Wildcat Furse Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Phil I fully agree to both points! I bought more land yesterday on the mainland sim I live on (note: very rarely people are selling land there, because it is a nice and well maintained mainland sim, I took therefore the offer before it was sold to someone else!) and by this action my landownership increased from 16387 ->23424sqm and my tier went up from 75->125US$ /month. To benefit from the tier I will pay now, I need to get more land so I can reach my maximum land allowance of 32768sqm, but I already know that this will take me ages. Yes LL needs to do something about the tier system :smileymad: *meows* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pussycat Catnap Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Mayalily wrote: No, I completely disagree. Those vendor things are a huge problem for club goers. HUGE. If you -completely- disagree with me, then you believe the vendors contribute no lag. Otherwise you lack reading comprehension. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pussycat Catnap Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Randall Ahren wrote: Because V2 isn't there yet and has many problems and Firestorm is still in beta. Some reading for you: http://honour-mcmillan.blogspot.com/2011/06/i-do-not-have-to-apologize-for-using.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Ahren Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I had a couple of very negative experiences yesterday with V2 and I wasn't even using it. The first was with a noob. Suffice to say this noob was like the situation Qie described and I do not think LL will ever be seeing that noob login again. The second negative experience was with a pretty long term and capable member of SL. We went to a club and she couldn't hear the music with V2, although I heard it just fine with Phoenix. This was the second club where this occurred. I like to hear music thank you very much. It makes it seem less stupid when my avatar is raving. If LL really cared about their customers, they would send them somewhere else. There would be a notice on LL's download page: Here's our software, but please don't use it because it has been coded by doofuses. Please use somebody else's viewer, or actually, anybody else's viewer, because our software really, really sucks. Please excuse me, I'm in the angry state. ps: Back in the default state. The problem with my friend not being able to hear the music may be because of ISP censorship of the country in which she resides and not a V2 problem. I suppose that is also possible with my other friend at another club earlier in the week. However, she resides in a different country that is not so restrictive, so I am not sure if its a V2 problem or not. Note to self: edit script to prevent posting while angry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Deakins Posted June 21, 2011 Author Share Posted June 21, 2011 Vendors don't cause huge lag. Each vendor necessarily has a script running, and they do have textures, of course, which need to be downloaded on arrival, but after the texture downloads vendors won't cause lag. You must be attributing other lag sources, such as people, to vendors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Deakins Posted June 21, 2011 Author Share Posted June 21, 2011 Wildcat Furse wrote: Phil I fully agree to both points! I bought more land yesterday on the mainland sim I live on (note: very rarely people are selling land there, because it is a nice and well maintained mainland sim, I took therefore the offer before it was sold to someone else!) and by this action my landownership increased from 16387 ->23424sqm and my tier went up from 75->125US$ /month. To benefit from the tier I will pay now, I need to get more land so I can reach my maximum land allowance of 32768sqm, but I already know that this will take me ages. Yes LL needs to do something about the tier system :smileymad: *meows* From LL's point of view, your 7k land purchase that will cost you and extra US$50 a month is a plus - they are quids in, as we say in the UK. But how many people don't buy that extra bit of land because it would cost too much more each month? After the first few tier levels, adding land becomes unattractive due to the large increase in monthly tier for even a very small addition, and I'd guess that far more people decide against it than decide for it. Usually, it will be only those who have significantly bigger plans who will move up those larger tier levels. After the first few k, most people will stick to the land they have rather than incur a lot of extra monthly cost, imo. Generally speaking (imo), after the first few k, the attraction of additional land is outweighed by the large jump in monthly tier. Oddly enough, although I often said that "Jack is waste of space and the sooner he goes the better", he was one Linden who used to plug for lower tier costs. He didn't get anywhere with it, of course, and that's really my point in this thread; i.e. LL keep trying to increase the usership but they do very little to improve the attraction. They want the usership of SL as it is to increase and they can't see that SL needs to change and become more attractive for usership to increase significantly. They did do one positive thing - Linden Homes. Although it stepped on the toes of people who rent out