Transforming the Second Life Experience with Big Spaceship

Submit a trouble ticket on the support site before you do anything else. I think there's a billing number that may be able to help you, but submitting the ticket will get you in the queue at the very least.

I think a good learning experience would be to open up the newbie area to us experienced users, before putting it online, so we can give you some feedback on what we feel would work and what needs to be modified. This would help mentors - both official and unofficial - to know what the newbies (should) have learned at Orientation Island, so we know what we need to cover when they are released to the mainland.

But that's a good thing! It motivates people to personalize their appearance so SL stays the fabulously vibrant and varied place it is, instead of becoming the Land of the Cookie Cutter People.

Katt,

Here goes. I simply loved SL when I got on at first for the first few months. But now, to me, the paint is peeling. Here's why I feel that way -

1. Response time (lag) is still pretty bad, I feel like my av is in slo mo a lot, and lately getting *logged out* for no reason a LOT during tp's, in partic on the weekend - this is just awful...

2. Intro Island (or whatever it it - is useless) so noobs may as well skip this... it was more confusing to me...

3. For a noob, coming in broke is horrible and figuring out how to get money is worse. I buy Lindens via 3rd party cause for the longest I kept going to the standard LL 'my account' area and it kept saying my credit card was bad - could NEVER get billing etc to work, no help in sight - etcf). This led to a long (2 week or 3 at least) period of 'how do I get money??' phase that was real awkward)


Why not use these funds (Spaceship ones) to finance some free Lindens 4 noobs or some really basic housing and maybe 50 free prims ?


Roxy Kay

You guys must have some allergy against expertise (professional expertise; in my case: almost 30 years in the fields of UI- and DB-design, never mind app-implementation in scaled environs) offered for free. Just counting my friends, you have been offered like 300 ((wo-)man) years of expertise in these fields FOR FREE, and you decide to *buy* it?

No wonder you have to Jack up the prices of OpenSpace beyond any reasonable measure (and no, Katt, that is not an alien topic to this thread, it is about how one bad decision begets another bad decision, so hold back with you "moderation".

Because that suggestion actually makes sense?
Because that suggestion does not support a totally superfluous job at LL?

Your pick.

Their website is aweful!!! It is SO bad. This is their specialty? THAT is the best these guys can do? Dead links? Empty value fields? Inconsistent design? FLASH ONLY?!?!?!

Isn't a graphic design company's website the functional pinnacle of their wizardry? The ultimate expression of all that they strive for and are capable of? Their flagship? Flag pole? THAT site is it?

These guys are really going to go school LL on "user experience?" Man oh man I would be embarrassed to be LL right now.
~Lefty

It was useless. And they eliminated that place since you joined.



They used to give starter money, and at one point a tiny stipend, to the basic accounts. Back then you had to hand over a credit card number as ID. These days, you don't need any identification to join SL, just an email account.

The credit card was eliminated because so many people got to that point in the SL signup process and decided not to continue. But without the card as a hurdle, a reinstated stipend would be an open invitation to open as many accounts as possible just to drain off the L$.

How might that conflict be reconciled?

Option 1: Leave the CC# optional, but give them a bonus (say L$250) if they provide it (and it's unique, of course).

Option 2: Let them buy Lindens on a new CC during the sign up, and give them a 10% bonus (up to some limit) if they do it.

What do new residents generally need to buy now that the library clothes section is full of perfectly decent avatars? A skin without underwear?

How about a folder of locations with new resident friendly areas that have non BIAB type gifts?

How about a listing of resources related to free or next to zero cost stuff like free style?

How about gift certificates redeemable for no transfer goods at participating merchants?

The problem of gaming the system to sponge L$ can only be combated by not providing L$.
Therefore value must be given that has no value to scammers.

If a new resident, within the first hour:
a: understands what is possible, what the diversity of SL is, and what is available
b: understands how to wear stuff and what the avatar outfitting process is with the UI

Then knowing where to go to get high quality gifts can keep them busy for several hours.

So this sort of exceeds the first hour experience other than causing the new resident to learn about all the possibilities and how to use the relevant UI components.

