How to make newbies stay?

I've been at Lotte Lindens german office hour yesterday. Again the main question from LL was: How can we improve the start locations, so that more newbies find their way into SL and do not leave frustrated?

What is your opinion?

The numbers, how many newbies are born on community gateways and how many on LL OIs are not public, a request in the mailing list did not result in an answer.

I think this is a better place to discuss that topic, than a german office hour, since here the mentors can give their opinion.

If noone is interested in discussing here, well, I at least tried.

cu
Aleco

just out of stupidity the other day i was thinking the same thing, on the OI i would get im's from peaple "what do i do here" or "what is this place?". maybe somehow have a intro thing on the site telling about what the OI is hen you first register, kinda like a walkthrew.

A walkthrough is, what the community gateways that I know have.

cu
Aleco

1. Take the new user to a "Readme" page before they can log on for the first time. Explain that the first place they'll go is Orientation Island, where they'll learn some basic skills, then move on to Help Island to practice building objects, and that from there they will move into the main world of Second Life.

2. Instead of dumping new Residents at a few welcome areas, full of showoffs and griefers, at Help Island give them a list of landmarks -- fifty or a hundred interesting places to visit, with a little one-sentence description of each. They don't need to be Linden public areas. [EDIT] There are three benefits to this: Newbies immediately get to see what sort of variety SL offers; they immediately get to go somewhere that is of interest to them; and they are scattered widely, instead of making a ready audience for the showoffs, scammers, and griefers to target.

3. One of the landmarks in the list should be a link back to HIP or other areas where they are apt to find a mentor, in case they have questions.

4. Update the Library. Most of the junk in there is very dated and of poor quality. Include better clothes, hair, shoes. Include a basic male and female AO. Include a selection of skins. Include a couple of nicer houses and vehicles. Include a selection of useful and informative notecards about popular SL questions...how to buy/rent land, how to dance, where to learn more, how to open a box, how to Search with the map and Search tools, etc.

5. Oh, I almost forgot: Make free accounts a 30 day trial only. This doesn't affect retention...but it DOES make the registration figures a lot more meaningful, and will cut down on the resource-sucking armies of bots.

hehe

/me creates a landmark dropbox and trys to place it on help island

This has been an ongoing topic at Blue Lindens office hour as well.
The attrition rate is horrendous IMO and it’s apparent that LL agrees there can be some improvement to the current new resident experience.
Some suggestions have been to focus more on the infohubs while continue to tool around with the OIs.
I have been at the Orientation Islands and can tell you that people face a litany of issues including computers and ISPs that just don’t meet what’s required to run SL. Gamers who log in expecting a WoW experience and are quickly disappointed. The more mature who are put off by ass holes asking for sex with in minutes of signing on. Non English or not so good at English players who feel immediately disenfranchised. Quircky OIs that don’t work or Orientation HUDs that rez slow or are confusing, and those that just want to get the hell off the island and start playing. Some actually think that the OI IS Second Life.
There are some interesting and well thought out alternate Orientation facilities that are not Linden Lab’s. Just a few that stand out are Avatar Island, Orientation Station and Ben & Jerry’s…yes Ben & Jerry’s. look for them in Search. That’s the big button at the bottom of your screen that says ‘Search’…for those of you who skipped orientation.

Here's my take on it, based upon our experience at the Shelter:

The key to getting new residents to stay in Second Life, is a providing them with a social network. If the new resident can make friends early on, they're much more likely to stay & be more tolerant to the steep learning curve & technical challenges.

I know at one time, the Orientation Islands would facilitate this sort of atmosphere - judging from the amount of new residents that used to become 'attached' to an OI, fearful of leaving it & the friends they made there. But because I spend the majority of my time at the Shelter these days, and not on an OI - I'm not sure if this is something that still happens.

A few random thoughts..

Several things I see with new users:
- they don't know how to search
- they don't know who to use their inventory (like searching for 'worn')
- they wear boxes with pix of clothes and don't know how to unpack them
- they have no idea that most of SL is private property (though frequently open to the public)

I remember spending a lot of time at the first bit of OI, trying to edit my appearance. After getting tired with that, I sorta blew thru the rest of it.

I haven't been to a real OI since I started - I hear it's changed a lot. If it was still the old OI (which seems much like OI Public) I'd rearrange it so that the landing point was more like the center of a hub than the start of a linear path. That would make it easier for people to see all the OI topics and allow more random access if they wanted to go back and get more practice on various bits.

The problem with trying to judge this based on the raw retention rate is that out in the big, bad real world, SL is basically just a free downloadable product. "Casual" games that have to be paid for, but are free downloads initially, generally expect a conversion rate of around 1% on PC - 5% would be a runaway success. Since usually you have to pay to continue using the game beyond a certain period of time, this has a strong relationship to retention rate. And for those users (the majority) who aren't interested in the "platform" and development side, SL _is_ basically a casual game or social application.

