New Trail User Region Limits

Okay chiming in now . I went to the welcome area tonight to talk to newbs since they can't come to us anymore. Everyone i met said the same thing, they are very frustrated and bored because they can't explore all the sims. Several of them said they probably wouldn't subscribe because they couldn't really see everything. I think the fact that it doesn't require a credit card is drawing more in, but restricting them is turning alot of them away..at least that is what i am hearing from them so far.

I finally got several friends to check us out - people get AWFULLY suspicious when asked for a credit card to try out something for FREE - it's maybe not the best situation to corral all the trial users into a small, less than ten percent area of the whole, but we can go and meet them, show them photos of our builds, store owners can give them free samples of clothing and maybe (hopefully) we can work out some kind of tour.
Personally, I would have let the trials go everywhere - maybe all the PG sims, anyway - but not have the option of spending or giving money, buying land or creating objects outside of classroom areas. In any case, Rizal ought to be open to them too, so they can play in the arenas.

I have mixed emotions about the limited trial area now. I spent a long time in the welcome area last night and I do now see the good and bad points to it. Maybe we can have a slide show of our photos of the world as we see it to help inspire the trial users. Take your pics down there to show off!

I just worry about trial users not realizing the potential of the world and not having any residents to chat with, I saw a lot of newbies chatting together wondering what to do. But, I was encouraged by all the residents that were down in the welcome area greeting newbies.

On a lighter note; Newbies are fun.
Last night, I watched a newbie spawn into the world. I greeted him and went unanswered. He got his bearings, looked around and promptly jumped into the air and flew right into the "Welcome" sign!! Smacked his head pretty good! He brushed himself off and took off. LOL, I almost fell over laughing, it was such a priceless moment.

Hi All,

Watching this thread carefully... we'll see how this change affects conversion rates over the next week or so.

Hey, check out my thread in 'feature feedback' on a 'job' for mentoring newbies - very relevent to this group.

I understand the need to limit newbies to some degree, although I have to say, as a relative newbie myself and a There and EQ refugee (I quit both games after I realized the extent of SL -- and I had been playing EQ for over three years), I don't think I would have stuck it out to activate my account if I'd been limited to those four sims. The building tools are what really dragged me into the game (oh and the very nice, mature friendly people! I'm not sure Linden Lab has any idea how lucky they are to have a subscriber base that's so great, imho). During my second or third day I bought a strip of land and started playing. It took me a little longer to realize that each sim has its own character and its own flavor -- and its own community. I figured this out simply by flying around and around and around some more. Thus by the end of the first week I was ready to find a real "home" in SL, which turned out to be Immaculate. I suppose I"m just saying that wow, I'm glad i activated my account when I did -- because if I'd waited I wouldn't be totally addicted by now .

At the same time, I can understand that eliminating a credit card requirement is probably going to do two things: 1) potentially attract much younger people who may not have the same respect for their fellow players as many of us do now 2) bring in some people who are bent on messing with things just because they can.

I think this idea of "mentoring newbies" is a good one -- but there has to be some way within that process of allowing them to at least see the extent of the world. It seems to me that if the trails can be limited to one area, they should at least be able to be limited in other ways so as not to disrupt the world but still let them explore. Perhaps limiting their building ability except in classroom areas? The scripting ability was already limited when I started -- you had to be on for at least three days to be able to include scripts. Why not expand these limits rather than limit their movement?

Of course, those of you who know me know that I'm still very new to SL in many ways, so I may be asking dumb questions here .

Zana

oh man I hate when people do this but here goes... cross post:

I hung out in the welcome area and learned a few things last night. First its unclear to me how much money they get. Some places it says 500, somone there last night said 300 and today I read 200. The money I guess is for building. They cant buy anything, they cant script or upload anything and as we all know they cant go but to 4 sims.

One thing that hasnt been mentioned is what of the existing residents?

New folks are concentrated which then makes every player within the trial zone a mentor, like it or not. There are already random prims that need to be cleaned and other things you have to "put up with" with new players. Note I use quotes because new players can be a lot of fun too. I'm not trying to say they are "bad".

But new players cant buy anything, cant rate and cant trade goods or cash. So. It seems the residents of the themed areas are asked to support new players without much benefit. The new players if they go live will probably be tired of the resricted area and not return for awhile once released from it.

I think the Lindens should consider, especially with the new tax structure, additional supports for the themes within the trial area since they are really key in keeping new players interested with (at this time) no real benefit for doing so.

_______________

After reading the various posts on the subject it seems evident that the current trial situation will continue to evolve. Whether that means extending the area, allowing some sort of tours, etc., I will just have to wait and see at what is done before telling my TSO friends to jump on the bandwagon and come give the trial a whirl. I'd just like to make sure they're as blown away by this game as I have been.

See my post in feature feedback on being paid for getting new users accustomed to the system - agree we need something here.

Just to clarify a couple of things here - trial users don't get taxes/stipends (under the current system they can't build anything persistent since Morris is a sandbox sim), and therefor have no effect on the economy.

