New SecondLife.com homepage

[Marianne Little]

I will apologize, I saw only the small image here in the forum. Now that I logged in on my stationary with the big screen, I can see it is really a human. I could not believe it. What has it to do with SL? We can't look like that (ok, Photoshop). I could accept an avatar with a bit of photoshop. Because almost all fix their pictures, it is filters and whatnot apps for RL too.

I did not think about it when I saw the video, but now I think how much that video had to cost. The studio, models, rigging, light, makeup and costumes.

Where the bleep did that money come from? And for what purpose? Making people logging in to get an avatar, that is impossible to get.

I feel like I do in RL when it is discovered that some politician has used money we had paid for taxes, and thought it was going to infrastructure, schools and such. Not to give politicians all sort of luxury.

How many new regions has people have to buy, only to cover the cost of making that bleep video?

Edited April 21, 2021 by Marianne Little
Typo

[Silent Mistwalker]

59 minutes ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

What is marketing thinking?  Explains the shortage of rum!

[Silent Mistwalker]

I didn't get the impression the video that was posted earlier was made or commissioned by LL. I didn't watch it though so is there some indication in the video that it was made or commissioned by LL?

Edit: Never mind. I dug back through the thread for it. LL has lost its collective mind. What does the movie Levitate have to do with SL?

Damn the audio is LOUD! and I have hearing loss! I had to turn my volume down from 40/50 (100 is max on laptop) to 16!

Edited April 21, 2021 by Silent Mistwalker

[LittleMe Jewell]

5 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

I didn't get the impression the video that was posted earlier was made or commissioned by LL. I didn't watch it though so is there some indication in the video that it was made or commissioned by LL?

From the video page:

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

"New lens."  What happened to the old lens?

They might be gunning for the younger crowd --- those who live with their phones glued to their face.

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

From the video page:

Oh that's the media company name not the movie. Still, what goes on behind the scenes on a movie set is nothing like what goes on behind the scenes at LL or in SL.

[LittleMe Jewell]

5 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Oh that's the media company name not the movie. Still, what goes on behind the scenes on a movie set is nothing like what goes on behind the scenes at LL or in SL.

It was posted on the official Second Life youtube and at the end some guy thanks LL and Levitate Media for the work.

[Chic Aeon]

I of course have no idea what is going on with The Lab and advertising.  I do have a possible tiny bit of insight though.  My best friend has worked for a fairly big company (brick and mortar as well as web) for at least twenty years doing backend database, security etc.  

Over the years there have been OH so many companies that had a great sales pitch. The "we will double your customer base" or "get you to the top of the search engines" (they are pretty much there already) etc. etc.

 

The marketing folks come in with "tweaks" that will "reap great rewards". Sometimes there is a new look involved but that is the domain of another long time employee so not many changes there.   So my friend's company does the tweaks --- which costs the company he is working for a lot of money because what seems like a small thing to the Marketing people is often not a small thing at all.  In the end it doesn't work and my friend's company puts thing back (more money gone) and then the next great sales person comes along === and it all repeats.  This is at least once a year for twenty years or more.

There WAS one guy well over a decade ago that actually knew what he was talking about. He improved things a lot and my friend learned a lot from him. All good.  The Marketing - search guy got so expensive though $$$$$  that he was beyond reach except for the mega companies. 

 

So it could very well be that the new Marketing folks aren't great OR they bought into an outsourcing's marketing yada yada believing that it would help.  But in the case of Second Life most of the Marketing people really have no idea what SL "is" only that it is a digital game of some sort that they can sell  (or not as the case may be).   

 

 

[Silent Mistwalker]

6 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

It was posted on the official Second Life youtube and at the end some guy thanks LL and Levitate Media for the work.

I edited my post... 😉

[Madelaine McMasters]

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half. - John Wanamaker (1838-1922)

This reminds me of the Mark Kingdon days, during which he bragged about attracting 30K new signups/day.

