Making Avatars Stick - your top 3 (just three) things

You forgot the nice big boxes on our heads!

The only "productive things" that matter are things that "produce" US$ being converted to Lindens. Shopping is right up there on that list.

YES.

That's what I see as the real problem with dwell ghettoes: the border is an avatar event horizon, people inside and people outside form disparate communities, with no interaction between them.
I like the suggestion someone else made of having a special list for social club announcements.

Well. Groups haven't worked. Dwell ghettoes (nice term, Arg) don't work. And events listings, well... ... .....


Without beating the "make it like the web!" drum for the umpteenth time, I think the real fix here would be to just improve the chat interface. Toss chat channels into the asset server and link the whole thing into IRC. Better, give social misfits a few places to start or search.

Because Conference IM sucks.


Really, communication has and needs to be worked on. Right down to the simple things, like displaying text on a prim surface.

Not to put down the many, many people who are happy with shopping and doing other things just as they are, but I meant, "productive for the avatar" rather than "productive for the content creator."

Something to do for the person who wants to be productive himself, in the ways we generally think of as productive - which are generally income-producing, rather than income-spending ways.

coco

Errr.. why? That would just make camping in dwell ghettoes rather than actually going to places in the 3d simulated world and talking avatar-to-avatar more attractive.

I've only suggested about forty-zeven zillion such possibilities.

Bring back the reputation bonus, at the low end. scale it to a curve and cap it so you can't Make Big Lindens Fast by gaming the system. The reputation bonus models tips, so make it work best at that level. That makes "being an 'extra' on set" a productive income-generating job.

Let a landowner create a "dwell group" that you can join and YOU get extra lindens if you're in their property while people outside the group are there, or spend money, or whatever. This extra money doesn't come from the landowner's dwell, and it requires you to actually be there while it's earned. Of course you're going to do what you can to encourage people with money to hang around, and that makes "skycap" and "doorman" and "clerk" productive income-generating jobs.

Give newby accounts 10 free tips or reputation points they can apply to people who help them in SL. That makes "helping newbies newer than you" a productive income-generating job.

Create a mechanism whereby you can resell an object you own on commission, easily, through the normal sales system. The wrappers I've suggested elsewhere are one way, but you sould simply set a "royalty" price on an object so that when a copy of it is sold the creator gets that royalty from the sale. That would make "selling on commission" a productive income-generating job.

I'm sure you can think of more. If you haven't already... give it a try.

And?

Thing is, this concedes a point that "these people are just here to chat." Fine. But my guess is for the vast majority, this wouldn't detract from the rest of Second Life one bit. If it did, we'd be in trouble.



Consider it thusly. In a traditional MMO(G), does the ability to hold guild chat really "detract" from the experience? Or for that matter, hosting special "channels" for raids and whatnot? Because in my experiences from yesteryear, these things were vital for large social gatherings and smaller activities alike.


The lack of even a basic interface for social behavior beyond conference IM sucks. Most groups I've been in in Second Life really don't attain the cohesive nature of a simple /gu anywhere else.

And, frankly, I think that needs to be worked on.