Are people afraid to talk to older accounts?

[River Aurelia]

My oldest account is 11yrs, and I find myself getting less and less people to talk to, but when I log onto this account (4yrs old), I'm usually swamped with messages as soon as I step into a sim or I find myself getting responses almost asap when I message someone, and I'll talk to just about anyone and everyone when I'm online. Are people afraid to talk to older accounts or am I just going crazy?

[Lindal Kidd]

You may be right, River. I get few responses to my friendly greetings at Social Island.

 

[bigmoe Whitfield]

I was once told "you have a legacy name, you do not know anything about SL"   I know more than people think I know,  I pay a bit of attention to certain aspects,  I've even had some forum users question me at times, but I can pull proof of everything I've said hehe.  

[River Aurelia]

57 minutes ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

I was once told "you have a legacy name, you do not know anything about SL"   I know more than people think I know,  I pay a bit of attention to certain aspects,  I've even had some forum users question me at times, but I can pull proof of everything I've said hehe.  

How..how does having a legacy name mean you don't know anything about SL? I want to know the logic behind that.

[River Aurelia]

1 hour ago, Lindal Kidd said:

You may be right, River. I get few responses to my friendly greetings at Social Island.

 

I hope I'm not right, SL is sometimes the only way I socialize outside of my D&D group rl.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

We wouldn't really know unless someone actually tells us that.

Nobody's ever told me that.

[Harper Held]

The only reactions I've gotten have been positive -and those were when I was cruising around on my 2005 account.

I've never noticed anyone being intimidated by me because of my age.

Dismissive, yes, intimidated, no.

[Coffee Pancake]

Might just be simple ageism .. people see the age of an account and extrapolate the pilot is equally over 40.

[Stephanie Misfit]

I have never noticed this. I only get positive reactions to the age of my account, if people notice at all.

[ValKalAstra]

For me there's sometimes a bit of nervousness around very old accounts. It's less ageism for me and more that I feel like a complete noob in comparison and get the impression that I would be bothering people with it.

[cariboustag]

I'm equally terrified of talking to anyone on the grid, so I'm definitely not the guy to answer this.

I've never considered account age in any meaningful way, it's just not something I tend to register as important browsing profiles while people-watching, so I'm surprised to see it being brought up in a couple threads lately. (This one, and the one about hiding your account age.) Nice to be clued in, I suppose?

[Maitimo]

5 hours ago, River Aurelia said:

My oldest account is 11yrs, and I find myself getting less and less people to talk to, but when I log onto this account (4yrs old), I'm usually swamped with messages as soon as I step into a sim or I find myself getting responses almost asap when I message someone, and I'll talk to just about anyone and everyone when I'm online. Are people afraid to talk to older accounts or am I just going crazy?

I don't think so. I notice no difference between me (14 years old) and my youngest alt (2).

I think SL in general has become much less sociable than it used to be. 

[cunomar]

New accounts are preyed upon by old accounts but 99 in every 100 new accounts are the alts of old accounts lol .

 

Edited thanks to Maitimo who pointed out my math was ass about face lol .

Edited January 17, 2023 by cunomar

[Maitimo]

1 minute ago, cunomar said:

New accounts are preyed upon by old accounts but 1 in every 100 new accounts are the alts of old accounts lol .

More like 95 in every 100.

[steeljane42]

~10.5 years old account here too, and can't have I've ever noticed it in times I'm feeling like socializing and go check around a few of my usual spots. Then again I don't consider it old when there are 17-18 years old accounts around.

I know for certain that the new acounts with female avatars getting a lot more attention, though. Very obvious kind of attention, too. Even more so if they are looking passable, but not amazing. Think of something like free Genus head, maitreya body with default shape, super basic outfit and obvious freebie extra fidgety AOs that can be found on the MP. I would say not getting that kind of attention is a bonus.

[Resi Pfeffer]

1 hour ago, ValKalAstra said:

For me there's sometimes a bit of nervousness around very old accounts. It's less ageism for me and more that I feel like a complete noob in comparison and get the impression that I would be bothering people with it.

Its not about age that much, more like about what people are here for and how they spend their time.
Despite the fact im 15 yo, im sure, you know more about scripts than i ever will.

[Bree Giffen]

Most games don’t last for so long that an actual age difference can be perceived. In any game, even if people are different ages in real life they all feel like they are the same virtual age and have similar experiences. In SL, we have accounts 10 to 15 years older than new accounts and a virtual generational difference can be felt by residents. 

[Ceka Cianci]

Sometimes I wish that were the case.. hehehe

[Lewis Luminos]

7 hours ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

I was once told "you have a legacy name, you do not know anything about SL"   

That's just totally backwards. The longer you've been on SL, the more you know about it. It's one of those things that you never cease to learn. Most recently for me is learning how to be a DJ, which always kinda scared me a bit, but turned out to be much less technically complex than I expected.

I do think there's a huge generation gap between older residents like myself and new ones. Those of us who have ben around a long time, started when SL was still primarly a creative platform, Your World, Your Imagination. New people never experienced that and the barriers to entry are now too high for most people. 

