Encouragement/realism when mentoring?

Hi folks,

This is a subject that's bothered me for a little while, so I'm going to try to ask about it here and see what other people think.

As a mentor I and others always try to encourage newbies, but what do you do when they have obviously unreasonable expectations? (The two most common ones are that a) they're going to make a huge amount of real money, or b) they're going to become something like a king - not just having a 'king' avatar, but actually having subjects or unique abilities))

[Sorry for the mess of previous posts. Posting polls is a fraught process ]

Be honest--all the while encouraging. Cool?

/me votes pie.

Check RP sims - there's lots of people with slaves and such. Maybe they're not "kings" but if somebody is into that kind of power trip, there are plenty of places they can try it. I'd mention that, and that it's frequently adult, and also that if they stink at it, they're going to have a revolt on their hands and end up like other stinky kings have. Shorter.

As for making money, it's just like RL. Talent, good ideas and hard work can pay off in SL, though many don't make anywhere near what they could by putting the same amount of effort into a RL job. I frequently point people to the economic stats page (http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php) and explain the "how many made how much" chart. There's 138 people that made US$5k+ in SL month - not worth giving up my day job but, to some, that's a whole lot of cash.

Er.. That's kindofa long poll option but if you had the above, I'd have voted for it..

My experience has been that these RP sims don't work very well. I've been involved in one or two where somebody's basically founded an RP sim in order that they can be 'queen' of it, and then - surprise, surprise - nobody has shown up. And, well, I really wouldn't like to say I was going around encouraging newbies into the "BDSM" scene on SL. And from what I've seen of it, you don't want to get into it for that reason, either..



Sure. But realistically, to find a niche in the market now, you need to already be a creative professional - or at least, have the capacity to be one - in your field of choice; and to spend _all_ of your in-world time working on your business. The idea of doing some things to earn your L$ and then going back just what you want to do seems to have stopped working, and I've had _many_ experiences where people - even highly successful people - found it was impossible to do this.

I debunked one poor newbie, he told me he had only been in SL a couple of hours and seeing I was an established resident I must have had a free copy of copybot for him so he could set up a shop.

I guess some people when new to the sim don't really fully understand what it is about and what can and can not be done in here.

Then you have other people who might be just really happy to finally be playing the sim so they say silly things to maybe get a convo going, either way seeing it is a sim and just about anything is possible I guess a good answer would be to tell them to get a feel for the sim before they make any concrete decissions as they might find that they change their mind once they know more about the game.

as for making lots of money, well wouldn't we all love to do that both in RL and in SL

The real "kings and queens" of SL are the large landholders. And they're some of the ones who are also making significant amounts of money at it.

Of course, telling someone that they're going to have to invest tens of thousands of dollars to "buy" their kingdom, and that "ruling" it is going to look an awful lot like running a business, might be a bit disillusioning...

Well that's just it - the way to make money is to provide a service to others, but that means you're in service to them, not the other way around. It's difficult to find the equivalent of something like (say) a WoW Guild leader on SL.

I advise people not to expect to make money, not to throw their hearts away, that if something looks too good a bargain to be true that it IS too good to be true. And mainly I disillusion them nicely about their chances of my being their girlfriend even if they have smartened up. Then I take them shopping and give them freebies

...and let them run with it...

I meet lots of newbs through my rental company. I usually find them pretty cool and open to ideas & info...and although this is tempting fate...I have never actually had any grief or trouble. (well a few have left stuff on my land but heyho not so big in the scheme of things.)

I wouldnt tell people what to expect...or how to play...because SL is so diverse...who knows where they will go..what they might find that attracts them...I know for sure my own *expectations* were zero when I joined...i was just curious...and went from there.

So, I hand out a few interesting Landmarks..a few freebie places...if I have time I might even tour them around a little..show them how to change clothes...how to use the search tab...etc...

Fai x

I think that explaining that most businesses will struggle, like in First Life, is responsible. I do not believe, however, that I should be judging anyone else's money making potential. There is no way I can judge how much time and effort someone else is willing to put into their idea.

The fact is, some people *do* make a lot of money in SL. It isn't impossible... it just isn't very easy.