SL new user retention, expectation and usability

[Arielle Popstar]

5 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Why would that be the case?  It would be in the creators best interest to.provide a quality piece.  If I received junk, even for free, I'd certainly NOT go to that store if I was wanting to make a purchase.  There is still good content out there in regular sizing that include alpha layers.  Those items can be worn on some starter avatars.

This goes back to offering these items to new users when the NUX avatar comes out.  If LL worked with content creators to offer a package of free items for new users, everyone wins.  People will eventually buy from those stores, those stores make money, that money gets cashed out, LL reaps the rewards.  Win-win and win.

Even if it is a quality piece, everyone will know it is freebie thing for noobs. Let them have some L$ to buy something unique that they choose, not something a creator or LL has chosen for them. That is what this platform is supposed to be about, the ability to be unique. Give them a taste of that.

[Rowan Amore]

1 minute ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Even if it is a quality piece, everyone will know it is freebie thing for noobs. Let them have some L$ to buy something unique that they choose, not something a creator or LL has chosen for them. That is what this platform is supposed to be about, the ability to be unique. Give them a taste of that.

The only people who would know it's a piece for noobs is...noobs and even so, who cares in the first 10 minutes.

We're talking about trying to get them interested in 10 minutes.  Completing tasks, earning tokens, learning how to spend tokens, etc can all be achieved in that time.  I sure as heck wasn't concerned with 'being unique' when I first started.  

There are literally 100s if not 1000s of quality creators in SL.   If even 1/2 of them donated an item, that's a large.pool of content to choose from.

 

[Arielle Popstar]

1 minute ago, Rowan Amore said:

The only people who would know it's a piece for noobs is...noobs and even so, who cares in the first 10 minutes.

We're talking about trying to get them interested in 10 minutes.  Completing tasks, earning tokens, learning how to spend tokens, etc can all be achieved in that time.  I sure as heck wasn't concerned with 'being unique' when I first started.  

There are literally 100s if not 1000s of quality creators in SL.   If even 1/2 of them donated an item, that's a large.pool of content to choose from.

 

The Marketplace already has thousands of 0 L$ items and Group gifts out there. A hint from IMVU where they give new people something like a 1000 Promo credits that they can use when they log in and start buying from their Marketplace. I'd wager most will stay in at least long enough to spend that free money. If a noob here sees a L$ balance of similar value in their account, I'm pretty sure they are going to do their darndest to spend it. The stipulation should be that they have to spend it inworld so they get the practice of moving around. 

[Gabriele Graves]

Put 'em all in a death arena and let them fight it out.  The last one standing gets to leave Welcome Island.
The next round starts in 30 minutes with a bunch of fresh newbies.

[Lindal Kidd]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Lol

You labelled your outfit "summer bimbo"?

Lol

When I'm being more blatantly sexy than my norm, I'll tack that on, yeah. That particular outfit uses a curvier shape, fuller lips, heavier makeup, and um...hidden attachments.

What...you use the Dewey Decimal System?

[Lindal Kidd]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

Tokens that can be exchanged for items donated by creators.  This also informs new users of what those content creators make and with the included LM, when they're ready to buy, they know where to go.  No Ls involved, just tokens.  They also learn how to make a purchase,  unbox something, find it in inventory, etc.

I like it, Rowan! This could be made to work like the "play $L" that the tutorial on Social Island used to give out. Those tokens could only be used to buy things from vendors on Social Island, or to gamble with on Gaming Island.

[Quistess Alpha]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

Tokens that can be exchanged for items donated by creators.

IIRC they already have something like that on "social island". I think I spent my tutorial-bucks on some denim slippers I used to wear quite a bit, and some hair I've not worn since. 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

4 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

What...you use the Dewey Decimal System?

Library of Congress, dahling.

I'm not living in the stone ages.

PN 6231.E72.

 

[Quistess Alpha]

2 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

there is no way to stop it being gamed

Special marketplace credits that can only be used to buy no-trans items?

