YAY LL!!! No more awful newbie walk!

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/07/11/attention-second-life-animators-help-kill-the-duckwalk/

What's one of the main questions we get asked in here by new people? "Help! I walk like someone shoved a corncob up my butt when I wasn't looking! Why does everyone walk normally and I don't?"

Check it out. LL looks to be replacing the awful newbie walk with a professionally done walk. I hope they do the run as well.

My personal opinion is that this will not hurt animators. There are still lots of animations that people will want, and one of the main draws of SL is customizing your avatar so it looks unique. There will still be a market for good AO's and good walk animations.

I'll miss the noob walk. It's almost as cute as the head nod at the end of sentences.

I hope they don't get rid of that funny arms-akimbo thing -- that is so cute and just SOOO SL!

Okay, I hate the newb walk personally, but they are removing all of the familiar icons of the game -- no more box on head, no more Ruth, no more dorky newbie avi, no more newbie walk.

Progress, I suppose, but still......................

Perhaps they'll keep them as features of the newbie client?

I think there should be a library avatar option: Ruth (or the classic newbie guy) with all the original clothes, hair and the original stand poses and duck walk. Just like classic cars and clothes, they'll probably be sought after in years to come. Who knows: some animator might actually create the duck walk and manage to sell it...

I got an AO, but the newbie walk never bothered me all THAT much. It was the stands that made me want to get an AO. Specifically, this one stand that makes your av kinda tilt his upper half forward a bit, like he's got a bad stomach cramp or something. That was really all. I actually removed my AO's flying anims, because I thought the newb flying was better than the ones that came with the AO.

Seconded!

I have been here five years, and I still use the newbie walk. I have the worst luck with AOs.

I think it's great that the walk will be more realistic. But no matter how good the default walk, default clothes, default anything, people will want to get rid of them (except for Teeny that is).

Like - does anybody really use the built in wallpapers and backgrounds for Windows? No. they're mainly there to show you what can be done. However having better animations for new residents might make them feel more wlecome. And that's a good thing.

I wonder if they'll be able to get a good looking male walk.

*sniffles* I'm gona miss the corncob walk

I'm sure the dismal retention rate for new residents in Second Life can be attributed to several factors.

One factor has to be the downright rudeness that I often witness Second Life residents showing to "noobs."

Yeah, some "noobs" are idiots.

But others are potentially great people who never have a chance because as soon as many residents see the first visual cues of a "noob," they immediately expect the worst.

How can one not expect the worst when seeing a full-grown adult waddle around like a toddler?

Everything that can be done in Second Life to make new residents not so easily visually detectable as "noobs" is a great thing.

The new newbie avatars were a positive first step forward in making new residents look less like "noobs." Changing that awful "noob" walk is a great second step.

And, as with the new newbie avatars, Linden Lab is going about it in a good way by contracting the job out to Second Life residents who are content creators. That's a good way to reward the residents who have really contributed to "Your World. Your Imagination."

Linden Lab deserves a gold star for this.

You must admit, though, there's plenty of AO walks that look worse than the waddle.

especially when it starts a frame late and gets mixed in with the waddle o.o

For obvious reasons, my first thought upon seeing the blog was to wonder how this'll affect the animation business. After just a couple moments reflection, I realized this would be a benefit. After all, improving the default animations is one small thing LL can do to help improve retention, and people are only customers after they've decided to commit to SL. Besides, people will still want to buy custom animations so they don't all look the same. Any animator who thinks this will ruin their business is being simple-minded.

hmm they mention dances too in the blog

me wonders just what they are up to...

Agreed, the newb walk can go.

But I like looking like Ruth... Especially when I'm wearing a box on my head.

The default walk looks perfect to me, when I'm using my lego man AV

I think the walk should stay. What should happen is that we get a user selectable animations tab in the "appearance" menus. (=_=)y

I hate to sound like a broken record.. but isn't there SOMETHING more important that the lindens involved with this, could be focussing on?

I'm a noob and the bobble-head thing is something I'd like to drop. I just figured it was a glitch in my computer or something... can someone share with me how to make it stop?

Well, sure, like grid stability, inventory stability, etc.

But this newbie reinvention IS really important. It's important to retain newbies, to help them feel not totally humiliated by their newbiness, and feel more at ease in the world. These people are future customers, friends, and playmates. Why not make it easier for them to integrate into "society" as we know it? They might just stick around and buy stuff, rather than logging off in disgust after the first half hour.

Not easily. You'd probably need animations which lock the head added to an overrider...that means no head turning while looking around too.

More here:

/327/95/262077/1.html

Besides, it's cute.

Linden Lab is contracting out the work. Sure, there will need to be oversight from Linden Lab. But by contracting the animation out, staff time is reserved for other, more important, things.

Concurrency and database problems are more critical, but Linden Lab is less able to contract these problems out to the resident content creators.

Overall, Linden Lab doesn't seem to exhibit a great sense of setting priorities. But I think this case shows a promising exception to that general rule.

Ah okay Ann - thanks for the info and link. So not just a newbie thing, and not just me, lol. I'm such a ninny.