(....continuation from
part 1)
Part 2: Enter the residents
Eventually, LindenWorld was to be no
more. By December of 2002 or so, Linden Lab was lining up investors
to take their idea to a new level.
The project was re-branded as
"Second Life."
As an aside: for a brief moment,
"Second Life" could have ended up named "Sansara."
Robin Linden suggested the name for this early virtual world, but
"Second Life" apparently won out. Of course, now Linden Lab
produces a second virtual world of a very similar name -- but I
digress!
In the earliest months of 2003, Second
Life begun to allow beta residents into the world. Steller Sunshine,
who rezzed into existence on the 13th of March, 2002, is widely
considered the first Resident of Second Life, and she was followed by
many others who got to choose from a select list of last names when
cresting their digital persona: Apple, Jones, Sandgrain, Bach, Smith,
Leviathan, and more.
One of those early beta participants
was Wednesday Grimm.
Wednesday's Second Life rezday is 9
January, 2003 -- nearly a year after Steller's avatar touched digital
terra firma, but still well before the end of Second Life's beta in
June of 2003.
Working in the
Tehama region, Wednesday
banded together with many other beta participants on a sizeable
project: the first cooperative "themed" build in Second
Life.
That build would be Lindenberg.
(Lindenberg, pictured in January 2003,
primarily consisting only of its roads and fences at this point)
The name was chosen by its residents, a
play on words from the German airship, the Hindenburg, because the
city -- much like the airship -- "goes down in flames every
night." It's unclear if the name was also a deliberate reference
to Linden City from the beta, or simply following what may seem an
obvious theme.
Nevertheless, the idea of a grand city
was hatched and formed within the Tehama region, not far from a
Linden-created path that may have travelled through a handful of those
original 16 regions.
Wednesday Grimm was dubbed the mayor of
Tehama.
(Lindenberg in February 2003)
The city consisted of a "U"
shaped main road, complete with concrete sidewalks and green
lampposts. Fairly simple businesses lined the road, owned and operated
by many other early beta residents. A newspaper was created, the
Lindenberg Times, edited by ramon Kothari and then available at
Tehama (220, 117).
While an innovative concept, Lindeberg
wasn't without its issues. Perhaps related to the aforementioned fire
issues, many complained about the use of rockets around the city,
while others wished for the city to be a "no fly zone" to
prevent the use of jet packs.
Both were popular in these early, pre
"Second Life Server 1.0" times, as both the Lab and its
Residents worked with particle effects for the first time, tested
physics, and – as one could not yet directly teleport to a location
-- used modes of travel such as jet packs.
This all added to the biggest issue in
Lindenberg, however, and the one that would eventually lead to its
destruction: lag. Ever the issue, in those early days, numerous prims
and avatars concentrated in a small area -- for example, a
densely-populated city -- could bring a region to a standstill.
Even just 4-5 avatars in one place
could bring the area to a crawl.
A month into Lindenberg, and it was
already being called a "ghost town" due to lag issues. Some
sought to change the layout, adding a central park or pond, setting
it up across a "four corner" layout, or even making a "new
Lindenberg" as an indoor shopping mall or other form.
Lindenberg didn't last much longer, a
short-lived but important part of Second Life's early history, and
the first real "city" in those days.
Many parts of Lindenberg ended up boxed
and provided at the YaDnI Monde's old "Junkyard," itself
now long gone. There are, however, a few other remnants you can spot.
Hunting around Tehama, you can still
see the last remnants of that early Linden path that connected the
Tehama region to other early areas, such as the Newbie corral in
Natoma. It's visible in the above photo in the upper left hand side
of the image. You'll see it inworld at
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Tehama/117/98/23.
Be gentle,
those prims date back to January 2003.
(A main road in Lindenberg. Many items
in this photo were formerly available at YaDnI's Junkyard, including
the yellow Bannister, the street lamp, and the sidewalk.)
Finally, look close in that photo at
the street lamps along the road: Built by Richard Linden, those lamps
would later be revised and used to adorn the streets of the
Shermerville suburbs just Northeast of Bay City: perhaps a last final
nod to Lindenburg still inworld today.
In Part III, we'll talk about the early
Linden "themed community" project, and how one early city
changed Second Life forever *while* creating the very "Blue"
print for what Bay City would be.
Reporter/ Historian Marianne Mccann
191007