The current OI has some flaws that plainly need to be corrected. The initial instruction to "wander around looking at the stations" just doesn't encourage people - they want their hands held a little bit more than that. The Search tutorial needs to really teach Search, not just to look at the map. And, the tendancy for the scripts used for the Orientation Guide to lag or fail outright can spoil the whole experience. Hopefully, someday when the open source projects advance, users will be able to go through Orientation Island entirely on their local PC and this problem will be eliminated.

But more is the fact that SL needs to more quickly "grab" newbies with something that will make them want to stay. These have already been analysed several times by MMORPG industry analysts, who have a model called the MAISE model (Mastery, Achievement, Immersion, Socialisation, Exploration); SL needs to more quickly offer these as ways to grab new users. Now, true, because SL is not a MMORPG it can't do all of these in the same way, but as Travis mentioned it can certainly do Socialisation, and it could probably do Exploration too. For users who are interested in creating it can do Achievement but that's unfortunately not scalable.

Give them a decent graphics card.

"Sit! Stay! Good nooblet!"

I like the idea of listing several places, maybe via the website before first log-in, then dump the new resident immediately into the real SL. It's like jumping into a pool for the first time each Spring... you know the water is gonna be cold, but once you're in, you don't wanna get out. And you go back all Summer. At least that works for me

Anyway, so have a pop-up that prompts folks to use the Help menu. Under the help menu, include tutorials (people like that word when it comes to learning software). The tutorials could link to Torley's video tutorials, or text-based tutorials. These would run alongside the new user in SL.

Also, under the Help menu, link to Orientation and Help Islands. If the user is under 30-days old (or maybe 2-weeks), they automatically get routed to a private OI/HI. Otherwise, they automatically get routed to a public OI/HI.


Finally, while I truly believe the idea above is the best option... it's obvious that many, many people are turned off of SL by technical problems. They log in when the asset server is wonky, or their own computer is sub-par, or they're on wireless... regardless, they either turn out as gray avatars, or they crash repeatedly. I don't know how to solve that problem.

One solution would be something like the OpenSim, but linked into SL's asset servers. This would allow a new residents to enter a simulator, walk around, be presented by signs/info, and 100% of the simulator resources dedicated to themselves to populate whatever assets need to be populated on first load. It would need to be made obvious that the resident isn't "there yet!" Maybe a road-sign that says, 5000miles to SL, "Click here." Anyway, the resident could go instantly to SL, or they could choose to hit an O.I.

Finally (since I'm making this up as I go, two "finales", new resident would download and install a heavier client with some textures and stuff (private simulator) built in... how most would that cost MB-wise? After that, subsequent upgrades to SL would install the normal, lighter version.

first step dont call them newbies, noobs, whatever... try using New Rezzies. You may think Im kidding but Im very serious. Help remove the stigmatism of being called a name when new.

We could use the political approach to solving problems and impose a jail sentence if new users don't return at specified intervals.

The two reasons why people who I've talked to in real life, have left Second Life, is because it's seen as being "just a talker", or because there's seen as being no way to "grow" in the world other than becoming prepared to put in more and more money.

My appologies to the OP, I have picked this thread for my weekly rant

I think that LL should look at who the new customer base is and create seperate welcome areas depending on what the new people want to do. Part of the problem is LL has never tried to steer the theme or content of thier world and relied on thier users, this is the root of the problem, and calling it a 3d internet is not going to help.

My guess is it breaks down something like this:

Social and or pixel sex (probably both) - 50%
Creatives or developers - 25%
RP / MMO gamers - 24%
3d internet interest - 1%

The best way to create user retention is to identify and segment the market.. why drop someone who wants sex into an environement that will take at 4-5 hours of studying to find it. This would probably avoid alot of the wandering newbs with their dicks hanging out showing up at your events too. Admit it folks , much of SL is a porn site.

The RP'ers should start in Gor some where etc...create some LL sponsored themed RP areas, consult the existing communities in SL to build it etc.. have people welcoming newbies and starting them off..

The current OI process is pretty much geared towards the creatives but it could really be chopped down to about 1/4 of the size...

The concept of a 3d inernet is something that is very hard to understand to the new user...and frankly is will be 4-5 years before 'web 3.0' could be considered general knowledge. IMO this is a bogus concept for LL.. after a year or more in SL i still cannot see any benefit to having the internet in 3d, not on the current platform anyway.

