Where is the "Tutorial"?

[KEVP314]

I met a real newbie recently who was really struggling to learn just how to walk and control the camera, etc.  The first time I played SL there was an orientation castle.  There's also now an orientation island, but when I went there it looked deserted.  Where is the OFFICIAL place now where newbies go to learn the basics of SL?  Or is there no longer such a thing?

KEVP

[Syo Emerald]

There is no tutorial anymore. New avatars popp up on an island that has some trees on it and a open stone building with themed portals in it. Thats it.

[KEVP314]

Wow.  Do they no longer want this to be succesful?  Even when they had a tutorial, some people gave up because of how hard it was to learn the interface.

It just becomes a place where a handful of us with "secret knowledge" can come and play.

KEVP

[Czari Zenovka]

If it hasn't changed since the last time I created an alt, which is entirely possible, at the sign up screen one has the choice to be rezzed in a variety of areas.  Several countries have areas which is great for those for whom English is not their first language.  The one I personally like is Caledon (Victorian RP Community).  If one chooses that option, they land outside Caledon University and follow a path that has signs along the way to explain the basics such as walking, how to use the cursor for various movement, etc. and at the end there is a nice selection of free Victorian attire.

I  *think* one can still go there at any time even if a newbie didn't choose that locale to be rezzed.  I haven't gotten out in SL much lately, but will make note to check that out.

NCI is always a great place for new people to go, learn, and meet friendly people, but then one has to someone *know* that to begin with.

I am SO thankful I had a contact in SL who introduced me to a community that was of IMMENSE help when I first joined SL.  I really feel for those who have to figure it out themselves.

[Syo Emerald]

I made an alt yesterday (to test something, but then deleted him right away) and I can't remember that I had an option to pick my first starting point.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Syo Emerald wrote:

I made an alt yesterday (to test something, but then deleted him right away) and I can't remember that I had an option to pick my first starting point.

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I'll have to give it a try to refresh my memory but the alternate starting points weren't easy to find during signup.  I looked around the site for the choices because I had heard they were available.  But this was a few years ago so they may have done away with them. 

[Coby Foden]

There still are some helpful places inworld to go to for new residents.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Phoenix%20Firestorm%20Support/128/128/2

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kuula/55/168/29

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Isle%20of%20Creation/7/249/22

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lawst%20Paradise/135/27/22

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Isabel/26/249/86

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/London%20City/59/172/24

And on the web, helpful info:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Second-Life-Quickstart/ta-p/1087919?lang=en-US

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Second-Life-User-s-Guide/ta-p/1244857

https://secondlife.com/my/whatnext/basics/?lang=en-US

https://secondlife.com/destinations?lang=en-US

Youtube - Second Life Quick Tips

[Orca Flotta]

I met a real newbie recently who was really struggling to learn just how to walk and control the camera, etc.

 

Really? I mean it's not nice from LL to abandon the orientation islands and all the newbie stuff we first had to go through when I was born in 07 but struggling to walk? 4 arrow keys is all it takes. I've never played any computer games before I found SL but moving my avie around I found pretty natural and logical. If he struggles with that then he should have problems switching the computer on or writing his own name.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

According to LL they stopped providing orientation for new avatars prior to entry into the world because people got frustrated and logged off never to return, or they just skipped it entirely.  Very few actually went through the orientation.

[Locke Nider]

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KEVP314 wrote:

Wow.  Do they no longer want this to be succesful?  Even when they had a tutorial, some people gave up because of how hard it was to learn the interface.

It just becomes a place where a handful of us with "secret knowledge" can come and play.

KEVP

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I'll never understand this why people think this way.  Just look at the wiki.  That's everbody does these days when they need help on any software.  

[ImaTest1488314069]

Ok maybe I really am just an ass, but, there is no shortage of information for people that actually look. Whether or not there is an inworld tutorial supplied by the lab themselves. There is both information inworld and on the web. It really takes all of a couple seconds in any search engine to figure out how to do things.

I want more people here as much as the next person, but the ignorance just astounds me. Yes sl does have a steep learning curve, at times. But there is absolutely NO shortage of information or tutorials, if you actually look.

When I started playing WOW(yes I know, no comparison) although there were inworld ways to aid myself, I went straight to the net. Not hard at all to find info.

When I first joined sl, in 2005, there was an inworld help, I still went straight to the net. I don't believe people when they say others DID look for information and couldn't find it. It's there and even with absolutely NO knowledge of sl beforehand, you can't miss it with a simple search inquiry. "How to play sl", though most will disagree on the whole play thing, will even bring up information.

