Why I'm leaving second life

This is an account of one user's bad first experience with SL. I'm sure there are probably very good reasons for SL to be written the way it is. "It's not a bug, it's a feature" is even at the bottom of the SL help system.

Not some, but ALL of the problems I encountered my own fault. They're because I'm a new user and don't know what the hell I'm doing.

But I'm also a systems designer. And for MY software, I take the position that problems are NEVER the users' fault but are ALWAYS the fault of the system I created. If a user is confused, it's because my interface is confusing. If there's a compatibility problem, it's because I didn't make my program compatible enough. If a user has to call me because he couldn't find the answer in the help system, it's because my help system is incomplete, poorly indexed, or hard to use, NOT because the user is stupid!

But I digress...

=====

I felt like the people putting on period costumes in the beginning of "Westworld". Wow, I'm entering a simulation!

First of all, I had to pick a last name from a list instead of choosing it myself.

Why?

And virtually all the names were foreign-sounding, like "Atabashwshan".

Why?

Some, okay, to make everyone in the world feel welcome. And I hate George Bush so much that I'm actually starting to hate my own country. But I also hate political correctness. I came to play a video game, and here I was confronted with some kind of "statement". Everyone in the simulator speaks english, and for sure almost all are from western countries. So of 50 or so names, why do only a couple of them sound western?

=====

I "awoke" in-world on what appeared to be a rocky clearing on a mountain. I was naked -- a cool surprise which made sense. Other naked people wandered around aimlessly. And half of us are girls! So far, this is cool!!

No one was talking because we hadn't figured out how yet. They all just walked around slowly, staring straight ahead and bumping into each other like zombies in a George Romero movie.

So far, so good!

My first discovery is that you can't use the mouse to navigate, you have to use the keyboard. If you click on the ground, your avatar should walk there, but it doesn't. So I had to go back and forth between using the mouse and finding the arrow keys. A hassle and a disappointment.

This was not a "welcome area" for newcomers. I assumed there would be a clothes rack nearby, but no. Nor was there any Linden greeter around to help the newly-born, at least not in the 20 seconds I was there.

So I began walking around to find clothes. Within my first 20 seconds, I walked off a cliff.

=====

There should not have been a cliff without a barrier in that area. I figured this was some kind of weird way to make the game "exciting" for new arrivals. Okay, it's a puzzle. But I couldn't find any helpful objects to pick up or hint-messages carved on rocks. And for ten minutes, I could not find my way out.

Though I was just born, I was alone and confused in a dangerous grown-up world ...just like real life.

The world was making me both bored and angry (also like real life).

Finally I discovered that I can fly (unfortunately, not like real life).

This allowed me to soar naked over the mountains. How cool is this!! But with no understanding of how to control anything, I was soon over the ocean, far away from the place I was, and with no apparent way to get back to whatever help was there for the new arrivals.

=====

Eventually, I discovered "teleport". There was no index of places to teleport to, except "home". I found myself in a mall, surrounded by clothed people. I tried walking around, but discovered that a lamppost was running through my body and couldn't move. I suspect that the simulator thought I was "bumping into" the lamppost whichever way I tried to go.

I transported somewhere else, some kind of plaza. I walked over to some stairs, but walked INTO them, as if I were a ghost with my head sticking up out of the floor.

Video compatibility problem.

=====

On the web site, I discovered to my horror that the SL software works:

-- not with any windows-compatible video card (as it should)

-- nor with any OpenGL card (leaving DirectX users twisting in the wind)

-- nor even with a few common cards (which would be bad enough)

-- but with just TWO of the hundreds of cards on the market.

GoogleEarth does it right: you get the full experience with OpenGL, but it can also run in DirectX mode. if that doesn't work, it switches to the slower non-hardware-accelerated compatibility mode.

Would anyone write a word processor or video game that only worked on just TWO video cards? No. But wanna play Second Life? You have to go out and buy new equipment to replace what you already have, even though what you already have isn't broken, is state-of-the-art, and works fine with every other application.

=====

So I decided to ignore the inside-out textures, parts of things floating in the air, and the rest of what should have been a cool 3D experience, and just tried to find clothes. I found a gathering of people, who all moved in jerking motions. With a tuned-up, overclocked computer, CPU / GPU power wasn't the problem, so I moved the detail settings to their lowest values to reduce network latency. This made things smoother, but everything lost detail, resembling a 3D version of "south park".

=====

With no clothes on, I walked over to a girl and typed "Hi there. I'm new here".

She stripped naked.

COO-WELL!

That was the only good experience I had in my short time in SL. Strangers who won't look at each other in the subway and who suspect you of being a rapist if you ask them the time on the street, stand alone and naked together in this virtual world.

It shows how terribly isolated we are in real life, how far we've so-called "evolved" from when we all wandered through the woods without language...or shame. We were "real" then, in an important way, a way we aren't now. And ironically, it is technology which is making us real again.

