Motown: LL's Partnership with Capital Music, and the New User Experience

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Arielle Popstar said:

maybe just me

Yeah, it's just you.

[Love Zhaoying]

Just now, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Yeah, it's just you.

I like the way you make people feel special! It's actually very kind.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

2 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I like the way you make people feel special! It's actually very kind.

Thank you.

Arielle is most definitely one of a kind, and a unique and distinctive voice here. We would be poorer (and I mean this very genuinely) without her.

I think the same can be said of Drayke. And I think critique, including his, is valuable and even necessary. But I do think that, to be effective, it needs to be couched in ways that don't make it sound merely like grousing. We're very good at grousing here generally, and perhaps not so good at constructive criticism.

[Love Zhaoying]

Just now, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Thank you.

Arielle is most definitely one of a kind, and a unique and distinctive voice here. We would be poorer (and I mean this very genuinely) without her.

I think the same can be said of Drayke. And I think critique, including his, is valuable and even necessary. But I do think that, to be effective, it needs to be couched in ways that don't make it sound merely like grousing. We're very good at grousing here generally, and perhaps not so good at constructive criticism.

The most useful and impactful (to me) criticism I saw so far was of low quality builds (bad repeating textures).  Not sure if that was from Ingrid.  Anyway, a picture is worth 1000 words!  

[Jaylinbridges]

Add to my Stickies.  Do not invite Drayke to my birthday party.

If I was going to actually LIVE in the welcome center for the next 10 years, I might wish all the buildings were low lag mesh, and all physics prims were 64m.  But like every newbie that strolls through, they are NOT going to live there.

 

Edited June 22, 2023 by Jaylinbridges

[animats]

2 hours ago, Drayke Newall said:

For example. I took a friend that hadn't been in Second Life before to belli to showcase premium and the houses. He was impressed and liked the fantasy area, however, the first thing he started to do is click everything.

I was in voice with him and he said "why is nothing happening". Confused, I asked "what" and he said "nothing happens when I click on the road or the plants" (we were in the fantasy zone).

....

Prop cars show "Ride" but are locked.

A key concept of SL is that almost everything is private property, it isn't yours, and only the owner can do anything to or with it. This is totally alien to most gamers.

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

The most useful and impactful (to me) criticism I saw so far was of low quality builds (bad repeating textures).  Not sure if that was from Ingrid.  Anyway, a picture is worth 1000 words!  

Yeah. I haven't been yet -- I'm hoping to have time to drop by tonight, and I'm looking forward to seeing it.

I still think that the concept is a pretty cool one, and I'm hoping the implementation doesn't disappoint me. In the "big picture," it's the shift in strategy, and indications that LL actually maybe has been listening, a little, to complaints (here and elsewhere) about the new user experience, that is most important.

I'm not skilled or knowledgeable enough to catch many of the issues that Drayke notes: I'm more likely to wander around muttering "Shiny!" under my breath while looking around wide-eyed. (I'm a very simple girl, really.)

But things like low quality builds I probably would catch, as would most new users: I think these are more likely to have an impact on new residents than whether or not your cursor changes when you hover over something.

This is, hopefully, a prototype, and they'll learn from it. And possibly they'll change some things at the existing build as a response to criticism? But on the whole, I'm pretty excited about this, and, loathe as I am to be out of step, I think LL and those who put this together (esp. the moles) deserve credit and thanks.

[Love Zhaoying]

9 minutes ago, Jaylinbridges said:

Do not invite Drayke to my birthday party.

- Cake was too sweet

- Candles were a fire hazard

- Clowns were scary

- No presents were for me

Edited June 22, 2023 by Love Zhaoying
I am rather proud of this one, and hope to get plenty of "Likes" on it. Because that's what is really important.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

2 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I blocked facebook's DNS on the pihole and filled it under malware. Um .. ooops?

FB is malware.

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I'm not skilled or knowledgeable enough to catch many of the issues that Drayke notes: I'm more likely to wander around muttering "Shiny!" under my breath while looking around wide-eyed.

Would you say, rather "goo-goo eyed", or "goggle-eyed"?

(I looked both up to make sure I wasn't imagining a distinction!)

