The Alphaville Herald

Max Case Updates Sim Neighbours

by Pixeleen Mistral on 13/02/07 at 9:42 am

Texas and California – does location matter?

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Finding out where your sim’s server is in real life has just gotten easier thanks to an updated version of Max Case’s Sim Neighbours tool.

Giving virtual land owners easy access to information about where their server is located and which other sims share the server has never been high on the Lab’s list of priorities – perhaps under the theory that the Lab knows best and resident land owners ought to take what they are given without complaint. It is also possible the Lab staffers have been distracted by the easy access to peyote buttons from Texas to compliment the electric kool aide in San Francisco. But location seems to matter.

Last fall, Linden Lab began placing the servers that power the metaverse in two locations – Texas and California – rather than keeping everything in one facility in San Francisco. At about the same time, dark suspicions grew that some of the sim border crossing issues could be related to the relative physical location of the servers. In theory, handoffs between sims may be more difficult if they are not closely connected on the network.

Recent reports that some island owners prevailed on the Lindens to place all of their sims in the same physical facility would seem to confirm this theory. But with Linden staff generally gone into hiding and the official forums effectively closed – how do the rank and file residents learn where their favorite sims are located? If you are willing to wear a Registrator-Tron HUD and visit a few sims you can learn both which other sims you share a server with and where the servers are in RL.

How it works

The Registrator-Tron HUD reports back to Max Case’s database the address of the server for the sim you are visiting – where this information is collated with other reports to show which other sims share your server. Max recently updated the site to also report which server farm holds your server – so it is now easier to see if the Lindens bothered to place contiguous sims into contiguous RL facilities. You also have some clue if the problem you are experiencing may be due to LSD or peyote indulgence on the part of the operators.

Sanchon and Armory Island share a server in Texas

Max’s database depends on updates since the Lindens seem to rearrange where sims are server frequently – so to have much confidence in the results displayed you probably need to visit the other sims your server shares. In any case – it is now easier to see if location matters in the metaverse.