Dropping into SL for the first time

I was talking to someone the other day who told me that she had signed up months ago, logged into SL and given up straight away. Perhaps there was a tech issue at the time or she just didn't like what she saw.

Someone recently convinced her to give it another go and she was blown away. She' s online every day.

So I'm wondering how effective the first stage of the SL experience is at selling SL. It's a good way to give people a crash course in SL - an easy, smooth and safe way in. But not that exciting.

I'm not saying that newbies should be sent to Hard Alley first thing, but maybe their first experience of SL should be more representative of the crazy and excikting place SL can be!

My experience with SL was somewhat like your friend. When I started, I was terribly confused and somewhat put off by the fact I couldn't grasp "this game" as I had with all others. I haven't had a chance to buy the SL book but judging by it's ranking on Amazon, I'm guessing it must have some very useful information in it. I personally think LL should have made that book available as an ebook for free to Premium Members. I know advice on how to build, script, etc would most definitely have made my first few days more enjoyable until I finally grasped things -- but then again, I must say that now that I know how to build things, I have a much greater appreciation for SL and everything and everyone in it.

Nobody makes people stay for a week on Orientation Island before working up the courage to advance to Help Island.

At any rate, SL can't provide proper service to the people already signed up. Increasing retention rate may be a high priority in LL's mind but then redesigning the blog is a high priority in LL's mind. LL's sense of priorities is a bit skewed.

my experience as a Novice, (I refuse to use Newbie) was painless. I saw SL metioned somewhere(I had never heard of it) Wiki'ed it, created an account, read a bit more here and signed on. I spent about a day on the Island, then went exploring. The only qay to learn is trial and error. As i end my first week, I must say it is very entertaining.

Can I have a front row seat when you're showing an average newbie Hard Alley? *wonders why there's no angelic smiley* It's probably the last place you should take anyone .

There are some places that are a "must visit" (the Bliss sims rank high on that list for me ), but I think the most appropriate ones will be the ones that are a close match to the person's interests.

I also think most people are "underwhelmed" because they don't have anyone to help them through it, I almost gave up when I was new because I didn't really have anything to do. The welcome area wasn't all that welcoming, and just aimlessly wandering around wasn't too exciting either. It wasn't until I finally met someone who took the time to explain some things and showed me around a few places, that I really knew how to explore on my own and found enough things to pique and hold my interest (fine... I found where the clothing and hair stores were ).

I was hooked on SL from the start but I found the initial experience disappointing.
Lag was bad that first afternoon on Orientation Island and, as I wandered round the island falling off rocks and plunging underwater, I was left thinking: "Is this it? There must be something more!"

I had some good and some less good experiences with SL as novice.

Good:
- It was a whole world and free to try. In fact I just came to try it from plain curiosity
- SL is a multiple 'player' world
- There was quite much things to do

Less good:
- Speed: It took quite a bit to download everything onto my machine and still it was a bit laggish compared to other modern games I have tried. Modern and old. Doom2 was fast on my antique PC. And some aspects in SL are not even as nice looking as modern games, except that people and plants look somewhat realistic and you can build stuff, which is really good.
- User interface: As the user interface is ok when you get used to it, the UI was somewhat overwhelming at first. Like there was really much options, like how to create things and so on. It was wierd that I could create new clothes in every folder I had. And I did not know the meaning of the folder structure. I was not sure did I make things right or would I end up messing everything up. I mean, if you have played Doom2, there is just a menu of few options, where you select "Play" and "Hard", and there you go shooting demons. In SL everything goes through attaching and positioning through edit -mode and so on. That is, if you happen to find stuff from a eg. freebie junkyard, of which most new players have not heard of unless they can speak English and if they find a friendly person to help them out. Or if they read through some building / shopping guides and go build or shop.
- Red arrow: what is the red arrow?, I thought. I really never use the red arrow, but every time I teleport, there it is looming about as irritating as always
- Information chat: "You have got a notecard of instructions how to make money" -text showed up. Though I had gotten no notecard. So why do I have to see the texts of other people's actions? I find it still very annoying to see things that do not affect me on the public channel

I agree on the Interface being somewhat unwieldly, and from my pre birth reading, I knew that there would be performance issues, some ofwhich are related to my computer's limitations. So I went in with Eyes Wide Open. So far no major catastrophies.

What struck me were the overall friendly ppl who offered their help, that was really amazing! After a few hours getting used to the environment and movements someone told me to get a skin and then I went from shop to shop to find one that resembled me in rl and , again with help, I succeeded. I was a bit overwhelmed by the choices of hair, faces, clothes etc. but it was a good introduction to the possibilities SL provides. (Although I did cheat a bit, i always wanted bigger b**bs) Most ppl here are very friendly and helpful, a great community!

Mandy C

I tried SL about a year ago, didn't understand it, and promptly uninstalled it. Came back last week, played with it, got hooked, and subscribed a few days ago. I've been exploring mostly, (so many clubs, casinos, art galleries, etc I've had fun just listening to the music, and sipping a beverage while my avatar dances)played with building a little, and flew around a bit in my anti-grav ship . I think SL is absolutely amazing now, with a great community..I'm gathering as much info as I can, I'd love to enjoy this world, and make RL money in SL at the same time..

SL is only as fun as the other residents make it. Until I started meeting the right people, I didn't get it either.

I was going through Orientation Island with a new alt avatar when the sim crashed and threw a boatload of newbies over to a public Help Island. They didn't have a CLUE what was going on, and most barely knew how to walk or do anything since they had probably only made it to the first two or three stations.