Somehow the learning process needs to be made into fun. Like leveling up. Running around, finding stuff, learning to equip. Go to next level, learning's are a tad harder. but the gifts are a tad better. They have to level up to a certain point to get off the noob *continent* (not a noob island, an entire continent made to entertain new residents by teaching them), etc.

Then crafty residents will develop complex "leveling" methods to attract the new residents. New residents that stick with the hunts would clearly develop a better comprehension of the possibilities of Secondlife instead of being dumped into a desert broke without a canteen or shoes and then proceeding to encounter ... content that is unlikely to cause them to retain interest. (really working hard to find SL pc ground with that statement rofl)

Depends on whether they're looking for a human avatar or not. If not, well, there really isn't anything there for them.
Hmmm, I'd say put NCI there but they have a bunch of ex-BIAB freebies among others. And I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this. What is it that you're objecting to about BIAB "type" freebies?

For folks that don't speak English, machine translation of the inventory name and description fields would make things easier to figure out. Same for all text information generally, chat, fields in the properties of objects, land descriptions, parcel descriptions, etc. . Just having the interface in one's native language is not sufficient.

I run into this problem when I'm in non-English-language virtual worlds with a partially English interface. The interface may be in English but when you need to pick a texture or object the names are not only meaningless but also untypeable.

I sspend hours every day at NCI, the #1 question from new rezzies is "How can I make money?" Until LL stops foisting SL as a get rich quick scheme a new glitzy UI and new LMs and new free items will not change the attrition.

At least make everything that's in text copiable so you can cut-n-paste it into babelfish. That would be a big win for lots of other reasons too... for example, when someone posts a group notice with aURL in it... you have to open the group notice tab, hit the date column header twice to sort it (why isn't it sorted by default?), and open the notice there.

I think the main reason NCI offers the BIAB items is to expose the items for what they are. And, that's completely free fatpacks of items. I gotta check the notecards, but, I'm sure the message to convey is that this stuff is easily available for free and actually is intended to discourage people from attempting to sell them. (^_^)y

Exposure to the negative aspects of an under culture that needs to be removed from Secondlife would not be a candidate for the first hour experience.

NCI is not about BIAB distribution. NCI is about education.

NCI should be in the landmarks and tutorial on educational opportunities in SL that follows the tutorial on opportunities.

The fact users can get an education about scum in SL by visiting NCI is secondary and should not be a highlight.

Aside from "what's up with my hair?" that's also the number one question I see on help islands.

Toy, LL hasn't been touting SL as a get rich quick scheme. Anyone who looks at the statistics they publish can see very quickly that very, very few people make significant money from SL. It's the media hype (mostly in a spate of articles back in 2007) that's produced the "get rich quick" impression.

and its still lasting, lets face it, how many people joining SL look at the statistics? I was here in 07 and long before, LL did nothing to quell that story.

I have noticed that several people have said more real live help is needed for newbies. There is of course the SL Mentor. Unfortunately, many of them, including some of the best were “purged” in a massive re-registration process that caught some of them off guard and others that were unable to re-register in time due to RL issues. And, as is typical of LL, no provisions have been made to bring them back into the fold no matter what the reason for missing the cut off date. They must go back through the process of becoming a mentor all over again – oh, and by the way, no applications are currently being accepted.

I am not a mentor, but a very good friend of mine is. I couldn’t do her job. Like someone said, trying to explain attachments is like root canal. Trying to explain how to adjust an attachment is like root canal without Novocain.

I can see how arriving as a cloud and then not being able to understand well intentioned offers of help as to fixing the problem is daunting to many. I have watched my friend try and explain “right click on yourself and then select Appearance” with the aid of a translator in some language I’ve never even heard of. I swear her patience far exceeds mine.

That said, when I do encounter the lost looking newbie, I try to be helpful. We were all newbies at one time, but not everyone remembers that. And, as someone else said, as a general rule, if I can’t figure out a game in about the first 20 minutes or so without having to read anything I go elsewhere. I was brought into SL by a long time friend from another virtual universe (Active Worlds) so it wasn’t a complete mystery. But for someone with no idea how things work, I can see how the “first hour” can make or break the whole SL experience.