The actual user base was in decline at that point, making the reality of Kingdon's braggadocio a conversion of more than 30,000 people per day into folks who'd never visit SL again.

[Sassy Kenin]

6 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

This reminds me of the Mark Kingdon days,

Maddy as terrible his ideas became in practice, got to give him some props that he never sold the farm.🐣 or became a permanent CEO. when Mark screwed up in his short time he got canned.

[Coffee Pancake]

He had ideas. They pertained to growing Second Life.

How foolish we were to ever take that for granted.

[Maitimo]

Close enough I think. 

As far as I can tell, this look is only possible with Maitreya, as you can add glow to your tattoo layer. I did the glowy eyes with the hud on Catwa Pro but it can be done easy enough with a pair of separate modifiable mesh or prim eyes.

Skin by Plastik (with a tint on head & body), hair by Exile, arm tattoo by Even-tide, dress by Sweet Thing, headpiece by Soedara.

[Cinos Field]

I don't hate it. I mean, there is something to be said for visuals that... represent how SL feels too. As in, "be something totally different in an alien world". It's followed by actual screenshots so I don't think it's that misleading.

I mean, you know how say, Coca Cola commercials always have people who are immensely refreshed by it, even though it's really not that refreshing? That kind of thing, trying to capture the an image rather than the product.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Maitimo said:

Close enough I think. 

As far as I can tell, this look is only possible with Maitreya, as you can add glow to your tattoo layer. I did the glowy eyes with the hud on Catwa Pro but it can be done easy enough with a pair of separate modifiable mesh or prim eyes.

Skin by Plastik (with a tint on head & body), hair by Exile, arm tattoo by Even-tide, dress by Sweet Thing, headpiece by Soedara.

Nice strong jawline!!

[Silent Mistwalker]

22 minutes ago, Cinos Field said:

I don't hate it. I mean, there is something to be said for visuals that... represent how SL feels too. As in, "be something totally different in an alien world". It's followed by actual screenshots so I don't think it's that misleading.

I mean, you know how say, Coca Cola commercials always have people who are immensely refreshed by it, even though it's really not that refreshing? That kind of thing, trying to capture the an image rather than the product.

 

That goes back to the original formula for Coca Cola. Where do  you think the coca part of the name came from? 

Quote

The drink Coca-Cola was originated in 1886 by an Atlanta pharmacist, John S. Pemberton (1831–88), at his Pemberton Chemical Company. His bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, chose the name for the drink and penned it in the flowing script that became the Coca-Cola trademark. Pemberton originally touted his drink as a tonic for most common ailments, basing it on cocaine from the coca leaf and caffeine-rich extracts of the kola nut; the cocaine was removed from Coca-Cola’s formula in about 1903. 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Coca-Cola-Company

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

I'm sure someone in world could replicate that welcome page image.

[simplemint]

5 hours ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

They might be gunning for the younger crowd --- those who live with their phones glued to their face.

If that's the case, I don't know if they understand the younger crowd at all. The picture might be attractive to someone who likes fantasy, maybe someone who wants to try a new MMO.  But as discussed earlier, it's not possible on SL to get that kind of look, and fantasy/sci-fi communities are only a smaller part of the larger SL. There are also a plethora of options for younger people who are interested in that, like actual MMOs, high fantasy video games, etc. which offer the gameplay, graphics, and lore aspects that younger people who like fantasy/MMO may be expecting. 

If I were LL and I were trying to gun for signups from younger people, I'd actually be trying to target fans of The Sims or IMVU who are looking for something more expansive and adult than what they're currently playing. There's definitely overlap between activities in those games and SL in areas like community/family RP,  shopping, creation, photography/machinima, and interior design. 

Anecdotally, you can see the interest in SL in the comment sections of YouTuber Carmen King, who made content for The Sims (among other games) before she tried SL. How many of those people have actually tried SL and stayed with it for a long period of time is unclear. She's mentioned in her videos that a lot of people come to her or her Discord asking for help in SL because it's really difficult to pick up as a newbie, which is, I feel the biggest obstacle to the onboarding process. Sign-ups don't really matter if those people aren't sticking around in SL (and perhaps buying Linden along the way).

