Observations of a newbie after one whole week

beautiful.

Welcome new people! Thanks so much for posting such a positive thread! People most often speak up when they want to complain about something so your posts are wonderful to read. Like Billy said, sometimes we forget why we fell in love with SL in the first place. Enjoy the wonderment! And welcome to SL.

Hi Chip, I want to craft clothes and I have found your info/templates as well as Robin Wood's photoshop walkthroughs just a phenomenal help, thanks for the encouragement here and thanks for posting all the newbie helper stuff

Welcome to SL

Damn, at the rate your going I'll be going to classes that you teach in SL within a week.

Was soooo glad there wasn't anyone nearby when i got my haircut through the slExchange thingie...

"wooo, hair" \o/
*drool, right click, wear*
"... oh dear. it didn't look so... angular, on that picture" o.O;

Blimey - it took me about two years to get to that stage!

*flexes*

Never underestimate a geek girl with a copy of photoshop.

This gave me chills and a lump in my throat. Thanks for reminding me what really matters, Eponine.

Here's a warm welcome and a hearty handshake! I hope to run into you in this mad, crazy world we call Second Life.

Exactly! *grins*

Welcome to SL Eponine. Sounds like you are well and hooked! I hope you enjoy your stay and that your stay is a long one.

I am deaf also, and SL has been an amazing and wonderful place for me. The people are supportive, kind and helpful for the most part (far moreso than in general society), and the lack of a language barrier for me just makes SL the most perfect experience. This has become my family now, and I hope it will become yours too. Welcome to the fold, hon.

*hugs*

--Zoe

I have a curiosity question, for those in this thread who've mentioned being deaf.

Does the hand thing when typing out a message (that is, looking like the av is typing on an invisible keyboard) remind you of sign language? If so, given comments about SL enabling better communications than readily available in RL, does it bother you?

This is honest curiosity, I'm not trying to stir up shit or anything. Not having had significant hearing impairment (in spite of the efforts of years with the volume knob at "11" ), I wouldn't even try to imagine the views on communication by someone who may not have 'conventional' methods fully available to them (I know not all deaf people can't speak, but as I understand it that is a common situation).

*snuggles into Zoe's hug*

Hiya Zoe. I checked out your web site and what a coincidence that we have both played Morrowind. That was my first computer RPG and got me hooked on the genre (I found out about it from another disabled woman). A long time ago I even wrote a review of Morrowind for deafgamers.com http://www.deafgamers.com/morrowind.htm.

I hope to meet you in game and get to know you.

The typing animation does remind me of sign a bit. Funny, I was wondering last night if the technology existed in SL to make an animation that did fingerspelling as you typed. Showing fingerspelling or sign language-ish animations could probably be done but I doubt many deafies would want to use it since one of the coolest things about SL (and text chat rooms) is that our disability is not a big factor.

One thing that may be helpful is to work on a grammar checker module for deafies since the grammar for American Sign Language is so different (much closer to Japanese grammar) that many deaf people that primarily sign are uncomfortable in text chat because their written English literacy is low. This is cultural issue to many of the deaf - I rant a bit about it on my web site - there is a link in my profile here. If you have never text chatted with a deaf person just keep in mind that often you are not chatting with someone whose primary communication is English and English grammar is very confusing for native ASL users.

As for your other question - I have played online games with hearing guild mates where they were all on team-speak or some other voice chat. As long as they did a good job of relaying what was going on it was fine. The sad thing was that at times they would not relay the ooc banter and jokes, just the ic directions so I was constantly asking why the RP had stopped only to read that someone was singing or they were all telling jokes.

I do think people should have the option to use whatever technology and tools they like for their entertainment. It does run the risk of making some of us second class citizens but I am used to that in RL anyway and would not want to deter people from improving their gaming enjoyment for my sake. Those that want to voice chat within SL should feel free to use it. Ironically it will probably affect the gender swappers and people that play older or younger ages than their RL (and those that have to listen to them) more than us deafies.

For those that care I would be happy just to raise the awareness that deaf and other disabled are here in game and have people refrain from any purely audio clues to in game activity (sound files that give instructions with no text component for example).

Time to get back in game and start sync dancing.

P.S. to all the animation creators...
FYI: Hot Salsa, Slow Dance v3 and that back to front hip grind dance are much sexier than most of your boinking animations - study them and get back to work!

