History: The Road To Bay City Part 6: From Infinity To Prim

(....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

200302

History: The Road To Bay City Part 5: Something familiar to our East

(....continuation from part 4)

On March 9th, 2004, an announcement was made on the official Second Life forums. The Lab was going to offer several regions with a double prim allowance, decorated with Linden-created infrastructure. The notion was to provide an area that would appear city-like, where people could build taller, denser structures.

"Governor Linden has decreed that a fine new city should rise in the West, and we're dedicating four sims to the cause," said Haney Linden. "Building a dense urban environment requires prims – lots of prims— so only half of the city will be sold and plots will boast a double allotment. To jump-start the urban planning process, the new city will come pre-equipped with the infrastructure of a metropolis– streets, sidewalks, alleys, bridges, canals, public transit, and boulevards will all be provided." 

http://forums-archive.secondlife.com/3/da/10694/1.html

To anyone in Bay City, this description will sound somewhat familiar. Its not about our beloved City by the Bay, however, but Nova Albion, the four region block of Sistiana, Grignano, Miramare, and Barcola.

The new land was in a prestigious location, just east of the Nova Albion welcome area. This was important in those days before point-to-point teleportation, as the Welcome Area served as a major infohub and entry for new users.

Original Infohub at Miramare

Both Venice and Yamato Town (aka Shangri-La) -- older projects similar to the previously discussed Americana -- would also overlook this new city. Furthermore, the Luna Oaks Galleria would be connected to the new city.

The latter inspired the second post about Nova Albion posted by Xenon Linden, which included a quote from master explorer Magellan Linden himself.

"During a recent excavation at the Luna Oaks shopping mall I discovered evidence of a lost city beyond the western edge of the known world," said Magellan, adding, "I have followed the rumors and hearsay for quite some time trying to verify the existence of the city, known from legend as Nova Albion. Based on this new evidence I am now confident that the city does (or did) exist, and that it may be quite close to the Luna Mall. I will report back with any new findings as they surface." 

http://forums-archive.secondlife.com/3/7c/11098/1.html

One of the snapshots originally presented on the forums shows Xenon Linden - the primate avatar shown - working on Nova Albion infrastructure.

The design of the new city was largely overseen by Xenon, who would also design the Heterocera Atoll continent It was Xenon who is largely credited for bringing a sense of contiguous style to the continents, after Sansara's more "patchwork" feel.

A 24th of March, 2004 post on the forums brought more details as the first pictures of the nascent city were revealed, including an overhead shot showing the full city, as well as pictures of the "restored" trolley system" of the city. This is the trolley that still exists today, running sporadically from the Galleria to the Welcome Area. Apparently, "voltage irregularities" plagued the system from the very beginning, leading to unusual behaviour in Second Life trolleys early on.

http://forums-archive.secondlife.com/3/8c/11284/1.html

This image shows the first view the public saw of Nova Albion. It and several other snapshots can be seen at the infohub in Miramare.

The first auctions for land in Nova Albion were also announced on the 24th. The first landowners in the city were Xavier VonLenard, Surina Skallagrimson, Planet Mars, Drift Monde, Catherine Cotton, Ezhar Fairlight, Nicola Escher, Surreal Farber, Artimesia Twilight, and Chromal Brodsky. It would not be long before Salazar Jack would also join Nova Albion, willing the parcels where the Brownstone East and Brownstone West exist to this day.

The four regions of Nova Albion would later be home to many of Second Life's best-known early residents, including Cubey Terra, Khamon Fate, LisaHot Juran, Cybin Monde, Caroline Apollo, Lordfly Digeridoo, Enjah Mysterio, and Osprey Therian.

Catherine Cotton was locally well known for offering free apartments in the early days, while Khamaon Fate was locally known for the library.

Nova Albion -- with its city theme, its double prims, and its trolley -- laid the groundwork for Bay City, but there was two more things that Nova Albion can claim to have inspired.