homes, it did make premium accounts more attractive, so it did make SL a little more attractive. It may have increased the number of premium accounts but it didn't improve the overall level of usership. Imo, more drastic changes are needed for that to happen. The SL system will only ever be attractive to a minority of people but only a minority of that minority actually stays. As SL is now, it *is* attractive to some people - that's why it has a continual level of usership. But the level is stagnant and, if LL wants it to increase, they really do need to consider some significant changes. Lag will always be with us because of the stream-like nature of SL. Games aren't the same. LL have always tried to reduce it, and I'm sure they'll continue with those efforts. But lag can't be eliminated, so the attraction of SL needs to be great enough to overcome the negativeness of lag. The first and second visits have been rightly mentioned, but then what? Improving those times isn't improving SL itself and people who survive the first few visits are left with SL as it is now. For so many people, fully partaking in SL means partaking in what the SL world actually is - land. But, for some reason that I can't imagine, LL decided to price tier in such a way that, after the first few k, the tier increases are more than many or most people are willing to part with every month. The jumps in tier are just too big. If the jumps were much smaller, then I'm sure that people wouldn't balk at buying extra pieces of land. Oh well. Most of the excellent suggestions from users fall on deaf management ears, and the suggestions in this thread won't be any different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeeperS Karu Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 In all honesty, the first and biggest hurdle Linden Labs must come to terms with is the fact that, even in this day and age, Second Life still isn't very accessible to the general population. Many of my friends and family have very simple systems that can do what they want: surf the internet, watch movies, and post on social sites such as Facebook. They even have the bonus of being able to run MMO's such as DDO and WoW. Unfortunately, these very same basic systems are NOT capable of running Second Life. They simply don't have a good enough video card/memory/etc. to handle it. And as much as my friends and family are intrigued by SL, they aren't going to buy a whole new system just for the sake of running it, either. In other words, Linden Labs is going to have to realize that they AREN'T going to capture the general population the way they hoped they would, because they're not about to upgrade their systems for a "game" that they really don't understand, not when their systems are sufficient for all the things they do understand. I also have friends accross the country who participate on other platforms that are specifically designed to allow those with dial-up connections to participate. They live in areas of the United States in which their choices are dial-up, or a highly expensive satellite system. So even when their computers are fully capable of handling SL, and then some, their connections can not. I think that's a concept that the rest of the SL population must also accept, as well. Accquiring new users is going to be a slow and difficult process unless and until Linden Labs can figure out how to make SL more accessible to less sophisticated systems, and I am unsure of whether that's really possible, to be honest. That aside, even those with the computer systems capable of handling SL have certain issues with it. My husband, for example, really dislikes SL because he feels he's bombarded with advertisements at every turn. I was fairly baffled by his observation, because I didn't see it, myself, until he gave me the following example: He'll be exploring a beautiful build of the Starship Enterprise, and just when he's enjoying himself, right there, on the bridge, is an ad to buy an Uhura costume. For him, this is an incredible turnoff. While he doesn't mind a gift shop in a spot on the ship that is appropriate, he doesn't like the fact that, to him, SL seems to be geared towards selling him something at every turn. I admit, this is actually an issue that is outside of Linden Labs' purview, and more within the realm of what the SL community can do to help make new resident experiences better, but I thought it might be an important enough issue to bring up, anyhow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Ahren Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Phil Deakins wrote: Most of the excellent suggestions from users fall on deaf management ears, and the suggestions in this thread won't be any different. Rod our god listens, cares, and answers prayers. We can trust him and put our faith in him. He's for an SL world that works. See his tweet to Ina Centaur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayalily Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Prayers, yes we need some! I was just thinking of adding a line from John Denver's song Poems, Prayers and Promises to my signature, it won't let me copy/paste the two verses I was thinking just think of tho. I like that line "how right it is to care". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayalily Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Exactly! People don't have thousands of dollars to go out and buy new computers; however, a lot of my software is getting outdated (so what can we do); however, when I try to connect these software companies for updates; some now charge a fee for update information. It could also be that people are losing their jobs; you know the ones who work behind the scenes updating our softwares? My Microsoft tickets look like Microsoft doesn't have a clue how to fix a software glitch that seems to be originating from SL. I found a link to search forums about this software glitch generating from Microsoft and SL tho and need some time to check that out. It's almost like some kind of media plugin failure. It's not just the graphics cards, I don't believe tho am no expert? I've noticed a lot of my software suddenly got outdated, as did my browsers; and/or their current updates are just not working on my computer. I'm trying to connect to Microsoft because it keeps sending me tickets since the last V2 update. ETA: What I think Microsoft wants me to do is remove the old software (which is a media type software) and now pay for the new software because perhaps they cannot continue to run the software for free... I'm not really sure yet; tho connected to the software website, spoke in live chat, and copy and pasted what they are asking me to do. More or less it says call but there is a $10.00 charge. ETA: I think my whole bundle of software got outdated just on the last update of SL. If MS is retiring some old software or if the bundle and graphics card are not configured correctly, I don't think we have much say in the matter but to get a new bundle or build? There used to be some many wonderful people working behind the scenes that we never saw who would almost magically update our software. But what can we do when they don't want to update that software any longer; what if they want u to do is get their new software version of that media type software that is part of Microsoft, then one would have no choice but a new build with updated software. Hands are tied a.k.a. not much we can do but decide if purchasing a new bundle or build is worth it or not. Money doesn't just grow on trees, however. I have other money issues that have a higher priority. So it's complicated and a difficult economy right now. SL communication is way better than twitter or faceback imo and so much more fun, but not all of us are going to be able to run SL properly if indeed some of our software is just too old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Ahren Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Qie, I have downloaded and tried both SL's standard V2 and Firestorm. I don't like them. The problem is the developers took something that should have been made simpler and easier to use and made it more complex and difficult. That should be contrasted to what Steve Jobs does. He takes something and reduces complexity to make it into a product that he would actually like to use. Take something like the iPod. It's beautiful and it's simple. It's simply beautiful and when you use it, it gets out of your way and provides you with beautiful music. And its use is intuitive. You don't need a wiki and a support group. You might even say it's insanely great. It just works. Contrast that with V2. Yes, the design on the screen is attractive, but does it get of your way and let you experience the magic of SL? Or does it interfere with the magic? Is it intuitive to use or is it a struggle. Personally, V2 is not something I would actually like to use. It sucks. It sucks so bad that if I am forced to use it, I may start to forget to log in. New users may give up in disgust after trying it once. Actually, many do. That's how bad it is. ps: Here is one specific suggestion for making V2 suck less for new residents. Eliminte the advanced/basic mode. Megaroids of time and energy are wasted explaining to new users how to get out of basic into advanced mode. Start in it advanced mode and be done with it. Basic is useless and annoying and it is completely demotivating trying to explain how to switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Deakins Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Randall Ahren wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: Most of the excellent suggestions from users fall on deaf management ears, and the suggestions in this thread won't be any different. Rod our god listens, cares, and answers prayers. We can trust him and put our faith in him. He's for an SL world that works. See his tweet to Ina Centaur. Alright. IF the management "listens" to this thread, then they won't "hear" anything - they never do. But I don't believe they'll even listen. *They are just not interested. The vast SL experience of users weighs nothing when compared to their own miniscule experience of SL. Or they listen and hear and ignore, because it's what they traditionally do. You mentioned Rod tweeting. That's brings up an example of how out of touch LL is with their own customers. Most people don't use Twitter or Facebook but we are told by LL to look in those places if we want to know about what's going on here, How utterly stupid is that? *Yesterday I was talking with a customer. I told her that I've been letting the store run down for the last year and a half and, when the earnings are low enough, I'll close it and leave SL. I told her the two reasons, the