Cant seem to finish Tutorial?

[mercfredis]

Hi,

I just started playing the game and was going through the tutorial.  At some point the tutorial had me go to Social Island (I think?)  And now I have two blue blob widgets on my screen:

"Tutorial L$ Balance: 50"  and another bubble whose purpose seems to walk me through the tutorial.  But the "Next Step" area is blank, and to the left of that it just says "You can repeat tutorial steps if you want yadda yadda".

Does anyone know where I need to go to finish the tutorial?  I tried transporting to something that sounded correct, but said I cannot TP there.  Any help would be useful, thanks!

 

I've added a screenshot.  Note that clicking around on the bubble to the left does nothing except minimizing it.

[Rolig Loon]

That's right.  The "bubble" on the left is just an information panel.  Social Island is a self-exploration.  Walk around and poke at things.  Read signs.  There are 7 opportunities to earn "practice L$" by completing tasks. You can complete them as many times as you like, but you only get "practice L$" the first time you do one.  Some of them are very simple (hint:  Go dancing) and others are more challenging (Try the camera challenge).  You can keep coming back to Social Island as many times as you like, so you can try other tutorial tasks or dance or use the destination portals ... or just hang out.   Oh, and those "practice L$" are for you to spend in the shop right there.  You can't spend them anywhere else.  After all, you are supposed to be learning how shop vendors work.  There's also a very handy private changing area where you can practice changing outfits or modifying your av.

BTW, I see that you already earned L$50 of practice L$ by simply finishing the Learning Island movement skill tutorials.  Congratulations.

Edited July 3, 2017 by Rolig Loon

[mercfredis]

Yes but shouldnt it be telling me what the next step is?  I see no list of "activities" to do...

[Rolig Loon]

No, because the whole idea is to get you used to exploring.  There's no "next step" ... no preferred order.  Second Life has no rules (except for the TOS, of course).   There's no dragon to slay or maiden to rescue, no levels to gain or points to earn. You can do anything you like in SL.  This is a social world built entirely by the residents.  Social Island is there to give you a head start on some basic skills that you may find useful elsewhere.  You are not required to do the tutorials, but they are a good idea.  And the first lesson is to discover some things for yourself.

[mercfredis]

Ahhhh....thanks, but you see, I played SL about a decade ago and it's not the nature of SL that I need help with.  What I need help with specifically was this "new user quest", which gives almost no direction.

New player tutorials are usually easy-to-do tasks with well explained steps that teach someone about the game.  I dunno who designed the tutorial as it is, but it doesn't really fit the definition of one in my book.  You have to go to an area for the "quest tracker" thing to update (it doesn't suggest places to go), and while it teaches a couple of things about gameplay (such as buying something with $L and basic movement, it's just too confusing to be of any use to anyone.

So the "bonus Lindens" you get for finishing the "tutorial" (read: confusing system seemingly designed to confuse rather than to educate) aren't even real Lindens?  Well then.  I'll remove the item or whatever that shows you the "tutorial" windows and be off.

Thanks for your "help"!

[Rolig Loon]

8 hours ago, mercfredis said:

Thanks for your "help"!

You're "welcome".  

8 hours ago, mercfredis said:

New player tutorials are usually easy-to-do tasks with well explained steps that teach someone about the game.  I dunno who designed the tutorial as it is, but it doesn't really fit the definition of one in my book.

Quite true.  These are not tutorials in the sense that you may have found them in other places.  The challenge in SL is not to learn how to play a game. It's to learn how to find your own way in a self-directed world.  There's no cookie-cutter way to do that.  Instead, Linden Lab set up a social area where visitors have the option to try a few tasks and develop their own strategies for completing them.  For example, the camera challenge simply asks how fast a resident can click on ten targets.  It's tricky because you can't see all ten at once, so you have to figure out how to move your point of view.  By trial and error, encouraged by a bit of competition, each person develops her own way to approach the challenge -- and learns how to control the camera.

Each of the tasks is a challenge to explore a common experience in SL (using typed chat, navigating around obstacles, controlling a vehicle, using a vendor to buy a product ... ).  A couple (visiting the dance area is one) simply invite you to see how a dance machine works, so you don't feel too much like a dork the first time you walk into a club, Residents can pick which challenges to try, or can ignore them all.  Social Island is not a conventional tutorial but a first exposure to Second Life, where you make your own way.

[Lindal Kidd]

Hello Mercfredis, and welcome back to Second Life.  Yes, the getting started tutorials are completely changed from what you may remember from years ago.  And you will find that SL has many new functions and features...but it is still, in the end, pretty much the same world.