The community around Nova Albion, a cooperative bunch that made up a group called the "City Slickers," worked in part with Linden Land to help improve their city. The City Slickers and their involvement in Nova Albion helped inspire the creation of the Bay City Alliance

It was Salazar who would primarily re-imagine the infohub for Nova Albion after Lordfly reached out to Linden Lab to get the ball rolling. Initially, a floating "telehub" platform in Miramare, Salazar would create a mock up of what would eventually become the hub in early 2006. This mock up became the hub central to Nova Albion today.

Quite a few of the original Nova Albion Xenon artefacts, on loan to the City Slickers group, are on display in the Barcola section (northwest) of the Miramare Infohub. These include the aforementioned Polaroid pictures (two of which are included in this article), an original Nova Albion Trolley System Map scrap, and ruins of old Nova Albion that survived and were found by Magellan and crew.

Lordfly initially designed the bridge that spans the main street through Nova Albion -- now part of Route 66, and Salazar who designed the bridge supports and brick motif.

Lordfly also built the large arch in Grignano, another long-time build in the city. He sold the arch to The Brownstone Building Association when they purchased his land in southern Grignano, and the original arch itself was included in the land sale. The arch's prims today show his creator status.

As an aside, it is beneath Lordfly's arch that Salazar, now, is forming a historic "Arch" district.

A notable Nova Albion 2nd Anniversary in 2006 included many Linden guests; the likes of Magellan, Philip, Catherine, Robin, Bub, etc. You can "just" make out names in this photo: Another photo can be seen at: http://snapzilla.net/image/view/59695/. This photo provided by Salazar Jack.

There has been some prim drift over the years, most notably some of the Linden infrastructure was either left, or became, editable by anyone, resulting in sections of prims that were moved or are now missing. An example, missing canal walls between the two Brownstone buildings in Grignano.

A big change for Nova Albion occurred when the southern sea route opened up with the void south of Grignano filled in with the Luna East region, the relocated sandbox regions and the water route connecting to Abbotts and points east.

There's still the matter of a second thing that Nova Albion inspired: tucked into the infohub is a graffiti message that reads, "Beware the Mole People" A more sinister sign can be found elsewhere in Nova Albion, in a hidden and long-forgotten spot in the old city, in a pair of locations that, for safety's sake, we shall not disclose.

A mysterious message hidden in Nova Albion. That mole doesn't seem quite like the cuddly LDPW type to me.

it was this that helped shape the future Linden Department of Public Works, aka the Moles. Their first big project? Bay City.

Next time, a look at the "infinite City" project!

Note: Marianne McCann would like to thank Salazar Jack for his assistance on this particular piece, filling in many gaps into the history of Nova Albion.

Reporter Historian Marianne McCann

200106

History: The Road To Bay City Part 4: An Interlude: The Suburbs

(....continuation from part 3) 

As interest in themed areas like Americana, Yamato, Nexus Prime and others continued, Second life as a whole tried to work out another issue: residential land.

One of the ways this was managed was with the "First Land" program, which ran until 2007, allowing a first time land owner to purchase a prime piece of 512m mainland for only L$512. It wasn't a bad deal for the time, but also led to much abuse as people began to create alts to buy up vast numbers of early 512m parcels, then reselling those parcels to the main account.

In some cases, themed communities were attempted for housing, allowing people to have a piece of virtual suburbia for their first land. One of the earliest of these was the LuskEstate, in the shadow of its far more well-known neighbors, the furry homeland of Luskwood and the Ahern Welcome Area.

A notecard, still available on one side at the Lusk Estates, describes the area as "a small suburban area divided into cozy parcels" declaring that, "Lusk is the perfect place to build your home if you're looking for a nice, quiet region without the stores and looming towers you might find building elsewhere."

The area was little more than a series of rudimentary streets -- even simpler than those of earlier cities like Lindenberg -- with parcels for homes set up in a grid pattern. The project quickly fell into disrepair until the project was handed over to the "Lusk Estates Land Trust" under resident control.

