Beeing new and alone - the first day!

Hi , I am newland and a newly born - day 3 of my second live

I have looked araund and have not found anything really like what would be called AAR in the computer game community, that is after action report. I am not sure that here is the right place but I do not have my own webpage and I think that a lot of new users do have orientation problems which they may have a hard time to solve.

In addition I am 40 years old and maybe not exactly in the target group for second life, but as you all know the demographics tell us that in large parts of the world soon the over 40 will be a majority. So I think what harm can it do to describe from the starting point my first 14 days of existence in second life. And today I start with day 1.

First thing during the registration was of course that I could not choose my wanted last name and after choosing a different one which was available I would have liked my RL first name but that was already taken for the choosen last name. But so what. Thats's probably why it's called SECOND LIFE. I just couldn't see any reason for the designers decision on that.

Maybe at this point I should mention that I am a german native, so please excuse my english, but hopefully you will understand me. My goal in second live was as so many others to see what business opportunities would be open, exercise the freedom of creating anything you like und just explore and see how this world functions. As an economist by profession I am more interested in how things work then just meeting people and having fun. One of my goals is also to see how far I can get without investing any money but earning some.

So then after installing the software I logged in and started. The first tutorial started right away to explain how the controls worked. So I went to find a car to learn driving and sat down in it, but couldn`t get the car to drive, the tutorial stopped and after a time SL crashed. To say I was shocked is to much, but I thought "hey that's not good". So start again.

Then I discovered that you cannot get back to orientation island and just finish the started tutorials. I went back to reading in the knowledge base and searching and transporting first to a helping island and then to an alternative orientation island. There I got this explorer guidebook, which told me about alternative orientation islands - an information I had discovered already the hard way. There was also a very nice welcome rucksack from the german community, which I think other national communities should copy, because a lot of people who start in SL may not be so proficient in english. So to have a nice welcome in your mother language with a set of tips to fall back to would be probably much welcome by a lot of newbies.

Back to the explorer guidebook. It recommends the balloon tour so I went there by teleporting which did on my first day work about two out of three times on average. But anyway at the balloon place it was dark night and I learned that SL time is 9 hours later than Central european time so it was about 7 am SLTime. Is that so for all of SL or are there any islands, continents with other time zones? The economic statistics tell me that the germans, british and french and other european citizens make about 58% of all SL residents (economic statistics from March 2007). So between 7 and 10 hours time difference seems to me not really optimal. You could also choose US eastern time and 6 hours would be already much better, don' you think. But maybe I am totally mistaken. Or are the American citizens a much larger economic force than it's percentage tells me?

So I kind of cancelled the tour. Now I had a little problem because I did not have a home location and I had never been to the mainland. So I tried the search function. But mainland or a central starting point I did not find. Maybe I am just to dumb. But I would have liked at this moment that there is a central marketplace like in every big city with a Information terminal, a library and several tutorials. So maybe I got derailed somenhow, but doesn't this happen to a lot of newbies? Also on the big map there is so much information and so many communities, islands. I would like to have a map which is a little more abstract in the sense of organization like continents. you know what I mean we have worlds, continents and cities and each has some characteristics like mainly commercial, residential, theme, private or open to all, pg, mature or what is it called X or R for adults - whatever. I mean just a abstract general map. Maybe there is one I did just not find?

But having discovered the search function I learned about events. So I thought maybe there are today some classes how to move around or other basic skills. So on the map there were A LOT of events. Back to the knowledge base and the webpage I found the events calendar and right I could choose educational events. And there I found quite a few classes and also the most of it for free. As probably a lot of other people I decided what I have to learn is general building, scripting, texturing and maybe animation. So there is a lot to do!

Now I went back to the orientation island and finished the tutorials there, created a shirt for myself, made myself a little overweight, my facial features a little skewed so basically tried to find a little of a character. So why are there no fat people in sl?. And clothing and skins, eyes and bodies seem to be such an important issue. Is that really the most important thing around? In my opinion of course from a chauvinistic male perspective a woman which has a face not completely symetrical can have often a much sexier aura than otherwise (Ellen Barkin is only one example).

