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.

[Mr Salazar Jack]

Sir Arthur. I visited the New Undershaw building briefly yesterday evening. Thank you for the directions. I want to come back and explore it in more depth this weekend, but my first impressions are that it is a very unique and imaginative building with a very interesting and compelling layout. Lots of nooks and crannies and clever places tucked here and there. My overall impression was that the building looked a bit Art Deco and might be better suited to a time period set in the 1920's or 30's... a generation or two after the time period traditionally thought of as "steampunk" or an "alternate Victorian period." There are steampunkish details and functionality that have been incorporated into your building, but the overall structure and materials used are rather stark, clean and have a more modern feel to them. It is a beautiful building, but one that (I feel) Flash Gordon might be more at home in than Sherlock Holmes. Also, there are some mis-aligned and/or overlapping textures that I saw while walking through.

[Sir ArthurConan Doyle]

Thank you for taking the time to look at New Undershaw. Your's is the only explanation I have had that I can understand. The example of Flash Gordon was brilliant. It made everything so very clear. I suppose "steampunk" will forever be Victorian. I wonder what would be the Flash Gordon era term for that subtle mix of sci-fi, engineering and the supernatural. It is a shame really if "steampunk" has to die with Queen Victoria. Perhaps someone will imagine the genre extending another 30 years or so.

The mis-aligned and/or overlapping textures are due to my ham-fisted attempts to tweek the building to make the space work better. I am getting good at moving things at 90° angles, but 45° angles may be beyond my abilities.

[Mr Salazar Jack]

As steam is the predominant source of power with the steampunks, perhaps electricity is the main source of power for the Art Deco age of Flash Gordon and can be used to arrive at the steampunk equivalent? Electropunk? Electrodecopunk? Retroelectrodecopunk?

Oh wait. Sci-fi, engineering AND the supernatural?

How about Electroectoplasmicdecopunk?

Oh bother...

[Sir ArthurConan Doyle]

Why give up on steam? Steam was never the source of power, but the means of harnessing the power of coal (and later oil) into work. As the upcoming exhibit at our local library shows, the Victorians knew exactly where they wanted to go with power once they could apply it easily. (They even thought of TV.)

What if they kept steam for the mechanical application of power but used nuclear energy as a power source instead of oil and gas? Rather than creating energy at a central location and using electricity transmit that energy, create energy right where it needed to be applied. Tiny nuclear plants in our vehicles and homes creating steam into work right where you need it.

[Ceejay Writer]

Just hve to comment that I dearly love the word "Retroelectrodecopunk". You started my morning off with a grin.

I also wish to commend you for this most civil conversation, Mister Doyle and Mister Jack. It is the build that was in question - not each other. And you're conversing with respect and pleasantness that isn't un-noticed. My admiration to both.

[Koen]

For 1920's-30's scifi I've heard the term "dieselpunk" thrown around. The videogame BIOSHOCK is a good example of this. Also there's a sim called Mongo which emulates the Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers architecture. I believe the term they use is "raygun fantasy".

[Edward Pearse, Duke of Argylle]

I've never made a secret of my detestation of the word dieselpunk. "Pulp" is already a perfectly fine genre name covering that style which includes everything from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow to the old Flash Gordon serials and the Phantom comics (the purple leotard wearer, not the Opera critique).

*wanders off grumbling about kids today*

[Osric Worbridge]

I whole heartily agree with his Grace. "Pulp Fiction" (Not the Movie)covers Flash Gordon, Sky Captain, King of the Rocketmen etc.. it is already an established genre, it does not need to be renamed.