(....continuation from
part 5)
At the end of 2007, Second Life was
booming. Millions had flooded into Second Life over the year, and big
business was setting up shop. You could find Reuters, American
Apparel, NBC, and Playboy rubbing shoulders with Canimal, Bare Rose,
and other Second Life brands of the time.
Likewise, the Second Life Mainland
could not be minted fast enough, as the Nautilus and Corsica
continents took shape, and work began on the Gaeta continent.
Everyone was looking for their pot of gold, just behind a particle
rainbow.
It was Jack Linden, then in charge of
land in Second life, who came up with an idea for a double-prim,
themed urban area. A new take on what was already in Nova Albion, but
as Michael Linden put it, with "a more harmonious look to it."
It was Michael and Blue Linden who were
tasked with this urban area project, a counterpoint to the endless
rolling hills of the then-ongoing mainland expansion.
They considered many different styles,
though it was Jack who is credited with finally hitting the nail on
the head: art deco. All three agreed that this was the theme to move
on.
But I’m getting ahead of myself
again.
Part of the plan for this city was with
expansion in mind. Like the rest of the burgeoning Mainland, the goal
was to make it easier to grow the city as needed, taking on regions
from some preset roads and canals, allowing for quick additions with
minimal work.
But they also wanted to avoid making
things feel too repetitive. As explained in this
very publication in 2015 (
after opening the link search for Wuznu Pussycat), the goal was to avoid a grid layout, allowing for "
a more
organic, creative type of neighbourhood."
Blue created a concept involving four
regions. Infinite City was born: a block of four regions that defined
the basic layout of the city’s roads and canals so that each could
easily and quickly connect with each other no matter which region's
layout was connected to which.
 |
| Infinite City: the four map tiles that
would serve as a template for the city project |
Michael would further refine this,
taking the basics of Infinite City and giving them form, creating the
parcels for these four regions, and defining where parcels would be.
And yes, around this time, the name of
this city takes shape: Bay City.
 |
| Early forms of what would become Bay
City. Eagle-eyed readers may find some distinct locations that never
came to be | |
The parceling was key, too: Much like
Nova Albion, Infinite city was to be double-prim Mainland, allowing
for more intricate builds than elsewhere. I suspect the hope was that
people would be able to build bigger, taller city structures in the
era where prims were still king and land impact was much, much
tighter.
To allow for this "prim bonus,"
however, more than half the land had to be kept in Linden Lab's
hands, with those builds being somewhat half of the average land
impact. This would be the roads, the canals, the parks, and anything
contained on them.
The art deco theme would be further
refined by Blue and Michael, both of which had a distinct interest in
the look and feel of this new city. With "art deco" as the
basis, they expanded on this in the blog post announcing this area to
the public on 22 February, 2008, saying, "The style is the
American urban experience, between 1940 and 1965, perhaps best
typified by Chicago circa 1950 and marked by a distinct deco
influence."
You can see that in the builds they
initially provided in the city, such as the Bayjou Theater, Hot
Balls" bowling alley, and Cafe Deco. Even the industrial park,
shown below being towered over by Blue Linden, shows a distinctly
urban waterfront.
 |
| Blue Linden, the large dragon-like
monster avatar - stomps around the maquette for the industrial park |
And yes, one cannot deny the
involvement of both Blue and Michael, with the latter's interest in
trains and airships helping the city gain a trolley, water trolley,
and balloon system, and the former's key involvement in Americana
leading Bay City to have its own Route 66 cutting through the city.
The city opened to preview on the 8th
of May, 2008. A second copy of Bay City was also added to what was
then "Teen Second Life." This eventually would become the
Westside of Bay City after TSL closed.
As Bay City began, Second Life itself
was changing. Two months after Bay City was announced, Linden Lab
founder Philip Linden would step down as CEO, handing the reins to
Mark Kingdon, aka M Linden. Prims were soon to be unseated as the
content of choice as Qarl Linden's sculpties became a quick and very
dirty way to get simple mesh-like content into Second Life. Second
Life's Fifth Birthday -- a watershed moment that stands as the end
of Second Life's "early days" -- would also be announced
just days after the Bay City preview would begin.
There were bigger things afoot, too.
the global economy would take a downturn in 2008, and we'd see Second
Life effected as the rapid expansion cooled. Land barons who had once
gobbled up mainland would contract a bit, with many focusing on the
brand-new city, grabbing parcels and flipping them between each
other, leading to the high prices the city still commands today.
Still, I can't help but wonder what may
have happened: places like Squishybottom’s Roadhouse in Wellfleet
Harbor had been planned to be used as music venues, The Bayjou
Theater was intended to be a machinima showcase, and even Hot Balls
was planned for "league night" bowling. Plans that never
came to be.
Blue Linden was laid off from the lab
as part of a larger series of lay-offs at the end of M Linden's
tenure, just two years later. Jack would follow, moving onto work
elsewhere. Michael, too, would leave the lab a few years later.
What about Bay City? It still thrives
to this day, the product of years of innovation in Second Life, and
home to a vibrant community much like those of its forebears.
 |
| Art for an unused "welcome sign"
for Bay City, provided by Blue Linden |
Reporter Historian Marianne McCann
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