That was kind of what I suspected, personally, but as I said above I'm not deaf, so I don't pretend to know what it's like.



I have, actually, but the cynic in me insists on noting that some of those for whom spoken English is supposed to be a native language have trouble with English grammar, too!



For the longest time, I didn't have a connection suitable to TS or do voice chat in general, so I'm not unfamiliar with voice chat humor not being relayed, in my early experience in Jumpgate. Hell, even important stuff like that dink in the railgun-armed fighter coming up behind my poor little transport looking to scatter my ass across the sector, at times.



Needing glasses for much of anything beyond maybe picking my nose ( ), I'm similarly concerned about web pages where the content is primarily pictures (or worse, flash animations... ugh), especially knowing a few people who are completely blind, and rely on text-to-speech converters to do online stuff.

I just realized I'm 100 days old today, and I just did the same thing last week..somehow I turned myself in to a 3 foot tall white alien.
Luckily no one was watching, and I teleported home ASAP. I spent so much time making myself up...

Oh well, 3 hours later..back to almost normal.

But your doing very well..I'Ve not made anything, and I first spent 3 weeks on Help Island.

I usually login about 10 pm, and I have found SL is the best cure for insomnia I've ever had.

Have fun ...and dont take it all too seriously

Welcome to SL, Eponine. Come by the spa anytime and hang out. We've got pearl diving and whatnot. You can get the LM from my Picks. Also, there is an underwater tomb with mature content and a skyclub. But for folks interested in PG pursuits, we have underwater attractions such as a geyser park and buried treasure. Come take a picture by our squid or our orca, or in the mermaid's grotto.

There are lots of great places for free clothes and stuff, too. You can pick up some free jewelry at the spa, for example, but many places like Yadni's junk yard, DarkDharma avatars, and Ordinal Malaprop's shop give away awesome free stuff. You can do a lot with a little dough. Take a few classes, and soon you'll be making it yourself if you want to be.



Your English is well-written, Eponine. No worries there. Everyone makes typos.



I agree heartily. And now you are part of it. Good for you.

I've enjoyed reading this thread. Especially learning that putting a box on your head is a classic move on a newbie's part. I just joined today and within the hour had a box on my head. I was so embarrassed and was hoping that the ladies standing near me wouldn't notice!

Now if I can just get my ten month old on a regular schedule, I can try to find classes to take to learn how to properly make prims-- I'm thinking of doing clothing and home decor. Just for fun.

I'm a stay at home mom who has no friends in this area. I'm a military wife so we move a lot. I connect with others via the internet every day...usually through online games like EverQuest 1 & 2, Planetside, and Star Wars Galaxies. I heard about this community through a gaming forum and read some online articles. Im amazed at what this place has become and find it very exciting.

I am looking foward to using this community to learn more about digital art and maybe even scripting. Who knows what I can learn over the next year!

Oh, and I love the typing animation-- its nice to know when someone is about to say something.

I hope its alright, Eponine Basiat, if I add you to a list of people to look for!

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords. Beats the heck outta that demanding girl with the butterfly wings.

P2

It is so nice to hear feedback from new SL-ers. I think that it's hard to reach out to
strangers the first time even in a game. I spent my first week somewhat mute because I was tooo nervous to talk to what I thought were way more exterienced gamers. But the more I talked to the people around me the better the game got for me. I asked as many questions as I could and I still do! I still put boxes on my head *all* the time and I just hit my first year....

Do go to Lost Dog Designs and check out the Seduction dances upstairs...

Welcome Eponine! Its great to hear you're having such a great time! You seem to know your way round SL better than some people who've been here for years!

Of course if you do get stuck on anything or have any questions, the LiveHelp team is there to help, you can talk to them by going to the help menu and selecting LiveHelp in world.

Its great to hear you're already making things, future great fashion designer of SL



Lol! I do it on purpose now-adays, doesn't take up prims, can take things out of boxes on No-Rez land and I'm past caring if people think I'm a newbie.



Go Aimee, go Aimee, go Aimee!

Of course, you mean me.

http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?id=68381&sort=PictureID+desc

What? You don't? Dang.

Only if I don't find you first sweetie

*makes a note*

SOMEBODY is in TROUBLE!

This is very true. Here I am trying on what should be a flower in my hair.