While the Lusk Estates, like the majority of the mainland, had no covenant, the land trust did keep several zoning and land guidelines, including no subdividing land and no terraforming, rules that govern city areas today. They also disallowed anything except residences, prohibited "flashing textures, large particle displays, loud and/or looping sounds, or any script that puts unnecessary strain on the region," and required parcels to be developed.

The Lusk Estates, as modestly successful as they were, led to the creation of yet another planned community in Boardman, which was also duplicated as "Brown" in the old "Color" regions.

Initially managed by Haney Linden, Boardman opened in May of 2003. Going farther than Lusk, this area included a street layout with sidewalks and street lamps, manicured yards, and a small residential community feel.

"Welcome to the land of palm trees swaying gently in the fresh sea breezes," said Haney Linden on their blog post of the time. "Designed in a Southern California style, Boardman is host to 'Pre-Fab.' Structures here are limited to an easy-to-assemble pre-fabricated mini version of 'House-In-a-Box.'

"This region is designed to especially appeal to newer residents who may not have developed expert building skills," Haney continued. "While all structures are pre-fabricated, you can customize them to express your true inner spirit. It's a no-hassle, inexpensive way to get started making a home in Second Life."

Much like the Lusk Estates, however, Boardman didn't exactly capture the imagination. The rules on using the prefab home were relaxed, and the land became run down. Pieces of the road were soon missing, and land barons complained that they would be lucky to make any money selling land in that area.

Then, again mirroring the Lusk Estates, a community group stepped into the gap, working with Haney's replacement, Jack Linden, to refurbish Boardman. The area was rebuilt and revitalized by its new residents and land owners. Today, it is much like it was when they stepped in, including a Town Hall still adorned with Jack Linden's mayoral photo, located at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Boardman/150/167/24

Yet, much like the Lusk Estates and, to a lesser extent, Boardman's twin in Brown, the area feels stuck in time, home to builds that haven't changed since 2005, owned by residents who later went on to build their own regions and stores well beyond the confines of Boardman.

You can even still find the original for sale for L$50 at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/De%20Haro/6/132/32, just on the border between Boardman and it's "Camp Linden" region mate in De Haro.

Meanwhile, the lab continued to work on Providing a community experience in the same vein as these early efforts, building on what came before. They developed Blumfield and WestHaven as a "first Land" project, once again providing suburban streets and prefabricated homes for new landowners to set up their virtual home.

With these two regions showing more promise than their predecessors, the lab gambled on an expansion, creating a nine-region community initially on the eastern edge of the Sansara Continent, called Shermerville. The community, launched in February of 2006, had a central region, called "Shermerville Central" with a playground, a pool, a "stage 4" for community meetings, and even a neighborhood sandbox area. Surrounding Shermerville Central were 8 other regions, Shermerville N, Shermerville NE, Shermerville E, Shermerville, Shermerville SE, Shermerville S, Shermerville SW, Shermerville Shermerville W, and, of course, Shermerville NW.

Aside: it is only a coincidence that your erstwhile writer also came into existence in Second Live in February of 2006, and resides in one of the remaining Shermerville regions.

The Shermerville project as a whole was doomed, however. Sales were not as robust as expected, as once again, a suburb area with limited land impact -- each parcel was limited to 512m -- and other restrictions proved unwelcome. The project was eventually shuttered, save two Shermerville regions that were grafted onto Blumfield and West Haven, with a bridge connecting them to Nova Albion.

After both Shermerville and First Land shuttered, one could have reasonably assumed that Linden Lab would no longer look towards developing residential areas, yet in 2009 a new project was announced: LindenHomes. Initially provided in 4 distinct themes with several home styles, the Linden Homes were markedly different from "First Land." For one, the home was both a required part of the home as well as arranged in such a way as to not be a part of the parcel's land impact.

No terraforming and no dividing the parcels remained the rule in Linden Homes, with the regions of the Nascera continent (the land mass that contained such homes) further solidifying the rules with an actual covenant. Unlike past attempts are residential area, Linden Home owners could also neither choose their specific parcel, nor could they sell it to another.