=====

At least, that was what I was thinking. But rather than type all that and have the girl see me as an overanalytical weirdo who thinks too much (like in real life), I laughed and explained that I was looking for clothes.

She told me how to find a store, and that some stores had free ones. I thought that making new users go through this rigmarole just to get started was a very poor design choice, but I found a store.

After bumping into things (and walking through them), I found a box that supposedly has free clothes in it. I didn't want to waste time trying to figure out how to pay for things, and I wanted to save my lindens for more interesting stuff than clothes.

There were no instructions as to how to acquire them or put them on, just a box. Nobody around to help. Increasingly frustrated with the Second Life experience, I eventually opened the box and got to a menu item that said "wear shirt" or "put on shirt" or something like that, but when I clicked it, nothing happened. No matter what I did, I was still naked.

It wasn't just a texture-mapping problem in SL's incompatible video, nor was the menu item disabled; I was doing something wrong. Or maybe I wasn't doing something right. Or maybe I was supposed to pay for the clothes after all. Or maybe I was supposed to type "please".

I didn't know, but I was beginning to care less and less.

=====

Abandoning another aspect of the simulation which didn't work, I decided to just walk around and explore the world until Linden Labs banned me for being naked. I didn't really care because I knew I wasn't coming back.

But I couldn't do it. It was too unnerving to be the only person with no clothes on at a social gathering. The problem wasn't that it was embarrassing per se, the problem was that everyone would think I was doing it on purpose, to be an asshole.

I tried exploring a building for a while, but when someone accused me of being under-dressed for the location, I said "the hell with it" and exited second life, never to return.

=====

Yes, I could buy a cheap compatible video card for $20 just to play SL, but I don't want to use a cheap video card for all my other applications. And I don't want to buy a $150 card just to play SL.

And despite spending the last few hours looking for the info on the web, I still don't know whether you have to keep holding down the arrow key to keep your avatar moving, or whether it makes the avatar walk faster, or whether it makes any difference at all. Important information for beginners -- like what to do when you first arrive --- just doesn't exist. If it DOES exist, it's hard to find.

I was SOOO excited when I heard about SL. Computer graphics was my favorite course in college! But integrity demands that I say something I don't WANT to say: "Second Life sucks".

=====

Please don't reply with "Well, it's your own damn fault. You should have done xyz...". Of COURSE I should have done xyz! And I'm just one person so it doesn't matter; shoot me in the head and it won't make any difference to ANYONE.

But while I'd like to think I'm "special", I'm sure I'm not. I suspect many, many first-timers never continue because of experiences like these. 20,000 people have registered SL names. I bet thousands abandoned it because they weren't born magically knowing how to do "xyz" either.

Nor does it help to say "SL is a game you play for fun; you're SUPPOSED to have to figure things out". I know that. My point is: trying for two hours -- unsuccessfully-- to put clothes on an avatar wasn't "fun".

In fact, it was a boring, unpleasant, hassle:

-- figuring out how to do very simple things like climb out of a ditch was boring

-- being naked all the time was unpleasant

-- and the video incompatibility was an unforgivable hassle.

It's too bad; I could have contributed a lot. By writing this, I'm trying to anyway.

Sincerely,

-- Hax McKenzie (or whatever my SL last name was).

Anyone who has ever purchased software, let alone developed it, will tell you that you need to look at the system requirements before purchase. SL uses OpenGL. If your system cannot handle it, upgrade if you'd like. But there is no reason to complain when your system doesn't run SL correctly when you do not meet those clearly stated requirements.

Figuring out what do is pretty simple. From what I remember with my last alt, a bunch of notecards pop up and if you read them they tell you what to do. Walk along the road and click on objects with hover text to get even more notecards.

The next place that you can go to to get help is an option called help island. There are voluneteers there to help you. But you bypassed that one. If you still need more help there is a search option with many places for newbies to get help. If all else fails, there is a help option to get well.. live help.

Yes there is a learning curve. That is a downfall when you have such an open ended system as this. Thousands have made it through. Many more probably gave up around the same time you have. But there are a lot more options on how to figure things out now then there was 2+ years ago.

As for the naked bit, I never had that problem. Every time I've been on help isle, everyone is clothed.

Some don`t take note of this. There is a HIGH Influx of new accounts.......The helpers cant keep up.System requirements are always the out for some when explaining its not LLabs fault...................... its the users. ( not bashing just explaining ). Its so known that the interface of Sl client really needs to be redone. everyone knows and says this.

Another factor newbies are more confused more then ever. They don`t know the diff between the simulator and their own computer reading. "The blame lag on LLabs where its sits with their system", when its their own system failing.........its not the servers of LLABS!

