The Shape of Things to Come, Update
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my ocean view is about to disappear. The new sims to my east appeared and disappeared like a virtual fata morgana for a few days, continuously changing in shape and elevation, until they disappeared beneath the waves altogether a few weeks ago. Nobody, including the Lindens I was able to reach, seemed to know what they were or where they went.

Well, this morning, my Inbox presented me with the answer. (You are subscribed to the Announcements Forum mailing list, right?) Per Cyn Linden's post, Mainland Shoreline Reconciliation, LL is going to be smoothing out the knife-edge end of the world with a batch of new sims. Some will be open spaces, others will be sold off as regular land.

Of course, I'm rooting for a nice water sim. But, given my elevation (Eastern Louise is a couple dozen meters above the waterline), I'd say that's pretty unlikely. As you can see from this map snippet, Louise is in the middle third of the coastline. Unless the Land Management group has plans for a lake, it seems unlikely that they'd bring my adjacent edge to so abrupt an end. A tree-bedecked void sim would also be nice but, again, probably unlikely. My guess is there will be at least two more sims to the East of me, sloping downward to a more natural coastline, with at least one of those being a normal for-sale sim.

I'm not altogether sure how to feel about this. I regret losing the ocean view, of course, but I am pleased to have had it for as long as I did. I enjoyed it for over a year (over six years in SL time, and longer than the vast majority of the currently active SL population has been alive), and it was clear that this perfectly straight edge was destined for expansion. Naturally, I'm glad to hear about the expansion of the Grid. It's a sign of the continuing health of SL. Maybe it'll bring land prices down a bit, in addition to providing some more First Land, both of which are good for the newer players. I'm a bit tempted to rally behind the NIMBY flag with regards to the First Land. But only a bit. First Land tenants generally don't last long enough to get upset about. They either leave the game or move on to larger plots elsewhere. I suppose a long-view perspective is one of the benefits of homesteading in one location for as long as I have.

Ultimately, all I can do is cross my fingers and hope for a little bit of considerate, aesthetically concerned building by the new neighbors. Damn. I almost managed to type that with a straight face.

Addendum, 7:02pm, 7/10/06
Well! That was fast. There is now an approximately 2x10 sim strip off the east cost. Looks good. So far, it's bereft of trees, but there are some nice waterways. Too soon to tell if the one off my east coast has sufficient water to be considered a void sim. We'll see.
Posted by Moriash Moreau at 11:15 AM