I do think that SL is much less sociable than it used to be. There used to be lots of hangout places where people would sit and chat. No events going on, just people sitting round a table or a campfire and chatting. That doesn't happen anywhere now. SL has become a shopping game for introverts. And that's sad.

Your World, Your Imagination Your Dollar, Your Shopping Experience.

 

[Sid Nagy]

I think it is mainly us oldbies ourselves.
"Been there, done that" has slipped in our daily Second Lifes.  I guess a lot of us can't be bothered as easily as in the early days.
If you have been to 50 new club openings, one isn't as excited as back in the early days with the first and second one.
Same with events and sales. At least, that is how it works with me. And I guess it shows in my behavior in world too.

Edited January 17, 2023 by Sid Nagy

[Sid Nagy]

11 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

I do think that SL is much less sociable than it used to be. There used to be lots of hangout places where people would sit and chat. No events going on, just people sitting round a table or a campfire and chatting. That doesn't happen anywhere now. SL has become a shopping game for introverts. And that's sad.

Exactly that.

Builders helped builders. Shared tricks, information, discussed solutions.
I sold for instance full perm doors to beginning builders. Most fun was the customer service, meaning helping new builders with positioning, resizing and more than once it ended in a sort of building class. I was on the road helping others every week.

Now I create, put it on the marketplace and sell (or not). Questions from costumers, maybe one a year.
The audience has changed.

16 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

Your World, Your Imagination Your Dollar, Your Shopping Experience.

I would like to add: Mirror, mirror on the wall.

[Ceka Cianci]

7 hours ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

I was once told "you have a legacy name, you do not know anything about SL"   I know more than people think I know,  I pay a bit of attention to certain aspects,  I've even had some forum users question me at times, but I can pull proof of everything I've said hehe.  

That sounds like something someone in their teens or early 20's would say.. Because they seem to think they know everything already..

Just tell them, well you better get busy while you know everything, because  it won't be long before you are my age and realize just how much you don't..

Edited January 17, 2023 by Ceka Cianci

[steeljane42]

11 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

That's just totally backwards. The longer you've been on SL, the more you know about it. It's one of those things that you never cease to learn.

Not always the case, so there's a truth in Moe's words as well. I still encounter some "dinosaurs" from time to time, they probably didn't change a single thing on their avatars since 2005-2007. They know nothing about SL and in many cases have no desire to learn either. They are in for some sexy pixel action, and often get rather mad when they don't get it. So from time to time when such individual wanders into the modern SL, they indeed know nothing about SL at all.

Not always the case, I've met some people who did look like that, but were a lot into scripting and that was almost all they did in SL and didn't care about the look at all, but as always there are some exceptions, and that's okay.

12 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

I do think that SL is much less sociable than it used to be. There used to be lots of hangout places where people would sit and chat. No events going on, just people sitting round a table or a campfire and chatting. That doesn't happen anywhere now. SL has become a shopping game for introverts. And that's sad.

Not just SL. MMORPGs did evolve into the mostly single player experience too, unless someone really wants to socialize. But that's what many people want and need, especially more aged gamers. Back when it was all new some of them/us had a lot more free time and energy to bother with social/guild stuff, and staying up all night wasn't an issue. Now the same people are 15-20 years older, have families and children, so "jump in at random time, play for 1-2 hours and log out" fits their schedules the most. And when there's a demand there's a supply.

Sad or not is rather subjective, too. If someone's world and imagination is to make 100 new looks while standing on their sky platform, then I don't see how is this sad. It's their time and they enjoy it.

Just like I enjoy building/decorating my region that is access list only (with a very few people ever being there). Might be all "sad" for some extroverts that still can't imagine how it's possible to not want to socialize, but I find it very enjoyable (except 259/month price tag for it) and relaxing. I still go explore/socialize sometimes, but 95% of my time in SL is spent between doing stuff in my region and looking for new stuff I might like (clothing, landscape stuff, furniture/decor etc).

17 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

If you have been to 50 new club openings, one isn't as excited as back in the early days with the first and second one.
Same with events and sales. At least, that is how it works with me. And I guess it shows in my behavior in world too.

That mostly depends on you/each person and just how much you/they enjoy said activity. For example I'm playing games for over 3 decades, and while I'm way more picky than I was back in the days, I still enjoy new ones, despite been there done that part. And some just stop playing completely, because except for the new graphics it's all the same, and often even worse, because current/modern games tend to be overly simplified in many aspects.

So I suppose if some people really enjoy those virtual clubs and parties, then 50 or 500, they'll keep enjoying them.

[Love Zhaoying]

2 hours ago, steeljane42 said:

I still encounter some "dinosaurs" from time to time

Dinosaurs are cool! Rawr!!

[Coffee Pancake]

6 hours ago, Maitimo said:

More like 95 in every 100.

No its really not .. SL has a huge churn and oldbies are generally invested. Starting over is expensive and a chore.

New accounts in world are generally actually new people, almost new people who screwed up the first time or lost their account info, oldbies needing utility or specific single purpose accounts.

Remember the old advice from IRC, join a channel and say "it's great to be back" even if you'd never been on IRC in your life.