[Akane Nacht]

8 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

Don't ask me what all these potential users do want from a virtual world, I'm no researcher, but it is clear after 19 years of totally low retention rates that they don't want SL the way it is.
And I assume it is something fundamental, not lack of a good welcome area, or pictures in an inventory shown or not or better avatars.

I watch a lot of youtube reviews of games I am into (or want to get into). What I hear said over and over is players want a game that "rewards them for their time" whatever that reward may be to the individual. So I suppose this links up with what the strength of the game is.

For SL, the strengths are:

• meeting people
• making things

Does SL reward people for their time spent on these 2 things? Yes, but it's not easy to find your way to either without a good deal of luck for your average hobbyist, especially for those shy about talking to strangers online. Once the basic mechanics of the world are learnt, there seems to be a missing step to find these 2 things. Those of us who stuck around either got lucky or were unusually persistent. SL is fine in channelling us to places but not so much to channelling us to other people, whether to make friends or learn something.

What if the opening cinematic for new SL residents changed every few months, and was made by other residents, and new people could meet these content creators, and one day be the one making the intro?

Or what if there was a more streamlined way to meet other residents who have similar interests, apart from standing around in some location hoping someone will respond? 

I'm also thinking about what I would want as an old resident, as a lot of the people I chat to are old friends. 

Thus concludes some more of my random thoughts, not all directed at your post, Sid 🙂

 

[Alwin Alcott]

2 hours ago, Akane Nacht said:

For SL, the strengths are:

• meeting people
• making things

that last is, for the biggest part, killed when mesh took over.
A inworld tool would have kept the interest for building and creating a more important reason to stay instead of consume.

[Marianne Little]

23 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

that last is, for the biggest part, killed when mesh took over.
A inworld tool would have kept the interest for building and creating a more important reason to stay instead of consume.

What we do these days, is dragging out content like houses, furniture and plants to make a home in SL. "Creating" is our preference for stuff, rezzing and moving to make our environment look like a hangar, a shed, a mansion...

It should be sandboxes that's easy to find where newbies log in. And a tutorial for rezzing things. It should be easier to find things in the library. Maybe it is better to have a vendor with some donated products by the sandbox entrance.

That teaches them how to buy, find the item in their inventory, place it on the ground. And then move it around. Add some trees and plants. A sofa and some more utilitarian furniture.Very good practice.

And also some demos of Bellisseria houses, empty and furnished, next to the sandbox. With information that you can pick a home like this or other styles as a Premium member.

These newbie sandboxes can be exploited by griefers that make new accounts, just so they can be @ssholes and harass true newbies. There need to be some mole present to weed the griefers out.

[animats]

13 hours ago, Modulated said:

I think VR is still wanted just without the headset. The tech has to catch up for that .

Yes. John Carmack (Doom) says the headgear has to get down to swim goggle size to be successful at all, and down to eyeglass size to go mainstream. Swim goggle size is getting close for tethered devices. There's a 200 gram headset coming out Real Soon Now. It's just a display/microphone/tracker; it has to be plugged in to a game console or gamer PC to generate the graphics.

[Sid Nagy]

My 2 cents about the goggles: In fact it is the same for the VR goggles as for SL. It is that long around already, it should have become mainstream by now. It didn't. So it will not happen either.

Most people don't want something before their eyes hampering their RL vision.
3D movies in the cinema didn't make it either, Even the simple two colored glasses weren't acceptable for most film lovers.

There will be a small niche market for game goggles, but that is as far as it will ever get IMHO.

Edited August 16, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[cunomar]

Newbies do not search for shops , who goes looking to spend real money in a game they are already convinced is not for them ?

Can't remember how i found freebie galaxy , likely someone gave me the landmark to an emporium hosting thousands of freebies which obviously even to me as a complete novice should not be used by anyone .

A few months in and somebody said something about my awful shoes in public chat , i replied that i can't find **** and 30 seconds later a complete stranger posted me a link to exactly what i wanted on marketplace .