My ideas… for what they are worth:

1. Maybe a simple viewer that will run on a less than fire breathing machine and is easy to figure out. Then, if you want to upgrade to a more advanced viewer you can.
2. Bring back the mentors that were kicked out due to purely an administrative screw up.
3. Offer some free rentals – maybe that are only good for the duration of that particular log-on, but at least you have a place to change clothes or visit with friends. And, if several of those are grouped together in various locations you might actually have communities start up.
4. Purge obviously abandoned accounts. If you haven’t logged on in a year, so long.
5. My friend carries around a whole filing cabinet worth of note cards with LMs to places to go for freebies and social gatherings and other nice to know things about SL. Give those out with the first log on.

Being more or less an eternal optimist, let’s all hope for the best. And, yes, LL should pay at least as much attention to its current residents as it does to new arrivals.

Agreed to the above, but...

How about bringing back First Land, but make it only last 1 month? Restrict the parcels from being sold or subleased, and have them revert to unowned First Land again, after the avatar owner hits 1 month in age. Return all items, etc. Obviously you'd want to send out a warning or two around the 25th and 29th day to remind people to pick up their stuff.

A month is certainly long enough to decide that you want to stay in SL; it's long enough to figure out if you like building, texturing, etc, or just playing, and the month-long First Land program would give newbies the taste of owning (or renting) land, and leave them wanting to buy or rent land on their own. Like you said, it'd give them a place to call "home" in our vast, overwhelming world.

It'd also group newbies together, and their little First Lands could be arranged around central gathering points (Infohubs) that Mentors could staff.

Just an idea.

This is good thing. Thankyou.

I think being able to move your avatar via the minimap by putting a pin in the minimap or something would be good and make the first experience more intuitive for many folks. Make it opt out for existing residents. Just a little button.

The view is very strange in secondlife and I still often/ a lot/mostly use the view/camera option and work those arrows.

I tend to use the movement arrows. Even after more than a year I find having to open my general chat and stick my cursor in the chat window to be able to walk and then remmber to take the cursor back to ims disconcerting, but it is what people know so goodness know what can be done about that... Having those two handy view camera/movement tools built into the viewer frame opt out as well as on the view menu, with the frame version of the walk working no matter where the cursor is, would be good maybe. Id love the arrows to be in the frame myself.

For inventory being able to have hide/show draggable tabs would be nice. as well as folders. Click on the tab and see whats there, or click on the ALL tab.

I hope there are not too many changes to the actual avatar as people hate when "they"change without being extensively personally consulted.

It would be great if second life could be set run at lower bandwidth through an easy tutorial with an optional download of a bandwidth careful viewer maybe as in many places bandwidth is becoming or alwayswas an issue.
Also the more older and more cheap machines secondlife can run well on, the better.

Absolutely it is important that new residents meet someone, anyone. I made a scripting alt, and talked to a couple of people about to hit the X button for a few seconds and my alt sees them online even now.

I think having a hud makes sl seem much more complicated than it is. I dont think any amount of the hud being actually brilliantly good gets around the fact that a bit of viewer when dropped falls on the ground instead retracting neatly into the viewer and this is littering and might make others upset when you arent sure how to pick it up . Its just scary.

As well as help islands having "chat islands" would be great too. Like great big chat rooms.

Please dont purge accounts. I keep returning to games after three year breaks, and Im not alone.

Not the minimap, it's too low resolution. The slightest slip would send you bouncing across the sim.

On the other hand having a "waypoint" mode like in Everquest, where you can click on the ground or a prim or whatever to set waypoints and lay out a path for yourself would get a lot of people used to that navigation mode into the game.

How about being able to save a search as a tab?

I think the "drop" option should simply be removed from the pie menu. No matter what the attachment is, dropping it behaves so counterintuitively.

Sort of like the one I posted in post #306

First land that cannot be sold and must be abandoned to buy more land seems fair.

Didn't the problem of land bots originate with first land being sold by people that did not know what it was worth?

It has to be of no value to land botter/ad farmer/land baron types.