Saturday, December 31, 2005

Land for the Masses - Magellan did it again!

Less than a month after it became apparent, that with the current landmasses of Second Life the supply of new land might become a problem with the ever growing population of our world, the first new continent (more a large island) has been sighted. Even though I am sure, that the intrepid explorer Magellan Linden was responsible for the discovery, the first to report it was resident Maczter Oddfellow.

I have visited the new landmass this morning and can testify that it is beautiful. It is landscaped in a very different style from the Northern Continent. Not so much a tropical or subtropical land but more of a north European (or - more likely - north American) style; even though it is far in the south of the map. Just now it is virgin country, untouched by building activities, a joy to explore and a welcome addition to SL after a time where nearly all the new mainland was styled according to the subtropical theme. It is very desirable land and I wonder what will happen when these sims appear on the auction block.

The new landmass is comparably small and very far in the south. (the little spot in the bottom right of the map). One may wonder if this was to "hide" it or if it will be used for a special project. The fact that one sim on it already has been opened for the Land for the Landless program indicates that this will not be the case though.

What I am most curios about right now is, if this little continent is a sign that we will more "mainland" in this style - smaller clusters of sims in a similar style which constitute a "landmass" but not a "continent" - or if it is just an exception to the rule and the next "real continent" will be discovered shortly. (There is a lot of room between the mainland and this new island.)

Looking at the rate in which the society of SL is growing currently, it is obvious that clusters of three dozen sims like this, wont be sufficient to satiate the land hunger of Second Life's population for long. Actually an area like this is more or less equivalent to the land supply for one or two weeks. So the true, next "New Continent" is still be awaiting discovery.

Maggellan, where are you?


UPDATE: After googling around a little I found out the most of the sim names here are Korean cities and locations. So this might very well be the Korean sub-grid talked about some months ago. (Nolan Nash already reported a similar assumption on the forums.) It still seems funny that the first area populated on such a national themed grid should be an "open to all" First Land sim.

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