If you had one bit of advice to give ...

If a newbie (say, just for example, me?) were to walk up to you and ask you this question, what would you say?

What is the ONE thing you would urge any newcomer to SL to do, find, or make happen in order to really enjoy being here? Would it enrich their SL experience, and if so, how?

Thanks in advance. I'm genuinely curious.

Question #2 coming tomorrow: how the heck new people can make money (I actually had one helpful male suggest I find a sugar daddy, but I can't find that category on my search list LOL!)

Cin

the first advice would be explore and be patient

Visit the Ivory Tower of Primitives and plan to spend some real time there. Then go to one of the sandboxes and play with your new found skill. Use the Live Help button and ask us questions. Explore, explore, explore.

No matter how tempting, don't let an SL job take over your fun time (or your RL). Nothing makes fun seem like work faster than making a game your job.

Head over to the Ivory Tower Library of Primitives.

Not only does it teach basic and advanced building tools for an independant life in SL, it's a great way to learn the UI!

It's modular, so you can go at your own pace, and uses physical, text-based & graphical examples to show one what should be done.

(one other thing, the only stupid question is the one you didn't ask)

Thanks to Lumiere Noir for building & maintaining the Library!

I'm horrible at RTFM'ing, and when a game doesn't have a manual it only enables my sad predilection

Thanks to all of you for the great advice. See, I knew about the sandboxes but I had no idea about the Library of Primitives. I'll be going there ASAP. That's a wonderful tip.

And I really resonated with the suggestion of patience. The first day in SL, I wanted lots of money, land, beautiful clothes and friends. Those will gradually come with time, provided I put back into the game so it 'pays' back accordingly.


But there's so many!

Cindy

I would say, be patient and don't limit your creativity.

1. Buy a good 512.
2. Sell a good 512 for a profit.
3. Rent land/house and save
4. Buy some more land
5. Go to as many events as possible to meet as many people as you can and hear
ideas
6. Don't bother with the forums except classifieds.

What like you are?

Cindy,

Welcome to SL The advice I would give would be to not be afraid to ask someone for help if you don't know how to do something. SL is overwhelming at first, and even to this day I still ask people for help when I don't know how to do something I would like to do in SL. You will find that most people are very giving and more than willing to share, and to help you out. Don't give up on something if it frustrates or confuses you - you will find that once you get past being overwhelmed by everything, SL really is not that difficult to use - in fact, it is quite empowering how easy the tools are to use to create and explore.

My advice would be, Try everything at least once, preferably a few times. Some things you might think you have absolutely no interest in could turn out to be your real 'calling' in SL.

Explore for ideas. Build just for the hell of it and see what comes out. Play around with texturing and creating textures. Poke through free scripts and see what you can do with them. Get the Linden templates or Chip Midnight's free templates and make some clothing, even it's just a t-shirt. (If you don't have Photoshop or another similar program already, grab GIMP, it's free.)

You never really know what you might find enjoyable unless you try it all.

And to answer tomorrow's question in advance... do all of the above before you decide on how you want to make money. If it's not enjoyable to you, it's not worth it. Find something you really like, and try to make money off that, instead of the other way around. Don't turn a great hobby into 'work' because it will suck the enjoyment right out of it.

Don't be afraid to get into the land dealing biz. Lots of people will try to scare you out of it, but its a great place to make L$ and USD$.

Many things in SL can seem complicated and overwhelming. But everything is made up of simple tricks. Learn one thing today. Learn something else tomorrow. Some day it all comes together.

my advice is to watch your chat bar and to respond when people say something to you! i can't count the times i have been in the welcome area and a new person has asked a question which i have answered and there is no response. sometimes i'll wait a while and ask them if that answered their question and i may or may not get a response or i may hear something like "kewl there's a guy with a gun".

it's amazing how helpful many people are in SL but if you don't hear them you miss out on a lot.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by
scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering
experience…I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not
understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and
recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before
you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you
imagine. Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing
bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm
on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing everyday that scares you Sing Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with
people who are reckless with yours. Floss Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes
you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with
yourself. Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you
succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. Stretch Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your
life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they
wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year
olds I know still don’t. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe
you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky
chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t
congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your
choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body,
use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people
think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever
own.. Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for
good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the
people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you
should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and
lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you
knew when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live
in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will
philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize
that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were
noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund,
maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one
might run out. Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will
look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who
supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of
fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the
ugly parts and recycling it for more than
it’s worth. But trust me on the sunscreen…

Get out and meet people! SL has some of the most amazing people in the world sitting behind their AV's. Forge some great friendships and have fun!

Hmm. Now you're getting my creative juices going. I used Poser and Bryce for a couple of years (old versions), and though my efforts weren't very good it was quite a learning experience. Maybe some of that can transfer over. Thanks for the tip on GIMP - didn't know about that. I've used Paintshop Pro, which is kind of a dumbed down Photoshop.


I'm a veteran of Star Wars Galaxies, and as most of the refugees from that game can tell you, once the system became work we simply stopped having fun. And left. I won't be making that mistake again.


A couple of you have mentioned this. I haven't used my free piece of land yet. So when I grab it, it's an economically viable jump-off point, from which I can play Don Trump and buy more?


I have to say I was VERY impressed in my first hour in SL, when I bought an item and then couldn't figure out how to open the object and extract contents. One of the Live Helpers was so patient with me, walking me through the process until I finally got it right. And as you said, once I figured out how to do it, it was a 30-second operation to do again.

There was another non-helper person there talking to her, and the two of them were so gracious and friendly I immediately felt welcome. The Live Helper even gave me her outfit free when I complimented her on it. I thought "how can I not like this place?" -- it made up for the script kiddie who bounced me out of a shop a little later, out of nothing more than pure orneriness (he was reported). That's the only problem I've really had with other players so far.

Cin

1) Explore. Hit the 'find' places tab and just scroll through it, and then visit anything that sounds interesting. You meet amazing people and have skads of fun doing it.

2) Ask lots of questions. Most people I've met are really helpful and many will respond with a wealth of good information.

Explore. Stop by and say hello to people. Be polite and respectful. Try out a few different kinds of events. Attach a box to your head and run around the Welcome Area screaming, "Help me!! I can't breath!!

LMAO! I'm the kind of person who would actually do something like that

Re: Chat bar. Good point. I turn my sound up, mainly because I love all the music I hear travelling around (much of it I've never heard before). So I usually hear the little IM "ding" when my group says something. Being something of a vet of dozens of online games, I'm pretty adept at keeping up with chat. Usually

I was invited and accepted membership in the group down at Lestat's nightclub, if any of you want to stop by and say hi. I'll probably be synch-dancing with my best friend Vicki. If not, feel free to IM me!

Cindy

Holy Crap!

Thank you Jamie, that was really cool! And very inspirational.

Jess

Go to a costume party with a box on your head and say your costume is "newbie"...did this one night, a lot of fun, esp since i was a newbie

What a great thread! But it's really hard to select just ONE piece of advice, especially when that one bit of advice will sound like "try everything" But here goes:

Talk to people.

I say this for SO many reasons. Most people in SL are just to coolest folks you will meet and you can have a lot of fun. Talking to people will help you get hooked up to great opportunities. When you ask questions, most people are eager to help.

Yeah, I've seen groups of people at a place...someone in their first couple of days comes in, and does something like put a box on their head. Then they ask for help...or they stand when everyone else is dancing. There's always at least five people telling them how to do whatever action is needed, or asking if they know how...people are for the most part awesome at helping others.

"Attach a box to your head and run around the Welcome Area screaming, "Help me!! I can't breath!"

lol

coco