Jo Yardley

Ah yes, I understand. Things change, I think this happens in RL just as well as in SL. I too long for things long gone, the excitement of a new venture, new friends, new events. When something is new, it feels different. People come and go. But the feeling of missing something is replaced by a new feeling, a feeling of tradition and comfort. Maybe the main reason I'm still feeling great in SL is because of my sim and the community. Because we have people here who have lived here for 2, sometimes 3 years. The sim has not changed much in that time and many of our events are exactly the same every time. So even though I too miss those early days when I had no idea what I was doing, when people wandered into the sim who would later become good friends, when we we're like a bunch of wild young kids on a deserted island, I love the new feeling of "coming home" when I log on, when a sim truly feels like a place where I feel comfortable, where I meet friends and neighbours, where everybody knows your name, where they are always glad you came. I'm just guessing that is it though. But maybe it is just because I sill love playing with virtual lego.

I find it hard to imagine being bored in SL, and yes I'm old and I have been in SL since 2009. Maybe not that long, but I've been active almost every day since then, having a LOT of fun, LOVING SL... and I never even leave my sim. The secret of SL is that if you can't find something you like, build it yourself. I find 99% of things other people do in SL boring, I don't care about shopping, hanky panky, chatting, going to a club with modern music, etc. I could not find a sim that had something I liked, so I build one myself. I was a total noob, barely knew how to move, had a very old laptop and had no idea what I was doing. 3 years later I have 2 full regions with a very successful roleplaying sim and shopping area. We have a great community, I have lots of friends and to me SL at the end of the day is just like going to my local pub for a few drinks. And I don't think I'll ever get enough of that, although sadly virtual drinks don't get me drunk. I think that going to SL and looking for something you like to do may be the wrong way. First think of something you like to do and then start looking for it, can't find it, build it.

Hotel Adlon in 1920s Berlin. Very classy, very expansive, about 150 linden a night. It has been fully booked for the last year or so.

Not in my sim, it is the 1920s, smoking is healthy.

If you want to smoke with class, and who doesn't, this is the best thing out there; https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Albion-Vintage-Cigarette-Smoking-Set/907062?id=907062&slug=Albion-Vintage-Cigarette-Smoking-Set It gives you a wearable cigarette case, great animations make you flip it open, take a cigarette (one actually disappears from the case) and light it with a lighter. You can even offer the cigarettes to another person, you can throw a cigarette butt on the ground, the cigarettes are actually smoked up, etc, etc. Looks great (best smoke I've seen in SL) but the animations are the best part. And you get real cigarettes, none of those wimpy filter ones.

Thanks for that tip but yes, I'm ruling those out. I've had sculpted cats before that are animated and they were rather laggy, also the changing of sculpts didn't look very nice. Especially in our neighbourhood where a lot of people live on a small area and many have cats, they seem to be responsible for some of the lag. Not completely sure though, but I just want to get away from sculpt cats. I have seen very nice 4 LI mesh cats, but they are sitting down, not sleeping

I am looking for a realistic sleeping mesh cat, low prim. Can't find one on marketplace, perhaps I am overlooking one or maybe someone knows where I can find one?

Yes that is a great bed and LAQ has some amazing stuff! Spend too much in that shop I did ask them if they do comissions, so who knows! The blankets in that bed are exactly what I'm looking for, except i want single bed blankets and a lot smaller.

Hello all. I am looking for someone who is willing to make some mesh for me. I can make mesh things with an inworld builder but the only thing I have trouble with are soft things, like beds, pillows, curtains, etc. I have been working on a very very low prim mesh bed. I've managed to build the frame, matress and pillow, all as one prim LI, all mesh. But I really don't like beds where you just lay on top of it, I want people to be able to crawl under the blankets. So the bed needs a mesh flat blanket and a mesh blanket with a human shaped lump in it. When someone gets into bed, the flat blanket mesh is changed into the one with the shape in it, so it looks like you've crawled under the blanket. I have already done this with sculpts, but I don't like sculpts. I have also looks for mesh blankets like it on marketplace, but couldn't really find what I am looking for. So, who can help me out? Can you make very low LI mesh and can you make the blankets I am looking for? Give me a call. PS, here is the bed I've made.

Excellent! THIS is what we should be using to promote SL. Not JUST fashion and virtual hanky panky. SL is about creativity.

Where are you from? The Netherlands. When did you join SL originally? 2007 What have you mainly spent your time doing in SL in the past? Building, managing and living in my 1920s Berlin Roleplay sim. How are you planning to spend your time in SL in 2013? Building, managing and living in my 1920s Berlin Roleplay sim.

1920s Berlin is a sim that has events at time suitable for many Europeans, such as myself. But during the week that means it is probably late in the evening for our daily event at 2pm. In the weekends things start around noon slt.

I hate hugs, but if you insist, I'll shake your hand.

