Tuesday, November 6, 2007

More Steelhead City Changes

This may be going out of character a bit, bear with me. Fuzzball and The Player are working together to explain everything.


First, I'd like to apologize for the delay in the Jobias storyline. With the recent announcement of Steelhead's expansion plans, the building of the new town hall, and the appointment of new councilors, we've been busy.


Second, interest in Steelhead Harborside has been amazing. Hopefully, everyone will read the covenant and respect our wishes on how the sim is to look. The long term plan for Steelhead was to have up to ten or twelve sims, if at all possible, way things are looking with Harborside, we may be close to that goal by next summer, but don't quote me, may just be six by then.


Third, the overall layout for Steelhead, with all planned expansions, is basically a recreation of the Northwestern United States, Oregon in particular. Our problem being, if you check Steelhead out, Lighthouse Island, which faces the sea, is on the eastern part of the sim. I suggested to Lunar, since Caledon could be considered a colony of the United Kingdom, perhaps Steelhead could be the same. Simply sail west of Oregon, and eventually, you come to this American settlement, and that it's possible to still have that Northwestern feel to it. Another option, see the fourth part below, is flip the sim around. Lunar had another option he may go with, I was just throwing out ideas.


Fourth, it's quite possible that we may move Steelhead to another area on the grid. Lunar's plans for expansion would eventually bring it close to the sim Sleazywood. We may move, we may stay put. Hard to say. So, don't go around saying that we're moving. Nothing is set in stone.


Fifth, This was the reason for this post. How to advertise Steelhead. In the past, we were going along with the term, "Weird Wild West". It was coined by former sheriff/current doctor Darien Mason. At the time, it fit. Unfortunately, as I stated in a different post, the city matured. Oh, we still got the weird, but we needed something catchy that would bring in a curious person who's never been to one of the themed sims (Steelhead, Caledon, Antiquity, New Babbage, etc), and maybe want to stay. Naturally, there was Steampunk, just as Caledon, New Babbage, and a few others have been known for. But....Steelhead needed something different, and NOT because we think we're better. We would never act that way towards our friends from Caledon, New Babbage, Antiquity or related sims. But, you see, Steelhead is..........different.....


Here's an incomplete list of Steelhead resident. One manager (who WON'T wear the tag "Mayor", even though, technically he is) is a Moon Elf. The other manager, "Mrs. Mayor" (I am soooo dead), is our resident girl genius who likes to blow **** up. Our resident doctor, who has lived in Steelhead for over 12 SL Years (two years RLT), has a daughter who's a steam powered android (currently living in Caledon), a son who's a pus.....Neko, his family is cursed, and he also gets a kick out of reanimating the dead (although it's not allowed in Steelhead....."Mayor" said so). And the sheriff, as everyone is well aware, is a werewolf.


So....how best to describe Steelhead, since it's obviously more than just Steampunk. It wasn't until Herr Baron opened up the Europa Consulate in Steelhead, and I learned about the Girl Genius web comic (created by comic book great, Phil Foglio, with his wife, Kaja), that the term.....the proper term to best describe Steelhead City.....was discovered.


Steelhead City is a Gaslamp Fantasy. Gears, fantastic airships, mechanized life and Frankenstein's monsters. Journeys to the bottom of the sea and the center of the Earth, incredible thinking machines and lots of mad scientists--all with a lovely pseudo-historical flair! That was Kaja Foglio's description. She coined the phrase Gaslamp Fantasy. And quite honestly, the whole concept fit Steelhead to a T. Of course, it could also describe Caledon as well, but Steelhead does tend to show more of the fantasy elements. Personally, I think this is the perfect term to use when describing Steelhead, when advertising it.


Steelhead City has a future, and it's looking bright.

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Genius#.22Gaslamp_Fantasy.22