This proved initially fairly successful, with two additional copies of the Nascera landmass added to the grid. That success was to be somewhat short-lived, however, as the economic downturn of the era reached into Second Life, stunting much of the potential growth of Second Life for some time.

Yet hope springs eternal. After the launch of the Horizons project on the Zindra continent, featuring another suburban area, this time with a retro-futuristic theme and prefabs that you could shift into four different designs, Linden Lab apparently felt now was the time to once again explore the suburbs.

In 2019 -- a full decade after the launch of the original Linden Homes -- a second generation launched, initially featuring yet another suburban community, as well as a second theme featuring houseboats. Carrying elements from both its first-generation Linden Home predecessors as well as design elements gleaned from Horizons and, yes, Bay City, the Linden Homes of the Bellisseria continent proved themselves to be a hit. At last, after 16 years, the code for a successful Residential community appears cracked.

The area has continually expanded over the year, introducing a third theme -- campers and trailers - - that seems to evoke the relationship between Boardman and its "Camp Linden" neighbor in a far more successful fashion. They have also promised many other themes and potential expansion to come.

With the success of the new Linden Homes, I am nonetheless left wondering: what awaits the future for the grid's cities, and what will the metaverse metropolis of the future look like?

Next Time, we have another city of Second Life's past to explore as well look to Bay City's neighbor to the East, Nova Albion, in the next issue.

Reporter Historian Marianne McCann

191202

History: The Road To Bay City Part 3: The taxman cometh

(....continuation from part 2) 

After the limited success of Lindenberg, many initiatives to help form communities in Second Life were undertaken by Linden Lab.

One of the first was the creation of a collaborative Linden and resident building project -- known as a "Resident Work Project" -- that led to Wild West Town. This was a volunteer project formed by Linden Lab, where a select group of residents could help build a frontier town, including a theater, a saloon, a general store, and so on. In exchange, the resident contractors could be rewarded with a few thousand Linden Dollars!

Originally located in Zoe, Wild West Town later became a predominate feature of the Oak Grove region. Largely destroyed due to prim rot and weapon damage, Wild West Town was rebuilt by the Linden Department Public Works as one of its earlier projects.

Another project was the amusement park, named Linden World -- not to be confused with the early name for Second Life -- located in the Coney and Luna regions. This project invited residents to take a parcel and build some modest amusement park like attractions, even later reserving half the land in the Coney region as Linden-owned. This meant Residents could have double the usual land allotment (prims). A shade of the late city regions.

Linden World survived briefly, with Luna later becoming the mall that exists today below Nova Albion, and Coney sinking below the void sea.

Around the same time, the notion of a "Resident Work Project" changed, making way for an initial round of themed community proposals. Of these were Nexus Prime, the Kazenojin aviation community, Darkwood, Yamato Town (also known as Shangri-La), Venice, Kissling, and Americana.

Nexus Prime, a cyberpunk city located in the Gibson region, has gone through many rebuilds since its classic community look, but none have lasted long. Likewise, the Venice community, devised as an inworld version of the classic Italian city, was wiped out several years ago from its site on the banks of the Bonifacio region.

Darkwood, a fantasy city, still remains to the northeast of Nova Albion, and the Kissling community lives on north of the Luskwood, itself an early community. Even Kazenojin in Gray and Asian-themed Yamato Town in Dore, continue on, albeit the former is largely quiet now while the latter became an orientation station, and unfortunately lost large amounts of its content.

Then there was Americana.

The Americana group, founded by a Resident named George Busch, claimed the Blue region in June 2003 as home, building a number of America-themed builds as part of their community. a "Route 66" led into the build, featuring a Woolworth’s, an A&W root beer, and other structures to evoke a classic 1950s-era America.

Some of the other early members of Americana were Sassy Apple, Fleabite Beach, Fey Brightwillow, Sinatra Cartier, Pituca Chang, Horatio Horn, Bososuko Kato, Tracey Kato, Ramon Kothari, Dionysius Starseeker, CrowCatcher Valen, Sinclair Valen, Jon VonLenard, and Oda VonLenard.