Wouldn't work for me, I would instinctively avoid other people when first trying to join some online project. Simply because I would feel more comfortable first trying to figure things out on my own or because I'm too stubborn or not patient enough. And yes, any kind of area that would involve other people would also allow more chances of people griefing new people or giving them a negative idea of what SL is about and it would need staf, funding, people donating time, etc, etc. That is why I suggest LL puts all the instructions as a sort of mini game on their website, something for you to do while downloading the SL viewer or as part of the sign up process. Maybe there can even be all sorts of small instruction 'games' that you can return to at a later date, a bit like interactive video's like Torley used to make.

I use Mesh studio. It is relatively easy to learn, at least compared to the mesh software, this is a lot easier. If you can build with prims, you can make mesh. Here is a blog I wrote about my discovery of mesh studio; http://joyardley.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/mesh-addiction/

We never had a combat system and don't really need one. If LL made the 'damage' system in SL work properly, many sims won't even need one.

I guess it all depends on where you hang out in SL and how you spend your time. I haven't visited a sandbox, met a serious griefer or copybotter in a long time. And I've never been bored in SL, there is lots to do... and I don't even travel much to other sims. As for roleplay, I've never even heard of that MMORPG website and it doesn't look very attractive to me. But does that site allow you to build your own city for roleplaying? With any theme you like? Does it give me almost complete freedom to create a roleplaying sim? I am not saying that SL shouldn't improve, it should and there is plenty wrong with it.

No worries, I didn't take it personal. Just trying to show that it isn't always the strict rules that damage sim's traffic, in our case it improves it

I create all my mesh inworld. A while back I revisited the noob experience for my blog, here is what I wrote, I also added some ideas to improve it; I thought it was time to find out if the experience of new visitors to SL had improved a little since last time. Unfortunately it had not. I tried to recreate the new experience and wiped as much SL knowledge from my brain as possible before I signed up. Things go wrong from the very beginning, if I had not known what SL has to offer, I would have given up many times already. I need to think of a name for my avatar, the one I want has already been taken, of course. I end up with an avatar who’s name has a number in it, I hate that. It makes me feel like an email address, not a virtual person. And of course I have no idea that if I discover the full potential of SL, become hooked and decide to stay, that I will be known by this name for years. A problem I have with my regular account, I named myself Jo Yardley, later I learned that very short names (like Jo) sometimes cause issues when you’re searching for them and I got very much involved with a German roleplay sim, so my rather English last name is not one I would have picked. I get to pick an avatar, I don’t like any of them but luckily I am informed that I can change my appearance at a later stage. After joining up I stare at a blank screen for several minutes, no idea if anything is loading, if my account was created, nothing. I decide to cheat and just go ahead and sign in with my new avatar in the viewer, the ‘select an account’ screen finally loads when I’m already in SL… but the buttons don’t work. I assume this was some sort of temporary glitch… The entire SL site is laggy, things don’t load, pages take for ever, etc. Finally I end up in SL. If I was really new, I still would have no idea what on earth is going on. I find myself in a portal, some sort of Roman arches show me a few hints of the things going on in SL. But because I am sort of new, I have no idea what to do. I am yet to find out how to move around, nobody tells me that. And because the standard settings of the SL viewer are so odd, I get a screen full of buttons and options and a rather slow experience with low graphical settings. It is expected of me to randomly try out all the buttons in my viewer and learn as I go along? Fine by me but many users will not like this and will not have the patience. Compare it with almost every game out there, they all have tutorials, they all are easier to navigate. So here I am, no idea what to do or where to go next. I decide to click on a portal that says ‘Roleplay’ and woosh, I get teleported to some sort of Science Fiction roleplay sim. Not my cup of tea but now I am stuck. As nobody has bothered to explain to me that I need to use ‘Search’ to explore SL, I have no idea what to do next. I take a few steps, fall into this roleplay sim in my noob clothes, not fitting in. If this sim has security or managers online I may find myself in trouble. Especially because if they decide to confront me in IM… I have no idea how IM’s work, I don’t know someone is talking to me and I may find myself banned before I even know what is happening. Or worse, I may end up surrounded by angry roleplayers who start being mean and rude to me for ignoring the sims rules. Not a good start… I pretend I have found the search button… the search system is horrendous. It is extremely slow, if your computer isn’t super duper, the loading of the search screen takes a while. More patience needed. Finally I’ve made it to a sim I want to see, but I am stuck with a bad viewer, bad camera settings, etc. I need to open the ‘move avatar’ button and ‘camera’ button all the time, just to be able to walk and look around properly. Mouselook does not work either because you lose all your buttons and options. As a noob I am already very tired and frustrated and my SL adventure has only just begun. I want to change my avatar, wear clothes I’ve been told to wear at the sim I found. I look around and after clicking the tab ‘avatar’ and choose ‘appearance’, I get stuck. I see a window with “my outfits” and “wearing”. Basics for veteran SL users, confusing for new users. What am I supposed to do next? I ‘buy’ some freebie clothes, they get send to me but I forget to click ‘wear now’ and they are lost somewhere in my inventory. I look at my appearance window again, the new clothes don’t show up. With some luck (!) I find my inventory button. The library folder is opened so it is easy to make the mistake that the library is my actual inventory, I could spend hours there looking for the clothes I just got. I then try my inventory folder, I check clothes but there is nothing there. The new freebie clothes have been send to the general folder and I am lucky to find it at all. Again, it is all about luck! Not to mention that thanks to my basic settings, lots of mesh does not rezz or suddenly disappears after a while. Try and explain a noob that they have to open the debug menu and temper with the MeshMaxConcurrentRequests, just so they see things properly… So few things in SL come natural, even to a seasoned gamer like myself. If you don’t find the right sim or the right people to get you excited about SL, it is quite understandable that you give up soon. By this time, I’ve sort of given up. Pretending not to know how everything works makes it all just too frustrating. I surrender. Time for solutions. I’ve brainstormed about improving the SL noob experience before on this blog but want to try and summarize it all here again, simply because I feel that this is such an important part of the SL experience. If you can’t get people excited and running around SL in a easy way shortly after they arrive, they will not return. It is as simple as that. In short; Most people NEED instructions. Most people NEED some help finding their way. My suggestions; Create an online game on the SL website that allows new users to learn the basics before they even enter the virtual world. For instance, you are an avatar on an small island and need to get off. Walk, explore, use stuff, wear stuff and finally use ‘search’ to not only start SL but to teleport to a place you choose. This can be a very basic, simple flash game that rewards you with knowledge and perhaps even a few freebies. No more need for inworld portals, instructions, etc. New players will be ready when they enter SL and understand the basics they need to know to get around and start their adventure. Let new players create and tweak their avatar also on the website. Look at games like ‘The Sims’ for inspiration, there it is very easy (and fun) to make your avatar and dress them. This way you’re not only ready to go once you teleport into SL, but you have already bonded with your avatar and other people won’t immediately spot you as a noob. And finally…. create a web page that helps people tweak their settings… Right now you don’t know about raising your mesh and sculpt settings till you buy something that comes with that famous sculpt setting notecard! New people are not seeing mesh and sculpts the way they should, simply because they don’t know that they can tweak this. Or even better, set the basic settings in viewers high enough for mesh and sculpts to properly work… I know that most of this topic is almost the same as my previous topic on the matter, but having just tried signing up as a new avatar again I felt so frustrated, I wanted to write my idea down again. http://joyardley.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/noob-experience-revisited/

