How likely are you to recommend Second Life to a friend or family member

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

I would never recommend SL to another family member and I selfishly guard my virtual time and space from them. Not a single relative of mine even knows I've been using SL for over 13 years, as I've never mentioned or shown it to them! I don't want them in "my" thing.

Having my family members inworld at the same time as me would be awkward and embarrassing.  I would compare it to a common British-style scenario which happens annually on 25th December in most British homes, spending Christmas Day shut in at home with an entire family present (with long-lost uncles, aunties, cousins, grand-parents, their pets etc..,) in an uncomfortably warm, stuffy and over-crammed house, with relatives who have an ample supply of intra-family baggage, awkwardness, rivalry, tension and Christmas booze...

Absolute hell. Ugh, no way.

Edited November 21, 2021 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Nick0678]

I would never recommend it to a family member or close relative and actually i would be annoyed if i learned that they are also playing SL , the risk of us having pixelsex without knowing it while using our alts is too damn high.. 

(*plus wouldn't feel comfortable knowing my MOM is somewhere in SL surrounded by plenty of random folks ..all of them horny, all of them wanting some booty.. Nope. No.)

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

I would. But I would have to convince my friends and family to purchase a beefy gaming desktop/laptop computer first. And that's just not going to happen. Most of them just aren't interested in all that.

I might recommend it to my son when he's old enough. Right now, in his free time, he's playing with Blender and Unity, making his own game. He's having a ball in Roblox with his friends. Maybe he'll be SL material in the future. But I wouldn't be surprised that it'll just be too slow and too boring for him.

[Ceka Cianci]

Not very likely.

[Madelaine McMasters]

No way in hell.

Look what happened when I told Snugs about SL.

[LittleMe Jewell]

My husband and kids know about SL.  My husband tried it for a short bit, but not interested enough for long term.  Only one of my kids plays online games, but has no interest in SL - prefers WOW, EVE & such.  The other two have no interest at all in computers other than what is needed for work.

There isn't a chance in hell that I'd tell any of my friends or co-workers. In my mind, SL still has the rep that it got early on for being totally about virtual sex.  While I know that it is about much more, that is still the image that I figure others would have.

 

5 hours ago, Nick0678 said:

(*plus wouldn't feel comfortable knowing my MOM is somewhere in SL surrounded by plenty of random folks ..all of them horny, all of them wanting some booty.. Nope. No.)

I did introduce my Mom to SL about a decade back.  She was inworld for a few years, but she found her own life here and we seldom ever met up.  I'm pretty sure she was a bit into the SLex scene, but I just kept my mind from thinking on that.  She left after only a few years inworld due to RL health issues.

Edited November 21, 2021 by LittleMe Jewell

[Nick0678]

24 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

.  I'm pretty sure she was a bit into the SLex scene.........

 

[Echelon Alcott]

I did it back when I joined SL. My friends joined for a short period of time, but it did not resonate with them and they've left since. SL in its current form is for a niche market segment.

[Ajay McDowwll]

Most folks in my RL know I'm in SL, and they're just not interested.  My kids totally wanted to go into SL when they were small (4 and 8)... but that's because I had a rideable giraffe and they wanted a turn

They're now edging up on 19 and 23, and their love for giraffe riding has apparently waned significantly

[Luna Bliss]

I've had family members and friends come into SL.  My daughter attended a concert by Torbin Asp on my land that she enjoyed (Torbin has cancer btw, so send some good vibes, hope he's okay).

However I would never send anyone to this forum as it has too much of a conservative bent, and they are all progressive people.

[Marigold Devin]

5 hours ago, Nick0678 said:

Nods.. Yes they are!

Tense.

[Istelathis]

I don't think anyone in my family would be interested in it, and friends.. what are these things you call friends? 🙃  

Edited November 21, 2021 by Istelathis

[Rolig Loon]

I tell very few people that I am here, other than my sister and my kids (and they think I am slightly nuts).  I'd rather not find anyone I know in RL wandering around messing up my SL, and I certainly don't want any of them sharing my SL at home. This is my world.  I want to keep it that way.

