SL new user retention, expectation and usability

[Coffee Pancake]

We already had this discussion too .. everyone hated it.

 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Coffee Pancake said:

We already had this discussion too .. everyone hated it.

 

 

I was surprised to learn about secondary currencies when I traveled to Cuba! 

[Arielle Popstar]

6 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

We already had this discussion too .. everyone hated it.

 

 

Interesting thread but you were positing more of a Universal Basic Income there rather than a Linden Money tree sort of idea, strictly for new people and only on a Welcome island they can get to for the first month, as an example.

[Ceka Cianci]

That place I landed , they had some sort of fishing or something like that, so that people could earn some lindens for the store..

I should actually go do that and see how easy it is, since I can't give my newbie money or stuff..

I think they did have some decent things in the store for 1L that i couldn't get at the time..

They are going to look for ways to make money to get stuff at first..

 

ETA: Fished for like an hour and got up to 10L.. Then went to cash out and they ask me for me email address to verify..  I was like, no thanks..

what a waste of time that was..

Edited August 17, 2022 by Ceka Cianci

[Jaylinbridges]

2 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

They are going to look for ways to make money to get stuff at first..ETA: Fished for like an hour and got up to 10L.. Then went to cash out and they ask me for me email address to verify..  I was like, no thanks.

 

I think this 10 mins or I quit thing is extreme and not realistic.  If someone can't spend over 10 mins in a brand new "game/whatever" before they give up, why does SL need them?  I would think at least 2 hours before you delete SL would be more reasonable    And again this is someone who thinks they deserve everything now, not tomorrow.  "Spoon feed me everything now because I never learned perseverance because that wasn't a subject at my school I had to take to graduate." 

You can earn a few more lindens by playing PaleoQuest, a linden game, and you need no PIOF, just a basic account. I made 13 L in 30 mins collecting dinosaur eggs.  Its better than fishing, and they don't need your ID.  Of course to collect those eggs you need to be able to walk and run, and fall off cliffs.  Not a very high bar...  You also need to know how to TP to the Linden Realms region, and find the right portal, which is in English.

If you go to the normal Realms-1 you might also get this popup at the portal:

Maintenance is not the strong point for Linden run games.  But if you somehow discovered the Big Map you can double click on the backup region Realms-2, where the Paleoquest portal usually works.  Nobody cares if your avatar looks like a noob, since 3/4 of the players are alts in Library noob outfits, so you fit right in.  

Edited August 17, 2022 by Jaylinbridges

[Ceka Cianci]

9 minutes ago, Jaylinbridges said:

I think this 10 mins or I quit thing is extreme and not realistic.  If someone can't spend over 10 mins in a brand new "game/whatever" before they give up, why does SL need them?  I would think at least 2 hours before you delete SL would be more reasonable    And again this is someone who thinks they deserve everything now, not tomorrow.  "Spoon feed me everything now because I never learned perseverance because that wasn't a subject at my school I had to take to graduate." 

You can earn a few more lindens by playing PaleoQuest, a linden game, and you need no PIOF, just a basic account. I made 13 L in 30 mins collecting dinosaur eggs.  Its better than fishing, and they don't need your ID.  OF course to collect those eggs you need to be able to walk and run, and fall off cliffs.  Not a very high bar...  You also need to know how to TP to the Linden Realms region, and find the right portal, which is in English.

If you go to the normal Realms-1 you might also get this popup at the portal:

Maintenance is not the strong point for Linden run games.  But if you somehow discovered the Big Map you can double click on the backup region Realms-2, where the Paleoquest portal usually works.  Nobody cares if your avatar looks like a noob, since 3/4 the players are alts in Library noob outfits, so you fit right in.  

 

 

 

I think they will at the very least go through the start area, that's gonna take them way more than 10 minutes..

It took me 40 minutes the other night to get through the one I was dropped at.. that was me just looking to see what it was like there.. I mean I already knew everything so soon as I made it to a board I would read it real fast, then do the thing then go on to the next one.. Where a new person is gonna take longer because they don't know where everything is or what's gonna happen..