As the area grew, it featured even more impressive structures, including the Washington Monument and the St Louis Arch, as well as a baseball field called "Fanway Park."

Not all was perfect in Americana, however. the group often had conflicting views of their home region, leading to discord among the group. Even with the rancor, however, Americana's builds were considered some of the best of their time.

But one thing held the community back more than any internal strife, and it was an issue that seemingly underscored their nostalgic American theme: taxes.

At the time, rezzing a prim cost L$10 for each you chose to rez. As time went on, the cost grew, including additional fees for prims not located on the ground. It was things like rezzing that meant a lot to the Second Life economy.

Meeting

The Americana group, by and large, pushed for a tax revolt, creating tea crates to evoke the Boston Tea Party, and threatening the destruction of their builds throughout the Blue region. A report in New World Notes from the era includes an interview with Fleabite Beach, the first furry in Second Life and the leader of the tax revolt.

The following was the text of a notecard that was sent to Philip Linden and others interested in the Tax Revolt, and discusses Fleabite Beach's initial experiences with Americana. It is presented as written, with typos intact for accuracy and style.

"THANK YOU
From the bottom of my fuzzy heart, I, Fleabite Beach, thank YOU, my friends and sim-mates, for the outpouring of Empathy and Concern for our way of life and our pre-destined March Towards Freedom...
Freedom to pursue the noble cause of self-governance
Freedom to pursue the arts and sciences that define us
Freedom to pursue the charitable ways that enrich us all
Freedom from Taxation Without Representation
Who amoung us has not YEARNED for the realization of their previously unattainable dreams, here in SL?
NOT A ONE
Who amoung us has not ACTED at times towards the realization of those most heartfelt and cherished concepts?
NOT A ONE
Who has profited from the lifetimes of open hearts, minds and backs of these Dreamers?
JUST ONE
THE MAD KING GEORGE LINDEN
...
Ironic in a way, to look back to when I first signed onto SL in the glorious, uproarious beta days.  I had rushed through the tutoiral/noob isle process and was desperate to EXPLORE THE NEW WORLD like a pixelated Colombus.
The first person I met was also named George.  Not Washington as one might suppose, or even IMPOSE of him as I do....
His name was George Busch and he build a very nice little monument.  The Washington Monumnet.
And he built a nice little service station, and a nice little community called Rt. 66 and perhaps, unbeknownst to him, a nice little UNDYING PASSION here in SL....
a nice little thing WE like to call
AMERICANA
For Americana is not just a perfect square on your map.  It is a perfect square in our hearts as well.  Thanks to George.
I knew George Busch.
George Busch was a friend of mine.
And Mad King George,
You're no George Busch.
...
Merriman Brightwillow has inspired me to TAKE A STAND with BOXES at all my FLEABILT PARKS SYSTEM PARKS.  Instead of a large number of free, open-source, full modify, public domain fun, visitors can enjoy SINGLE PRIM TEA CRATES.  They will be a TAX STAMP available for $100,000 linden dollars to shoppers, so STEP RIGHT UP!
Thank you Merriman for the inspiration and thoughtful consideration of the subject
WE my friends, can learn from our past but
WE can only move forward hand in hand.
WE stand untied for Liberty and Freedom, and
WE believe these truths to be self-evident
WE ARE AMERICANA
JOIN US
FREE TEA at the door
...
As REPRESENTATIVE and founding member of the COLONIES and AMERICANA, I Fleabite Beach do Hereby Enlist and Recruit to Protect and Provide Service in love of COUNTRY, to the UNITED COMMONWEALTH and ACTIVE MILITA of AMERICANA, the following patriots:
Rep. RAMON KOTHARI
Rep. CROWCATCHER VALEN
Rep. BONECRUSHER SLATE
PITUCA CHANG
GARTH FAIRLIGHT
JAI NOMAD
DRAGON CROSSING
NICOLE MILLER
TRACEY KATO
AURELIE STARSEEKER
MERRIMAN BRIGHTWILLOW
CHARLIE OMEGA
MAC BEACH
DEREK JONES
To join the ranks...reply to this post or see one of the AMERICANA REPRESENTATIVES
Love,
Your Loyal Subject,
-Fleabite Beach"

The release of Second Life 1.1 in October 2003 included methods to prevent tax evasion, and Americana was doomed. The build was destroyed, as the creative minds of Americana opted against continuing to be taxed over their builds. Americana was no more.