[Luna Bliss]

32 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

I tell very few people that I am here, other than my sister and my kids (and they think I am slightly nuts).  I'd rather not find anyone I know in RL wandering around messing up my SL, and I certainly don't want any of them sharing my SL at home. This is my world.  I want to keep it that way.

I think everyone has the right to experience SL in the way they want -- to share it with RL friends/family or not.

I'm wondering, however...why do you think SL people seem to be on average more private?  Is it because they're older than, say, the average person in VR chat?  In VR chat there's much more blending of SL & RL...less of a need for privacy.

I know early on I tried to hide it more because there was the perception SL was a sex game, and I didn't want the odd looks. But now it seems people are more familiar with games in general so it's not seen as only sexual in nature or strange in general.

I do wonder though, if this is one of the reasons SL doesn't grow much...if it's true most people want SL as more of a private space and so reluctant to bring friends/family here.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Luna Bliss

[Rolig Loon]

3 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

I think everyone has the right to experience SL in the way they want -- to share it with RL friends/family or not.

Excellent. And I choose not to.

3 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

I'm wondering, however...why do you think SL people seem to be on average more private?  Is it because they're older than, say, the average person in VR chat.

I have no idea, and I can't even speculate on whether other people in SL are "on average more private" (than whom, by the way?).  I can only say that for myself the choice has nothing to do with SL itself. When I wander around in RL -- on vacation, or when I am out shopping, or whatever -- I prefer to do it alone. I look forward to the good times I spend with family in RL and with my friends in both SL and RL, but I am most comfortable in solitude. I go for long walks in the woods, or I duck into SL to find a world I do not need to share with anyone in my RL.

[Echelon Alcott]

25 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

I'm wondering, however...why do you think SL people seem to be on average more private?  Is it because they're older than, say, the average person in VR chat?  In VR chat there's much more blending of SL & RL...less of a need for privacy.

My perception is that for some people, and I do emphasize SOME people, SL is an avenue for them to explore an aspect (or multiple aspects) of life that they do not have the opportunity to do so in RL. And thus they prefer to not expose their SL to RL and keep the two of them compartmentalized.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Echelon Alcott

[LittleMe Jewell]

20 minutes ago, Echelon Alcott said:

My perception is that for some people, and I do emphasize SOME people, SL is an avenue for them to explore an aspect (or multiple aspects) of life that they do not have the opportunity to do so in RL. And thus they prefer to not expose their SL to RL and keep the two of them compartmentalized.

I do think that this has much to do with whether or not we want to share SL with others. 

 

 

45 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

'm wondering, however...why do you think SL people seem to be on average more private?  Is it because they're older than, say, the average person in VR chat?  In VR chat there's much more blending of SL & RL...less of a need for privacy.

I know early on I tried to hide it more because there was the perception SL was a sex game, and I didn't want the odd looks. But now it seems people are more familiar with games in general so it's not seen as only sexual in nature or strange in general.

In my mind, SL still seems to have a very definite "mostly about sex" vibe, even though I have not been part of the SLex scene in many years, and I really do know that there is a lot more to SL. 

Then there is also the issue of me having pretty much no "friends" that I share anything with.

Edited November 21, 2021 by LittleMe Jewell

[Silent Mistwalker]

Of the people I've recommended it too, either they never logged in, didn't have a pc that would run it or they only logged in a handful of times and were never seen again.

That was over 10 years ago.

I haven't bothered since then. Friends were a thing of the past by the time I was in my 30s and I don't seem to have a family anymore so there's no one to recommend it too now.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Silent Mistwalker

[animats]

There's an article by Matthew Ball, VC (Venture Capitalist, not Victoria Cross) in his series of metaverse articles claiming that a big change from the COVID epidemic is that it's no longer embarrassing to use a virtual world.

One side effect of Facebook getting into the metaverse business is that it becomes mainstream. SL marketing should be able to exploit this. "The metaverse is here! Visit today!"

(Has anyone seen any SL marketing efforts in recent months?)

