What causes SL's high dropout rate?

I voted Social Mishance, but I really think that goes along with Newbie experience. I've been a Newbie twice now and both times were a bit overwhelming. I joined SL for the first time over two years ago and stuck around for a couple months before I deleted my account. At the time, I was so scared of winding up somewhere I shouldn't be and getting reamed for it. Yes, it's a ridiculous notion..... I had met a few friends at the time to explore and it was fun, but I felt very restricted and I think that was actually in my own head. Nine months later, I decided to join up again since I had a bit more time in RL and my curiousity of SL was still pulling me in. I have thoroughly changed my outlook, not to mention things have changed drastically in SL since the first time I joined. Orientation Island and Help Island for one was a welcoming idea for me, instead of being dropped in with no clue. Although I think they were there before but it was still very different. I found it more difficult to meet people the second time then the first but that is because I didn't hang around Newbie areas. I wanted to lose Newbie status as quickly as possible so I dove in. Bought land, and travelled extensively to find my look. It's still difficult meeting friends, but I think that is my failure to put myself out there completely, not an issue with SL. Ok, not that everybody wanted a book on my experience, but oh well, there it is!

You are right. SL is not ready to keep the average person interested on more than a casual level I think, it doesn't yet offer the non computer lover a lot to stay involved. A lot of people don't see the need to "Buy" virtual land for example. They don't need a space to create, and why do they need a home that they will almost never spend time in? Some may be the type who spend their working day behind a computer and don't want to go near one during free time. While it can draw and keep an novice like me, there are too many forms of entertainment out there competing with it, and nothing is Must See at this point. Besides retention, LL has to figure a way to get more people just to know SL exists, outside of the BS News stories, the Get Rich Quick hype, and CSI, which I gather was full of plot driven inaccuracies about the game to not give a true picture of what it offers.

Performance probably also is self limiting.

Someone mentioned the number online is too flat -

But that high logged in number always grows slowly, SL performance at Peak Times is always poor.

Right now the closer to 60K we get, the more TP issues, Asset server problems, etc.

While LL has really pushed this number before stuff goes wrong up and up, I don't think they have come close to keeping pace with the rate of sign ups.

The new sign-ups are going to naturally log in first at peak times.

Thus it becomes a sort of bottleneck that will increase drop-out rates, so that the population stays nearer to what the Grid can handle.

Yeah the money/3D web hype is all overblown and has to contribute to people quiting.

While the virtual world / 3D chat room ideas are less stressed.

Which is funny because its the people who come to SL as a 3D chatroom are the ones PAYING for all this content.

I would think about it differently. I'd say you two have more in common than expected. I say go with it and see what kind of friendship forms.

I stuck with SL and am clearly addicted. I have met tons of enjoyable and endearing people WITHOUT getting involved with any "mature" content. I'm not THAT creative, but I've learned to build a little. It was a necessity because I always have to mod things to fit my little AV. I rarely ever buy the kids stuff... It's not precocious enough. (^_^)

When I started, I was still deep in my introversion complex. I didn't chat AT ALL for two weeks. I figured out search and got my first loli AV after two days. I wandered around regions where people were chatting in Spanish, Japanese, German, Hungarian... Gestures scared me, and the remote concept of voice chat gave me deep chills. (>_<

In time, I met people. The majority of them were VERY nice. Even the griefers were (are) nice, what's up with that? To date, I've never been truly griefed! But I have been strongly defended if anyone ever made an attempt. I give my thanks out to all the troublemakers and their un-banned alts in Hanja. (^_^)y

Around mid December, I did some serious map stabbing and found a crowd of 20 or so people in a PG sim. That day was my introduction to NCI. I've been visiting and participating there ever since. I still had stage freight when it came to participating in events. I even had a little panic attack at my first NCI Noobie Show & Tell. Even now there are times when my hands still go numb. (>_<

I started to get used to voices and social gatherings by going to some Max Kleene concerts. By my third month, I was finally well adjusted enough to tolerate listening to voice chat. My experience is improving rapidly day-by-day and I'm thankful that I'm able to experience it all. I don't know if my RL social skills have improved. But I'm happier with myself, so that's enough for me. (^_^)

I can't say I didn't have any down days though. There were times when I had to really stick it out to keep myself in-world. I've had two bouts where I wiped my friends list and started donating my money to any random anything because I expected to fall out. But I sprung back both times. \(^_^)/

Now, I still enjoy rezzing a physical shiny-red ball and kicking it around a sandbox if nobody else is around. My inventory and friends list grows weekly. I'm learning scripting and building and I've already made some new items for myself. I'm quite proud of the spikes I added to my collar and piercings I added to my nekomimi this week. (^_^)

I'm finding myself in a place where I'm tolerated and welcomed by a big crowd of good people. There are even some places that get chatspammed with greetings even if I ony type a single line. If I happen upon another noobie, I volunteer everything I know to them including some landmark folders of my favorite places and freebie malls. I offer suggestons for really making search work (yes, it can be done).

Overall, I'd say that most fallout comes from a lack of patience or the expectation that SL is just another prefabricated game. They don't know what they're missing. (=_=)

Sorry if I got all wordy or even a little off topic. I've been in a good mood lately and I've been prone to posi-ranting a lot. (^_^)

You know what? I'm gonna copy-paste this post into a notecard and leave it in my "Noobie Help Stuff" folder I hand out. (^_^)y

I had three friends sign up after my intial ravings. All three left after two weeks and now think I am insane. Well they thought that before,but I like to blame SL.

One RL friend dropped out after SL turned out not to be the hardcore gaming experience he prefers. Another registered and found his PC couldn't run the client. Someone I met through SL quit after six weeks or so because they didn't like being sexually propositioned by strangers. No-one on my friends list from my first few months (Sept '06) is still active. My anecdotal evidence suggests a pretty high turnover, for all sorts of reasons.

