Did You Hang Out in the WA When You Were New?

Yes, I sometimes wish SL had a *BUZZ* like they do on Yahoo Messenger, just to get the attention of someone you're desperate to talk with, lol.

My friend TPed me to thier placed, laughed, pointed. Gave me free stuff ad then told me they had to log. I then wandered around like a homeless bum collecting freestuff for a week and found out weapons were a no no. Fortunatly concidering how I am my riend warned me about mature vs PG BEFORE she logged...infact she found it to be a top priority and said something about "don't drop my pants" in IM as soon as I got into game.*shrugs*

oK so no I didn't hang out there right away but later on I went back to WA for a bit.





*drops his pants*

I think it sucks to be in the welcome area now. I used to love being down there and quietly stand around and answer questions when someone needed help. There is about 20 people that blather on about nothing and posture for attention its just unbearable. These people, on their own, can be pleasant, interesting, and helpful, but get them in their little groups and stupidity ensues.

In itself, its not that bad to see for an hour or so maybe, some of it is funny, on a three stooges sort of level. But, if you make habit of going to the welcome area to help new people, seeing the same people doing the same crap day in and day out is just too much to bear.

*Edit* And to answer the question. Yes, I hung out in the welcome area all the time when I was new. There was a nearby stage that was the main place to go to attend an event. The event board was there, we didnt have a search for that, so we had to physically go and look at a bilboard to see what was going on each day. It was a hub of activity when the world was much smaller.

I spent my first month mainly in and around the Welcome Area. I had already learned most of the basics after my first week or so, but my friends spent a lot of time there and we had fun helping new people out.

I haven't been back for a long time though, from what I hear it's changed and not for the better... that's too bad really, it used to be a nice place.

I had a very similar experience when I spent a week or two in welcome recently as an alt. It gives one an opportunity to see a lot of things from a different perspective.

Originally I was infuriated by the WA "characters," whom I percieved as being mean and childish. (We cant mention them of course, but most people probably know who I am talking about.)

Surprise surprise....

After not long at all, I saw that these folks were providing the only entertainment going and were not as bad as people make out. They were even down right friendly at times as long as you wer not so thin skinned as to take offense at every little thing.

The capper...
Is that most of the real rude jerky people I observed there, actually came from the ranks of this forum! :0

While percieved as intellectual giants and clever "oldbies," on the forum, *some* of these people turned into gigantic idiots in the welcome area and treated the newbies more like trash that the "characters" did.

I want to stress that this is ONLY *some* people from forum, and that *many* older players show up in welcome area strictly to suport newbies nand help out. These wonderful people know who they are though. I was just surprised to find that this reversal of roles was happening for others.

Finally, Try showing up at welcome very late at night when there are no liasons and no Lindens or helpers, and (worst of all!), no silly annoying "characters."

DULL-DA-DULL-DULL!

Perhaps there is room for dissenting weirdos in the welcome area.
At least they make it exciting. Both for newbies and the occaisional older player.

I stayed long enough in the Welcome area to figure out how to leave it.


Ive played a handful of online games before this and SL doesnt require you to kill rats and stuff to start out, so I saw no incentive to hanging around.

I agree with this 100%

To add fuel to the fire yes I used to hang out at the welcome area a lot before it turned into the most boring place in Second Life. I don't consider elementary school type conversation very entertaining I guess.

my first day was the only one I spent any time in the welcome area... I got there, was given an excellently written noob note card by Loki Piko, I stood there and read it (between people coming running up to me and offering help) before I decided to venture off on my own to explore...

if anything, I found it rather confusing and overwhelming there as a noob... too many people hanging around and talking about anything and everything... it's hard to follow the conversation for new people when there's 30 or 40 people just sitting around shooting the proverbial shit... and thing is, not many really seemed to be there to help... with the exception of a select few, they were just there because there was a crowd of people there and they could show off their newest and most exciting toy/item

I spent about five seconds in the newbie area when I first got here. Instead I flew around and looked at all the builds and just reveled in the sheer freedom to fly anywhere I wanted! I wound up at the late, great Club Vogue in DaBoom and chatted away with the people there for most of the night as I recall.

Polls that close, suck.

I mostly flew around and got lost, but then came back eventualy and enjoyed hanging out.