Making SL More Compelling…

Reading the forums in the past month, it appears that some of the most vocal people are the content creators. The “stake-holders” if you please. It has been stated repeatedly in forums that SL is NOT a game but a platform, and not just a platform but a business platform. Many people firmly believe that stipends should not be enough to get by on and that people should HAVE to buy Lindens to support their Second Life.


What will keep a new member in SL? What will make a new member see the value in SL and stick around long enough to want to purchase Lindens? The first hour in SL can be a dismal and confusing one, even for the non-novice internet user. SL needs the ability to attract regular computer users people like my Mom who may read an article in Women’s Wear Daily and keep them in SL. These people would come to SL for the social interactions and would purchase Lindens to buy content to enhance their lives in SL, but what will get them to stay past the first hour of the trial week? Linden Lab makes no content, the stability and longevity of compelling entertainment content is questionable since it is created by Residents. The cool content or landmark that is here today may be gone tomorrow, and even worse, it may still exist with no support from the creator. There is no standardization of content, no explicit instructions that work across content creators and content. Even with much of the existing content, the learning curve for immediate gratification is too high and the ability to find someone to show you how to use something limited. The education is SL compared to one year ago is greatly reduced.

Personally I think it is unfair and rude to tell people who are new “just make something and sell it” for money. I think realistically that it takes some time to come in SL, become comfortable with the environment and UI, find something you wish to create, create it and build a market. It can take weeks or months to create a viable business in SL after becoming a member. The majority of people, especially those of the internet generations are used to instant gratification, most will not stick around long enough to get beyond that curve and become creators because of the time involved to realize a profit or success.

In a world like There, you know up front you have to pay for everything. You burn through your newbie money just to customize your avatar and if you want anything else, you know you have to buy it but luckily the items are right there being sold by the company, clothes, hair, vehicles, and a compelling easy to shop online auction that lists all of the resident creations in world, because there is no other way for content creators to mass market their items. If you need to purchase additional funds you can so right through the client and the funds are instantly deposited in your account, so you can impulse shop until your heart is content. The current systems in SL do no allow for this. Currently, to visually browse goods for sale in world you have to visit a 3rd Party site and choose between three different sites, all with different formats. If you wish to purchase Lindens, not only do you have to visit a 3rd party site but you also have to create a Paypal account, or use your credit card on a site owned by a company willingly breaking the law. This will stop many people in their tracks or they will decide it is too many steps and just walk away. Linden Lab adding the ability to purchase Lindens directly through the system is beneficial in two very crucial ways. First and foremost it will create a default climate or at least a heightened awareness that you are expected to purchase Lindens and that the stipend is just not enough, and lastly it should increase impulse purchasing and buying power in SL.

If the “SL as a business platform” really takes off and attracts more Professional 3D Artists and Graphic Designers, along with Land Speculators, what will happen it do to the economy? There are still very few professionals in SL; the majority of content creators are hobbyists. I think one it will flatten out sales across the board and maybe put some current content creators out of business. The more competition you have, the lower prices become. Also, the revenue of sales in SL will be distributed amongst more people, which may deflate the sales of some. We still have yet to see a group of a few designers come into SL, work under a common label name and turn out massive amounts of affordable high end content. Wal-Mart/Target has not come to SL yet, but the day is coming.

Anyway, the purpose of this post was to open some dialogue on what Content creators plan to do, or what their suggestions are to LL to improve the new user experience, increase the expectation of pay to enjoy, and promote the SL as a business platform ideal.


A few of my suggestions…..

1. Make the Welcome Area less ornate, limit access to the area to mentors, greeters and LL staff. A simple park without the heavy Prim buildings and less avatars would cut down on lag and make the WA less overwhelming.
   
2. A Linden created or contracted newbie island that is owned by LL and a permanent fixture in SL. Something along the lines of an amusement park/city. I would probably take 4 sims to achieve this effectively.
   
3. The ability to purchase Lindens via the client or on the web. In the works, as we all know
   
4. The ability to purchase Content from the UI or on the web. If this is not possible due to the lack of wanting to compete with SL businesses, there should be a Linden webpage where content creators in SL can list a limited number of their creations( 2-3) for viewing by new and potential SL customers. I think this would be a creative marketing tool.
   