The blue HUDs that you're seeing are automatically attached to your screen by simply being at Social Island...it's part of a new function called "Experiences".  Any time you return to Social Island, they will reappear on your screen, and they cannot be detached as long as you are there.  As soon as you leave Social Island, you can right click them and choose Detach.

[mercfredis]

5 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

For example, the camera challenge simply asks how fast a resident can click on ten targets.  It's tricky because you can't see all ten at once, so you have to figure out how to move your point of view.  By trial and error, encouraged by a bit of competition, each person develops her own way to approach the challenge -- and learns how to control the camera.

Each of the tasks is a challenge to explore a common experience in SL (using typed chat, navigating around obstacles, controlling a vehicle, using a vendor to buy a product ... ).  A couple (visiting the dance area is one) simply invite you to see how a dance machine works, so you don't feel too much like a dork the first time you walk into a club, Residents can pick which challenges to try, or can ignore them all.  Social Island is not a conventional tutorial but a first exposure to Second Life, where you make your own way.

No, man.  You can't explain away the difficulties here by telling me to "think outside the box!"  The camera challenge was fun and inventive, HAPPY THING I FOUND IT!  A tutorial at least tells you where the "challenges" are.  This is useless, clunky, and unhelpful.  God help anyone who had no experience!

 

5 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Hello Mercfredis, and welcome back to Second Life.  Yes, the getting started tutorials are completely changed from what you may remember from years ago.  And you will find that SL has many new functions and features...but it is still, in the end, pretty much the same world.

The blue HUDs that you're seeing are automatically attached to your screen by simply being at Social Island...it's part of a new function called "Experiences".  Any time you return to Social Island, they will reappear on your screen, and they cannot be detached as long as you are there.  As soon as you leave Social Island, you can right click them and choose Detach.

Thank you.

[petMelite]

How many task are here? When are you sure you have done all of them and can stop exploring as you have seen everything? 
Which would be the max L$ that you can earn in Social Island?

Thanks in advance and best regards.

Edited December 4, 2018 by petMelite

[Rolig Loon]

Hi, and welcome to Second Life.

Second question first .... The L$ that you earn on Social Island are only practice money.  You can spend them in the shop there to buy items of clothing, but you can't use those practice L$ anywhere else.  They don;t show up in your regular account ... only in the special HUD that attaches while you are on Social Island.  You get the same L$ reward for completing each task, and you only get the reward once for each task..

Now the first question ... there are only 3 real "tasks": (1) steering a boat through rings in the cave, (3) finding your way to the center of the maze, and (3) clicking on all of the targets on the tower thingee (you don't have to beat the clock, just touch all of the targets).  Everything else is a "go there" challenge:  Chat with the parrot, visit the dance/social area, visit the shop, visit the building exhibit.  You get a practice L$ reward at each one. The idea is partly to introduce basic skills  beyond what you learned on Learning Island and partly to give you an excuse to get better at moving around, climbing stairs, sitting on things, buying things, and dancing before you step out into the rest of SL.  You may leave at any time, and you may come back whenever you wish.  You may just want to visit Social Island occasionally so that you can try out a new random location through one of the portals there.  Or just chat.

ETA:  I should also mention that some people come back to Social Island just to use the changing rooms.  Until you have land of your own or have found a quiet place where you feel comfortable changing outfits, the changing rooms on Social Island are a great, safe place to do it.

Edited December 4, 2018 by Rolig Loon

[Lindal Kidd]

Rolig...there are changing rooms on Social Island?  I didn't know that, but I sure wouldn't consider Social Island as a "safe" place to change, anyway!

petMelife, welcome to Second Life.  Rolig's given you a good verbal tour of Social Island, but I'd like to emphasize that you don't have to complete all the tutorials there.  You can leave any time you like, and go explore other places in SL.  You can do so by using the teleport doors in one of the plaza areas, or you can use Search or Destinations in your user interface to find places to teleport to.  I recommend visiting some of the "newcomer friendly" places first.  Spots like Caledon Oxbridge University, New Resident Island, and NCI all have live helpers and tutorials  that explain things about SL.

[Rolig Loon]

4 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Rolig...there are changing rooms on Social Island?  I didn't know that, but I sure wouldn't consider Social Island as a "safe" place to change, anyway!

Try them.  😎  When you step into a changing room, you are whisked to an undisclosed location well above the surface.  AFAIK, you cannot be accompanied.  You're safer there than you are almost anywhere else in SL.

Edited December 5, 2018 by Rolig Loon