Also, I'm trying to go off the information and items that I'm getting from the start point to see just how helpful it really is..

If they have a portal or link to that place there I'll give it a try.. But it's more just an experiment I'm doing to see if I can  make a nice avatar from just my  reliance on the area and the people around me..

I'm trying my best not to cheat and doing good so far hehehehe

 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Ceka Cianci

[Coffee Pancake]

1 hour ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I think they will at the very least go through the start area, that's gonna take them way more than 10 minutes..

I used to be a mentor & live help .. yeah no, plenty never made it out the starting area.

The first 10 minutes is all it took for the seed that SL wasn't for them to be planted and then everything that happened after that just compounds. The session might last longer than 10 minutes, but they aren't coming back and there is nothing to convince them otherwise. They have seen no content, spoken to almost no one and have discovered nothing about SL for themselves.

My interest and this thread is about things that might spawn that initial negative impression.

"This is different from everything I'm used to, it mustn't be for me"

 

 

 

 

[Prokofy Neva]

11 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

We already had this discussion too .. everyone hated it.

 

 

Aren't those store credits kind of like this "GEMS"? Sort of like the old Green Stamps. But I never use them, except for maybe The Bearded Guy's.

[Mowri Panache]

My question has always been - why did Minecraft take off, when Second Life never did? 

Both offer a similar experience of un-scripted sandbox play, with Minecraft having terrible pixel graphics…but people seem to prefer creating things there instead of SL. It’s always baffled me. 

[Coffee Pancake]

18 minutes ago, Mowri Panache said:

My question has always been - why did Minecraft take off, when Second Life never did? 

Both offer a similar experience of un-scripted sandbox play, with Minecraft having terrible pixel graphics…but people seem to prefer creating things there instead of SL. It’s always baffled me. 

Minecraft is fun and it provides self reinforcing purpose.

I need somewhere to survive the night .. it needs to be pretty too .. 

[Akane Nacht]

23 minutes ago, Mowri Panache said:

My question has always been - why did Minecraft take off, when Second Life never did? 

SL is dull because nothing attacks you. Also SL is nice because nothing attacks you. 

I suppose more people are seeking excitement than a quiet hobby. At least with the current demographics of who is playing games online.

[PekeNL]

30 minutes ago, Mowri Panache said:

My question has always been - why did Minecraft take off, when Second Life never did? 

Both offer a similar experience of un-scripted sandbox play, with Minecraft having terrible pixel graphics…but people seem to prefer creating things there instead of SL. It’s always baffled me. 

Minecraft is something you buy once and you don't have to worry about anything else in terms of money. It has plenty of mods to make your experience unique and offers a very big community with lots of servers.

Meanwhile Sl claims to be 'free' and on the surface, it does look to be. You plop in free of charge and get greeted with a (imo) terrible first user experience. Everybody looks the same, all wearing standard avatars and once you have overcome to overwhelming nature of your starting experience, you realize SL isn't actually free. An initial purchase of L$ similar to minecraft's cost might suffice for a little bit, but for the full Sl experience you might have to put up to a hundered dollars to look decent.

Edited August 17, 2022 by PekeNL

[Quistess Alpha]

6 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Both offer a similar experience of un-scripted sandbox play, with Minecraft having terrible pixel graphics…but people seem to prefer creating things there instead of SL. It’s always baffled me. 

6 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Minecraft is fun and it provides self reinforcing purpose.

And also, there's a sweet spot for creativity between excessively limited and completely blank canvas. When you can do literally anything, it's too easy to give up and do nothing (Why isn't everyone writing novels). When it's paint by numbers, it stops being art.

In other words, having more potential isn't necessarily better. It's better to feel good about your janky block-pyramid when you aren't directly comparing it to almost photo-realistic replicas that are 'out of your league'. Then not being intimidated allows you to push the envelope further. . .

In other other words "What ~can I do given these limitations?" is a more inspiring conundrum than "what ~should I do given all these possibilities?"

[Gilgamesh Alpha]

On 8/14/2022 at 10:35 PM, Ceka Cianci said:

It took me forever to just get a user name.. I finally had to just make one close to mine. I didn't want any numbers in my name So that's why ot took me so long..

