Making SL More Compelling…

Sorry that struck me as funny considering we dont even have Havok 2 yet.

I said Havok 3 on purpose waiting for this comment from a poster.

Havok 2 is old technology, the current version is Havok 3. Why implement retired technology?

Out of tons of really really good points this is the one that I cheered for.

IGE hates me because I mistyped my CC# once, so they're not an option.

GOM hates me because I refuse to use Paypal, so they're not an option.

If I could buy L$ directly from LL right from the SL UI, I'd blow a ton of cash.

Here's a roughly drafted idea:

Businesses within SL go through a registration process with LL (maybe even including a fee) to become a type of "new player friendly" place.

When a new player signs up for a new account and logs in, they receive an updated list of landmarks to all the registered "new player friendly" establishments.

New players could hopefully feel confident that this place they are teleporting to is a place where they can find some help, some encouragement and gain some very helpful knowledge.

Just a first thought that popped in my head at first read of this post.

O

It's something I harp on a lot, but I think a more diverse and flexible events calendar (including everything that implies) would help with player retention. Having interesting things to look forward to a week, or even a month ahead might encourage new players to log back on after their initial foray into the grid. We could answer the noob question "What can I do here?" by directing them to the events calendar, and could even keep a straight face while doing so. Currently, the hot porn calendar is of limited interest.

sl as a (business) platform has absolutely nothing to do with stipends and L$=USD.

L$=USD is for people to entertain themselves in SL. people build virtual lives in sl now like they used to build homepages ten years ago.

in my opinion, the example SL's direction as a business platform is bedazzle has been working on for wells fargo. that is a RL project for a RL company with a RL purpose and pays in RL dollars.

why is the L$ floundering right now? i think the most fundamental reason is that right now SL is predominantly of little RL consequence. in time that will definitely change if SL develops into the 3d equivalent of the WWW. when people log in to an sl type platform for their online shopping, chatting, and SLava Life, we will see a real demand for pixel panties and avatar hairdos thus L$. however, until SL develops an industry based in USD, very few will make a substantial amount of cash based in L$.

it's not a problem though. in the meantime it's a game. i'm having fun.

What kind of social activities do you see your mom and other regular computer users who are not gamers doing in sl? What do they now utlize the internet for? What RL pursuits (social/hobby/work) can be enhanced or streamlined?

wow a thread where people are actually talking like adults. maybe there is hope for the forums yet.

i agree with a lot of your points and concerns eboni. My thoughts are thus:

- LL indeed needs to make it clear that a customer (under the current pricing scheme) is only paying Linden Lab for a limited batch of things, and everything else they should expect to pay for separately. Of course, they also need to make it really easy and trustworthy to pay for things separately or this will fail miserably.

- professional designers and coding teams are only going to come here when the market opportunity is substantial, which it isn't yet (unless they decide to take a real bet on the future and invest a serious short term opportunity cost). I fully expect when this does happen that some amateurs are going to get pushed out. I also think, however, that some of our amateurs will rise to the occasion. If the overall market has grown enough to attract the pros, there will be a greater chance to make up lower prices on volume and many more niches to investigate.

- right now, if you're not into creating stuff, playing entrepreneur, or this kind of immersive chat, then SL doesn't have a whole lot for you. If we had high performance airplane dogfights, fashion shows with 200 people and no lag, a fully functional golf game where you can play 18 holes with 3 other friends, etc etc etc, then there would be immediate fun. Caveat: you'd still have to learn how to use the interface/camera controls, which isn't easy for most. For now LL has to hang in there and try to get incremental growth until they've made a technology is more exciting, and that enables more exciting things.

I don't expect SL to grow very fast until LL has solved the first and last. But I won't care -- I'll be here having a grand ole time.

(P.S. there is also a clear near-term barrier to usage in the form of needing a high-end video card)

We have all seen that people will spend thousands and even hundred of thousands on virtual weddings, imagine that expanded to more social aspects of life.

I will use a past pursuit of mine as an example. I think I am not unique from most adults in that a good portion of my friends and family are scattered all of the country and world. One day I was assisting a friend of mine plan a baby shower long distance over the phone and I thought about how great it would be to have a virtual baby shower. Since most people purchase gifts online and have them sent, it would be easy to create the social atmosphere is a baby shower minus the stupidity of the shower games online. This was something I was pursuing in There when iVillage came about but iVillage, pretty much abandoned There so it died off. I think this is something that would interest families. There are some families that live together in online worlds who are separated by divorce and distance in real life. Second Life would be a great vessel for this but, the interface and the lack of avatar interaction and limited animations prevents SL from being adaptable to the common internet user.

My family used to have a bi-annual family reunion at our family home in New Orleans alternating with a reunion each year at our family farm. We are still unsure of status of the home in New Orleans, but I could build that house from memory in SL down to the minute detail and we could have a virtual family reunion.

I know a lot of people are gagging on ideas like these but these are the people that will come in and spend $300L on a virtual dress, $350L on shoes and buy all the other accessories, yet not really be interested enough or have the skills to create much them self. They are the massive consumer base SL will need to move forward in the future. The promise of the internet is that massive amounts of people from all walks of life will be able to meet, create, and share. SL has the ability to fill that promise due to the flexibility in the client and the innovative talent that is within the SL community. The usability of SL just needs to come down a few notches to open the doors to more people.

I think we need havok 2 first. And really is good to be a builder, but I think SL needs more than just those of use who build. I think people like me who will show up and play just for the chance to build are the easy sells to SL. The system does not need to accomodate us, we are sure things. In order to expans the focus must be on the OMG and asl set. ( a criticism that could be fairly levelled, if we are going to generalize, not just at the 12-14 year olds but anyone under 30. lol but maybe I am an ageist.