biggest of which is LL themselves. She started in SL just before me but she told me that she'd left SL for two years because of LL. There are various reasons why people leave SL and one of the big ones is LL themselves. They really don't have much of a clue about running SL for customers. They literally cause people to leave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Deakins Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Your friends can run WoW but not SL? I'm amazed. That really is a biggie. SL can't avoid some lag like WoW does but I'm astonished that system that can run WoW can't run SL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luc Starsider Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Phil Deakins wrote: You mentioned Rod tweeting. That's brings up an example of how out of touch LL is with their own customers. Most people don't use Twitter or Facebook but we are told by LL to look in those places if we want to know about what's going on here, How utterly stupid is that? I agree with you when it comes to comunicating with existing SL residents. I never understood why twitter and facebook is used and promoted as the best place for people already in SL to find out what is happening in SL. In my mind, the best place to find out what's going on should be SL - in world and the secondlife website. I don't use either service, and have no intention to start using them. But you can't really blame them for trying using FB and Twitter as venues for attracting new users. Both are important tools for reaching a huge amount of potential users that was not available a few years back. Whether the result is that the population grows is another matter, and it is not easy to get statistics for it, but the potential is, in my opinion, to great to ignore. - Luc - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceka Cianci Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 i haven't read this whole thread so i'll just go from what i got from the OP hehehe If linden lab wants to increase population of new users..they are gonna ahve to get better at customer service and fix their verification proccess..because being a pain in the butt gets them about a look and a glance before the almost new user decides it's not worth their time .. they need to stop thinking they have the best bike on the block that everyone wants..they have to see your bike before they can say it is or not.. or that they could care less because someone else will just decide to join instead because there is a huge population in the world..that gas station will slowly run out one day.. that attitude has lost them many would be users already..age verification has been beta for what? 3 years now? LOL my fiance made an account yesterday..he gave more than enough information showing his age.. thier system shows him as being 17 years old LOL how many adults have tried to start SL and hit that blocker? this is just someone that i tried to get in..he is not going to put much effort into it because he has never experienced SL..his attitude more or less is..why bother?? what i don't know isn't gonna be something i miss..he'll just watch a football game or something anyways.. the point is ..if they want to be the distraction from RL headaches for everyone..they are gonna ahve to get better at it..because there are a lot more things to do for those that haven't dug in yet..they will just go else where ..just like a person looking at a slow loading website will.. well this things taking forever..google someplace else they suck lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qie Niangao Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 As I said, I'm no fan of V2 and the TPVs based on it. I think, however, that their suckiness is no more a contributing factor to new user attrition than was the suckiness of V1 and the TPVs based on it. Indeed, I am pretty sure that, if it were possible to measure such things objectively and comprehensively, the two viewer version suck as near to equally as makes no difference. It's just that many of us "cut our teeth" on V1 and simply accepted its misfeatures because we didn't know any better, whereas similarly egregious errors in V2 are obvious to us. I think the exact opposite would happen for folks who started with V2. (I'll refrain from enumerating all the ways I think both viewers suck, uniquely or -- even worse and more pervasively -- in common. Suffice it to say that V2 consumed far too much of LL's working capital and calendar, all for insignificant changes. I'm sure the 80/20 imbeciles would say that the problem was the users not accepting the more drastic changes, whereas the real problem was that they didn't understand enough about the application to change anything correctly, and only through great effort have Linden, Snowstorm, and TPV developers salvaged a usable viewer in which some of their trivial tweaks remain.