New resident with some questions..

Hello SL Community,

First I'll introduce myself - my name is Vincent, and I'm 26 years old, I'm a hardcore gamer looking into different kind of communities, because the MMO ones such as WoW are beginning to bore and annoy me with the constant bickering and bad mouthing. SL sounds like a mature community (with some bad eggs it sounds like, haha) so I thought I would check it out.

I hope everyone understands that I am genuinely looking to have fun here, and am no way trying to disrupt the community whatsoever. I'm not looking for "cyber" or "get rich schemes", I am just looking to learn new things, and maybe make some friends.

I tried Second Life last year, and it didn't turn out so good. It was laggy, crashed a lot, and when I started the program my avatar was nude and bald.

Okay, so I got a bad impression and quit immediately. People were hitting on my nude character and it was frustrating having to wait 3-4 seconds to move in the world (400+ ping). I have a good connection with a steady 100 ms pings in other games, so I was curious why SL would lag so much.

Well I was watching the news and it was all about Second Life. I saw people could have fun making their own worlds, dating, making money, and adventuring around. This interested me so I decided to come here and talk a bit.

Yes, I know these are probably annoying newbie questions, and I apologize. I read the TOP 5 Tips thread and that's about it. There's a lot to see, and I'm quite overwhelmed with so many threads, topics, and forums, so I figured I'd post here and find out some info before downloading the client again.

I know it's not referred to as a "game", right? What to call it... a Virtual world?

How can 35 MB Virtual world offer so much content? Is it all server based?

FIRST thing I would REALLY like to know is how to set up my character, and not be a nude bald woman (why it made me a woman I'll never know!). I've dealt with a lot of UIs from many different games, but this one confused me a bit, every piece of clothing I tried to pick didn't seem to work, it could of been the lag maybe? I've heard the expression "nude newbie" meaning just cloth pants and shirt but whoa, SL takes that to a whole new level LOL.

Is there a leveling system? How do you progress? Is the lag still horrible?

I don't understand the focus of SL yet, do I just wander around and find things to do? I know people don't take well to newbies in most communities, so as always I'm ready to get my head bit off here for posting...I read as much as I could but I probably missed a lot too, please go easy on me =)

Thank you reading, good day everyone.

Hello Vincent, welcome (back) to SL

you are correct it is not a game in the usual terminology, however it is technically still a game, as we do log in and "play".

A lot call it a virtual world, or the metaverse (another universe as it were), or maybe a parallel dimension.

What you do in SL is up to you. If you take away the gamers mindset with leveling and quests and such, and just approach it as another "world", then you will have a better idea what you can do (or what you might want to do)

If you could step through the computer, into a new world, what would you do? that is basically what is happening with SL.

You can hang out, go to clubs, or explore nature sims, you can take classes to learn to build, or script, or make clothing, etc.

You can become a non human entity

and explore the world through their eyes.

Just stop and ask yourself what would you do, if you were freshly born in a new world.

then... do some searching, and ... (if it is allowed via the TOS) do it




As for the issues you describe that sounds very much as though you were what is commonly referred to as , Ruthed (ie your avatar has not properly loaded) now it shows a white cloudy thing, instead of the basic avatar (underneath us all we are Ruth)
That can be caused by bad lag on the servers or database issues
yes everything is saved server side, not client side, so your stuff is not saved on your PC, just like when playing WOW, your characters are saved server side, not client.

Welcome back.
Yeah the content and land is server based. OOps that is answered.
Majority of everything you see content wise the residents have built themselves.
Sometimes though there are issues with inventory part of the server and land based server especially in high traffic times,etc.
There is role playing communities where you can do combat, level here but most of time it just world where people talk, make things, sit around watch the sky, listen to music, dance,etc.
Sometimes though there isn't a whole lot of people around too and it feels bit like a ghost town, even when other avatars are around.
There are communities that were Resident made to help newbies like the Shelter, NCI, various educational events too with other groups.

hi vincent
i am a new newbie
if u wanna contact me in world sometime we can do some useful
exchange on clothing....I have female alt too if u r female olf course.
We can check out the freebie stores and at least get u dressed.
If u wanna get the really good clothes they cost. But there's loads of
good quality free stuff in-world.
The above residents are correct - sl is not technically a 'game' there is no levelling up, no-one to beat, no game challenges. You are limited in sl only by your imagination. If you wanna go parachuting off the eiffel tower, then blast off in aspaceship before dinner
thats possible. Maybe after a few beers and a dance at one of the great clubs about, you might meet a bunny girl with an appetite of a vampire. It's all part of the fun of it.
Anyways i am strapping on my parachute, though bit worried as I didn't pack it lol
dog

Yep all server based, concentrate on having fun and learning, attend classes you can find in SEARCH > EVENTS >EDUCATION
You can swap genders by picking a male shape and skin from your LIBRARY ? BODY PARTS.
Only levels here are how many months you've been in the game
You also need a well spec'ed games machine to run SL well, a 4 you games machine or even brand new office laptop may not run SL at all.
And don't be afraid to put RL cash in, you can do better working half an hours overtime in RL than working 10 hours in SL.