SL copies the real world, and brings with it the flaws that the Internet is so good at overcoming in terms of communication. In SL I have to physically go somewhere (virtually of course) to get what I want.. talk about a time waster. If SL is the 3d internet than why do I always have to shop at 2d internet site for SL content if I dont want to spend hours and hours in a mall wandering around, waiting for things to rez?

-whyroc

New residents need to be hooked into the social aspect of SL for retention, agreed. In that respect it's "just a talker", but so are all MMO games with a guild aspect.

Introductory content needs to be less not more. No list of a hundred locations. No massive personal inventory, just a few very high quality starter avatars in personal inventory. Keep them as close to human as possible, with increasingly nonhuman avatars tucked away for discovery in the library. Include a few similarly realistic, high quality items in inventory for use. Quality won't drive new residents to shop for replacements, looking the same as everyone else and driving the same car will.

If the point is to offer so many stations that griefers won't know where to chase down new arrivals, randomly firing people onto the grid might be a possible deterrent, but good luck. You could utterly randomize the teleport to a Governor Linden plot and some dedicated jerk would arrive in minutes with an orbiter in one hand and a can of beans in the other.


No. If people want to strip their new dolly naked and play with others, they'll do so. If they want to explore a ridiculously misogynistic and role-limiting "roleplay" environment like Gor, they will find a way. That's not the sort of environment to offer all new residents as one of the default entry points for an expansive and horizon-broadening new world.

The current Orientation islands seem confusing. The one I started in in 2004 was much more straightforward. I think they need to be streamlined, simplified.

I also think LL could put the info hubs to much better use as gathering spaces and common areas. They need to be larger and more user friendly.

I completely agree with this. The current OIs are well-designed for what they are trying to do, but they are trying to do too much.

Someone needs to think about what the absolute minimum is to get people started, and teach only those things. For example, if the default avatars are upgraded, then there is no need to teach anything about editing appearance. Just tell them they can make themselves look however they want, and point to Help Islands.

I also think griefing on the OIs is a major issue, and seeing LL tolerate gives newcomers a horrific first impression. So, along these lines, some suggestions:

1. Bump some of the OI training to Help Island

2. Teach newcomers about camera movement, inventory, how to search it, how to use search all, what the map is, and how to walk, chat (not voice), and teleport. Period. Give them a few links to follow, including ones to Help Island, NCI, and the Shelter.

3. Implement two new buttons for OI that only work there (maybe on the HUD):
A. OI Technical Issues -- for users whose computers don't seem to be working well with SL --- Displays system requirements and gives access to some forms of help.

B. OI Abuse --- Newcomer hits the button and enters the avatar name who is giving them grief. Period. If 3? or more reports are done on a given AV, automatically send email and IM to the AV about the ARs and suspend them for 24 hours. If OI suspensions happen 3 times to a given AV, automatically ban the AV from SL. Or something like that.

Yeah! what the poster above just said!

I'm relativley new to SL myself but as a PC Gamer since the dawn of modern MMX based chips i manage to fumble and blunder my way through SL quite fast.

However from a standpoint of someone who used to work in the gaming industry (i worked for Microprose, Interplay and Activision in that order) the "starting point" of any "game" (even though SL is not really a "game" is very important.

When i was born in SL the first thing that hit me was the long path...cool i thought, a nice linear path that will take me to choices...kind of like following the yellow brick road...although the road wasnt yellow but you get my point. The actual OI i went into was...well...to be brutally honest...packed...lacked help...was utterly confusing and was lagged out worse than Project Entropia on a busy day.

The mentors that were there were obviously snowed under with helping other new folks but one of then still messaged me offering advice, i could see she...or he...heck i dunno it was a furry...already had a group of 3 or 4 new folks next to them so i politely declined their offer in order to let the mentor help the other folks.

The ABSOLUTE key to the OI is NOT what is on it, its not useless lagged out boxes offering help, its not how well it is put together...its the helpers...the people who have that Mentor tag or "help" somewhere in their tag line or group name, thats the key. I'm laying a bet here, and i hope one of those linden folks are looking at this...i am betting that over half of the new users that stayed on SL after their stint in OI from December last year to this month actually talked to one of those mentor or help folks, and in also betting that the vast majority of the folks who didnt come back are the unfortunate ones who didnt talk to a mentor or someone who is "real".

The basic problem with Second Life is the basic foundation of it's premise, and it's that premise which new folks are probably expecting to happen in the first 20 to 40 minutes of their new life on here...the prenise of social networking...meeting new helpfull people. If they end up rezzing in a place where no one speaks to each other, or a place where their isnt enough mentors or helpers then they are more than likely to think to themsevles "i would have better luck in IMVU...or Myspace" and leave". Folks like that who are casual PC users or casual gamers have high expectations when they first join...the trick and at the same time the problem is to match those expectations by at least 60%.