5. Havoc 3, so vehicles are actually enjoyable in SL.
   

I'm not sure that implementing a state-of-the-art physics engine is the best way to accomplish this. I am convinced more and more every day that the problem with vehicles is fundamental to the way sims, servers, assets, and agents are handled.

Just being able to fly a vehicle with ease around the grid would be such a huge improvement. Just my 2 cents, it wasn't very well thought out or interesting. I think I'm getting the flu.

But umm.. huge potential... the tech side needs to keep up with us somehow.

I made like 10 different points in this post and you responded to Havoc 3? *sigh* Why do I even bother.

Okeydoke, encouraging to see this thread... few of mine:

1. Continued improvements to the User Interface. It's certainly useable but parts of it are so convoluted and unintuitive (i.e. the commonly-used Instant Message window) that they impede what's so precious about Second Life: connecting with other people. Here's a thread with some simple, very doable ideas from fellow Residents and myself. As I've mentioned before, UI is like kung fu to me... I see a lot of welcome room for improvement. Line of light: incremental upgrades with each version. New way to open boxes highly appreciated.
   
   
   

1. Better documentation, explanations for WhyWWWWH things happen here. ANSWERING OF QUESTIONS! I've been here over a year, I still find some things very confusing. New Residents don't have a lot to hang onto—the Basic Help files are archaic and contain confusingly outdated info (hello Outlands?), and most help comes in the form of what amounts to word-of-mouth, which is great on a personal level but not very scalable! FAQ THAT! The docs we have right now are slipshod, scattershot, and cobblestoned. Line of light: Kex Godel's FAQ and helpful notecards by Residents being rolled into Live Help.
   
   
   
   
2. More cultural diversity. Cultural not just in the ethnographic sense, but it could relate to what Tofflerism foresaw as a "subcult explosion". You know labels like goth and furries or even cyberpunk (I am all of the aforementioned and more). Quite frankly, there a ton of these that haven't been filled, so people with interests in these areas DON'T get them satisfied. More of these passions gotta be catered to. For example, with all the anime luvers in SL, I'm surprised—appalled actually!—to not see more content for them, and that's why I applaud things like the SLAC store and Neph+Neil's new works. We have lots of furries in SL but I'd like to see more recognition of them in official marketing... besides cool avs, there are some really nice people who've contributed to the community! AND WHERE THE HECK IS ALL THE KRUMPING AND BREAKDANCING?!?? Line of light: having new international expansion grids will increase cultural diversity in SL, including subcultures. More people will feel welcome in SL and not be shut out as freaks like they might be offline. Second Life can be very therapeutic and healing—and FUN!—this way.
   

Eboni this is no way meant as a personal attack but you know that when you post such a huge post, no matter how well thought out and carefully constucted, nobody is going to read it. Despite my best intentions I couldn't plow through it. Sorry but if you could condense your ideas to a few sentences.....

Because I don't give a shit about any of the other stuff? Virtually all of your other points are focused on making the world better for casual, social use. Havoc 3 is the only suggestion which is even remotely related to making SL a better place for building.

Let me reiterate: I don't give a shit about 14 year old girls coming into SL to 'lol!!1 omg, devon looked at you!!1!' all over the place, or 12 year old boys getting their 'asl?' freak on. I'm a builder, and H3 was the only part of your post that interested me. If we are obligated to respond to every post in totality, then I guess it's time to surrender my posting privs.

(On rereading my post, it sounds infinitely more hostile than it was meant to be. Please don't take any offense. I think you're discussing a very important topic, and you should continue to do so. Except for H3, it's a topic which no longer interests me. That's really the extent of my contribution to this discussion.)

Typically I try to avoid long winded posts because for the most part I know that most people will not read them. However in this case I was unable to further condense my thoughts than I have here.

I read the whole post.

It was fantastic.

I honestly think a fundamental problem with SecondLife is the name. I still get that "what kind of loser are you?" look everytime I say the word "SecondLife".

I mean, I have to talk about it without mentioning the name. This is a very very poor marketing experience.

Another solution is to empower individual businesses to attract people to SL and to manage their own respective communities. SL has done that with Wells Fargo.

They need to provide a white label entry point now, so we can all have our own branded entry point (one way of getting away from that terrible name, SecondLife).

For example, imagine "Gold Coast" the name of the application you run to get into secondlife. I think that'd be cool.

