering residents a consistant, compelling, indeed simply breathtaking land mass. We do feel that we've succeeded in this goal due to the rapid pace that our land is being purchased at compared with competing land masses in the area, dispite being a little bit more expensive. We've recieved nothing but positive feedback on the AquaTerra development so far, and are thrilled that residents are enjoying our contribution to the mainland grid so much!

Like Jauani, we also believe that this experiment can work. We hope that it will continue to be available and continue to evolve, so that we can continue to deliver more top quality mainland grid regions to residents! We have even more great ideas to continue adding value to the Second Life mainland grid as this experiment continues!