Courtesy Louis Platini's Metaverse Business, a Second Life/OpenSim analytics company that gathers publicly accessible in-world data for its clients, here's the top 50 most popular sims in Second Life for October 2011, listed according their average visitor count, the unique visitor range at any given period, and the sim's rank the previous month:
11 of the sims are new to the top 50 since September: VIRTUAL GAMES, Miami Island, Brasil Rio, Zapp, Li Tieguai, Kos, Schirra, AMTS, Virtual Spain, Thunberg, Rinji. See listings 26-60 after the break:
Popular, of course, does not always mean "high quality" or "worth visiting", at least subjectively. Which are among your favorites? Please add SLurls and Destination Guides as available!
The high number of adult sims on this list pretty much kills any credibility the Zindra folks have in their argument that they've been hurt by being so sequestered off.
Seems a clear indication that its only helped them overall.
Posted by: catnapkitty | Tuesday, November 01, 2011 at 04:46 PM
I'd like to see a 50 list for different maturity ratings.
Posted by: jo yardley | Tuesday, November 01, 2011 at 08:13 PM
I agree with jo yardley. Would be much more interesting to see Top 50's for PG/mature/adult regions. Kinda curious to see what's hot when things are not containing adult material..
Posted by: Kudzumai | Wednesday, November 02, 2011 at 01:23 AM
What a great idea! And we could put the Spanish and Portuguese sims on a seperate list, so their importance to the overall picture of what Second Life is can also be ignored and marginalized!
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Wednesday, November 02, 2011 at 06:19 AM
I must correct, Portuguese spoken but Brasilian, as probably Spanish spoken, but from South America most!
Sl is a world wide community, many will not even bother to go to English spoken sims as they have no need (Unlike in real world, Anglo Saxons don't rule in SL!)
And if LL knows where it comes the majority of its income, better do something, cause Europe is going down fast, and sooner nobody will be able to pay what the Lab asks and will do as Elf Clan and move to other grids!
Unless in the end Sl is to be just a place for the Rich!
Posted by: foneco zuzu | Wednesday, November 02, 2011 at 07:36 AM
I agree with the idea of separate lists based on rating. The overall is nice, but I skip over the adult ones.
Posted by: Adeon Writer | Wednesday, November 02, 2011 at 07:54 AM
My naughty alt assures me that most of the popular 'sex' sims are not hotbeds of poseball debauchery but chatrooms for new residents.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all Mainland regions have the default avatar limit of 40? These sims must be on Estates since their max ranges are >40.
Posted by: Oriella Charik | Wednesday, November 02, 2011 at 07:56 AM
These lists are a great ways to discover what the larger SL community finds as "the place to visit". On the topic of language, I may be in the minority, but I do find it fascinating to visit a sim where English is not the primary language spoken. It opens up more possibilities. I recently visited a beautiful Spanish speaking Gor sim as an observer. I also have visited Japanese and European language speaking sims. It's great to find out what creators are doing in other places in terms of buildings, products, etc. Expand your horizons.
Posted by: Rockridge Constantine | Wednesday, November 02, 2011 at 07:59 AM
I am a four year old Avi and can honestly state, I have never heard nor have ever been to any of these 50 locations. I think this just goes to show that the entire grid is a great larger then any said genre or perhaps any particular singular mindset . I agree expanding one's own said horizons is perhaps a "walk away" conclusion from this post !
* note: For some of us .. only so much time to play on the grid :)
Posted by: breezy carver | Wednesday, November 02, 2011 at 09:18 AM
Apologies, foneco. I was making a sarcastic point about segregating the list, and spoke less precisely than I should.
The list as it is reminds us of the importance of not dismissing or marginalizing Second Life populations, either on the basis of language and nationality, or on the basis of what offends our personal sense of propriety.
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Wednesday, November 02, 2011 at 12:43 PM
@Arcadia, while I'm not personally offended by racy content, it would be a great idea to publish a list with different maturity categories, or even types of sites (RP, social, business, education) for the battered and demoralized educators still in SL.
Imagine this (a meme I've mined before here):
Dean Wormwood: Thank you for coming in today, Professor Lag. I wanted to ask you about this Second World thing you use with classes.
Lag: Life, sir. Second Life.
Dean: Yes. Well, it's a lively life!
Dean shows Lag Hamlet's list
Lag raises trembling hand to forehead
Lag: Oh.
Dean: So, do you know what "bukkake" is?
Lag: Um...new type of Sushi....um...region in Second Life dedicated to Japanese culture.
Dean: Nice try. I Googled it...now don't tell me "Gor" is a poorly designed site about the former Vice President.
Posted by: Ignatius Onomatopoeia | Thursday, November 03, 2011 at 08:37 AM
Of all those places, I've only been to Bukkake Bliss. It's a beautiful place to visit on off-peak hours; I shot boots there for Baby Monkey.
This, I find, is often true of adult sims - they offer far more than just the opportunity to wander about naked and bump pixels. Adult sims generally have the budget and incentive to create fresh and beautiful scenery to encourage people to explore and create backdrops for intimate images.
Once you tiptoe past all the wandering freenises and get out of sight of the poseball clouds, you will find many beautiful photo-ops with some naughty options (which you may or may not find interesting) - and the huge advantage of being able to simply swap outfits without worrying if anyone is seeing avi naughty bits while things rez.
This is one reason why I prefer mature and adult sims - I simply do not wish to be pounced on by prudes, and those who fly about in spandex looking for people to AR for "indecency."
I'd have to say that 80 percent of my time, I'm fully clad and doing nothing that would be inappropriate in a PG sim - but I am blessed with not having to be concerned about the other 20 percent.
And frankly, I find the company more congenial. There seems to be less griefing and loud, offensive nonsense. So on the whole, as neither nudity nor sexual representations bother me particularly, and things I find on PG Mainland sims generally do... I'm happy on Zindra.
Posted by: Denovo Broome | Tuesday, November 08, 2011 at 01:07 PM
I would like to see a list of the top 50 sims for shopping & commerce. It would be interesting to see and could help creators research the best places to open a shop/business.
Posted by: Angie Mornington | Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 01:43 PM