The Old New Babbage

[Rip Wirefly]

I’m not here to harp or complain, or anything of that sort, just bring something to everyone’s attention. Last night Greg Merryman led me into the beta grid and I was shown something quite amazing. New Babbage Square and Palisades, from around one year ago. The land was the same, as was the layout, but the builds were quite different then what is in babbage today.

The first thing that hit me when I teleported in, dirt, the place was far from clean, as an industrial place should be. I looked about, a few of the builds that are still here today were there as well, the Mason Horta hotel, the steam works, city hall, the Paleozoic Museum, though it was far larger than it is today. What struck me was not that those structures still exist today, but the ones around them that are not. So much industry, smoke was seen across the skyline, as should be in an industrial city. As well, the builds, they were not all the most detailed or well built, but what they all had going for them was that they all fit together. Builds did not look like they were different from the one next door, they went together, they fit. It did not look like a bunch of puzzle pieces from different puzzles thrown together. The stores were gritty, the atmosphere just felt like the air was dirty, the city appeared as if it was covered in a layer of dirt, and I loved it.

I am still relativly new here, in my opinion. When I came to babbage it was a completely different monster, the place was clean. Houses were everywhere, though there are no problems with homes in a city, but as well there were so many stores, and each one was pristine. The few factories remaining looked as if they were not in order. It was a different babbage then what I saw it had been. I think somewhere people stopped focusing on the concept of babbage and more on the commercial part of it. I am not saying we ban stores, and cafes, and houses, and bars, but instead attempt to try to recapture the essence of babbae. Learn what your sim’s purpose was, talk to the residents who have been around longer, and find out what babbage is really about. I have been chatting with some older residence as of late, and have been learning much more about what babbage is about.

There is a reason industria is in our motto.

[TriloByte Zanzibar]

Seems to make sense, as the original town was put together by a group of friends with a shared vision. Even though a snapshot from a year ago would be a year removed from the sim's launch, that was before a lot of people went the way of the grid (as has the town's mayor). The funniest part (to me) of Babbages beta and main grid is that the town hall is largely a contradiction of the theme (glass and steel multi-story buildings were a decidedly 20th century creation, first appearing in the 1930's).

That's interesting to know, though - I didn't realize the beta grid had private regions, I thought it was all Linden mainland.

[Kandace Commons]

The townhall isn't the original townhall either. The current one is actually based on a building in The Golden Compass. I've been an advocate for a while of tearing it down and building something more interesting and functional.

[Ceejay Writer]

I'm normally a person who loathes historic buildings being lost to the wrecking ball... but in the case of townhall, I'd love the honor of taking the first swing at it. It looks nice on the horizon, but I hate trying to use the building. It's not very functional at ALL. This should be our centerpiece build. It should be useful and helpful to all. Right now, it's not.

[Artemisia Paine]

Get in line, Missy ;)

It's a beautiful build, but absolutely non-functional. The original town hall was a nice, useful building - as town halls should be.

[Ceejay Writer]

Hmm. Could the original town hall be revived, I wonder? Might be nice for the newcomers to re-join some of Babbage's early roots, methinks.

[Artemisia Paine]

There's an idea. Or at least something very similar to it. I always loved the openness of it.

[Moses Mureaux]

So I'm not the only one who doesn't really care for the Town Hall, eh? Not that the build itself bugs me, as most Steampunk incorporates things that would have been ahead of their time. (It's a Sci-Fi genre after all...) But, the thing doesn't work, and that bugs me. I'd be all for a new Town Hall.

[Mr. Tenk]

you're not the only one. it has always been controversial.

[Kandace Commons]

It's a pity the other 3 sims aren't there. Wheatstone didn't exist at the time, but I think everything else did. It all looked very different, even Vernian. The Port is probably the least changed over time, but it's still changed a bit.

[Mara Razor]

Have you walked around The Port lately? I went over there looking for something and got lost.

[Edward Pearse, Duke of Argylle]

This is possibly where "reality" hits New Babbage. I never spent much time in New Babbage in it's early days as it was not a community, it was a collection of people with similar outlooks each doing their own thing. I liked New Babbage but I would never have lived there. My dear wife says she feels the need to bathe after she visits.

Today there are more people in New Babbage and it has more of a community aspect but homes don't pay their own rent. Unless someone has the spare funds in RL to pay for a house or a factory or a giant robot, those funds need to be generated inworld. So the proliferation of the commercial aspect is to be expected given the current RL conditions.

Some people like the dirty industrial look, others prefer the *shiny* brass end of the steampunk spectrum. Any time you allow people the freedom to make their own contributions their will always be those who disagree on what it *should* be.

[Kandace Commons]

There was plenty of commercialization a year ago. There's more houses now than there was back then, not less.