Roads, Cars and Economy
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Max Demar
Registered User
Join date: 1 Mar 2006
Posts: 50
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04-25-2006 11:01
Since, in 1life in th U.S., automobile manufacturing is the number 1 revenue maker and the economy of the U.S. is totally dependent on motor vehicles, which require roads, I would suggest that SL might make drivable roads as a NORMAL part of SL's land as well as private islands. This would provide a unquestionable growth in possiblities. Now when we buy a car, we do so to motor around WHEN we can, but with drivable roads, vehicles would be a necessity, as they are in 1life.
Business that make cars, aftermarket items, on and on would thrive, grow, and business that relate to vehicles, ie: roadside properties, would become much wanted land. Shopping areas would spring up etc.
Airports and the like would then also come into play.
Just a suggestion : )
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Schwanson Schlegel
SL's Tokin' Villain
Join date: 15 Nov 2003
Posts: 2,721
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04-25-2006 11:11
Have you tried to drive a vehicle in SL yet? I suggest you try to drive a vehicle from one end of the main grid to the other, you will then see the flaw in this suggestion.
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Merlyn Bailly
owner, AVALON GALLERIA
Join date: 7 Sep 2005
Posts: 576
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04-26-2006 00:18
From: Max Demar Since, in 1life in th U.S., automobile manufacturing is the number 1 revenue maker and the economy of the U.S. is totally dependent on motor vehicles, which require roads, I would suggest that SL might make drivable roads as a NORMAL part of SL's land as well as private islands. This would provide a unquestionable growth in possiblities. Now when we buy a car, we do so to motor around WHEN we can, but with drivable roads, vehicles would be a necessity, as they are in 1life.
Business that make cars, aftermarket items, on and on would thrive, grow, and business that relate to vehicles, ie: roadside properties, would become much wanted land. Shopping areas would spring up etc.
Airports and the like would then also come into play.
Just a suggestion : ) The only way roads and airports would become a necessity in SL would be if no-one could TP or fly anywhere. That ain't gonna happen.
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Ordinal Malaprop
really very ordinary
Join date: 9 Sep 2005
Posts: 4,607
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04-26-2006 00:23
From: Max Demar Since, in 1life in th U.S., automobile manufacturing is the number 1 revenue maker and the economy of the U.S. is totally dependent on motor vehicles, which require roads, I would suggest that SL might make drivable roads as a NORMAL part of SL's land as well as private islands. This would provide a unquestionable growth in possiblities. Now when we buy a car, we do so to motor around WHEN we can, but with drivable roads, vehicles would be a necessity, as they are in 1life. What do the peculiarities of the US transport infrastructure have to do with SL? You think the fact that people drive all the time in the US is a good thing somehow? And as Merlyn says, you'd also have to ban TPing, helicopters, balloons, magic carpets, faerie wings....
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Keiki Lemieux
I make HUDDLES
Join date: 8 Jul 2005
Posts: 1,490
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04-26-2006 00:32
Roads are nice for some reason though. I just set up a new store and I looked for a roadside plot to buy and build on. They aren't necessary at all, but features like that on the mainland feel right.
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Jos Marx
Registered User
Join date: 20 Apr 2006
Posts: 7
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04-26-2006 00:41
I think this would detract from Second Life in way. The teleport function is so vital to SL. It provides a way to make sure the grid grows evenly (as possible) and the econmy can flourish with a still relatively small community.
It could be interesting the way SL would have grown without flying/tp'ing. If beginner areas were set in different locations seperated across the grid and you had to walk or drive to get anywhere.
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Ordinal Malaprop
really very ordinary
Join date: 9 Sep 2005
Posts: 4,607
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04-26-2006 00:44
From: Keiki Lemieux Roads are nice for some reason though. I just set up a new store and I looked for a roadside plot to buy and build on. They aren't necessary at all, but features like that on the mainland feel right. I like roads too and I would like to see more of them, but not because it's somehow good for the economy or we should be doing it because lots of North Americans do.
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Pix Paz
Away with the Pixies
Join date: 17 Oct 2005
Posts: 129
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04-26-2006 01:12
Roads would be nice if you could get a decent road going vehicle with an enjoyable experience without the control craziness.
I do a fair bit of sailing - not to get anywhere particular.
I'd love to do an SL road trip too.
Kowalski, Max, Wyatt & Billy, Thelma & Louise, Mickey & Malory, Jake & Elwood, Bullitt, The Italian Job, need I go on...
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Monique Mistral
Pink Plastic Flamingo
Join date: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 167
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04-26-2006 05:59
Current SL vehicles go too fast and are incontrollable. SL's 3D engine renders everything too slow for vehicles to be practical - you soon find yourself running out of road! Roads serve no purpose in a world with TP and flying.