Grant you resent pocket loss problems was due to the llabs side. But when i am in a sim and i getting 45 FPS and high 40`s dils....and some people scream "LAG" I just laugh to my screen.......This problem lays instead with the undestand of the game. Which 80% or even higher of people undestandingabout lag and how its diff from ONES COMPUTER and the SIMULATOR OR SIM your in at the moment.
( IF You have a strong internet connect you have every thing.......Nomatter how gamer friendly your computer might be.........................) this is just fact.....
With all the LLabs helpers running around how in the hell can they forget to teach the newbies about how to read the sim and computer status???????? I find so many unknowing people newbies and oldies.........The lack of understanding how the game works and how its ticks really is the blame for this problems not the llabs......Why have so many helpers in the game? If people are STILL unknowing of basic ABC`s in how the game works?!You figure it out.

Just some find thoughts from a person thats been inworld most of her life...............
Usagi

As for the fun last names. LLABS Loves to PR Japanese names no matter if it means a veggy,or a type of food, or screw ball off the wall term........etc........The days I say more and more LLAbs is placing Japanese names at the top of the lisiting of possible names.....At time they overload the choices and at times its like I not in a western style VR world......This issue has been a problem with name choice in which ever culture worlds......

SL requirement has been buried so people who want to try it has to search alot for it, hardly easy available now.

so stupid "hey try Secondlife!".
..we will blame you for not reading the requirements later"?".

Youd think it would be on their download page, but its gone, LL sure like to put things in places where its nearly impossible for newpeople to find it, wiki ? oh wait is that another blog page i have to read now?.

LL is wierd about information, forum is like this;

new information read this post
yay new info now go read this blog
on the blog another link read this!
<info here>

If i wanted to find into you bet i have to visit another page to find it, why i like forums but apperantly this place is being replaced with blogs , blarg : P

There is a link to the system requirements at the bottom of the page on sites like secondlife.com. It is not very prominent, for sure, but it is easy to find by using a browser's find text in page function. There should be a link to the system requirements on the download page, above the link to download the client. A link in the drop down list might be nice too.

I don`t really understand this remark............
Unless it refering to playabily? or letting in countless alt etc.........
Oh well...

have your stuff?

Speaking from the viewpoint of another newbie... (me!)

It seems like 90% of this guys problem is not reading the requirements for graphics and having a video card that doesn't do OpenGL, (which is pretty hard to find so maybe he is a techie that specifically set his system to not do OpenGL?) He also exaggerates about the number of OpenGL compatible video cards.

The rest of what he says is relevant though. There are notecards, but any good software should be "discoverable" and help should be available if you are actively seeking it as a player.

My experience was that after literally five minutes or less of standing on the top of orientation island being bumped by all the arriving clones, the system crashed.

Re-logging left me and all the people who had just joined with me, in the middle of snowhere at a place called Anzere with no help, no Lindens, and no way to get to help island, let alone the rest of the orientation.

The full story is on my blog here but LL should realise that this happens to lots and lots of people.

Go to any hub area in SL and you can see the "overflow" people like myself materialising on a daily basis by the dozen and most of those get only the most basic help if that. I have heard of help Island from my friends, I sometimes dreamt of it in the early days, but I have never seen it.

Since there are four help islands and associated orientation islands now, doesn't it seem like if you crash or the sim crashes on H.I. or O.I. that you should get logged in to a different HI or OI instead of onto the main grid?

Hm. I find it a bit hard to take seriously a complaint by someone who claims to be a systems designer, can write a long and articulate piece about his frustrations, knows that the help section exists, and yet somehow couldn't find the "Avatar Customisation" section, which is the first link on the main help page and has detailed instructions on how to put on clothes as well as everything else.

(My sympathy rather drained away with the "oh, look at all these foreign-sounding names" bit too.)

Not to say that there aren't issues with SL's UI, Orientation Island and the "welcome" system in general, but really.

I find it hard to believe the guy is sincere in his post. My "trolling flaming" indicator went off, and the nationalist bigotry passage in his other post, /142/92/137351/2.html#post1293923, seem like this may be someone just trying to stir up trouble.

The post at /142/d9/139350/1.html#post1293934
also suggests a prankster at play.

There should still be a link to the system requirements on the download page, above the download, so if you read in order you can't miss it.

You're not naked when you arrive. And there is a clothes rack right in front of the starting point. It always has a bunch of also-not-naked people standing next to it trying on clothes.

Foreign names and political statements LOL. I had to stop reading shortly after that I was laughing so hard.

An apology.

It has bothered me ever since I made my original reply. Found myself coming back a few times and looking at what I said. I think I finally realised that by my responding to a negative thread with a negative post was wrong. Kinda like two wrongs don't make a right. Anyways, thank god for edit. I have started helping in the creative forums and would rather be known for that or injecting a humurous comment every now and then.

oh gesh

You were born naked? lol in the olden days we got a goofy pair of jeans and some flip flops you wore with socks..laffin what an intro into the more sexual side of SL.