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

FB is malware.

Back when you could play Farkle on FB, I'd agree with you.  

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

Would you say, rather "goo-goo eyed", or "goggle-eyed"?

(I looked both up to make sure I wasn't imagining a distinction!)

I could, but "wide eyed" to me has nearly childlike connotations of awe and amazement and surprise. It's the sort of thing C. S. Lewis might have said in his Narnia series. I'm hoping the build will produce that kind of feeling.

As I say, I'm really a pretty simple girl. 🙂

[animats]

42 minutes ago, BlueMoonLightz said:

Wonder who the first couple got Married?

Right.

The Emperor Hotel there should be furnished with sex beds, its parcel set to not allow looking in, and the region bumped up to Moderate or Adult. Really. SL allows sex, and that would be a graceful introduction.

[Jaylinbridges]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z76jehGh6zo

You Tube link to Patch's opening speech.  in 12 mins.

This is where you go once you freeze up in world.  Well region is full anyway now.  

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, animats said:

Right.

The Emperor Hotel there should be furnished with sex beds, its parcel set to not allow looking in, and the region bumped up to Moderate or Adult. Really. SL allows sex, and that would be a graceful introduction.

Don't forget to enable damage, and include a wearable shotgun by the door.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

5 hours ago, Abnor Mole said:

We realize this is different than what residents are used to in SL. What shouldn't be surprising really is that since we are are working with the music labels themselves they are very concerned with how the content under their management is offered. One of those concerns is with streaming content only to those in countries with which they have the legal right to do. It's not any different than how Netflix can stream a program if you are in one country, but not in another. 

The music industry always been fussy to work with throughout many decades dealing with music rights.

[Rowan Amore]

16 minutes ago, Jaylinbridges said:

Add to my Stickies.  Do not invite Drayke to my birthday party.

If I was going to actually LIVE in the welcome center for the next 10 years, I might wish all the buildings were low lag mesh, and all physics prims were 64m.  But like every newbie that strolls through, they are NOT going to live there.

 

And if they can't deal with it there, they certain will have trouble dealing with a LOT of places in SL filled with full mesh avatars and less than optimal content.

I don't think we need to present a false front either.  SL ain't perfect and neither should the Welcome Area be.

[Rowan Amore]

14 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

- Cake was too sweet

- Candles were a fire hazard

- Clowns were scary

- No presents were for me

And they're selling used undies!

[Persephone Emerald]

3 hours ago, Drayke Newall said:

Wall of text time.

I have no problem with the Moles and they do a great job with what they do and as you said we wouldn't have a lot without them. The problem is, they are part of the 'official' building squad of Second Life and they have to realise that they are the ones that need to set the example on how to build. They are also the ones that need to understand the mindset of new users.

We are hounded to no end in these forums about how laggy second life is, how things take to long to load, etc. We see on reddit, outside forums and even news articles talking about the future of the metaverse with the same points raised as to why everyone forgot about SL, left SL or why retention is so bad. Here though, we see issues that contribute to that lag, to that long load time and to those same bad experiences that has effected retention for so long in SL.

This area is, as Brett Linden said, a new take on the 'Welcome Area' and Linden Labs new method to try and solve retention. Yet, the same issues that plagued the previous starter areas still exist. There clearly was no QA here and when those issues are pointed out  (i.e. QA)  the Moles complain because they feel hurt. I thought I worded what I said fine, clearly others thought differently. The chop and change was because I actually deleted large chunks of worse feedback. Good thing I did.

Do Moles create good environments? Yes, however they also have issues with them that simple fixes should be able to fix yet, they persist in not taking feedback and those issues persist to their detriment. For example. I took a friend that hadn't been in Second Life before to belli to showcase premium and the houses. He was impressed and liked the fantasy area, however, the first thing he started to do is click everything.

I was in voice with him and he said "why is nothing happening". Confused, I asked "what" and he said "nothing happens when I click on the road or the plants" (we were in the fantasy zone). To my surprise, indeed, the road, plants and everything in-between showed that something should happen when I click it, yet nothing did. After looking at the objects there was a script clearly there to turn the glow on and at night. A script that had no need to be touched as it was auto. From that he said to me, this would drive him crazy and so he said he couldn't consider buying premium for the home of which was the main drawcards he was thinking of 'playing SL'. This meant a lost sale for LL and a negative first look at second life and a point lost to retention.