Other than that, I largelly agree with the OP. My only criticism would be that SL is not the US and I wouldn't want six-lane autostradas running everywhere, destroying everything beautiful about the landscape. Enough of that in FL.
A world without TP's would work for a fact. I briefly signed up for a game called Sociolotron which doesn't have them. If the absence of teleporters is just a fact of life you never think about or miss them.
Transports, roads, cars and railroads - in short, communications - is just another one of those areas in SL where LL failed to provide incentives for a game economy. Mostly due to the fact that they never wanted a game economy to begin with, but rather a place where people were to make real life money by selling illusions.
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The idiots are definitely on the grass.
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Argent Stonecutter
Emergency Mustelid
Join date: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 20,263
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04-26-2006 08:21
From: Jos Marx It could be interesting the way SL would have grown without flying/tp'ing. If beginner areas were set in different locations seperated across the grid and you had to walk or drive to get anywhere. That's kind of what it used to be like when they had telehubs. Teleport almost anywhere, and you ended up in a huge ugly mall of zillions of tourist trap shops around the telehub. The lag caused by these telehub traps was enough to make most people avoid teleporting except to the few telehubs that were on large tracts of protected land. It was not unusual to ask someone with a faster computer to go somewhere and offer a TP.
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Ordinal Malaprop
really very ordinary
Join date: 9 Sep 2005
Posts: 4,607
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04-26-2006 08:46
Oh yeah! Telehubs! I remember them! As well as all of the predictions that P2P teleporting would kill all SL business.
Doesn't appear to have happened.
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kerunix Flan
Registered User
Join date: 3 Sep 2005
Posts: 393
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04-26-2006 09:15
From: Ordinal Malaprop Oh yeah! Telehubs! I remember them! As well as all of the predictions that P2P teleporting would kill all SL business.
Doesn't appear to have happened. Maybe the L$ value is falling because of P2P teleporting ? 
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Jopsy Pendragon
Perpetual Outsider
Join date: 15 Jan 2004
Posts: 1,906
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04-26-2006 09:18
L$ value is inversely associated with the price of crude oil in the U.S. Here, let me post data to prove it... -- 
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Desmond Shang
Guvnah of Caledon
Join date: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 5,250
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04-26-2006 09:22
From: Ordinal Malaprop Oh yeah! Telehubs! I remember them! As well as all of the predictions that P2P teleporting would kill all SL business. Doesn't appear to have happened. In my view, telehubs are a community-forging tool more than anything else. Perhaps effective only in areas that are 'small' - you are more likely to say hello to your neighbour at the village train stop than you are likely to say hello to a stranger in Grand Central Station. As for the idea of a world without teleportation - unless there were fast Clipper ships to Caledon far out in the Western Sea, we would be in the extreme hinterlands of the world and would have to re-think our current location.
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 Steampunk Victorian, Well-Mannered Caledon!
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Ordinal Malaprop
really very ordinary
Join date: 9 Sep 2005
Posts: 4,607
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04-26-2006 09:34
More the ratio of telehubs to land area in Caledon I'd say, given that there is a telehub in each sim. There is also that:
1. There is much more of a "promenading" culture, where one just simply wanders the paths, admiring the scenery, greeting passers-by and residents, thus people do not mind travelling a short distance. I don't think this is driven by the existence of telehubs either. In fact I have seen quite a lot of visitors doing this as well; perhaps it's more the environment.
2. Nobody can build appalling malls and av traps around the telehubs. Well, they could, but they wouldn't be there for long.
Telehubs can thus fulfil the sort of social function that I believe they were originally intended to have by the Lindens.
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Monique Mistral
Pink Plastic Flamingo
Join date: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 167
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04-26-2006 12:36
From: Desmond Shang As for the idea of a world without teleportation - unless there were fast Clipper ships to Caledon far out in the Western Sea, we would be in the extreme hinterlands of the world and would have to re-think our current location. Yes! Who says there would not be clipper ships! Sails are beautiful. Just make the seas sailable instead of non-existent no go areas, and there you are. On the other hand, in a world without teleportation, Caledon in the farthest reaches of the Western Sea might not have figured as an ideal mass market location to begin with... provided of course it wasn't the centre for the world's grandest rubbertree plantations and thus important as an outlet for colonial goods... Think about it this way: without teleports, and because people need to meet and exchange goods, instead of a hopeless sprawl, you would get towns and urbanization. 
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The idiots are definitely on the grass.