Excellent ideas! First constructive and useful post in while around here I am going to think about this more before I make my suggestions.

I agree entirely. When I first heard about the game it was called "Lindenworld" and I may have actually played it for a day (lost my notes so I'm not 100% sure it was LW I played), but as I was using dialup, it was not a good experience so I had to quit.

So, when I heard about SL, I didn't know what it was because I knew what Lindenworld was...

In a couple of years I suppose we'll be playing "Worldstruction" or some such name which sounds really cool, but it's the game that has to be cool, not the name. Most people are into RPGs for the action, money, items, nice-looking skills, and almost no roleplay (notice the irony). By contrast, our SL experience is somewhat off the beaten path as regards majority demand... but I'd rather have my little niche interests fulfilled.

I suppose a rose by any other name will still have its thorns... but "Red Prickly Death" sounds really "X-treme", huh?

I've heard of "grin-and-bear it" experiences with the name Second Life. It used to be more of a self-conscious concern for me, but I just got used to it. So instead of saying it holding back, I gush forward. What you mention makes me think of a trio of things:

1. What sort of emotions will "Second Life" evoke when translated into other languages? How will they shade the translation, using linguistic specifics? What sort of things will be expressed through the name that don't come across so readily in English?
   

1. Can tides be turned in time and can psychological perception be changed? There used to be a time when "ill, wicked, sick" all meant rather negative things, but now they're used complimentarily. Similar case for the word "addict" in colorful speech. I'm not expecting an AYB-style Zergrush but I am fascinated by shuffling phonemes.
   

1. I've seen products with all sorts of names succeed, depending on a variety of factors. Who knows, we may even see SL experience its own kind of Brazilian Internet Phenomenon.
   

Interesting post, Eboni.

The first rule of Second Life is.... You do not talk about Second life.
The second rule of Second Life is... You do not talk about Second life!

Since there is nothing to do but make things, my plan is: When they start having professionals and Wal-Mart and all those come in to do all the content (or just select certain ones of us they like to support all their content) and the little ones struggling along alone have no chance at much promotion of the finances of a Wal-Mart, etc., then I will find a game where I can make things myself.

To me, the entire draw is being able to create things, and sell them to each other, or show them off to each other, and iit's what's special about SL. I suspect it's the entire draw for a whole heck of a lot of people. Chatting I can do anywhere. Entertainment - no support for providing it. Furries or other special interests - I don't have any of those. Jobs, quests, or tasks - there aren't any. Land dealing - I'm not interested in it. What's left? Making things. That is the thrill of this, that you can make whatever you want and everyone buys it from each other.

When the day comes where it will be nothing but a virtual real world with real world corporations on every corner or real world computer graphic artists with a jillion tools or whatever making a living on here, or where only a few people hand-selected by the Lindens receive all the support, then there will be no reason for me to hang around, and I will look for someplace else to do the same thing, or just do something else entirely. Cause the whole game for me is making things just like everyone else.

I hope that day never comes.

coco

If that is your reason for being here, not sheer financial gain, then other talented or skilled people coming into SL shouldn't affect you at all. If you are here just for the enjoyment of creating content not monetary gain, then your Second Life should continue as usual. I am unclear why it would change.

Eboni, I'd like to compliment you on this thoughtful, well written post.

I don't know that I can see anything about Second Life that would interest the average person. You can't do anything in Second Life that a normal person would find useful. The program is sluggish, the interface is absolutely terrible, the graphics are greatly inferior to any normal popular 3D graphics software. The documentation is generally very bad with the exception of the LSL guide which is ok and the LSL wiki which is actually very good. The support wiki has a lot of useful information in it but it is in very badly organized. The company has close to zero or zero useful video instructions available.

Most people aren't computer geeks or science fiction fans, they don't care about being pioneers in the metaverse and don't want to write programs or use photoshop or poser. But they do like to have sex, so making SL more able to do a good job of simulating having sex with the Playperson of the month seems to me like it would be real popular.