Yet just two months later, Linden Lab discontinued the tax structure, moving entirely to what became the land-based system we know today.

While Americana remains no more, there are elements of it an eagle-eyed observer can spot today.

At Valen's Creche, a build to the north of the Lusk region and above an area we'll talk about in the next issue, you'll spot the St. Louis Arch from Americana, as well as a selection of snow globes for sale as souvenirs of the old community.

In Blue, on a micro parcel, you'll find a slide show of photos featuring Americana, as well as a Route 66 sign. You can see this very sign in one of the above photos, in front of a gas station.

Outpost

There's one larger tribute to Americana today.

Fleabite Beach would later become Blue Linden, a long-time community liaison and, eventually, one of the first members of the Linden Department of Public Works. One of their first projects? A city focused on the "Urban American Experiences" featuring a "Route 66" cutting through the middle of it. That project? Bay City.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, however.

Part IV will make a small sidetrack, and talk about how housing communities have come and gone in Second Life.

Reporter Historian Marianne McCann
191104

History: The Road To Bay City Part 2: Enter The Residents

(....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

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History: The Road To Bay City Part 1: The Rig

Part I: The Rig

Bay City did not appear out of nowhere, and the roots behind the formation of our little corner of the mainland run deep into the core of Second Life itself. In this series, I want to give you some of the history behind the city by the bay, and the predecessors that led to its existence.

Linden Lab -- really called Linden Research, Inc. -- didn't initially set out to be a company known for virtual worlds. Initially they were busy studying haptics, or methods of providing physical feedback to people using virtual objects.

To learn more about such, this fledgling company then located on Linden Street in San Francisco, created "The Rig," a virtual space that could be navigated around in. Thing is, the virtual space contained in the rig was actually kind of fun.

Before too long, the rig -- and more importantly, the software on it -- started to take further form, eventually morphing into a virtual world of its own. This initial prototype was known as LindenWorld.

LindenWorld had a lot of similarities to what we know now as Second Life, as well as many unusual differences. Terraforming was not the simple tools of today, but was done using actual grenades to blow up parts of the land. An ecosystem existed of rudimentary birds and snake-like "Ators" that roamed the land, reproducing and eating. Avatars were also simple, created out of primitive shapes.

As things developed, it begun to look more like the world we know today. While the ators and birds faded into history, the world started to form. Those early "Primitars" were swapped out for a simple avatar mesh that still lives under the bodies of today. We gained better building and terrain forming tools even as we lost the reactive water of those early days.

Meanwhile, in the heart of LindenWorld was a city, which sat in what is now the Natoma region.

Linden City

Learning Center City

The city was developed in part to test the then very new rendering engine behind LindenWorld, and see how well it could manage a fairly dense environment. The city, with a central park featuring a fountain, a learning center, and a city hall, had no specific name, but was known as Linden Town or Linden City by some of the few on hand.

Linden City is seen in the photo above at night in what may be one of the first snapshots ever taken by a Resident. Steller Sunshine took this shot on her first day inworld, and she was the first non-Linden to visit the grid. Note Peter Linden hovering to the left in the image, as well as the central tower seen in most pictures of Linden City.

The city was erased not long from when LindenWorld became Second Life, replaced by Newbie Corral (our first welcome area), a store named Avatar Central, and the only remaining portion of that first city: the statue of Man that once lived in a square behind City Hall.

City

You can still visit that statue, now living on a hill near Natoma's Ivory Tower of Prims. It remains one of the oldest pieces of content in Second Life, still here long after the rest of the city vanished.

In Part II, we'll explore what happened when early Residents decided to form the very first city in Second Life.

Reporter Historian Marianne McCann

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