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Ranma Tardis
沖縄弛緩の明確で青い水
Join date: 8 Nov 2005
Posts: 1,415
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04-26-2006 12:48
I like things the way they are now. Tp and flying If the telehubs were reintroduced a lot of places in SL would be very hard to get to. You would have to try and get around all of the new security scripts! No telehubs are history, vehiciles for transportation dont work.
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Monique Mistral
Pink Plastic Flamingo
Join date: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 167
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04-26-2006 12:57
From: Ranma Tardis I like things the way they are now. Tp and flying If the telehubs were reintroduced a lot of places in SL would be very hard to get to. You would have to try and get around all of the new security scripts! No telehubs are history, vehiciles for transportation dont work. Well, it wouldn't be practical for SL, at least not the way SL has evolved. But perhaps for some other Virtual World yet to be created? More of a simulation game than a 3D chatroom, less constricted in theme than a standard MMO, and mainly based on player created content. Of course, I'm talking about a game without any teleports/telehubs at all!
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The idiots are definitely on the grass.
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Osprey Therian
I want capslocklock
Join date: 6 Jul 2004
Posts: 5,049
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04-26-2006 13:06
I think we need TPing, flying, sailing, etc. but it would also be nice to have more roads for three reasons: 1. Bicycling, roller skating, etc., are wonderful on the roads 2. In the future vehicles will work better, and it would be fun to drive around on roads 3. Roads provide a buffer between resident-owned plots
Some of the roads near me are picturesque - I enjoy looking at them, skating on them, and I like the connection they encourage between parts of SL. The roads we have now are persistent - the builds might change yet there is always something familiar about areas with roads.
There are many types of "roads" from rutted tracks to cobblestones to futuristic imaginings, and I think we have only a few types inworld at the moment (thinking of Linden roads). We could have all kinds. It's fun to see things I've read about in history books laid out in our 3d world.
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Ranma Tardis
沖縄弛緩の明確で青い水
Join date: 8 Nov 2005
Posts: 1,415
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04-26-2006 13:13
From: Monique Mistral Well, it wouldn't be practical for SL, at least not the way SL has evolved. But perhaps for some other Virtual World yet to be created? More of a simulation game than a 3D chatroom, less constricted in theme than a standard MMO, and mainly based on player created content. Of course, I'm talking about a game without any teleports/telehubs at all! Oh, so sorry! If there was a skill level for missing the point, I would have a Masters Level of skill! It is one of the things I do best! 
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Monique Mistral
Pink Plastic Flamingo
Join date: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 167
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04-26-2006 13:18
From: Ranma Tardis Oh, so sorry! If there was a skill level for missing the point, I would have a Masters Level of skill! It is one of the things I do best!  In fact, it was my fault. I drifted into my gamedesign fantasyland again. 
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The idiots are definitely on the grass.
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Monique Mistral
Pink Plastic Flamingo
Join date: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 167
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04-26-2006 13:23
From: Osprey Therian I think we need TPing, flying, sailing, etc. but it would also be nice to have more roads for three reasons: 1. Bicycling, roller skating, etc., are wonderful on the roads 2. In the future vehicles will work better, and it would be fun to drive around on roads 3. Roads provide a buffer between resident-owned plots
Some of the roads near me are picturesque - I enjoy looking at them, skating on them, and I like the connection they encourage between parts of SL. The roads we have now are persistent - the builds might change yet there is always something familiar about areas with roads. I agree with all of this, especially if something could be done about the rendering. Even though in this scenario, roads would still not have a real game function of course.
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The idiots are definitely on the grass.
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Keiki Lemieux
I make HUDDLES
Join date: 8 Jul 2005
Posts: 1,490
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04-26-2006 13:52
The issue isn't really rendering. The rendering is plenty fast enough. It's downloading the actual content that is the issue in most cases. Turn down your draw distance and drive at a slower speed and the experience will be much better.
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Argent Stonecutter
Emergency Mustelid
Join date: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 20,263
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04-26-2006 14:01
From: Monique Mistral Yes! Who says there would not be clipper ships! Sails are beautiful. Just make the seas sailable instead of non-existent no go areas, and there you are. I Endorse This Product And/Or Service.
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MadamG Zagato
means business
Join date: 17 Sep 2005
Posts: 1,402
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04-26-2006 14:36
From: Ordinal Malaprop Oh yeah! Telehubs! I remember them! As well as all of the predictions that P2P teleporting would kill all SL business. Doesn't appear to have happened. I second that! If anything, it made it easier and more convenient to shop. I think those predictions may have very well come mostly from land owners who had invested in land close to telehubs and were against P2P teleporting for obvious reasons.
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