As to how 35 megs can have so much variety, very little of it is stored client side. That's also partly what contributes to the lag. But it's a good trade off because everyone can build a completely different environment, or clothes, or vehicles, or whatever, rather than having it all the same and downloaded to your hard drive.

I like to think of Second Life as a 3d web. Anyone with some spare funds can have a parcel of land (the 3d equivalent of a web page) and they can all be different. But you don't have to have a parcel to enjoy SL, same as you don't have to have a web page to surf the web.

As to what you can do -- that slogan "Your world, your imagination" isn't just empty advertising. Your imagination is the limit. Some learn to build or to make clothing and sell their creations. A lot of people go clubbing and dancing. Many just go to the various hangouts and chat -- or pontificate. Some like to explore and find new interesting places. Most people do a combination of all these things.

There is also role palying - almost any kind you can imagine. There are even combat areas. And yes there is probably also a lot of cybering going on.

You will find that most residents are very newbie friendly, especially here in the forums.

The thing to keep in mind is not to expect cutting edge graphics as you would find in a bona fide game, but rather enjoy the almost infinite creativity of the residents as they may enjoy yours. I think it's worth another shot and worth the steep learning curve, but still it's not for everyone, and if it isn't your thing there's several billion other things to do with your life.

I'm having a difficult time guessing why you had such dire lag problems in SL before. There are still some occasions where the whole grid lags... and there are always some regions of the grid that lag most of the time (crowded ones, usually)... and in those conditions, stuff will fail to "rez" completely, so clothing won't appear, avatars won't look right, etc. But if this happens consistently (or even frequently), something else is wrong; I'd suggest trying again, finding a region that's not full of avatars, and wait a few minutes to see if things get normal. (If not, I'm guessing your ISP is being very, very naughty, or there could be something amiss in your configuration or LAN set-up.)

As already mentioned, the whole point of SL is user-generated content. That's not to say you have to create content yourself (although many people find that to be the most fun and rewarding part of SL), but you may find stuff here that interests you, generated by others. If you use the in-world "Search" tool, you can hunt for things that interest you in real life, and usually get all kinds of hits. Some will be residents trying to monetize their content by selling it to other residents, and some will be groups offering educational or informational content such as immersive builds to explore. If you try a few topics of interest, I'll bet you'll find folks doing things in which you'd like to be involved.

Incidentally, in "SL-speak", a common antonym for "game" is "platform". That sounds like it means a development platform, but it's much more general than that. SL is, for example, also a communications platform, and a commercial platform, and educational, and... well, anything anybody can dream up--in a way, it's a platform for creating platforms--much like the Internet itself.

As to "leveling", well, it's kind of like asking how one levels-up on the web. There's lots to learn and explore, but nobody will tell you what to consider important; here, that's up to you.

Welcome!

I spent my first month in SL exploring all the amazing things people had made - virtual New York, Amsterdam, Paris, Beijing... (it was like going on holiday every night!) and other places like Svarga. Now there are some amazing builds like Black Swan (currently free as there is a fashion event hosted there).

I did all that on an Apple iBook; now that I have a PC with a decent graphics card - wow - SL looks so much better!

In my opinion there are 4 main types of things to do in SL - or things that people focus their time on - 1) is Socialising (as people have mentioned) 2) being creative - making clothes/buildings/scripts... which tends to lead to 3) running a business and 4) research - a lot of Universities are using SL for academic research (and also teaching). I'm sure other people will chime in if I've missed anything!

Natalia Zelmanov writes a great blog about exploring and learning to do stuff in SL:
- she helped me a lot when I was new!

I'm assuming you have a decent PC because of your gaming background. As others have said, your 'Ruth' problems were probably because of the lag at the place you were at - busy times of day and busy places (with lots of avatars or a lot of complicated builds/scripts nearby) can make lag worse.

There are threads on the forums about how to reduce lag, but one trick is to go to Preferences (Ctrl-P), choose the Graphics Tab, and turn the slider to the lowest setting. If you select the 'custom' option you have more control - usually I work with Draw Distance (what you can 'see) at lowest (64m) unless I'm exploring - that helps a lot.

Once your character appears properly (you can't change shape or clothes until everything has downloaded properly, unfortunately) there are some default clothes in Inventory-> Library - check out the folders and drag the clothes onto your avatar to 'wear' them.

Someone will hopefully give you the Luneko New Residents Kit - that has lots of info on where to find free stuff although unfortunately a lot of the newbie offers are for under 30 days old, and you will technically be older as this isn't your first time

Enjoy your Second Life!

No biting off of heads here, mate

Everyone has already answered the main questions, so here are a few links and other bits for you.

Since you don't want to be our much-loved (and sorely-lamented) mother, Ruth, I'm guessing you're after a male avatar, so you need to get hold of clothing, skins, shapes, shoes, hair, and all that other shopping stuff. While it's far easier to register payment info with Linden Lab (credit card or Paypal account oughta do it) you *can* get by with freebies if you want, at least in the beginning while you're setting things up and getting a feel for the place. There are a couple of freebie blogs dedicated to male avatars:

http://freefindsformen.blogspot.com/

and

http://freeformen.wordpress.com/

Those will link you to places inworld where you can pick up good free stuff to get your inventory started and change your avatar away from its noob looks.