[Arielle Popstar]

For me it's always been relatively simple in that online friends I have met in other virtual worlds like IMVU, I suggest and recommend Second Life, because they have no issue with the sex parts and in fact may be looking for exactly that. The few friends and family that I thought might be interested in the platform itself for building , I suggested Opensimulator as it doesn't have all the adult entertainments in one's face.

A few from IMVU did come over though I did eventually lose track of them. Family and friends though only wound up logging in a couple of times and then didn't come back. I haven't recommended either for several years now.

[Phil Deakins]

I would never recommend Second Life to anyone. It gets mentioned in the course of normal conversation but, for most of the 15 years I've been in SL, I've made a point of not recommending it.

The reason is the company that runs it. It shows no concern at all for its customers, and is known to sh.t on them at times too. They don't  treat customers as customers, and they don't merit any favours from me.

Compare that with a company I would definitely recommend - Amazon. I had three 30-day free trials of Amazon Prime in the space of a year or so. That was amazing in itself, but the most amazing thing I found was what happened after I'd mistakenly allowed one of the free trials to go past its 30 days. Amazon took the money, of course, and I made sure that I closed the account before the next month was up. Then I thought no more about it. A few weeks later, I got an email from them, saying that they'd refunded the month's subscription because I hadn't made any use of it! And they really had refunded it. What company does something like that without anything being mentioned? I didn't tell them I'd overrun. I saw my mistake and I just left it. It was only a small amount of money but what Amazon did was so over-and-above that I'd recommend that company to anyone. I now have an ongoing Amazon Prime subscription, and I've found other reasons to recommend them. They are very customer-centric, which is the opposite of Linden Lab.
 

Edited November 21, 2021 by Phil Deakins

[QwiQ]

53 minutes ago, animats said:

There's an article by Matthew Ball, VC (Venture Capitalist, not Victoria Cross) in his series of metaverse articles claiming that a big change from the COVID epidemic is that it's no longer embarrassing to use a virtual world.

One side effect of Facebook getting into the metaverse business is that it becomes mainstream. SL marketing should be able to exploit this. "The metaverse is here! Visit today!"

(Has anyone seen any SL marketing efforts in recent months?)

I think there are a couple of things here.

Firstly, while it's great that Matthew mentions SL at all, in the article you reference he mentions SL once and Roblox 10 times and Fortnite 13 times. So still a lot of ground to make up.

Secondly SL is still carrying a lot, and I mean a lot, of negative PR and reputational baggage. It's one thing to be a bit concerned about your reputation as a Roblox player because it sounds like a bit of a waste of time, but a completely different thing to be concerned that your SL residency flags you up to friends and family as some sort of middle aged, pixel sex obsessed pervert. 

I know I know, to the sophisticated cognoscente SL is so much more but, for most non residents, if you've heard of SL at all - you've heard all the other stuff too.

As a result I agree that a substantial rebranding, remarketing, repositioning initiative is necessary.

My gut feeling is however, that there are a lot of pointers to quite a substantial change in direction coming soon.

If that's the case then save the marketing budget to advertise the big new shiny thing rather than the rank old crusty one 🙂

Edited November 21, 2021 by QwiQ

[Lucia Nightfire]

8 hours ago, Nick0678 said:

I would never recommend it to a family member or close relative and actually i would be annoyed if i learned that they are also playing SL , the risk of us having pixelsex without knowing it while using our alts is too damn high.. 

(*plus wouldn't feel comfortable knowing my MOM is somewhere in SL surrounded by plenty of random folks ..all of them horny, all of them wanting some booty.. Nope. No.)

IDK, I think some would rather unknowingly kiss their grandma using an alt in SL than consciously do it them self in RL.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Lucia Nightfire

[Nick0678]

1 minute ago, Lucia Nightfire said:

IDK, I think some would rather unknowingly kiss their grandma using an alt in SL than knowingly doing it them self in RL.

[Ayeleeon]

if someone came up to me and asked my advice on finding a virtual world, then yes i would reccomend SL but i dont know any others. Th ereality of that howeve ris that the chance of someone asking me that is zero.