That's what I'm talking about.

Hadn't thought of the shower or family reunion aspect but definitely as tool to foster ties with family and friends separated in RL.

CD release parties. Online booksellers hosting authors inworld. Whatever of the month clubs. Social action groups conducting meetings and training seminars. Health centers providing information and answering questions regarding procedures and all those words scribbled down during an office visit. Being in an virtual classroom with your online teacher who has office hours as well. Business meetings minus the travel or attended by employees able to work out of their homes.

Give them an user friendly interface and they will enhance their avatar appearance and online experience for the equivalent price of a cappuccino, slurpee or a movie theater ticket.

Tap into this market and you will see builders, creators, and event hosts & planners start to be compensated for their efforts.

I read it all.
I'm not really sure what it all meant.. but I read it all...

This is the big one IMHO. This is what people who aren't big on building and socializing want, this is what people with a more traditional gaming mentality want, and quite frankly, I think it's what a lot of people in SL already want every now and again when they're tired of standing around chatting or building things. Or am I the only one who gets dissapointed that there is no "real" activity to do with friends in SL?

EDIT: Re: Havok 2/3. I always thought Havok was a Linden thing, but apparantly it's just a whole seperate engine? Ready made by another company? And the Lindens are trying to implement v2 when v3 is already out?

I dunno, speaking from my indy game programming experience, that seems like a kinda bad move. (and why is it taking so long to implement v2 anyway?)

I won't comment on tech issues holding back fun and interesting activities, but if you have any input on things you would like to see, the FFRC is willing to listen. Foundation for Rich Content is an organization looking to facilitate a wider range of activities within SL.

Previous thread:
/110/ab/58103/1.html

I think if we all wear dog avs and unicycle backwards with firecrackers up our arses through the WA, it will be much more compelling.

That certainly works for me, Siggy. Can't wait to see the big finale.

How could you possibly unicycle with fireworks up your arse?

I'd prolly pay a good sum of L to see that.

O

I am relatively new here and one thing I notice is that much of Sl looks and feels like the traditional shopping mall. Now I like shopping but I do enough of that in RL. I think content providers who want to sell should think about whether or not the mall and musak paradigm is really what is best for SL. We are not constrained by needing buildings per say so we all need to think about how to attract people to a "space" without constraining them to the way the RL universe operates spatially.

Also, I am dissapointed in the lag issue. In my region (Sesia) there are times when I can't build and script because of the lag due to some event in another part of the region. So I have to figure out times to build in SL that of course conflict with RL. Maybe there ought to be some really high power servers capable of handling lots of activity, sort of super sandboxes where builders can go and work with a minimum of lag. Does this make any sense?

Actually what else would be cool is to have a local building environment on my local machine so I can script and build outside of SL then port my creations into SL.

Simone

This is SL! My world, my imagination - if I can make an exploding cow - a roman candle outta my freckle should be trivial!

Sorry to disagree, but I did read the whole thing ... and found it quite compelling.

So make that nobody minus one

I strongly agree with this statement. I've never understood the model here, that appears to say that /everyone/ must create content in order to make money. How can /everyone/ be a producer and noone just a pure consumer?

As to your suggestions, I like them, particularly about a less ornate, more "socially" structured welcome area to ease the transition for newcomers who aren't accustomed to figuring this stuff out ... who may be just learning about sending email, in fact.

(And in an aside to ... I forget who ... Im not at all sure those are all going to be teenage girls or boys ... regardless of the stereotypes used ... but just as likely to be newly retiring baby-boomers looking for something to do, connected, whatever ...)

Thanks for starting the discussion.

One reason why new arrivals in Second Life might feel let down is that when they first come in they don't see a Preen store or the proprietress.

There is certainly some potential for SL for older folks. Second Life is safe and cheap, not much chance of breaking hips.

SL needs in mind the vision loss that accompanies age. The LSL editor's font and font size make the curly brace look much like a vertical pipe to me. Old timers' need some visual accomodation.

Has anyone been to the WA recently? I was extremely disappointed, myself, over the past weekend. I don't think I ever went during my SL infancy, but I was more than slightly disappointed by the quality of interaction and the whole feel of the place.

I had created an alt to serve as a the accounting function for a group and, of course, started out at the WA.

Some observations:

1) A greeter did not respond to my direct questioning.
2) People were running into everyone else and generally acting juvenile (which I'm cool with, usually, but for a second I thought I was in the Teen grid because it was so wide spread).
3) The noise was incredible, including two rather annoying av sounds being replayed over and over again.
4) In the five minutes I was there observing, one av came and shouted out the call to get over to [insert name here] casino for free money, which put me off a little, but I suppose is not that big of a deal.
5) It did not convey, to me, what the scope of SL really entails.

I'm not sure I would have stayed if I was brand new, but maybe I was having a bad day.

People looking to make a quick buck tend to do what's easiest. What that invariably tends to result in is block-stalls roughly (and poorly) modelled after RL mall/flea market locations. it's the virtual epitome of urban sprawl.

There are lots of places that are designed with SL in mind, rather than shoe-horning outmoded RL ideals into a building, but for the most part people merely copy what they see.



Just as a side-note rant from an urban planner, this is a perfect argument for zoning...

Otherwise, most servers are running on some of the highest-powered servers available: dual-opteron processing Blade Servers. Pretty beefy, if I'm not mistaken.

Event problems will hopefully be lowered when 1.7 hits (better server processor management), and as time goes on, and code is optimized.



This to me is anti-thetical to what SL's all about: collaboration.

LF

Simone[/QUOTE]