I suspect that adding genitals to the avatar body and changing the way the system detects and respond to mouseclicks, dragging, and modifer keys used in conjuction with the mouse to enable touching, stroking, pushing, pulling, scratching, licking, biting, etc. other avatar bodies, and properly synchronized multi-avatar gestures would be a way to increase interest and use of the product. One should be able to detect where an avatar body is being touched, whether it be by the mouse cursor of by collision with another avatars body. Avatar body parts should be able to house scripts to enable custom body responses. Avatar body control should be modified to allow one to move the avatar more like a real body rather than strictly through selecting from prewritten movement sequences. Collision detection for the avatar body should be increased in resolution to actually match the apparent body surface. Making the avatar body's appearance more accurate and detailed would probably increase the degree of immersion and amount of arousal in the av sex experience so that would be a good thing too.

Oh wow! I guess I didn't even realize this til you said it outright...how true!
I find lately that I stop myself all the time from saying "blah blah...in Second Life" to people I know and instead end up saying "blah blah....in that game, metaverse, virtual world, whatchamacalit thingie that I devote so much time to online", blushing all the while!! LOL

Of course it is a little difficult to explain WHY you spend all of your paid time-off sitting at home when you physically LIVE on the same property where you work and your co-workers SEE that you are not going anywhere on these days that you just absolutely MUST have off from work! Hey, I don't have enough money to go away on vacations....I took time off to model for Le Cadre's Fashion Week and for our radio station's anniversary this weekend....was very enjoyable and didn't cost me a single dime! Try explaining that to non-SL folks though LOL

Uh-oh does this make me a geek? Or just an addict??? LOL

As a side note, my father called today during our events and heard the DJ say "Swimsuit Contest" in the background.....try explaining that one

Yeah, I mentioned this to my wife over breakfast this morning and she said "yah. I find it pretty awkward when I tell people what you do to make money"

Yes, I was thinking of that myself.

But half of it is the challenge the environment provides, with all the other "hobbyists." (Whatever that is.) The other half is seeing people enjoy your creations. Part of it is hoping to make enough money to pay your rent. All these are challenges and motivations. With big guns coming in and taking over, then one would REALLY be just a hobbyist.

Then I might as well take to purely solitary creativity, and actually sell it irl.

coco

I like these suggestions Eboni! I think they would do a lot to help new users, but would not take away from the residents of this world being the main creators. I would consider these as "platform learning tools" and do not feel that it would be the Lindens overstepping any bounds.

This thread moved to Feature Suggestions.

Eboni, Thank you for allowing me to see this side of you here. This post is one of the best I have ever read and that it comes from you honestly makes it more valuable to me. The concepts presented are broad and deserving of reflection. Kudos for your ability to compress it as far as you have with this presentation.

I'll touch on only one of your points at this time.

So many people enjoyed Spittoonie Island, had it in their picks, recommended it to new members, and regretted it's passing. What was the value to the owner of this sim? My guess is that it was in the creation process rather than the ongoing ownership of it. So how do we keep it part of the SL landscape when the owner would prefer to spend the $200 per month maintenance fee on some new creative effort?

Your idea suggests an alternative means of ensuring that an area like this stays a part of the SL landscape. It calls to mind the Second Life Rail Road project in the Atoll Continent. That project was a significant because individuals worked independantly, were paid a significant amount for their work (in SL terms), and had their build tied to others by a theme which makes it more visible and frequented by the community.

Another alternative would be corporate support which is where I see the value of RL businesses in SL. It will be in their interests to have a world in which potential customers want to linger and enjoy. Businesses understand the benefits in the role as community builders and are the financiers of most every "free" activity I enjoy. I think of the recent Ford International Jazz Fesival in Detroit. No one was blasted with automotive ads nor did they walk away and head to a Ford dealership. The Ford name benefitted from its association with the quality of this festival which iwas enabled by its sponsorship.

Coco, I disagree. The source of funding for quality events (and thus jobs in the service industry) will probably only come when RL businesses find SL a good community to be part of.

I think that you are correct and that to draw people in SL in large numbers that Avatar interactions needs to greatly increase. Some of the social aspects of SL are greatly hampered by the limited interactions our avatars allow us. If people could pixel knock with greater immersion and interaction, I am sure there would be a massive increase in membership.

I definitely think taking animation/avatar support to the next level is very important. There have been no improvements to animations since their intiial release, and while the current support opened up a whole new world in SL, there is so much more that needs to be done. At a minimum, making all of the joints of the avatar scriptable and being able to define contact points between avatars would go a long way toward more interactivity.