Why Are There So Many Suburban Homes in SL?

I think that's it. People tend to have calm places as their main point to get peace and quite. In real live that is often a room in your house, like the bathroom or your bedroom, these rooms are usually painted in relaxing colors.

I think a boxy triangle-roofed house with a green yard is the representation in sl of that. It's a calm place they understand in the chaos that SL can be. Most people don't have much land, so that's all they have. And they go out for the more imaginative places.
Only problem is that aslong as price of land is expensive, the mundane will far outweigh the imaginative. If everyone had a entire sim to play with, we would see much more of the fantastic.

WTG Ferran!!

The cost of clever is high.

Limited imagination?

Actually the cost of clever is free, what the majority of people SELL is pre fab mundane

and her mom

I live in an underground lair beneath a city built by Time Traveling Vikings. So there.

Because the mundane is easier, more familiar, and faster.

I'm all for creativity, but that doesn't mean you have to take SL into the realm of the surreal. Not everybody likes the idea that everyone should live in a giant, pink, upside down toilet (or a bizarre tortured prim-house that moves through orbits defined by strange attractors, or whatever) just because they CAN.

Second Life is essentially a made-up world, and in that sense, is a lie. Like telling any other lie, world building tends to work best with most people when it's grounded in some degree of truth and familiarity ... something they can latch onto in order to make sense of and relate to everything else.

It's also easier to suspend disbelief in small steps rather than huge leaps.

It's also a relatively stable and coherent "starting point". If everybody tried to make their stuff as far as possible away from real world stuff, or worse, with no regard at all for the real world, SL would be a hideous chaotic mishmash ... a thousand times worse than the situation that exists now.

I, for one, would rather see a bunch of suburban houses than "fantastic" hunks of space age junk shooting garbage particles all over the place. Call me old fashioned if you want.

I started with a small japanese house made of black wood and rice walls. Lots of open space and a small attached zen garden. Always wanted one of those.

These days I live in a 1/4 a sim sandbox without any building what so ever, except for the random unfinished projects I leave lying around. Might build something just to make it look good though.

My neighbours seem to be living in a floating house thats been cut off from the garden below, with some ground still attached to it in mid-air. It somehow includes a waterfall that spills down to the surface below. There is a big Chtullu observing the scene from the water, not too far off from the remains of a broken old castle that also serves as a living room.

Its all about your personal dream, your skill, and how much effort you'd like to put into making it come true.

Who cares?? If you don't want a suburb house then don't build one. Why belittle others and make them feel silly for what they have in their SL? If they're having fun then what are you worried about?

The real question is, why do 98% of girls in SL have legs the length of trees, boobs the size of africa and an ass the size of a pea?? Do you honestly think your body looks good? Thats what we should all be scratching our heads over.

ROFL Roxy you got it! You forgot about spreading on makeup with a trowel though.

If only RL made sense

For example, ever notice the difference between the houses many people live in versus the cars they drive? The houses need to look like they are at least 75 years old, yet the primary vehicle would be an embarrassment if more than 24 months behind the latest model.

When the chance has presented itself to ask RL tract developers and builders why there is this apparent disconnect between what people prefer to live in vs. what they prefer to drive the stock answer is 'because that's what the market wants.' My reply, namely 'how does the market know this is what they want if this is all they've ever had?', usually goes nowhere with them, though I think it a fair question to be asked.

In SL on the other hand, this rebuttal does not seem to apply. As mentioned previously in this thread, one experiences all manifestations of virtual space and form, from the somewhat divergent to the completely bizarre and surreal. The question therefore, of "Why Are There So Many Suburban Homes IN SL?" seems to be up to each avatar to answer individually, and I can only assume that the circumstance in which one chooses to live has been fully informed by the possibilities available and therefore respect them for their decision (with the full and humble realization that my respect is the last thing anyone needs or wants to create a virtual homestead).

That said, there seems to be a difference between what is possible to build in SL and what is predominantly available for purchase on the prefab market. It would be unfortunate if the prefab market came to be shaped only by what it is assumed the majority of people want to buy, with those in the minority left to merely purchase what is available because it is not practical or feasible for them to build for themselves.

I hope to personally contribute to this discussion by attempting to expand the possibilities from which people have to choose when making the decision of whether to live suburban or not, as well as to provide another outlet for exposure to the architectural potentials of SL via Virtual Suburbia.