Edited April 21, 2021 by simplemint
a word

[Silent Mistwalker]

8 minutes ago, simplemint said:

trying to target fans of The Sims

We're already here. 😊

[Cari Soulstar]

when you log in it takes you to the same old look. so yah... people looking for some of those newer fighter games will likely be disappointed.  but to be honest, i thought it looked shiny and new and encouraging ppl to be creative. SL should be okay to be ... SL! I mean, you dont see minecraft trying to change the way its world looks but it is still an amazing experience for ppl who like it. SL should work on cutting lag, lowering land tier, encouraging social creativity!

[Lucia Nightfire]

The money spent on that photo shoot could have been better spent prying open @Rider Linden's schedule to work on script features that would make existing content more efficient and/or allow creators to offer completely new content, both of which would pay back the initial investment n-fold. If LL wants to attract new users they need to start offering content creation features competitive to other MMOs because what we have available in SL has been severely lacking for years.

[Chris Corvinus]

52 minutes ago, Jaylinbridges said:

A younger female face and you've got it.  At a distance it looks like an aging trans guy.  

There is an artistic and fantasy community in SL, and this person/avatar is nothing out of the ordinary.  If it conveys SL as a world where you can fly and glow and have blue skin with fairy ears, well that is part of what SL is now!  This thread is full of old folgies, still pumping water by hand down on the farm, as you cook your muskrats on the wood-fired stove.  SL wants to attract some new fresh blood (red or blue) that also has dollars (a RL job)  to spend here.

Not even close. Its like those mobile ads you see but when you play the game, its horrifically different. 

[Drayke Newall]

59 minutes ago, Jaylinbridges said:

A younger female face and you've got it.  At a distance it looks like an aging trans guy.  

There is an artistic and fantasy community in SL, and this person/avatar is nothing out of the ordinary.  If it conveys SL as a world where you can fly and glow and have blue skin with fairy ears, well that is part of what SL is now!  This thread is full of old folgies, still pumping water by hand down on the farm, as you cook your muskrats on the wood-fired stove.  SL wants to attract some new fresh blood (red or blue) that also has dollars (a RL job)  to spend here.

No one has said creating a similar look avatar wasn't possible. What people are saying is that the quality can never be that good.  Lighting is impossible, particle effects on hands are impossible to that detail, smoke effect in background is impossible to that detail, not to mention the lag. They have deliberately hidden what SL really looks like in favour of a Real Person.

It is the equivalent of Microsoft advertising Minecraft as an ultra realistic game. Once people enter into the game they will take one look and leave due to it not looking the same as it was advertised. Minecraft advertises what it is and does and its strengths. That image and LL marketing have been advertising not to its strengths at all.

If you think that kind of advertising is going to bring in the younger crowd then I believe you are mistaken. Mobile games are notorious for doing such things and it is not popular. Additionally, LL have been trying to attract 'new fresh blood' for over a decade and have failed to because they refuse to update their system to accommodate those new users. No amount of advertising such as that image will get those new users when the entire program is clunky and non user friendly to a new person - not to mention having 20fps in world.

Edited April 22, 2021 by Drayke Newall

[Rat Luv]

Meanwhile, Carmen King is still getting thousands of likes and tens of thousands of views doing SL videos...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ETA: HUNDREDS of thousands of views. Why isn't LL talking to her, instead of making expensive cosplay videos? 

Edited April 22, 2021 by Rat Luv

[Jaylinbridges]

1 hour ago, Drayke Newall said:

If you think that kind of advertising is going to bring in the younger crowd then I believe you are mistaken. Mobile games are notorious for doing such things and it is not popular.

Point Taken... Marketing will change their Main page to this image next week, after they commission their production company partnership team to produce this picture with real models:

Edited April 22, 2021 by Jaylinbridges