What is there to do in SL?

[brodiac90]

Another thing not mentioned is family. Families in SL take many different forms. Some people will be adopted into families even as adult avis or use pregnancy huds to have babies such as Zoobys. 

There are even people such as myself who play child avatars who have families. 

This is me and my mom 😁

[Nalates Urriah]

Things to do… thanks @Orwar. Decent idea.

Vehicles at noob landing zones… I have mixed thoughts about that one. SL vehicles are way lame compared to vehicles in other games.

I also think horses are lame in SL. I find them way stiff, like a plastic model. I have a couple and they are fun. But they are VERY fake horses.

I think these hokey things are likely to discourage new visitors to SL more than intrigue.

Boats, blimps, and bumper cars in SL are way more realistic in that they work as I think most people expect. I think these would serve to attract more than the vehicles and horses. I would leave the horses and cars for when they are more experienced and accepting of SL’s limitations.

There are SL Historic sights/places. The builds that people made and then the Lab decided to restore after they left. I was looking for a couple of those and can’t find them listed in the Guide. Svarga is one. While not well maintained it was built to simulate an ecological system. There were birds you could feed and bees with flowers. Very complicated.

Historic places are of course part of exploration in SL. So may be providing better ways to explore SL. We have things that tour a region. But what about having places where one could board a fun vehicle and go flying and teleporting through SL? How does one impress on a new person the scale of this virtual world?

Coming from Myst Online I had a friend that thought SL was just a collection of shopping malls. He was blown away when I provided a set of LMs that took him all over SL. I think we still suffer from the problem of it being difficult to discover SL.

[animats]

7 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Coming from Myst Online I had a friend that thought SL was just a collection of shopping malls.

I've met users who didn't know mainland existed.

Quote

Vehicles at noob landing zones…

Perhaps. The WelcomeHub water is sailable. I sailed all around the channels in a Laser One, and got a close look at the tentacles coming out of the water. Only one bridge is too low for a sailboat.

I've suggested that the WelcomeHub should have teleport gates to:

• Something that appeals to the pew-pew crowd. I previously suggested one simple combat sim, one that doesn't have meters or factions or an elaborate backstory you have to learn before shooting people.
• One of the better amusement parks. I previously suggested Hello Kitty land, but there are others.
• A basic racetrack sim, one that's not too hard and is forgiving.
• A busy social area, such as London City.

Other notes.

• The shopping mall needs to be oriented more towards new users. It should only have clothing that fits the new avatars.
• The Las Vegas area gets few visitors. The marriage chapel and the hotel seem like they ought to support sex, but they don't.
• I tried the movie theater. That's not a bad idea, but it needs a better, and shorter, movie.

[UnilWay SpiritWeaver]

8 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Coming from Myst Online I had a friend that thought SL was just a collection of shopping malls.

I mean... that's not exactly incorrect...

[Qie Niangao]

15 hours ago, animats said:

• The shopping mall needs to be oriented more towards new users. It should only have clothing that fits the new avatars.

I didn't pay much attention the one earlier time I passed through WecomeHubShopping, but it is a strange assortment of stuff there. It makes sense that it include some variety of what's to be found in SL, even if it's not of immediate use to a newbie, just to kind of whet their appetites for all the user generated content they may have heard about. And some of these merchants do an exemplary job of it.

It does seem a little evil to sell no-mod vehicles to newbies; they have no way of knowing how ridiculous a purchase that is. (On the other hand, I suppose if you can't sell 'em to newbies, who's gonna be dumb enough to buy 'em?)

Totally agree that clothing sold there should fit Senra, but… are there any clothing stores there at all? There's an abundance of jewelry stores for some reason, and one of them sells fitted (and unfitted) necklaces, not fitted to Senra. That would be a fifteen minute conversation to unpack that whole mess. Longer if they ask "why?"

There's also a store that uses vendors with gruesome LODs, so bad the product image surface vanishes completely within just a few meters using a RenderVolumeLODFactor of 1, 1.25, or anything like it. That's gotta be baffling to a newbie on a viewer with standard issue settings.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Qie Niangao

[Love Zhaoying]

23 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Coming from Myst Online I had a friend that thought SL was just a collection of shopping malls.

..and just like RL, the shopping malls are all dying!

[PheebyKatz]

On 8/10/2023 at 5:29 AM, Zalificent Corvinus said:

If you didn't come here from some oppressive 3rd World platform, you could always lie roleplay, and say you are a Boat Person from Tropico, or Settlers, or some other old game.

 

If you show up on the beach and claim to be a refugee from New Zealand, I hear they grant instant citizenship, and will even help you get a job.

Oh wait, that's Australia. Sorry.

[Arielle Popstar]

20 hours ago, animats said:

I've suggested that the WelcomeHub should have teleport gates to:

• Something that appeals to the pew-pew crowd. I previously suggested one simple combat sim, one that doesn't have meters or factions or an elaborate backstory you have to learn before shooting people.
• One of the better amusement parks. I previously suggested Hello Kitty land, but there are others.
• A basic racetrack sim, one that's not too hard and is forgiving.
• A busy social area, such as London City.

Other notes.

• The shopping mall needs to be oriented more towards new users. It should only have clothing that fits the new avatars.
• The Las Vegas area gets few visitors. The marriage chapel and the hotel seem like they ought to support sex, but they don't.
• I tried the movie theater. That's not a bad idea, but it needs a better, and shorter, movie.

That all just makes too much sense so we know it will never happen.

[BJoyful]

9 hours ago, Arielle Popstar said:

That all just makes too much sense so we know it will never happen.

There is a Laser Tag Region connected to the WelcomeHUB   

Please come and visit!   Maybe if you let the Mentors in the Landing area know when you're coming, they'll do their best to help direct interested new Residents to have fun playing Laser Tag.  There's also other games there also if Laser Tag doesn't appeal to you.