The key to the OI and new folks spawing is to dump them into an atmosphere which they will feel comfortable in. The mentor system is a good idea, but sad to say by the looks of it the mentors are already overworked and under appreciated.

I could go into further details from a standpoint of someone who worked in demographics and user retention for 3 game companies....but i aint gonna do LL's work for them >.< The key though is the mentors and the help tagged folks who join.

...ahh what the heck...heres another tip....

The new folks island should be just that...for folks under 30 days old and NO MORE. If you ask me anyone over 30 days old should not have access to the main OI sections this way older residents who go there to show off or to greif wont trouble the newcomers and that way at least the new folks who are joining will feel that they are on an equal footing to almost everyone else in the OI. The worse thing for a lot of folks is not just the case of greifers, its te older esidents who go to OI who show off, but then give absolutely no help or assistance to folks who message them and ask the simple questions...

"how did you do that?"

or

"where do i get that?"

Lock off OI so only folks 30 days or younger can get into it, this way it clears the area (less lag) the mentors can get on with their work (they dont have to deal with greifers) and the new folks feel as if they are on an equal footing.

There...thats one of the dozen or so ideas i have on the matter....

Won't help. It will just make them create new bot accounts every month.

(I'm a CSI:NY greeter; some observations based on that experience follow...)

First... as somebody pointed out, the retention rate for ANY free download is low. We're going to get a lot of casual "drive-by" users.

Second... technical problems are a big issue. At least 25% of the new avatars that arrive at the CSI OIs show up, stay immobile and Ruthed for 5 to 10 minutes, then disappear. Some repeat that cycle a few times before they give up. It's clear that a lot of the people who log in for the first time are using computers and/or network connections that simply aren't up to the challenge of running Second Life.

Third... what people want from the orientation experience is all over the map. Some people just want to rush out and start doing things (in our case at CSI, solve crimes) right away. Some want to hang out and talk. Some want to immediately change their look -- that in spite of the fact that new arrivals at CSI get avatars with high quality skins, hair, and clothing. (The catch is that they all get one of the same 12 sets of available high quality stuff. Not to mention the fact that they watched the CSI in SL episode on television and got a glimpse of how much choice is available in avatar appearance. The show gets that right, although the process is not presented realistically.) I know that when I arrived in SL, that was a big one for me -- I spent a couple of hours designing myself.

Fourth... Second Life has a huge "now what" question. At CSI it hits most people a little later than it does on the Linden OIs, because at least they have the crime cases to solve right away. But sooner or later, the open-ended nature of SL hits most people, and they don't have a clue about where to go next. That is the moment when mentors and greeters are most important -- they are the people who help new arrivals find their personal answer to that question. Again, I remember my own initial experiences way back in October of 2005. I spent a few hours on the (old) OI, learning some basic skills and designing my look. Then I hit the exit teleport and landed at Waterhead without much clue about what the next step was. (Help Island didn't exist yet; I would have gone there if it had.) Fortunately, there were Mentors there to give me a hand; nice new things to wear, landmarks of places to visit, and above all advice.

Finally, we'll NEVER get everyone to stay. Second Life, to be honest, isn't everybody's cup of tea at the current stage of development. (Perhaps someday it really will be the metaverse, or some part of it, and then it will have enough different things to have something to offer for everybody.) Some people are looking for something more like a traditional game, with more obvious goals; I know a guy from Texas who loves WoW, and tried SL and said is was "the most boring thing I've ever done". Some people are looking for various other things that Second Life is not. Yes, we can do better; get the technical obstacles out the way, make sure people find friends and mentors, and so forth. But we still will never keep everybody.

That isn't actually true - those games usually have some kind of game system that exerts pressure on the social environment. For example, if you join the guild you have to do what the guild leader says, but being in the guild lets you kill monsters more efficiently, and then once you have levelled up you can start your own guild. So you get to progress, and the guild leader gets to feel like a real leader, and you're both happy. In SL, you can't do that. Nobody can give you any incentive to do what they say, unless they pay you (which hardly gives them any feeling of being a leader) or you're involved in kinky dom/sub practices.



This is unenforceable because essentially you'd have to ban everyone from giving out freebies.

Although I'm sure that some really are visiting just to show off, I can understand not wanting to answer these questions. The truthful answers of "I paid for it", and "I made it for myself" (with the implication ".. so you can't get it", can make new people practically quit right there - especially on OI, when they have no investment whatsoever in SL except for a few minutes of downloading.

Why don't they just make a movie that shows them all of the things they can learn to do in sl that they must click on and watch before they go any further. Just a little thought. We don't have a clue what the world is all about when we first come in unless some real life person has told us. Personally I don't like reading all of that stuff an trying to figure it out. I don't mind doing it later when I specifically want to learn something, but not at first.