Difficullt start for new participants?

[Love Zhaoying]

Giving new users "choices" for controls makes sense.  

If there was a way to detect "this is a NEW user, prompt what controls they want to use" and setup accordingly:

   - Joystick

   - WASD

   - Arrows (always "on" by default)

  etc.

I've pointed out recently, that if the Viewers had "modern 'tip' GUI features", it would go a loooong way.  

Basically, highlight the feature with a "caption bubble" and let the user know their options, ask them which option they want, etc.

For all I know, some Viewers have this.

[Rolig Loon]

7 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

If there was a way to detect "this is a NEW user, prompt what controls they want to use" and setup accordingly:

   - Joystick

   - WASD

   - Arrows (always "on" by default)

  etc.

That's really the only logical approach. People come to SL with very different prior experiences and preferences. There's no point trying to convince them that some other way of doing things is "better".  We can't even agree among ourselves, and we've been here for a while.  Some people like WASD, some like arrows, some use a joystick, some even like the silly UI widget. Tell newcomers what the options are and let them choose.  Then get out of the way.

[Arielle Popstar]

1 hour ago, Rolig Loon said:

That's really the only logical approach. People come to SL with very different prior experiences and preferences. There's no point trying to convince them that some other way of doing things is "better".  We can't even agree among ourselves, and we've been here for a while.  Some people like WASD, some like arrows, some use a joystick, some even like the silly UI widget. Tell newcomers what the options are and let them choose.  Then get out of the way.

Yes and leave the silly widget up by default as it is universal in conveying to all it's use for movement.

[Christina Halpin]

On page 1 of the Guidebook there is a picture showing how to use the WASD system.  People who know WASD don't need the picture, right?

Is the picture there to teach newbies how to use the WASD system? Is that first thing people should learn at SL?

The best case scenario seems to be that they (1) try to understand it, then (2) decide not to use it. That's a little rude and a little self-sabotaging, right. Why not just remove it?

The sentence after that is merely bad, "If these keys don't work, try left-clicking on your avatar." It implies that when the right arrow doesn't do anything (which is about half the time for me),  all the other keys should be tried. The diagram has never actually said what the W key does,  for example. It has never said that these are two different options. If the right arrow doesn't work, maybe the W key will unfreeze it. They should have "a key", not "these keys."

I don't know the whole situation, and I can imagine reasons why it might be too costly to fix the guidebook, even though page 3 seems to be wrong.

[Lindal Kidd]

On 1/28/2023 at 5:36 AM, Theresa Tennyson said:

Okay, maybe I'm not too bright but... am I reading an argument between people who say that WASD should be the default but it isn't and some who says that WASD is the default and shouldn't be?

 

Uh huh! This IS the SL Forums, after all!