Anyway, later in the evening I attended a class of the basics in texturing. I came late, still some problems with the controls and learned a lot. There were only a few active participants and when it came to tipping I was the only one. I forgot to mention how I came to get some money to tip. In a tutorial I read something about Money trees but the information seemend to me out of date. At one place I did find a money tree which was not totally out of money, but every 20 minutes to reeze 1 L$ is not a way to get rich. And then by accident I discovered the camping thing - what a waste of time. I mean I would never spend some real time like 10 minutes dancing for 1 l$. Are there offers out there where you can earn more than that? But it makes sense for a newbie like me when you read the knowledge base and some tutorials while dancing. So during my first day while reading I was earning 21 l$ of which I tipped 1 l$ to the class instructor. That noone else tipped I would consider as a little rudeness and as a sign that a lot of people seem to see this world as a self serving thing and making money seems for a lot of people to be their intention. Don' t get me wrong I am one of them but I think you still should be friendly and appreciate the work and help of others.

So that was my first day. Too long or boring?. Should I continue or just shut up? If you want to hear about my sencond day it will be more about learning and even some poitics but only if you are interested.

Bye Newland Dagostino

Hi!

/me waves
Welcome to Second Life!

Hi. The thing about daylight in SL you can make it anything you want. It's under the world menu - then set sun

Your story is a very common one. The learning curve here in SL can appear to be a bit steep. But its relatively easy to become functional and somewhat stylish if you apply yourself. Visiting the various educational seminars was a very good idea. As for being a 40 something, welcome to the club. Lots of middle agers running around. Best of luck in your endeavors.

Disorientation is your second birth
Welcome

welcome Newland Dagostino!

There are some interesting points you brought up that made me think.

Fat/plump/chubby/rubenesque/bbw avatars, yeah, not too many and the ones I have seen in my 2+ years have been jokes. Having a fit/sexy/athletic etc avatar seems to be either a commonly shared choice or perhaps the result of peer pressure.

I was in a Linden welcome center recently and chatting randomly with newbies and someone said to a certain unusual looking newbie "no one wants to talk to you because you are ugly, here's what you need to do..". There seems to be unconciously enforced community standards, well meant I'm sure but still, looking like a typical average human being is not a popular choice in SL.

looking 'perfect' is kind of a middle ground in SL, because (like my avatar) your shape and skin can be purchased, and they generally only sell ones that look like models, and alot of those you cannot modify. Many of us have model looking avatars because it's easy to obtain, not necessarily because we are living vicariously through their beauty.

When you see an avatar that looks 'better' than merely 'perfect', you are most likely seeing a custom job and those are the people you should say hello to and check out their profiles for creative hints and tips.

On being 40, I think you'd be surprised at the average age of the SL community. You are among peers my friend.

Welcome!

You may wish to check out the Neualtenburg community, roughly found in sim Funadama and thereabouts. There are many German speakers there from what I hear.

As for a map with well-defined continents, maps &c - yes this too is a project I'd like to see. One year ago such a thing was created, but it fell out of date so rapidly it was astonishing, though much is still roughly where it was back then. Nowadays there is simply so much more.

Take your time - this is unlike any world you have ever experienced.

hi Newland Dagostino welcome to SL

i felt very much the same as you when i first started though it doesn't take long to adjust. just about what i've quoted above i think that is exactly what SL needs some kind of structure instead of just randomly placed sims all over the place maybe seperate it all into coutries/ratings areas it all just seems very disjointed and random and one major Linden city would be good with libraries tutorials etc as you suggested

nice post

have fun Newland

Welcome to SL. The disorientation is part of SL's charm and for me, has never quite gone away however it has chipped away at my need for structure to make me feel secure and made me a much better artist in SL and RL.

I think you have done very well in your short time; much better than I did! Enjoy your early days, they are precious memories.

Hi,

I have only been in SL a month now but i will recoment the New Citizen Inc, i will try to find you in game and send you a TP for them. They have helped me so much. All are very freindly and have helpers on hand to answer any questions. They also do alot of classes and quite alot at a time to suit us europens!!!

There is also alot of info at their centres.

They will help and show you around!

Suzzie

xxxx

I enjoyed reading your post. . You seem to be coming in with eyes open. You can fins a lot to read about Sl out there, some is useful, some is oudated hype. Much is made of the steep learning curve (one of the most overused phrases in use today, I think), but I think the learning is part of the experience. A couple of hours on the Island is all you need to learn the basics, all therest comes with time. If you haven't doen so already, Visit NCI (Ne Citizens Inc). You'll find a wealth of resources there. Above, all have fun. Don't let others tell you what SL is supposed to be.