As to what to do in Second Life, the sky (at 7000m and climbing) really is the limit. You can explore, learn, build, script, create, roleplay, drive, party... the list is about as endless as a list of things that, given no physical or financial limitations, you could do in RL.

Check out the NPIRL blog for some amazing builds to explore in SL:

http://npirl.blogspot.com/

And search this forum for those "but what do I *do* here?!" threads that pop up occasionally. They're usually chock-full of other residents' hints and suggestions. One that I have bookmarked, is this:

/327/fa/268700/1.html

Finally, I have a male newbie kit that I can drop on you when I get inworld later today. It's the best of the freebie clothes around (believe me, I waded through masses of them) and has some other useful things in it, like a radar HUD (shows you who's within chat range), flight feather (allows you to fly above 200m - lot of interesting stuff up in the sky!), and a basic AO (animation overrider, to change you from default newbie poses and walk etc, into something a bit less... well, noobish). It also contains a box with the NCI Basics notecards, which tell residents a bit more about SL and what there is to do here.

Welcome here from WoW. I've played that for ages myself, so I know what you're coming from.

Now let's start with some usefull info. The people "playing" SL are also the main content creators. And a LOT is possible here. Weird vehicles, sky-diving, awesome buildings (someone actually built the Eiffel tower, go find it, search for "Paris 1900".

There are even games of sorts available. Racing games, fighting games (sci-fi, cowboy showdowns, vampires, medieval, you name it. I've even heard of someone trying to make a jousting game, but I have no idea if he ever finished that project). Some people roleplay, some are just themselves.
Granted, these games are generally NOT as good and DON'T have such flash graphics as an application specifically designed to play one of those games, but to be honest, they're more of an extra, something to lubricate the socializing.

All put together, SL is as good as you wish to make it. As good as the people you meet. You don't even have to create your own content to make it fun. For some people, it's already fun to try to find something very specific, like a specific style of furniture for your house, or shopping for an outfit that is really you, as if it was made just for you.

I just started a little project to search for beer steins WITH lids, to use for props in my skybox. That's just a little example of ways to make SL interresting. In about a week I'll probably forget all about starting this collection, but I will have seen countless new sims and places during my search. Some of these places I would never have seen otherwise. But, during these searches I always run into new things and ideas that amaze me, expanding the borders of what I thought possible in SL.

Brenda, will you tell him or shall I?


By the way, Vincent; it is a game and avoid anyone who uses the word "metaverse" like you would avoid gonorrhea. Those people are crazy and want a future where Second Life replaces actual interraction in real life. Their leader is a well known Russian lady who used to do useful things like fight for human rights in real life, but stopped doing that to look at diapur fur porn in Second ife instead.

Remember the golden rule for Second Life; "keep your mouth shut, do as you're told and you might get out of this alive."

I can't tell him...I'm laughing too hard.

BTW..Nice to see you over at SLU.

I heard that there was a dirth of PWNing over there, and that a shipment was urgently required.

I threw in a bushel of Awesome as a free gift, too.

being I am the only one who made a comment about the "metaverse" I resent this remark. Was it really necessary?

Weird though, as this is the first time in almost 3 years on SL that I have called it the metaverse, that that was only in passing.

*meh*

heads off to play Warhammer

No, Rha....the Metaverse joke is a long running one between Conan and me. No need to go Emo on us.

I thought you'd have picked up by now that I don't do personal attacks; as I've just said to Brenda, my style is to make sweeping statements and to deploy contraversial humour about no one in particular.

ah sorry
I don't know when someone is joking or when someone is serious, and I am sure a new poster would not catch on that it was a joke

as for going emo, I do not go emo, I live emo, after all I am human and human have emotions

not a damn thing wrong with that.

*taking a break from Warhammer, and damn that game sucks time out of me faster than SL does*

I have not been in SL all weekend and .... I don't miss it

maybe now though I will have the inspiration to finish the outfit I was working on all last week (a break does feel good)

I have good quality hair, skins, an AO and clothing, I have been looking for a newbee to give my stuff to, it's stuff I no longer use.

If you are interested send me an IM in-world and I'd be happy to transfer some nice stuff to you.

I wanted to mention, SL has some pretty particular technical requirements, due to the somewhat unique way it's set up...ie, just because your system plays WoW or other games well, that doesn't necessarily mean it will do the same with SL.

http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.php

WoW...erm literally, to the OP, welcome back

/me wonders what Rebecca will make of this defection back to SL I thought WoW was too cool to get bored with lol.

We'll have to hide him. Otherwise they will hunt him down and kill him. I suggest we take him to Conan's.They'll never think to look there.

Forget about Conan...Conan's dead *hides smoking shotgun behind back* Lets take him to my place...you can come too *smiles toothily*

welcome to SL, Vincent. i don't get inworld much, but i have a few clothes i can offer you, and tips on how to 'up' your look for cheap or free.

IM me if interested.

*blinks innocently* Me? No one is after me....

Don't you want to make sure the new person is safe? muhahahaha!