By chance, I had started answering one particular AVs questions just after being born and we'd been in the middle of a long conversation when the crash came. I spent the rest of the evening, probably close to three hours, taking him on a tour. We started at the island sandbox, but when we were attacked by griefers, an SL Mentor invited us to his island, so off we went.

I'm happy to report that the AV I befriended has been back nearly every day since then, so I suspect he's well and truly hooked! But I still wonder how many of those other poor newbies gave up in frustration.

The best introduction to SL would be to have an experienced AV waiting for you.

As for MY first orientation, it went very smoothly. I'd been reading up on SL for several days on the SL website, in blogs, and hearing about it from friends. So I hit the ground running (well, staggering until I learned how to walk) and never looked back.

Further to my above post - I quickly became hooked on SL and never get bored with it. I even go to restaurants and eat in SL now! I quickly got my looks sorted to a tee, I've built all sorts of things from my flex ponytail through to big skypods, I've got some land with a day-home and streaming music, I've taken loads of snapshots of SL, won lindens at Sanctuary Rocks by dancing naked..........I could go on and on.

So when we get a bit of downtime like now, I'm almost relieved to be temporarily denied access to my addiction.

Still, there's always the Beta Grid. I'm a bit of a Beta Grid wooter!

My first Introduction to On Line Life was The Sims Online, I had no trouble negotiating that game because of Long experience with the Off Line Version. Two and a Half Years ago, TSO looked like going down the tubes any minute, Customer service truely WAS Non existant, No one from the company ever entered the game, and in fact it seemed they had nothing but contempt for the Players, so my friend and i started looking for somewhere New to be.
I read an article on second life, and Passed it to my friend. She could Enter, but i could not because of my Computer. She Loved it Instantly, and sent me Photos from within the grid, Now the Photos looked Good, but they really Didn't Convey the SL experience. Months passed, and Finally, i got a computer strong enough to Handle SL, and i Logged in the Same Day. Orientation Island took me about Half an Hour to get through, and gave me some idea How to Move, and that was all. There were no Help islands, and no mentors at that time, so, when "Ready" i Ported to the Ahern Welcome area (This was at the time Before it became like Hanging out on Skid Row) and Met my friend, and she Took me "Home" I was amazed by the Freedom i Felt, Walking, Running, Flying, One of my Favorite Passtimes in weeks to come was Just Wandering the roads on that Tiny Map. She kept saying, "Just wait, you are really going to see something. And i Did. My First SL Sunset. I was Blown away, this place was (And is) So amazing.

I was lucky, I had a friend who entered the game Before me and was able to Guide me up that Steep learning Curve. Later, Together we Both took part in the Mentors program so we could help Other people adapt to SL Faster than We did. It helps to have a friend In Game to lean on, even if they joined at the same time as you. Also, the help Islands are great for Filling in a Few more of the Gaps left by the Orientation Islands.

TODAY marks for me exactly Two and a Half Years in SL, and after All this time SL STILL amazes, and delights me, the people still amuse me, and i am STILL learning, and exploring.

Welcome to SL, you will Love it.

Angel.

Hi Lhorentso, not 'seen' you around lately neighbour!

Whilst the initial orientation is vital for basic control to get newcomers at least mobile, one of the most appealing aspects of the learning in SL as opposed to the formal structure of education is you can pick and choose exactly what you want to do next. That alone is mind blowing.

I said this just yesterday elswhere so sorry for repeat but so appropriate here;

I was just 'hanging out' the other day when someone came up and asked me a question about gestures. I checked on their profile and found they'd just started that day. We spent some while in conversation and demonstration and I could feel the excitement this new arrival was experiencing. It was electric. She was delighted and very appreciative I'd spent a little time with her and left to continue her quest.
We both gained from this. Whilst I can understand that many probably like to go round the welcome areas studying every board and notecard to build on their knowledge before embarrassing themselves in front of strangers, there are those free spirits also that just want to go out there and face the new frontier.
Words like phenomena and awesome are just too small for SL!

We've got mixed responses which suggests that people are indeed having different experiences, which are also based on different expectations and abilities.

Given SL caters for both experienced and inexperienced people maybe they should offer the option to drop in 2 or 3 different types of environments. One would be very plain and focused on helping users get to grips with the interface, tools and controls. The second one would be more about advice (what there is now) and the third environment would be some kind of scene... maybe a mall featuring free products and some nice metatecture(but still newbie-friendly).

My first week in SL is prety much how things go in RL for me. Make some acquaitances, some will become friends, and just exploring. Just as I do when I travel to new places in real life, I just go and see what hapens. The search button has become my best friend.

Love hearing about others' experiences in SL those first few days. Mine were a blur. I first signed up after reading about it in Business Week. I logged on from a wayyyy sub standard PC and couldn't see anything. I was naked and had sideburns (why oh why do they make the default hair so freaky?). I logged off.

The next day I tried my other PC and it was much better. However, I fell off Orientation Island almost immediately so was thrown to the wolves right away. Met a great helper and she took me under her sparkling blue wings. Still naked, less sideburn.

I spent probably a week working strictly on my appearance - though didn't actually get out of my newb skin for quite some time. I was really hooked from the second day on - and delighted in working on my avatar's looks.

Today, only about 4 months into the process, I already have some super friends, a lovely home, and some great memories.

Love SL muchly

True, same here at first. Now I have a huge list of landmarks of cool places to hang out with friends. Also, try the events as well. Some of them take you to awesome parties!

Mandy C