SLENTRE.COM

Compiled by Avarie Parker

This week the top spots held steady with a few new parcels gaining popularity. The big surprise is newcomer, Passion Island. Although the name is promising, the month old sim doesn’t live up to the hype. Very much like web domain name trading, SL island names can have a huge impact on traffic. It looks like Passion Island’s name alone was enough to get it into the top 10.

The biggest winner this week is Help Island, jumping from number 8 last week all the way up to number 4. The Linden’s must be hard at work recruiting new residents. Bumped off the chart this week are CARP – the capture role play sim, Laguna Bay Nude Beach, and Toxia – dark, urban role play. Frank’s is still leading the brat pack in the top position.

Sims with camping chairs, free lindens, automated avatars, or “bots” are never listed on the SLENTRE.COM Traffic Report. The weekly population data is compiled by a 3rd party source and then reviewed to exclude any sites that engage in tactics designed to boost traffic rankings. What remains is an accurate listing of where real Second Life residents are dancing, chatting, spending Lindens, and enjoying their second lives.

		Franks Place, Owner – Gymmy Sinatra
		Remembrance, Owner – Luxa Budan
		Plush Zeta, Owner – Jebee Reinsch
		Help Island Public, Owner – Governor Linden
		Badlands, Owner – Jesse Murdock
		The 5th Element , Owner – Dakota Neumann
		Apollo, Owner – Dane Zander
		Passion Island, Owner – Firgold Wylie
		Gaia, Owner – Blaise Tintam
		Bilby, Owner – Familia Vollmar

Stayed the same

Moved up

Moved down

New entry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1) Franks Place, Owner – Gymmy Sinatra
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Franks%20Place/53/162/24

Franks Place is a 30’s/40’s style jazz club paying homage to Frank Sinatra. According to Ray Trafalgar, one of the managers, the place is packed nightly with 80+ residents. The sim also houses a mall where you can find the formal wear required to gain entrance into the club.

“We try hard to keep the formal attire enforced and have a security of some 25 to keep it that way,” says Trafalgar. “If you enjoy the music of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and the Rat Pack, this is your place.”

2) Remembrance, Owner – Luxa Budan
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Remembrance/128/128/0

Remembrance or NOR sim is one of 12 islands that houses a dark roleplay and combat sim. According to Savina Decosta, who has been playing for over a year, the primary goal is to defeat other players and gain power.

( Savina Decosta, group leader)

She is a Lycan and “fights with her claws.”

(The city and combat area on the Nor sim)

When asked if there are there public battles, Savina replied, “Yes, HUGE public battles”.

3) Plush Zeta,Owner – Jebee Reinsch
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Zeta/80/136/22

Plush Zeta’s main draw is the Red Light District where one can find escorts, Sex Shops, Bars, Hotels, Discotheques, and Nightclubs. The primary goal of the girls walking the streets is to make money and they will happily chat with a stranger if the price is right. I managed to chat with Mariah Trenkins, an escort in the district, and when asked what she does, her reply was “Make money. What else?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to Miss Trenkins (pictured left), she makes anywhere from $0.00L to $2000-$3000L per evening. The constant crowd makes for interesting people watching. Too bad there aren’t any hash bars nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4) Help Island Public, Owner – Governor Linden
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Help%20Island%20Public/128/128/26

If you want to learn more about Second Life, then Help Island is where it’s at. According to the information on the sim, a resident can “learn to script, learn to build, and pick up Freebies on Help Island Public!”

5) Badlands, Owner – Jesse Murdock
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Badlands/128/128/0

Badlands hosts Bad Girls club, one of SL’s most popular nightclubs.

Floating above the packed dance floor is an intimate private area to chat and escape the crowd.

6) The 5th Element , Owner – Dakota Neumann
http://slurl.com/secondlife/GOL%204/128/128/0

The 5th Element is a large topless dance club where one can find music, live performers, topless only dancers, parties, and live DJ’s.

According to Ariel Otafuku, club CFO and dancer, the crowd comes for the live music and sense of community. “We all seem to know each other.”

(Ariel Otafuku, The 5th Element CFO and dancer)

The best times to visit the club fluctuate as the crowd is quite international–meaning everyone is living in different time zones. “We get lots of Germans, Frenchies, Americans, and gawd knows what else. LOL!”

7) Apollo, Owner – Dane Zander
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Apollo/128/128/0

Apollo is a beautiful Grecian-inspired garden with an under the stars dance floor called Salsas y Boleros. The sim doesn’t allow nudity but lists itself as a place for starlit romance with applicable rules.

8 ) Passion Island, Owner – Firgold Wylie
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Passion%20Island/128/128/0

What’s in a name? Well, if it’s a good one it can generate quite a bit of Second Life traffic. Passion Island is a new sim, only one month old, and yet it already seems to be a hot spot. The island is made up of a dive shop, surf gear, and beautiful underwater scenery to take in. There aren’t any jumping clubs, sex shops, or mega-malls you might otherwise associate with such a high traffic area.

In fact, every time I went to visit it was empty with the exception of the parcel owners.

(Passion Island Owner Firgold Wylie )

There are islands for rent on Passion Island and one tenant had a large group in for a surfing party. Having ‘Passion Island’ in the SLURL certainly didn’t hurt attendance numbers. My guess is this sim is getting record traffic as people come to investigate, but as actual “passion” is scarce, they won’t stick around long.

9) Gaia, Owner – Blaise Timtam
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gaia/128/128/0

Gaia is a lively community center for French residents in Second Life. Founded by Blaise Timtam from the Ecole Francophone it offers information resources for French language speakers. If you are looking to improve your conversational French, you will find many active speakers here willing to chat.

 

10) Bilby, Owner – Familia Vollmar
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bilby/128/128/0

Bilby is home to a gothic role play and combat sim called Infernal Ville. There is a complex web of teleporter links that can transport you to the sim’s different arenas, shops, and villages. The primary language here is Portuguese as most participants are from Brazil.

(Internal Ville player, ZiRa Blessed prepares for battle)

There is quite a long list of rules for the game so be sure to take a look before jumping in the arena. I was lucky enough to find the sim manager Silfer Handrick online, and so got to ask him a few questions.

(Sim Manager and Internal Ville player explaining game play)

When asked why he likes to play Infernal Ville, he enthusiastically replied, “To have fun, make friends and spend good moments.” “We create rules that help make people better, not only here but in real life as well. We try to keep the rules simple so players have freedom, but are organized and respectful at the same time.” Internal Ville is a very close community. According to Silfer, “people that play in here fall in love with this place and come to be part of our family.”

This report was compiled using the powerful mapping tools provided by Mappa Novus, http://www.mappanovus.com/. Their in-house data collection technology regularly collects population data for each region of the Second Life metaverse. The data is stored over time so various statistical analyses can be made. Any sim that offers camping, free-lindens, or bots is disqualified.