[Ceka Cianci]

4 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I used to be a mentor & live help .. yeah no, plenty never made it out the starting area.

The first 10 minutes is all it took for the seed that SL wasn't for them to be planted and then everything that happened after that just compounds. The session might last longer than 10 minutes, but they aren't coming back and there is nothing to convince them otherwise. They have seen no content, spoken to almost no one and have discovered nothing about SL for themselves.

My interest and this thread is about things that might spawn that initial negative impression.

"This is different from everything I'm used to, it mustn't be for me"

 

 

 

 

I remember when they had the mentor program and also remember Orientation Island.. When did they stop mentors, like 2008 or 09?

I also wonder when they changed from Orientation Island.. That was a good move changing that, for sure.. hehehe

My first time through, I left before I made it out of orientation Island.. The reason was, because it reminded me of the movie The Island. Everyone was walking around like zombies looking very similar, with that eerie voice coming out of nowhere speaking to us..  It felt creepy as hell.

We had terrible looking, unskinned avatars that were bug eyed looking as it gets. all walking in what felt like an assembly line at the time to me.

It took like three days of my friends talking me back into coming back in. I pretty much did it because I got tired of them talking about it.

Orientation Island was a way different start area than the ones after.  I could definitely see someone leaving that place in 10 minutes.. I know I might have made it close to five, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't more than five minutes my first time..

When I did come back, My friends teleported me to main land right away and showed me around and I went premium sometime later that day.

 

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Ceka Cianci

[Rolig Loon]

8 hours ago, PekeNL said:

Meanwhile Sl claims to be 'free' and on the surface, it does look to be. You plop in free of charge and get greeted with a (imo) terrible first user experience. Everybody looks the same, all wearing standard avatars and once you have overcome to overwhelming nature of your starting experience, you realize SL isn't actually free. An initial purchase of L$ similar to minecraft's cost might suffice for a little bit, but for the full Sl experience you might have to put up to a hundered dollars to look decent.

That sounds remarkably familiar because .... that's the way RL works too. You start out confused and with odd creatures poking at you all the time, unable to even control your own body. Life is "free", all right, but after a while it dawns on you that in order to get the things you really want, you're going to have to grow up and find a way to pay for them. Not only that, life keeps getting more expensive.  There are constant upgrades and there are always more options to the basic package.  Even basic maintenance costs money.  

Games like Minecraft offer you ways to be minimally creative for little more than a small entry fee. Other MMORG games don't let you be very creative, but give you fast-paced action and repeated small rewards. You don't have to invest much more than time.  They are ways to escape from RL.  Second Life is the oddball. SL appeals to a different kind of people than Minecraft and the others do. It doesn't offer a way to escape from RL as much as a way to experience an alternative life.  It's challenging and it's not free.  Personally, I'd say those are not flaws; they are features.

[Lindal Kidd]

10 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

When I did come back, My friends teleported me to main land right away and showed me around and I went premium sometime later that day.

My onboarding experience was similar. The Orientation Island at the time was the one divided into four quadrants...a castle, a city, a volcano, and...um, I forget the other one. I was in the castle, wrestling with the Appearance menu, when I was propositioned by a beefy guy. I left, telling myself that the avatars were ugly, the animations rudimentary, and the players, icky.

A month later I tried it again. This time I made it off the island to an Infohub, where a kind person took me in hand, took me to The Free Dove, and showed me how to buy things and open the boxes.

Better informed and better dressed, I teleported to some random spots via the Map. I wound up on a moonlit beach, with dolphins playing in the surf. I fell in love with SL during that one 3 day weekend.

[Love Zhaoying]

Idea: Only allow non-Premium users to see "Ultra" quality in "Demo Mode".

[Ceka Cianci]

18 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

My onboarding experience was similar. The Orientation Island at the time was the one divided into four quadrants...a castle, a city, a volcano, and...um, I forget the other one. I was in the castle, wrestling with the Appearance menu, when I was propositioned by a beefy guy. I left, telling myself that the avatars were ugly, the animations rudimentary, and the players, icky.

