SL Website: Second life presented to the public as an FPS?

((hugs)) sorry Aimee...I' have never been front page material let alone 9th page material unless you count the first wedding Pic in SL that used to be up..

I don't know if it's a bad idea, though. If the user is judging a game soley based on the screens without reading further they're going to be disappointed no matter what. I'm going to give more credit to newcomers. People are won over once they realize they can actually MAKE stuff and interact with interesting people. Really is anything that attracts eyes and headcount a bad thing for SL long term? I've done the FPS thing in SL, and it's fun. I'd like to see it evolve actually.

Also remember, the FPS community isn't all goons. Just look at some of the outstanding mods that have been released for various games dating back to DooM. Some of that stuff still blows my head clean off. The idea, always, is to attract new and fresh perspectives (and cash, of course )

Aimee: You'll make it back, just get a sawed off and weild it around.

I never said that the FPS community is all goons, i have been part of it as well for years, but i have no problem in admitting than the percentage of goons is dangerously high.

Anyway the most influencing thing new users have to decide if to join a game or not are exactly the screenshots, very few people actually take the time to go read more and research before joining the game, so i think it's better not have people joining the place thinking they are on some kind of open source version of quake.

The aspect mentioned can just as well make people change their mind about trying it as it can attract the "wrong" type of person. "Oh, another shooter, forget it." But, I dont think either is really the case.

Its cool to see those pics on the site and I am not really even opposed to them. On the main slideshow, there are three of the Chinatown build and five of completely different activities. There are links to videos and other areas of the site that will very likely be explored by someone interested in signing up.

The Chinatown pics dont give the impression that SL is a full blown shooter and I think those that play shooters will be able to tell that. I still play counter-strike nearly everyday and I was able to tell the difference right away. I was even able to see how it is different from TSO. I do see newbies asking for guns right away, but what else is there to ask for if you havent been in world more than 20 minutes? Give the ones that sign up a little more credit.

I wonder why they chose 3 of the same thing on the front page, basically having 3 very similar pictures, when they only have 8 in total. Surely there's enough stuff to only warrant one of anything. I notice that the gravity space station features on 3 of the slideshows as well. I mean, there's so much good stuff out there, why the repetition?

I suppose it's all about ratios. 3/8 on the front about FPS does give a skewed impression of the ratio of these things in-world. At least that's what I thought with regards to the original post on this thread.

The Lindens have openly requested submissions of pics to be included on the website. It is always changing, the goal is to change it up and keep it fresh. Im not sure where you send your pics for review, but I think it would be worth looking in to.

There are all sorts of points and counterpoints to this -- not that any single subset of merits should be solely into consideration, but that the big picture be appreciated.

The main tagline on the SL website continues to be "Your World. Your Imagination." Now, it's interesting to have such a project as UL (including Chinatown) at all, because it's actually an expansion, and something that hasn't been done before inworld on such a grand scale.

Second Life is vast and continues to grow: it's a dynamic world where the focus may shift over time as the contents of the proverbial box settle periodically, but then things get shaken up again (the recent economic changes being but a single example).

Even before UL, I came across a number of newbies who wanted to get guns and "kill people". Or, newbies who thought the rest of us were all AI NPCs, for that matter. Rather than bash any aspect of these thoughtlines, I consider it important to inform them of additional possibilities within the gridverse, and then see how they react. Such as:

"Well sure, you can go to UL and take out Seburos and pump a friend's @$$ full of lead, but you can ALSO take a nature walk in a lush forest, rez giant watermelons at a party, and experiment with particle effects as you're making your own creations."

"AND AND AND", *not* "or or or". A certain venerable oldbie informed me of the mindset that people having upon exiting games with more predefined goal, because the wide open spaces of SL confuse them. For example, the relatively simplistic, Pavlovian treadmill action of TSO. Or the "frag 'em" approach which is ubiquitous with the FPS genre.

If you've made cool stuff the community's not yet aware of, well, I encourage you to spread the word about it: post about it on the Forums, talk to some Lindens and Residents personally, perhaps even blog about it or set up your own website to highlight it. LET ME KNOW, LET US KNOW!!!

I'm an explorer who has been wowed by so much stuff in SL, but my thirst has not been slaked: still, I continue to hunger and search for more fun.

Let's have a unity in our diversity.

Mmmmmh a tons of other things with much less griefing potential?

@ Torley: No one ever talked (at least in this thread) abbout banning weapons from the website, but i do think that LL should try to avoid giving the impression SL is mostly about them. I did come across some newbies asking for weapons as well before the publication of the new pics on the website, but i have to say the percentage increased lately...

Shiryu, I did not talk about banning weapons.

I own a collection of virtual firearms myself.

Second Life's web page is blatantly shootist!

C'mon, Ulrika get over here.

Shiryu, I agree completely with your original point.
I originally came to SL expecting decent FPS game play in addition to all the other stuff. By no fault of the many resident game developers here, real-time gameplay in SL is very very poor. With respect to the residents who enjoy shooting things here, it's not even slightly comparable to a standard FPS (or even some MMOGs).

Luckily I am interested in other things here aside from action gaming. But the potential for FPS game play, based on the language and visuals on the site (i.e. the marketing material), seemed to be promising. Continuing to suggest through screenshots and marketing copy that SL is a viable 3D action game platform is just foolishness. It's hard enough to get a lag-free game of Tringo.

nono, i thought you were implying i was talking about banning them

Oh no, Shiryu, that's not me. Rather than ever imply such a thing, I would ask you a question about it. As in: "Shiryu, are you talking about banning weapons?" That's my style.

I won't flame you with personal attacks... promise!

Ha ha! You so funny.

I'll tell you what is bugging me about the SL webpage. It's that guy on the left of the banner with the Fu-Manchu mustache and face tattoo. He's getting really old.

The other thing that's driving me nuts is from left to right, Fu-Manchu face, bronze robot, and soul patch all have the exact same pose -- the head cocked to the side with the shoulders at an angle (Fu Manchu has been mirrored). It's driving me NUTS!

Time for a new banner.

~Ulrika~

I want to vote solidly on the "guns off the front page of the website" group. I spend a lot of time in the WA helping noobs out and there has lately been a major uptick of 1 day old morons waving guns and shooting at people. The front page of the website gives the distinct impression that this is a shoot-em-up experience. I have no issues with gun play contained in certain areas, but noobs walking around heavily armed and behaving badly is disconcerting. The only good part is that once these types realize that most aggression in SL is channeled in to more intelligent methods of griefing, they will sulk silently out the door, leaving us to torment each other with builds, scripts and forum ad hominum.

How is LL suppose to improve upon this matter? No matter what picture they have up on that index page, it's going to display an aspect of SL. I'd like to see any of you show me a picture that could illustrate Second Life in it's complete entirety. But then again, the Chinatown advertisement would make more sense in the Current News section of the website. They're treating the home page as Front Page News material, which can be misleading to new visitors.

Yeah, where are the NBerg screen caps!

Maybe we need more sandbox combat sims?

Different ideas in each sim? Combat sims for rent?

If we give these players what they need, maybe they will stay and learn