I discovered what this MP place people often mentioned is all about and at last there were possibilities .

I still mostly use the very first sandbox somebody took me to when i wouldn't know where to look for one even if i knew i needed to find one because , well its a sandbox , a place to faff about with the necessary evil of modifying your avatar .

Any new player that looks good inside of a month is not a new player , they are either returning players or current players creating an alt . Though i suppose if you play similar online games some of sl won't seem so daunting as it does to a complete novice .

[Alwin Alcott]

2 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

What we do these days, is dragging out content like houses, furniture and plants to make a home in SL. "Creating" is our preference for stuff, rezzing and moving to make our environment look like a hangar, a shed, a mansion...

It should be sandboxes that's easy to find where newbies log in. And a tutorial for rezzing things. It should be easier to find things in the library. Maybe it is better to have a vendor with some donated products by the sandbox entrance.

That teaches them how to buy, find the item in their inventory, place it on the ground. And then move it around. Add some trees and plants. A sofa and some more utilitarian furniture.Very good practice.

And also some demos of Bellisseria houses, empty and furnished, next to the sandbox. With information that you can pick a home like this or other styles as a Premium member.

These newbie sandboxes can be exploited by griefers that make new accounts, just so they can be @ssholes and harass true newbies. There need to be some mole present to weed the griefers out.

that's what it became, thats no creating it's the opposite of what i meant with my remark,  bring back creativity to the users, not just a creating happy few that manage to operate quite complicated software. ( or buy /steal it at 3d sites)
The slogan "made by users" became "made by few users, the others are allowed to (buy) use it"
I think there should be a option, for the ones that want, to get a tool to create high(er) end objects inworld.

[Seicher Rae]

4 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

that last [making things, previous post] is, for the biggest part, killed when mesh took over.
A inworld tool would have kept the interest for building and creating a more important reason to stay instead of consume.

It sure killed it for me. I kept meaning to learn how to build. Then came sculpties, and that confused me. Then I got distracted. Then mesh and I just threw up my hands and said "eff it." But when I started SL I absolutely thought I would do clothing and furniture/home design. Now I shop.

[Seicher Rae]

3 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

Most people don't want something before their eyes hampering their RL vision.

/me squints at the screen, tilts her head... sighs and swears... takes off her reading glasses and cleans them. ah, better

[Lindal Kidd]

9 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

PN 6231.E72

Closest I could find was "Modern Drunkard Magazine" PN 6231.D7

[Rowan Amore]

10 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

I like it, Rowan! This could be made to work like the "play $L" that the tutorial on Social Island used to give out. Those tokens could only be used to buy things from vendors on Social Island, or to gamble with on Gaming Island.

Yes, tokens that can only be used in certain places for certain items takes the 'gaming the system" out of the equation and one of the criticisms about giving new people actual Ls.

Gaining those tokens upon completion of quests or tasks gives new folks that goal that's missing for a lot of them.   They don't need to give payment info as the one Linden game requires because they aren't exchanging the tokens for anything other than specific items.  

[Love Zhaoying]

5 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

Most people don't want something before their eyes hampering their RL vision.

As a new RL sufferer of eye "Floaters", yep. 

However, HUD's seem popular in Second Life.  Those annoyingly block the screen.

Edited August 16, 2022 by Love Zhaoying

[Love Zhaoying]

Never mind.

Edited August 16, 2022 by Love Zhaoying

[Ceka Cianci]

3 hours ago, cunomar said:

Newbies do not search for shops , who goes looking to spend real money in a game they are already convinced is not for them ?

Can't remember how i found freebie galaxy , likely someone gave me the landmark to an emporium hosting thousands of freebies which obviously even to me as a complete novice should not be used by anyone .

A few months in and somebody said something about my awful shoes in public chat , i replied that i can't find **** and 30 seconds later a complete stranger posted me a link to exactly what i wanted on marketplace .

I discovered what this MP place people often mentioned is all about and at last there were possibilities .