A month later I tried it again. This time I made it off the island to an Infohub, where a kind person took me in hand, took me to The Free Dove, and showed me how to buy things and open the boxes.

Better informed and better dressed, I teleported to some random spots via the Map. I wound up on a moonlit beach, with dolphins playing in the surf. I fell in love with SL during that one 3 day weekend.

Ya they must have added others in 2007 or something.. I rolled my first alt in December 2006, to just go back through the whole thing, since i didn't experience it the first time.. It was still pretty jam packed with other people that time as well..

I remember looking at the  map and only seeing orientation Island and help Island at the time.. If I wouldn't have gone through it the second time, it would have probably been much much longer before I even knew there was a help island.. hehehe

I loved hanging out there helping people..

This was the one I went through the first time.. Picture it packed with other people just heading in one direction.. I never felt so much like a heffer heading to the auction ring in my life.. lol

I also found warmouth info hub after that too, which I met some really good friends that were scripters.. They would make me all kinds of neat things.. like this one thing I could wear that was like my own weather system for this Storm look I made back then..  hehehehe

And yea, there was a slew of people  that were wanting to get pervy.. I remember me and my friends were exploring and checked out this dungeon that was kind of crowded..  I just went over to this one rack looking thing and  like 10 guys kind of swarmed, like waiting for me to click on it or something.. I just walked back over by my friends and we left after..

I remember also seeing this one guy in there that had me in tears laughing so hard.. He looked like carrot top in white briefs with white socks and black church shoes.. I was like omg that is the best character I've seen yet.. lol

[Lucy Kenin]

If linden lab wants user retention, they need to make a FREE mesh body that looks good. Most people I know want good looking avatars, and everything is so expensive when you're starting from scratch. There needs to be a cute little "welcome store" with free mesh bodies/ heads, clothes for that body, and skins.

[Rolig Loon]

17 minutes ago, Lucy Kenin said:

If linden lab wants user retention, they need to make a FREE mesh body that looks good.

 

[Paul Hexem]

16 hours ago, Akane Nacht said:

SL is dull because nothing attacks you.

I volunteer.

[Coffee Pancake]

1 hour ago, Lucy Kenin said:

If linden lab wants user retention, they need to make a FREE mesh body that looks good.

This is why the NUX avatar is such a big deal.

In the first 10 minutes - I look ok

In the first hour - I can customize and use this

In the first day - Wow .. I can shop for and make friends with this.

In the first month - This would look cool with a new head.

 

 

 

[NiranV Dean]

On 8/16/2022 at 12:31 AM, Paul Hexem said:

Achievements like Xbox games have isn't a terrible idea.

"Change or remove clothing layers. 10 points earned."

"Attach an item. 10 points earned."

"50/50 women hit on at a beach region. 100 points earned."

Funny enough Nirans Viewer had this.

[cunomar]

Accepting my negative view of sl diminishes the worth of my posts for most and because this thread is about user retention I'm going to copy and paste from maybe 4 years ago

Fionalein

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Posted December 24, 2018 (edited)

On 12/24/2018 at 7:19 AM, cunomar said:

Anyway before the snowflakes melt i'd like too say a big thank you to all that helped and praise Linden Labs for acting so quickly once they knew of a problem , i got all my linden back and because i got some online time friends are all telling me i sent them this link  http://   marketp    lacessexs    ual.alterv   ista.org when i was unable to login so there's the hack and i know who sent it to me .

Oh damn , sorry to hear that happened to you - but that really sounds like your account was getting abused as a scambot. I'm glad the Lindens could fix it though. We didn't talk much inworld but having met you before I say SL would be a much bleaker place without folks like you.

Just remember the person who sent it to you could have been hacked as well. It is like a game of toppling dominoes...

Edited December 24, 2018 by Fionalein

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And say the funniest thing thats happened to me since then was just recently when i wandered some way into what i thought was a shop before i got the warning "female avatars only you will be ejected in"  Yikes i hit the double tap RUN trying to beat the clock .

No reason at all it wouldn't have mattered a damn had i been ejected but just for that brief 3 or 4 seconds the giggling child inside came to life again .