Tell me, why is that even a thing? You either make the script so that it doesn't allow touch or you simply drop the menu down in build that says 'click to' and change it to 'none'. Then you just copy the object over and over. A simple fix not done which cost LL a new user. Retention!

Now, as I mentioned earlier, in the Motown region there are prop cars that have scripts in them that even say ride when right clicked (something the tutorials teach). Now, considering my friends annoyance of the road's, what do you think the response will be when a new user clicks those cars and finds out they are locked, dont move and make the avatar appear half in and out of the roof when it ejects you?

Now someone asked did I like anything there? Lot's actually. The laser game, the fact that they actually point you to game areas and have board games around. The interaction of canons to go to shops (and the fact they finally have shops there). Lot's impressed me. Do you think me coming here and saying wow great job moles... now lets talk about the issues, will make the criticism less hurtful? No one likes criticism, its harsh, raw and hurts because of all that effort you put in. I got dealt plenty of it in Architecture School spending sleepless consecutive nights creating cardboard models until my fingers were raw. Did I then turn to my lecturers and say "well those that cant do, teach"? No. I took the criticism, changed what was needed, adapted, improved.

I'm glad you understood my point without taking it personally. I've seen that  Bellisseria regions have pretty high QA standards that might have been less tight in the rush to get this build up on the grid before the official birthday events.

In my opinion, there's no reason to have flickering textures or unused scripts. Those boxes inside of the houses were weird, though I've used a similar trick with a phantom mesh box to add curtains to the exterior view of a house before. If it's 1 Land Impact, set to physics type none, and linked to the rest of the building, it can be a good way to keep Land Impact low.

Touch scripts might exist so Moles can activate them, perhaps as part of testing, even if they don't work when a resident touches them. We user-customers are not part of the LDPW QA dept., nor are we managers of the Moles, so they don't have to take our advice, especially since it's likely to be conflicting and isn't informed by all the details and circumstances the Moles are dealing with as part of these projects.

In short, Great job, Moles!, but if you have time, there are details in this build that could still use a little work. For instance, I wasn't able to open the doors to the hotel in the Skill Games region. I love the Las Vegas vibe, though.

Edited June 22, 2023 by Persephone Emerald

[Coffee Pancake]

1 hour ago, BlueMoonLightz said:

Might be great idea or club. 

That's been done a hundred times .. and .. yeah, careful what you wish for. This is SL.

[Persephone Emerald]

1 hour ago, Adamburp Adamczyk said:

Yes.

You have quite a collection there. No wonder you're proud of it. I think I only have 3 toilets in my inventory. I used this example, by the way, because I did once have a random person ask if they could use the bathroom in my house. 😆 

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

You have quite a collection there. No wonder you're proud of it. I think I only have 3 toilets in my inventory. I used this example, by the way, because I did once have a random person ask if they could use the bathroom in my house. 😆 

The "Couples' Love Toilets" are cute!

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Adamburp Adamczyk said:

Yes.

I wish they were categorized as "clean" and "dirty" so we get a sense of your collection!

[Persephone Emerald]

46 minutes ago, animats said:

Right.

The Emperor Hotel there should be furnished with sex beds, its parcel set to not allow looking in, and the region bumped up to Moderate or Adult. Really. SL allows sex, and that would be a graceful introduction.

If they were to have Adult furniture in the hotel, the next thing they'd have would be escorts in the eatery, looking for customers. I'd say they'd be in the bar or lounge, but I don't recall seeing either in that hotel.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

1 hour ago, animats said:

Right.

The Emperor Hotel there should be furnished with sex beds, its parcel set to not allow looking in, and the region bumped up to Moderate or Adult. Really. SL allows sex, and that would be a graceful introduction.

Don't forget to enable damage, and include a wearable shotgun by the door.

"Divorces", But NO REFUNDS on Partnerships or Name Changes!!!