Maybe LL should revamp the Teen Grid

I have no idea how the teen grid is doing but I was thinking that LL should use it as a platform for introducing a completely new SL experience. By this I mean they should redo everthing from the ground up. The benefits are that it kills the desire to go to main grid for teens because they'd have better avatars, better gaming physics, etc. It also makes a barrier to transferring products. We want a clear division. Kids don't want the old SL. They want the new one. Heck make it game console compatible. LL could make the whole place as sanitized as can be. New! They could make a big marketing push! LL launches brand new SL for teens and kids. Incompatible with old SL. It'll be a big hit.

So what do you think? could LL pull it off?

It might be nice if there were a separate Family Grid with multiple accounts from one ISP sharing a family name and no "singles" allowed. Of course determining there was really a family and not one mouth-breathing basement dweller with multiple accounts to mimic a family would require verification.

It's really not that big a deal.

None of the teens are interested in walking into virtual bars full of desperate cougars and creepy older men, and there aren't many adults that want to date the playground.

It horrifies both sides of the equation, minus a few freaks who would probably go preying somewhere far more useful to their purposes anyway, like myspace.

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Two of my kids (both high school age, and going to public school) are on the teen grid, and their reaction to adults behaving badly would most certainly be "ewww gross" and laughter, or a simple "get away from me, you freak!"

My kids have been in some of the finest hotels in asia, also Bangkok, Jakarta, Guangzhou, Beijing, New Territories, even Phuket and the golden triangle. And have been in both the slums of South America and also Buenos Aires' Avenida Florida... for god's sakes, I'll even admit to taking them to London, if it doesn't lower anyone's opinion of me as a parent.

Nothing anyone does online is going to shock them; they will see it *all* as incredibly... pathetic.

I doubt they would waste time with an abuse report if anyone attempted anything disgusting with them; they would probably just laugh and call the local police, and then forget about it.

Osprey, That's a good idea! I was wondering what would happen when the teenz reach 18. I think the key is to set expectations up front. With SL we had freedom that got gradually taken away. But if they start from scratch with verification I think it would be more palatable. It would kind of take away from the teen exclusivity cred that a purely teen grid would have though.

Desmond, I was thinking more about invigorating the SL brand than keeping kids away from the main grid. People don't want a patched up 2008 car. They want the 2010 model! New!

Old is the new New!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8UtRNCztVI

If any one has tried MySpace in the last year or so, you know that "if you build it, they don't come." MySpace has much better software than Facebook (Not every profile is version 2 but version 2 MySpace skins easily and looks clean). The problem with MySpace is that most of my friends and groups I care about are on Facebook. I hate Facebook. I use Facebook anyway.

Improving software does not change a social dynamic that makes the wide world of the main grid fascinating.

By the way, without Zindra is the main grid that unsafe? Aren't most of the assignations private these days?

And it's easy for the kids to tell who is old. I can tell by the kind of music that avies enjoy. I can also tell when I'm around teens by the language they use. Of course none of these "sociological proofs" is good enough for me to act on my suspicions and report the suspect underage users if they are otherwise behaving well.

And if I were fourteen and on the adult grid or even on the teen grid, my fear of being harassed or worse would make me want to choose a nonhuman avatar, preferably some sort of dragon.

I hate Fecebook but I have an account on it too. That's why LL has to come out with something completely new. New! Retain the good ideas and put them into the new product.

If LL doesn't do this then someone else will.

Poor sods. I went to one too so I know how important piccalilli jars can be. Anchovies can also be valuable trading items.

Boys start to smell "off" when they go as boarders. The smell is kinda liek old socks and gravedirt. I could never fancy them. I think that's where men pick up some funny habits.

It's not so safe at girls school either if it comes to that. I always walked close to the walls around a few people.

It might be a good idea in part - like introducing some new features to the teen grid first instead of to the main one. However, that could have the effect of making more adults join the teen grid to try out those new features.

UK "public school"s v. US "public school".