Rioko, I have been trying like crazy to get my RL friends in-world and a couple have made some attempts but don't have the computer capability, the other friends of mine think I'm insane and beg me to STFU about SL.....LOL! I'm really hoping that my best friend who lives out of state will get the capability soon so I can visit her more often in SL as opposed to racking up our phone bills.

Only a couple of people know I play SL, two are a married couple who are hardcore WoWers and took one look and said, "No Thanks". Another has signed up, thinks it's Cute, I've shown her around a bit, but she doesn't have a lot of time for it, she comes on once a week or so. The rest are "I spend enough time on a computer" at work types so I don't even mention it to them.

I voted for Newbie Experience; however, the two people I know who tried SL and quit were not lonely as our long-established community was migrating from IRC to SL. These two people got frustrated with the learning curve and were not willing to hang in.

A wise person I met in my first days in SL told me that it would take about 5 weeks to feel really comfortable in SL. And that is a good average I think.

I think the thing that keeps most people here is relationships. If you don't make any friends, you're less likely to stick around. What good is getting a dollhouse if you don't have friends to entertain? Playing games gets old after a while, and if you aren't motivated to explore new places, there isn't much need to show up if you don't have friends that keep bringing you back.

I've not been here long, but I've spoken to a number of people who left SL for a while because of its immersive, addictive qualities. Getting caught up in drama, getting hurt by people, spending too much time and money there, etc. So they unplug to get their heads together.

Obviously, the ones I talked to decided to return. But I can see how a good number of people, perhaps those of us who do view the place as mainly a 3-D chat room, realize that getting sucked into the non-stop soap opera is addictive and get the heck out of Dodge while they still can

Beyond that, the newbie learning curve is nasty, especially when the technology isn't working right and you don't know if problems are your fault or the grid's.
If I hadn't hooked up with another newbie to figure things out together (which, frankly, was a riot) I might not have stuck around.

B.

I think this is somewhat presumptuous to be honest. Many of those people who aren't graphic designers do indeed see the "implications" of the creative aspect of SL - but they don't apply to them, so they ignore them. For them, it's just another world where someone else gets to make the world because that someone else is better than them, just the same as WoW. This is something that many creative types don't seem to understand.

Even those graphic designers sometimes find things don't work the way they thought they would. People who want to be queens build castles - but then find that they are not queens, they are castle builders; and when they want to chat or play, they're treated the same as everyone else. As a result, many decide to either just build for business or quit, and in fact, many builders who are now well known and successful have actually gone this route at some point in time.

That's a good point. Something I've noticed recently is the particular locale I'm at often has a bearing on the SL age of people. There are some places I go where the majority of people have been on SL from as far back as 2004. Then other places I feel really "old" at 10 months.

/walks away pondering why that is

Yep! Those were almost the exact words a friend of mine used when he fell down the stairs in front of Avilion Castle and couldn't figure out how to stand up.

Just to clarify, the distinction I meant was that the "Newbie Experience" is generally seen as something that's organised and set up, by the Lindens or by other volunteer groups.

"Social Mischance" was meant to represent the inevitable random problems that arise when people are just allowed to be people. Some folks in a role-play sim see some newbies arrive, greet them, give them some freebie theme clothes and fly them off for a tour - and then you TP in 10 second after they've all left, and percieve an empty welcome area with no-one around and someone else apparently being treated much better than you. Or, an experienced builder visits a sandbox, turns left and sees someone doing something impressive and winds up helping them out; they would have helped you, but to have seen you, they'd have needed to turn right.

Same as me. Except I'm running on a 5-year old processor, 512 mbs. RAM and mid-range video card.

A dear old SL friend of mine used to joke about the SL gene or how it’s in the DNA. Some have it some don’t.
My experience has been one of just enjoying the people in SL. The content is impressive
but I spend more time staring at the chat screen then anything else. I enjoy the mentoring aspect too and I’ve also found a good job that pays good $L and doesn’t eat up too much of my time. I’ve seem to have found my niche and that’s a great feeling but it didn’t happen overnight. And, for all the many times that I’ve felt I could just walk away from it there has been something or someone that turns me around and pulls me back in. Sometimes in the most magical way.
If you have a good experience or at least not an unpleasant experience at the beginning then you’ve passed one of the many hurtles that will come your way in SL. If you have friends to bitch with, then suffering through another buggy client update isn’t so bad, and playing Rolling Restart tag can be kinda fun.

i didnt vote because you didnt list the no 1 reason. griefers.

Oooh, that is a good point Swan. I haven't run into any griefers so I am very thankful for that, but I have heard many a stories about them. This would be a great deterrant for anyone, especially Newbies. Who wants to be greeted into a new virtual world by someone raising havoc? It is a horrible first impression that I've heard many people have when they first enter SL.

Uh Stormy..
That naked guy with the gun yesterday was, technically, a griefer, even if he was terribly inept and a huge source of amusement.

That's the third or fourth time I've been shot, zapped or run over in a peaceful sim in two months. Maybe someone's trying to tell me something.

B.

They didn't fall out.. they just went and created alts so you won't know what they are doing..

I have at least one rl friend who did this..

.d

Oh yea, Naked guy with a gun! LOL..........I wasn't sure if he would qualify as a griefer or was just completely stupid. I went over the convo we had with him and it shocked me. " Stop that, what did I do" he said.........Oh wow! That was terribly amusing, except for you getting shot of course! I guess I can now claim to have had my first griefer encounter!

I love those "Naked Gun" movies........

I do too Brenda, especially the scene with the microphone in the restroom!! LOL.....still cracks me up!