Used to as well, when you came to the SL page to down load for the first time, there used to be a test, to see if your PC could handle the game. Shame thats gone, cause i have a relative that d/led to an older PC, blew out everything video in it..so do find something about the system requirements somehow before the download.

As for ya leaving, well to be honest you didnt even give SL a fair chance, but thats just less lag for the rest of us, best wishes in finding something better

Why do some people insist on making a production out of leaving? If you don't like Second Life, why not just not play it? Are you trying to convince us to leave too? Sheesh.

Well, there's something about SL which made me sit looking at my computer out of the sides of my eyes and think, even when it was switched off.

I swapped video cards with my work PC, and came back in. I discoverd that I wasn't naked when I started, I just had a video adaptor which couldn't texture-map clothing to the body. In the process of trying to put clothes on the first day, I had clicked "remove clothes", and that's how I got naked.

See you inside.

==[ The Haxx

PS
Don't be frighened, I wear clothes in there now now.

Although I joined a while ago I had the opposite experince with newbie island. After five mintes of reading the automatic notecards on the kiosks I pretty much understood the basics and started to explore. I have no idea how a "systems designer" could be so confused.

Here is a thread I started about my first week, as a counterpoint to the negativity...

/108/7b/104823/1.html

I wonder what video card he has. He fails to mention that. SL doesn't support just Two video cards. It supports any with enough OpenGL features to satisfy it. At the minimum that seems to be a Geforce 2 or a Radeon 7500 or something compatable. Yeah, that means you can't use your old 1995-era Voodoo3 card in it.

If you're a "Systems Designer" you don't design software. People who write software are called "Programmers", "Software Architects", "Software Engineers" or somesuch. System Engineers and Systems Designers design hardware architecture, like datacenters and such.

Everyone in the software business knows this golden rule: There will always be someone too stupid to use your software. You can dumb it down to almost oblivion and someone will still come along and be completely dumb. It happens. Thus, you design for a medum common denominator, and write good documentation for the rest. Linden Labs has done that. The In-Game design is good enough for most people to understand. The gooey details and hold-your-hand documentation is on the web.

Overall, you've not presented any case at all, only a lot of technobabble and ego.

OKay this SHOULD have been done in post #2.. but people seem to be all about debating you.

Hax.. IM me in world next time the grid is up, and as soon as you and I connect, I'll set you up with some clothes (a fair selection, really) Some freebie toys that I think are awesome, and some good landmarks for excellent places to go, and sources for more freebies. I'll also do my best to answer any questions you have about the user interface, and I can even help you find a main-grid replica of Orientation Island.

I'm confused. Now you say you removed your own clothes and the texture map was working properly. But you first claimed everyone was naked? Naked is different than no texture. You also claim to not know your last name, but you had to enter it when you logged into the forums. Also, it's at the top of the web page next to "Welcome".

And now I guess you are staying?

its taken me about 2 weeks to figure out most stuff, how to change my appearance, visit places, check events, search, add animations etc etc and now i'm getting into whether i buy land and now how im going to build something when i do - i'm the sort that gets a new bit of kit and puts the manual on one side and probly never reads it - i want to figure it by myself - the learning curve is steep if you go that route but i always think you learn more by doing it yourself

i have no sympathy for the original poster of this thread - if you dont understand it - rtfm or "f1"

4 & 2 letters the original poster should have ingrained in their brain if they say who they say they are

this whole thread is of course an exageration in the extreme

I have three computers - all Low end. All can run Second Life.

The best one is a Emachine Celeron I paid $300 (including the Monitor, NEW RETAIL) for in June. It has a video card on the motherboard.

The second best is an AMD with a ATI 256k video card the whole system cost $400 in sept of 2004.

The third is a Gateway we paid $800 for on Sept 10, 2001. this ones only got 512 Meg memory.

I connect with common old 1 meg cable from the company i get the TV cable from.

On all except the last computer I can handle prety well moving in lagy places like huge stores and clubs. In fact I typically have to wait on my friends becuase they take longer to rez areas than me.

It is possible people spend money on the wrong stuff making their systems work.

Exactly!! I run a home built AMD system that had an older Asus 7100 video card (Geforce MX 400) with 32 megs of ram. SL ran so slow I couldn't stand it. I had to upgrade or quit altogether.
I READ THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS!
I picked up a GeForce FX 6200 with 256 MB DDR. It states OpenGL 1.5 on the box. There should be NO problem.
I've tried every driver I can find with no success. I have the Nvidia 91.47 drivers installed now.
When I start the game I get a GDI Generic video card unsupported card or driver error and it shuts down. I emailed for help and sent off my log file a few days ago, but I haven't heard back and I don't have much hope for a fix.

But I sure would like some help... Please!

This seemed like a decent end to this thread!