Also, they actually start with $300 but get another $200 going through Prelude, which most of them actually do.

This still only makes an impact after the new user has made the decision to go from trial to paying. The issue at hand is getting those new users to make this decision in the first place. Many of the comments posted here have stated that exploring this world and seeing all the different possibilities is what kept people coming out and sticking with it for a while. A "newbie mentoring program" may not be such a bad idea, but there needs to be new paying users in the first place. And to do that you have to convince them to stay.

That's why i think it would be a good idea to give them a tour by ship. I'd be willing to help out with it if anyone else is interested. It'd be a good way to get them to be able to see the world, without allowing them to explore. It'd be like a sampler of that which SL has to offer. I can understand why the lindens want people who don't give credit cards to play to see the world, as a whole, and fly by tours is a great way to give them a taste of the world, so they will pay to play, to explore more on their own.

I agree with you, Brad. I'd like to see something like that implemented if trial users are not going to have a wide range of exploration. I can understand some restrictions but I think they at least need to see some things to get their taste buds watering. And a guided tour would be great so they don't feel alone. All I was really trying to say was that I want to wait until something like this is implemented before I invite my other friends out. I just don't think they're going to get a full enough flavor with the current restrictions. I really just don't want to hear them say something like, "I'm restricted, I'm bored, I don't know what is really out there if there really is something... I'm going back to TSO."

I think that in general "free trials" should be as close to the full experience as possible. As a skeptical consumer my reactions to "crippleware" is that the part of the system they are not allowing me to see must be pretty awful.

I can see that with the elimination of the credit card requirement you might face the issue of people signing up for one "free trial" after another and never actually paying for the service, hence limiting the free experience serves as an incentive to finally sign-up.

How about this as an alternative: Pick 4 sims that are either themed areas or Linden owned land and build a representative variety of things for potential new users to play with. Maybe one of the 4 sims could be like the sandbox and would allow them to create things, but not buy land permanently. Allow people to use these 4 sims indefinitely or at least for a substantial period (a month?). At any point however a trial user can choose to give their credit card info, and at that point they are free to roam the entire world for 7 days with full privileges (or close) without paying.

I don't think the current residents of the 4 sims being used should either be rewarded or punished for the luck of the draw on this. Special SIMs or at least fully themed SIMS would minimize this.

How convenient... especially since many of us REALLY need the cash flow...!!!

=SV

How about different sorts of trials: if you give your credit card number, you can see the world for five days; if you don't, you can hang out in Stage4 region for seven?

My thoughts exactly.

First, the new users do have a sandbox area in Morris. They changed it to a sandbox right before they implimented the changes. Not to mention the pond they added, the Nexus Prime outlets for stores, the archery range, and the class stage in Dore now. I think that the newbies have plenty to do if they're on at the right time, they can learn all of their new skills at the classes, and then use their skills at the sandbox.

Also, I was hanging around the welcome area and they were talking about maybe implimenting a trial with a credit card so that people can have free reign of the world. I think it's a good idea, because with two types or trials, it will bring in a lot more people.

Since these players aren't going effect the rest of the world in anyway, and being brand new to SL, I don't think the limitations are unreasonable.

I think within the new n00b area there is enough to do and see to get hooked. I was talking to one in Venice last night, and he was impressed. For myself, I barely made it out of the welcome pen my first time and I was hooked.

Although I can really understand why existing players would want to proudly display ALL the cool stuff SL has to offer.

Maybe special teleport trips could be set up for these trial players? Or one day of full access?

fen-

I would like to point out that different people respond to different things. Especially people that have been in one or another MMOG before.

For instance, I played UO a long time ago. One thing that was always a pain in UO was the inability to find available land. Virtually impossible to find land in a location you actually liked.

I flew around the world exploring for about 6 hours before I finally found a location I liked, that was available, in Stanford. I didn't activate my account until I had actually claimed the land.

While I realize that land claims are one of the problems that the new trial restrictions are supposed to deal with (people who claim land, then cancel their account), I still might have activated the account once I found the land, even if I couldn't claim it right then.

As a matter of fact, I probably would have found the land, then immediately activated the account simply so I could claim it before someone else did.

As it was, I activated the account early, but only when I realized that I couldn't upload textures until I had done so.

While I realize having a "home" isn't a priority for every newbie, I also realize that the reason this was so high on my priority list was directly due to prior experience in another MMOG. While it's common to see people compare SL to "There" and "TSO", those aren't the only other MMOG's that people are leaving because they're annoyed at one thing or another.

To cut this short, for me specifically, finding land was a large factor in my decision to cough up the cash (well, credit, actually). Had I not been stranded in the welcome area, All I would've had on this issue is the word of a lot of people that I didn't know, at all.

There is certainly a balance that needs to be reached between the trial player's ability to annoy paying members, and convincing the trial players (preferably not the annoying ones) to either activate their accounts, or at least not cancel them. The problem is finding that balance.