Private Land Geography Research

Second Life Geography

Private-owned sims are the vast majority of land on the grid. They show a high diversity in Geographic features: land features, ground texture, vegetation and buildings. In many cases, they also have a complex system of skyboxes. But, a classification of these land features is possible and it shows in fact what are the aspirations of the people behind the scene.

Private sims are found in the following places:

Private Subcontinents (attached to Sansara and Nautilus continents)
Private Continents (smaller then the Linden-owned ones)
Private Microcontinents (the vast majority)
Private Sim Clusters (the vast majority)
Private Sim Groups (almost all of them)
Unassociated Sims (100% of them)
Isolated Sims (all of them).

The following listings are the data collected by Second Life Geography team by visiting private-owned sims.

Geographic features

Land fragmentation

Undivided: 42.2%
Divided by mountains: 5.1%
Divided by objects: 4.4%
Divided by parcel lines: 13.3%
Divided by roads: 4.0%
Divided by water: 14.6%
Unknown: 16.5%

Geographic type

Artificial & skyboxes: 5.1%
Hills: 11.5%
Mountains: 13.2%
Plain: 22.8%
Plateaus: 9.2%
Tropical beach paradise: 18.0%
Water: 3.8%
Unknown: 16.4%

Transportation

Air: 0.5
Inside buildings: 4.8
None: 23.9
Paths: 6.8
Railways: 0.8
Roads: 7.1
Water: 6.3
Unknown: 10.7

Water presence

No water: 19.6%
<40% water: 41.0%
~50% water: 13.9%
>60* water: 9.4%
Complete flooded: 1.3%
Unknown: 14.7%

Ground texture

Covered ground: 4.9%
Designed special: 0.8%
Empty ground: 4.0%
Grass: 49.8%
Sand: 23.9%
White: 0.6%
Unknown: 15.9%

Vegetation

Colored plants: 3.9%
Dead plants & desert: 0.3%
Forest: 12.0%
None: 19.7%
Parks: 2.4%
Small plants: 3.4%
Temperate, not forest: 15.4%
Tropical: 23.3%
Water submerged plants: 0.8%
Unknown: 18.8%

Building style

Advertise (large): 5.3%
Advertise (small): 5.2%
Antiquity: 1.0%
Beach style: 15.5%
Exposition: 1.0%
Fantasy: 1.9%
Far East & East: 1.5%
Industrial: 0.5%
Later then medieval: 2.4%
Medieval: 5.0%
Modern: 7.8%
None: 6.8%
Not quite buildings: 1.8%
Ruins: 0.6%
Rural: 4.9%
Rustic: 7.9%
Sci-fi: 1.8%
Suburbs: 7.4%
Under water: 0.2%
Urban: 3.6%
Unknown: 18.0%

Land destination

Club/party: 4.4%
Commercial, not shops: 3.4%
For sale, rent: 9.3%
Institution: 2.3%
Not used: 2.1%
Private sandbox: 0.3%
Recreation: 20.8%
Residential: 25.6%
Roleplay: 6.3%
Shops: 7.8%
Unknown: 17.7%

Access restrictions

None found: 67.0%
Themed outfit: 1.8%
Ban lines: 9.4%
Entity orbs: 4.5%
Skybox limited: 3.4%
No access: 13.9%

Observations

These results are made after visiting (or attempting to visit) 682 private sims at random with an avatar. Results are calculated based on what was found on each sim. If access was limited, other possible resources were used (like world map).

For land fragmentation, it was important if that is visible. For example, if land is divided but used by the same person, it was not count. Or, if land is used by two persons and it is not a visible separation, also it was considered undivided. In some cases, land separation is done by multiple ways: by water channels and mountains at the same time (for the same separation line or for two different borders). The dominant feature was counted.