I can relate to your wanting to learn it all and master it all right away....hee hee hee
But SL is ALL 'bout the journey and not the destination.
And that's because the destination is always a moving target in here anyway!

So relax, enjoy the ride, and let go...........
You will have the time of your life, I promise. (((Hugs))). Look me up when I am inworld I would love to show you around...... OH and PS the age thing? Get over yourself girl!

Greetings, Newland!

I loved this post! SL is SOOO overwhelming when one first arrives.

I have just been in SL one month and amazed at how much I've learned and how VASTLY much there is to learn and explore. In my case I was very fortunate - I came to SL on invitation of a friend and a community, so I was given a lot of support and help from Day 1. But if I hadn't, I'd probably still be roaming around on Orientation Island. Oh, wait! I got booted out of SL via my computer and couldn't get back. LOL

I TOTALLY agree with you re: the tipping. The classes I have gone to it looks like a few tip, but certainly not the majority. People are taking their time to teach, help, whatever and I think not tipping, even a little, is rude.

I'm not sure where SL got their time clock...I'm in US EST zone and it's kind of loopy for me too.

Since I'm on a lot in the daytime...I have met/seen many, many Europeans and particularly a lot of Germans. You're probably hooked into the community now though. *smiles*

As for age...I've got 10 years on you (50+) so, us "oldies" are around *grins*

I have found most everyone I have run into helpful and friendly. I try to be that way myself and find most reciprocate.

I am Czari Zenovka in game and would be happy to chat any time!

Have fun in your SL!!

Neo: Why do my eyes hurt?
Morpheus: You've never used them before....

Hi, welcome to SL! What a great post, I really enjoyed reading it & am impressed with how much you did in one day! I was lucky in that I came here with friends from another chat & everytime I logged in they'd TP me to them & they'd answer all my questions & take me shopping! It's overwhelming at first but I love it & can cope alone now lol enjoy the rest of your SL life =)

Feedback like this from new players would be beneficial to LL. I'm not sure if they read the forums any more though. As for your first day, I always thought some sort of automatic buddy system would be cool that could put you in touch with other players who started at the same time as you.

Apart from that, we also fix her house up and torment her with trees........ lmao!

One thing missing in your original post, Newland - you don't mention talking to or asking questions of anyone... I assume you did..... I have found it a valuable way of finding even the most basic of things out. Nearly anyone in SL will take time out to explain to ANYONE the whats/hows/whys and wherefores.... and I have enjoyed returning the favour many times since.

Enjoy your Second Life - come see me or my partner Fatima Ur in world

Hehe unless you get paired up with one of the people who just want to know where to have sex...

trruueeeeee

I ran across my first "fat" avatar in a shop the other night. He kept approaching people and tried to talk to them, and they walked away from him. It was quite sad, actually. I tried to approach him, then he suddenly teleported away before I could get to him to say Hello.

Mr Shang posted about Neualtenburg, I'd second that recomendation, it's a phenominal community. Try a bit of private island hopping too, there are some great ones! Or Maybe do searches by language, or theme of what you would be interested in. Welcome!
feel free to IM me in world, I'll shoe you some nice sims, and introduce you around!

Well the answer to this is simple it's time in PST (3 hour difference from east to west coast), I'm in EST/EDT timezone myself which makes it somewhat awkward, but their initial office was/is in California so...


I guess I was a weird newbie and way way outside the norm... After completing the tutorial (which had some errors in it, stupid torch) I didn't really have any problems... Except figuring out where to start... Oh and I should mention new people do have a 'starting' place which is listed as their 'home' destination... For me it was outside a lounge in a place I don't really remember, though I can still teleport to it as needed... I didn't hang out there and instead went exploring... I think I spent an entire weekend just looking around, then I found freebies and went hunting them down. Once set I was editing (prim) hair and AO's,
looking for SL work to save my RL money, etc...

Btw as a take on why their are few overweight AV's in SL it's very simple... We've been taught through the media that fat is evil and ugly... So when we gain total and absolute control over our 'looks' why would we not strive for perfection...?