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceka Cianci Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 i would say if it was a viewer issue it would be more with older users than newer that would have a viewer issue.. we older users know the difference between them..new users get on V2 ..they don't know what V1 even had.. LL's big problem is customer service.. another is just getting in the damn thing to begin with lol some probably feel like it takes the skills of a rocket scientist to get into this grid with everything intact and correct.. i think if they are gonna leave because of the software right from the get go ..it wouldn't matter which viewer they were using..both have a million questions that will have to be asked in how to do some simple tasks.. LL communications and first impressions are what i'm gonna say is why we have a lack of new users..if you don't add the lack of exposure in there as well lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Deakins Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Luc Starsider wrote: But you can't really blame them for trying using FB and Twitter as venues for attracting new users. Both are important tools for reaching a huge amount of potential users that was not available a few years back. Whether the result is that the population grows is another matter, and it is not easy to get statistics for it, but the potential is, in my opinion, to great to ignore. - Luc - I don't blame LL for trying to attract people from Facebook and Twitter. I criticise them for trying to increase usership to SL as it is now - presumably because they don't want to risk even a small temporary reduction in income. They've given it their best shots and it hasn't done anything more than hold the decline at bay or slow the decline. They really do need to wake up and make SL more attractive to people. They do need to deal with a new user's introduction to SL, as has been stated here. But what did they do not too long ago? Ditch the mentoring thing and greatly reduce customer support. They go in opposite directions to what's actually needed if increased usership is the goal. When I joined, there was live help from the viewer menu, and they weren't all Lindens. Users were also helpers. They could do that again with just users doing the help. Instead of adding things to help users, they remove them. They do need to do something about land. My view is that users should either pay for the land they actually use, or the tier levels should be evenly spaced, in small increases, all the way up. Either way, full participation in SL would be much more attractive. Added to that, they really should sell homesteads to anyone, without the need to own a full private sim. Imo, it's stupid not to. It would make SL much more attractive to many people, and it would make more money for LL. They do need to make their website mall (marketplace) work. They've been at it a long time and they haven't succeeded yet. Older users may accept non-deliveries and such, but newer people are more likely to find it a Mickey Mouse operation and simply disappear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dresden Ceriano Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Phil Deakins wrote: They do need to deal with a new user's introduction to SL, as has been stated here. But what did they do not too long ago? Ditch the mentoring thing and greatly reduce customer support. They go in opposite directions to what's actually needed if increased usership is the goal. When I joined, there was live help from the viewer menu, and they weren't all Lindens. Users were also helpers. They could do that again with just users doing the help. Instead of adding things to help users, they remove them. I was never part of the mentoring program, honestly I only even found out there was one right before it was done away with. How come, when I first came to SL, I never knew? Oh well... it's gone now, so it makes little difference in what I experienced at the beginning of my time here. I only wish I knew more about it, because it sounds like a really good thing, but I have nothing to base that on, except a name. Yes customer service was greatly reduced but I think it's catching back up now. When Ceka mentioned it, I wanted to kick myself in the head for not thinking about it in the first place. Good customer service is crucial and though it may have improved a little bit (I only base this on the fact that I haven't been hearing as much about how horribly bad it is as I used to), LL still has a long way to go as far as that's concern. As far as the market place... I was shocked and gravely concerned when they went live with it. I'm not a merchant but I pay attention to merchant concerns. It seemed to me that, once again, they released a product that was not ready for prime time (the same with the new forums, the same with V2), they're notorious for doing this. Then they expected both merchants and customers to help them improve it. What makes it so hard for them to work on something until they get it right, or at least almost right? I can't imagine the fiasco that will come about when they introduce mesh in this fashion. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to it, but I have my suspicions it will be badly implemented from the very beginning. And why shouldn't I? They have yet to prove they can introduce anything with any sort of competence from the start. All that said, I have hope that things are improving... please, let me be right. ...Dres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeeperS Karu Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Pussycat Catnap wrote: My second issue to address retention wouldbe to make the UI more like an MMO. One of the simplest changes would be an auto-walk feature. Hit the 'walk' key (whatever it would be) and my avatar should just keep on walking until I tell her to stop, and I could then turn with my mouse only. Every MMO, every 3D environment but those based on SL-code, does this. Holding both mouse buttons should move me forward. Left clicking a spot on the screen should try to walk me there. The second biggest change I would suggest would be keybind remapping. Let people change their keybinds. If I want 'M' to open chat and '/' to open my map - let me do it with a simple keybind setup window to remap all my keys... SL is to virtual worlds what AutoCad is to art programs... its the 'exception' that uses a UI different from the industry standard. That hurts it a lot. SL's UI is one only SL people can use. To join SL you have to 'learn' it. You can log into any other virtual platform out there and start going right away with a set of keys and clicks people have learned how to to do since the days of Super Mario Brothers... If we're going to suggest that LL brings the veiwer more in line with other MMO's, the one important thing I would like to point out is that LL needs to STOP confusing SL residents by familiarizing themselves with common gaming terms. For example, in the general gaming world, mouselook simply means the ability to steer with the mouse, regardless of whether or not you are in third or first person mode. After learning how to use mouselook in my favorite MMO, I returned to SL eager to learn how to enable this feature. Unfortunately, the only references to mouselook I could find were all related to running SL in first person. Only because of my own stubborn nature did I eventually discover that, what the rest of the gaming world terms as mouselook in the third person, LL terms "mouse steering.." Many people who log into SL for the first time are experienced gamers who expect certain terms to be fairly common. If they, too, are trying to figure out how to perform certain actions, but are having trouble doing so because SL uses a different lexicon, they are likely to move on to something else, assuming that these actions simply don't exist, as many of them aren't as patient and tenacious as I am. And speaking of mouselook, custom mouse binding is deserately needed in SL, moreso than custom keyboard binding, because we can already customize some of our key bindings by editing the keys.xml file in the SecondLifeViewer2/app_settings folder. When I finally learned how to use mouselook/mouse steering in the third person, I found myself incredibly frustrated, because it's also the button used to activate sword swings. Furthermore, I've found that I've grown quite comfortable and happy with the mouse bindings I use in other games, with holding down the right mouse button used to activate mouselook. By simply being able to switch mouselook to another mouse button, while leaving everything else alone, my SL experience would be improved, drammatically. How many others are out there, like me, wishing they can change the way their mouse bindings functioned? For the autorun, click to walk, and hold mouse button to walk, I would say that these features should be optional. I, personally, prefer using the WASD keys with mouselook/mouse steering in order to get around, and I hate for that to be taken away in favor of these other modes of movement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeeperS Karu Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Phil Deakins wrote: Your friends can run WoW but not SL? I'm amazed. That really is a biggie. SL can't avoid some lag like WoW does but I'm astonished that system that can run WoW can't run SL. Yup! I was pretty surprised by that, myself. I had thought, for the longest time, that my own first laptop couldn't run WoW, because it couldn't run SL. It turns out that it isn't so, at all. It can run Wow, with some lag, but it can run it, but NOT SL. Same with the systems of my friends. I have friends that enjoy playing WoW, but when they try to run SL, it doesn't even load. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrius Gothly Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Phil Deakins wrote: Vendors don't cause huge lag. Each vendor necessarily has a script running, and they do have textures, of course, which need to be downloaded on arrival, but after the texture downloads vendors won't cause lag. You must be attributing other lag sources, such as people, to vendors. This is not accurate Phil. There are a number of well-known Vendors with many scripts that run continuously .. even when idle. If you watch their script time usage on Estate Tools, you'll see them chewing up massive amounts of the limited time available and they are just sitting unused. I've also seen some pose stands and photo studios that run non-stop, one in particular that uses almost 1/4 the Sim's script time and the owner isn't even online. UGH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrius Gothly Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 IMO the #1 thing Linden Lab can do to gain and retain new users is to understand the product they are selling. SL is an Immersive Experience in which one builds a "new life" ... over time and with a wide array of experiences and memories. This can be seen by asking anyone with a month or more in SL to "stop using your current avatar and start using a new one .. right now." The howls of complaint and frustration you hear will be deafening. "But I've got so much invested