It's NOT hard. An inworld tutorial was causing more people to leave, than not having one. I agree the lab should do more, but they don't. So others inworld took up the slack, a simple search will help you find them. If someone can manage finding sl, downloading it, and joining, they can manage a simple search engine.

[Tex Monday]

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KEVP314 wrote:

I met a real newbie recently who was really struggling to learn just how to walk and control the camera, etc.  The first time I played SL there was an orientation castle.  There's also now an orientation island, but when I went there it looked deserted.  Where is the OFFICIAL place now where newbies go to learn the basics of SL?  Or is there no longer such a thing?

KEVP

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First of all, welcome to SL

I created an ALT recently and I thought that there was some kind of tutorial on Orientation Island. As I remember, there was a clearing with a whole bunch of teleports..and I thought one was a tutorial of some sort. I could be wrong..I wasn't really paying attention as I don't need that.

Otherwise, I thought there were classes offered for new users. Again, don't remember where that was. I would check the search function and see if you can find anything in there.

Good luck.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote:

According to LL they stopped providing orientation for new avatars prior to entry into the world because people got frustrated and logged off never to return, or they just skipped it entirely.  Very few actually went through the orientation.

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That sounds like the same logic LL stated when discontinuing last names - new people thought it took too much time to choose a last name from the list and didn't continue. :matte-motes-nerdy:

[Chronometria]

I use the default viewer and can only do so with some effort to make it decent. A while ago I was reset to the "out of the box" version, with none of my adjustments and I found I couldn't walk or hold a conversation.

 

Basically, the default viewer's standard layout is so alien that even people who use it regularly can only do so with a lot of adjustment. I don't understand how anyone can use it in its initial state at all.

[HoppytheWanderer]

Being new in SL was probably the worst experience I've ever had in a video game, with one of the worst UIs I have ever used. Of course we get used to it over time though.And if a game requires you to use a Wiki for basic operations when you just start it up, it's a massive fail from a usability perspective.

First thing is everything was so slow and clunky. Takes forever to move around and when you first try those mouse buttons for moving you see that this just isn't going to be a viable way to go. I figured out it supported the standard AWSD keys, but it likes to default to chat windows so I find myself always clicking on an empty part of the screen so I can use them. You would expect left-clicking on an object to select that object, but not in SL. Next thing was looking for mods I could download that added some functionality to the UI (say, a dance hud built into the viewer I could use to play my animations) so I could do stuff easily but nope, not really you are pretty much stuck with what is in the viewer. You can get some things in game to help, but you have to know a fair amount of information (what do I look for, it has to be free because I have no money and don't know if I will even want to spend any on this game, I got it, where is it? How do I get it out of the box? How do I use it? What the heck is a sandbox?) to even do the simplest things that we take for granted after a while.

If you've ever played any other MMO and use the one in SL it's pretty obvious how bad SLs is. The complexity involved in acquiring and wearing clothing is simply astounding, especially for what should be a very simple thing and something that a person is probably going to want to do within their first 10 minutes or so of playing. I kind of imagine something like a paper doll icon of my avatar with all items of a type of clothing available where I can just quickly arrow key through them showing what they look like very quickly on my model, then when I'm done it applies the actual clothing to my avatar. For more advanced options, let me define clothing layers and what items get assigned to those so I can manipulate things that way.

This is all on top of getting kicked from lot of sims just for being new. Having a 1 day old account, security looks at you and thinks "He's here to grief us" and you get kicked. Go into another place and as I'm rezzing in "Security orb: you need to be 15 days old to be here, leave in 10 seconds or be kicked. You have been kicked". Then you end up in a safe hub that is most certainly NOT safe at all, wondering where in the heck you are, how to get out of there, and where to go. If they could get this basic usability fixed, the more complex operations are probably fine already.

Editing can be a little complicated which is fine, because you have spent a little time getting used to the game before you do it It's still a miracle to me that I lasted more that an few hours, and then for the next week -- especially for something where the play value of the game is going to be very questionable without having played it for a while. But yes, a tutorial would help at least a little with these things. Maybe they found some people quit during the tutorial (they probably would have anyway without it), or skip it altogether (alts)

 

[Czari Zenovka]

SL isn't an MMO.

[HoppytheWanderer]

It could certainly learn a lot about UI design from an MMO though.Pretty muich any MMO does it better.