While not really new news, the land mass increase substantially the last three months of 2006, as the numbers released by Zee Linden indicate.
Total Second Life land increased by 65% from last October to last January. Second Life’s two broad categories of land are the Mainland, which is a contiguous “continent” of land, and islands, which are each generally surrounded by water.While the mainland grew by 22% in four months, the land area of islands grew by 92%! The raw numbers are below, as supplied by Zee Linden.
| Calendar Date | Mainland | Islands | Total Size |
| 10/31/2006 | 83.97 | 134.28 | 218.25 |
| 11/30/2006 | 84.59 | 170.13 | 254.73 |
| 12/31/2006 | 87.35 | 206.31 | 293.65 |
| 1/31/2007 | 102.72 | 258.08 | 360.80 |
What’s the big deal? Plenty, in regards to social structures. Islands are…well…islands unto to themselves. People and corporations buy islands so that they have some control over their neighbors…by not having any.
There is little zoning on the mainland, meaning, your neighbor could be doing things you really don’t want to be a part of. On the other hand, having neighbors at all is part of being…well…part of a neighborhood. With more than twice the land mass being islands, are there opportunities for people to mix? Or, does the “islandization” of Second Life reflect the fragmented world in which we live?
Does teleporting minimize the effect of “The Balkanization of Second Life”, or does it enhance it?
I’m interested what you think. Please leave comments.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Jada Pfeffer // Feb 23, 2007 at 3:16 am
I think the islandization of second life definitely reflects the world in which we live. In the real world people purchase homes, and in some cases, land to be in the neighborhood they desire. You’re not able to pick your neighbor but you do have choices in your environment. Also, some people purchase land to build so they don’t have to be bothered with neighbors so I think in SL the same thing is happening with corporations. It comes back to the dollars. If you can afford the land you have options and for those who can’t afford the options are limited. In SL the opportunities are limited for people to mix.
2 Giff / Forseti // Feb 23, 2007 at 8:13 pm
actually islands aren’t necessarily islands unto themselves. The rather large land masses put together by groups like Otherland, Azure, and Dreamland are all counted as islands. They’re more like continents. Linden Lab courted confusion by calling them islands, when really they are “private regions” which can be solo or combined with others. On those land masses, you live side by side and rent land, but from a third party, not directly from LL.
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