in this one!" is what it boils down to. Putting SL into a browser or on a handheld is not the way to go. That's like having someone suggest you go to a live sports game and watch it through a drinking straw .. only. A browser is a short-term "click n go" tool, it is not meant for the long-term "stick around and enjoy" experience that is Second Life. We "invest" in our Second Lives ... and that's what makes us stick around. But most people won't invest in things that change daily or radically or randomly, they will only invest in stable and well understood things. So, understand that SL is an "investment" type product and not a box of facial tissues ... and then stabilize things so the users really can feel safe investing again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeeperS Karu Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Venus Petrov wrote: I like the suggestions so far. With regards to starter 'quests', I would have benefited from a simple 'rez a box, position it, rotate it, etc' lesson. Drop down blue boxes would tell me what to do and congratulate me on each step..maybe give me L$10 for meeting each objective. I think LL should charge a nominal fee (USD10) for the creation of each avatar after the first one. Two objectives to this: increase revenue and reduce the proliferation of griefer or one-off avatars. (Apologies for the lack of formatting). One idea I keep revisitng is the ability to create more than one avatar under a single account. I know I keep referencing MMO's, and DDO, in particular, but they are my models for the various things I like, especially this one: DDO has a system in which, under one account, you start out with two character slots to create two different kinds of characters. If you go premium, you get an extra two character slots, giving you a total of four. If you go VIP, you get an extra ten character slots to the original two you had. If you want more character slots, you can buy them, individually, at the DDO shop, until you reach a maximum of thirty character slots. The user has the option to keep each character they play anonymous to the general player population, or to let people know what alts they possess. And because all of the characters are under one account, you have access to things like shared bank space, and Turbine Points, which you can use to buy your characters things in the games. I think SL should have a similar system in which users have the option to have one master account to manage all of their alternates. They can even all share access to the user's L$. Perhaps, to start, a master account can have, say, two to four available avatar slots, with premium accounts having access to more. And, of course, if the user wants more avatar slots available, they can buy more slots from LL. In addition, since all of the alts are connected to one master account, then the avatars can have access to a shared inventory space. All the user's avatar's are strictly anonymous to begin with; if the user wants others to know of her alts, she can do so, if she wishes. I think this will do a lot to help with alt management, something I hear people speak about, a lot. My hope is that this would also help reduce problems with griefers, as this would mean that LL can actually require people to have only a certain number of master accounts (I'm thinking that machinima makers might need more than one, in order to get the kind of camera angles they need), with all of them connected to each other by the same user information. Anyone caught using false information to create an account, especially for the purposes of griefing, gets ALL of their accounts banned. Certainly, since some people really do make mistakes, having some kind of three strikes rule or something of that sort is also reasonable. At this point, I'm aware that this might actually make some residents a bit nervous, because I know that some residents simply don't trust LL to keep their real life contact information safe. So, this definitely brings up another thing LL has to work on, before they even implement something like the above system: They need to focus upon making user data as safe as they possibly can. Right now, there are a lot of people who feel that LL doesn'tt care about the safety of their user data, so they go out of their way to protect themselves the best way they can: by using false data. But that can cause just as many issues, as solve them. So, I think LL needs to do what they can to keep user data safe, and prove to their customers that they care about keeping it safe. Perhaps, by actually doing what they can to keep such data secure, people can learn to trust LL, again, something I haven't seen in a very long while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knowl Paine Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 The greatest fallacy of modern economics is the belief that perpetually accelerating growth is possible. Linden Labs Can do anything they want. What LL should do is absolutely nothing. Resident created, the good the bad and the ugly. I had a laundry list of "ideas" but realized much of it was insignificant. If this were a discussion about how to continue a rising trend, I could agree that little steps would take SL somewhere. Any change should begin with Residents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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