AUGUST 2007: ANNOUNCING THE BIRTH OF A.R.E.
The furtherst thing from my mind was the creation of another group, however, after reading
some recent threads on the
Official Linden Blog
I was inspired by the number of residents who asked Linden Lab to finish and/or
restructure the protected water in and around the continents so that we can explore
the mainland using vehicles. As an avid vehicle user (jets, helicopters, boats), this
is something that has frustrated me since shortly after I joined Second Life. I don't
have the time to actively recruit people for this cause, but I'm willing to establish
the group just to see if we can't slowly get the ball rolling in this direction over time.
Exploration of the mainland needs to be taken to the next level. Imagine for a
moment that all of the mainland continents are connected via protected waterways.
Immediately, the character of the mainland would change, new possibilities would open
up, ease-of-use and travel would increase, and a the potential for more economic
development would likely increase as well: Instead of [only] connecting the
continents with 100% protected water sims, many of the connecting sims could be
one-third protected water and two-thirds auctioned mainland, similar to Islandia in
some areas, and more like Pine Coast in others.
I believe that if such a project were undertaken by LL, this intercontinental project
should be treated just like the creation of a new continent, as it will likely take hundreds
of new sims. Most full time residents would agree that the new continents are
somewhat boring, and that SL needs more "wow factor" in terms of specialty
stretches of unique mainland. This project would address those issues, offering
more unique mainland possibilities. The mainland needs more specialty pockets of land - streches
of 10-50 sims, similar to the clusters found around Key Largo or Bermuda in some
spots, maybe Monet or Dali in others, and building intercontinental waterways would
be a great way to get this done.
Think about the impact this would have - traffic moving to and from
the major land masses - having the ability to drive or fly to a friend's place if you
choose. Just because in RL at present, our continents are not connected in such
a way, doesn't mean that they shouldn't be in SL. I can imagine a better, more
functional world. The current layout of the disconnected mainland, in my opinion,
is an example of limited thinking and a waste of its true potential. People love
exploring. Give us the chance to do that via these waterways - instead of trying
to navigate the present mainland getting tangled in red property bans, etc. This
would also boost the sales, enjoyment and ultimately the interest in and development
of high performance vehicles.
The pessimist in me asks, "Who am I kidding? We can't even seem to get LL to
enable smooth sim-crossings," however, I can still imagine a better world.
Of course, the first thing most residents would say would be, "If you're going to
start a group about the mainland environment, you've gotta stop the ad farms!"
And yes, that is a noble mission, but Xerses Goff and the Arbor Project are doing
that job, and doing it the best they can. As an Arbor Project member and planter
of more than 3,000 trees in SL, I do believe that the ad farm issue is important,
but that's an issue that should be left to the fine folks at Arbor. We'll continue to
support them as much as we can.
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