I still mostly use the very first sandbox somebody took me to when i wouldn't know where to look for one even if i knew i needed to find one because , well its a sandbox , a place to faff about with the necessary evil of modifying your avatar .

Any new player that looks good inside of a month is not a new player , they are either returning players or current players creating an alt . Though i suppose if you play similar online games some of sl won't seem so daunting as it does to a complete novice .

I would say to the last part, any new player having to learn everything for themselves will still look like they are new.. But, If someone is there showing them the way, they can be looking good in a few days. I know I'm not the only one helping new people learn the viewer and huds, mesh heads and mesh bodies and where the good stuff is.

Maybe a lot of new users that look good are already existing or returning users, but it's not all of them.

 

[Seicher Rae]

4 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I would say to the last part, any new player having to learn everything for themselves will still look like they are new.. But, If someone is there showing them the way, they can be looking good in a few days. I know I'm not the only one helping new people learn the viewer and huds, mesh heads and mesh bodies and where the good stuff is.

Maybe a lot of new users that look good are already existing or returning users, but it's not all of them.

 

Yup, exactly so. Way back when, my system avatar didn't look funky after I got rid of the out-of-the-box "girl next door" avatar—within 24 hours or so. I had someone show me the way, and very quickly had "high end" stuff and then a little after that, I paid for custom shape and skin from the then "high end" folks, still to wet-behind-the-ears to do the shape for myself.

So, yes, sometimes a "whoa, that's gorgeous" new avatar is an alt, but not always.

Edited August 16, 2022 by Seicher Rae

[Ceka Cianci]

1 hour ago, Seicher Rae said:

Yup, exactly so. Way back when, my system avatar didn't look funky after I got rid of the out-of-the-box "girl next door" avatar—within 24 hours or so. I had someone show me the way, and very quickly had "high end" stuff and then a little after that, I paid for custom shape and skin from the then "high end" folks, still to wet-behind-the-ears to do the shape for myself.

So, yes, sometimes a "whoa, that's gorgeous" new avatar is an alt, but not always.

I will say though, that back when I came in, it was much easier to set up our avatars than it is today..

I don't think i had any huds at all, until the later part of my first year. maybe even into my second..

Everything was like wearing bom and prim clothes.. With prim clothes, you had to learn the tools if you wanted anything to fit halfway decently..

Plus, lindens were so inexpensive back then.. A lot of creators didn't break things down as much into individual items. A lot of things were outfits more then, where there is money in it to break down a pair of panties and a tank and sell them for crazy price each these days.

Nowadays almost everything costs an arm and a leg and learning their way around huds is vital. learning where the free good stuff is, is also vital.

There is a lot of good creators contributing to the pool of freebies, but still that pool needs to be updated..It's just as much in their best interest as it is the new user coming in.. The more that stay, the more that buy and get that feeling of buying.

Right now about the only useful body I seen at the start point that that I came in at that would make life easier on a new user was, the LucyBody..  The only reason is, because it's the only one that really can wear a lot of things that are out there now.

The classic legacy and Ebody were there, but My newbie alt is still waiting on the Lucybody, because I can't find much of anything as a newbie with the classic..

They had the genus head there which was nice.

The main thing is, they need to have something workable to improve on, because it's a buyers and creators world now rather than Buyer creator world.

I can see where the new mesh bodies that LL is making , will help out a lot, but only if there is a good pool of good choices for them to work with while they transition to something they may like more..

Right now it's system avatar or take your pick of outdated to the world mesh stuff.

Wow , I really didn't mean to unpack this much..lol

 

ETA: This was the best I could come up with from the start point I came in at.

This is the only outfit that fit the classic, plus couldn't find any shoes for it. So when the lucy body comes in I can improve on it more, but still hope it comes with the bom pack now otherwise I'm stuck using appliers.. hehehe

The genus head , most things are omega, which if I'm not gonna spend a dime, I'm still limited there too.

I'm trying to see what it would take without spending a dime.. I had to TP her to my place because, well the outfit mainly is too revealing.. lol

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Ceka Cianci