Traffic goes up and down, sometimes it is busy for a while, then it is quiet. Such is (second) life. Some of it can be defined and analyzed, some of it has no real meaning, people are fickle. But the sim where I live has been doing fine for over 3 years, all apartments rented all the time, fun events, strong community, etc. And we too only allow humans and even have a strict dress code.

Or just pick a roleplay sim where you can have jobs. In our sim you can be a shoeshine and one of the street children running around here sells cigarettes. Some of the other kids clean the tables in my bar and bring drinks to the tables for tips.

I keep telling Palmer (the chap behing Oculus, who I happen to know on facebook) to look into virtual worlds

Phil Deakins wrote: Yes I visited the right Berlin. In fact I talked about the train and stuff there The picture you posted does look like a typical RL sized living room, which I assume it is, and it makes my point for me; i.e. navigating around the furniture inside that room, with the conditions in the SL world, would be very awkward compared to navigating around a furnished room that is created according to the SL conditions. The camera can be set wherever you like, and moving can be done with whatever method you choose, but navigating in that room will always be much worse than navigating in room that's been creating according to the conditions in the SL world. Was just double checking because we now also have a big shopping street next to the teleport area and some people never find the train But yes, the rl scale takes some getting used to, but with a RL scale avatar and with my camera at almost eye height and some practise, it is now a piece of cake. As all our apartments have been rented pretty much all of the time, it seems that the people in Berlin get used to it as well. And another fun side of RL scale is that when they move up in the world and leave a small room to go live in a nice house, they actually feel like they suddenly have a lot of space, even though the biggest houses in Berlin are usually smaller then most livingrooms elsewhere in SL I even experience big spaces as big spaces, it is quite an interesting experience to leave my small apartment and actually feel outside when I can suddely look around more hehehehe. Changing your camera position helps a lot, but even with just zooming in most of the time, it won't be much of an issue. Here is a picture with the normal camera setting and my changed camera settings in a home where the ceiling is 3 meters high;

After messing about with shape. I am 1.5m tall now. Seems its hard to get an easy height measurement outside of rezzing a prim and measuring yourself. In the end, this is the only real way to find out how tall your avatar is.

Phil Deakins wrote: The Berlin sim was mentioned a number of times and I went there during the old thread, but all I found were large spaces - no typical RL-sized rooms. I think that was because I had to be in a group or renting or something. Even so, I have yet to see a typical RL-sized room that works acceptably well within the SL world. I'm thinking of a furnished 12' x 12' x 8' room. Did you visit the right Berlin? Most public spaces, like the station and city hall are indeed spacious and yes, the apartments where people live are generally off limits to strangers, although if you ask, some will welcome you and gladly show you around. Beyond that, there is lots of RL scale stuff or semi-RL scale buildings to observe. We did make some concessions (doors are a little bigger, etc) but we do have rooms that are smaller then 12 by 12 and with much lower ceilings, even by giving people a little more space then you'd often have in RL, most apartments don't have ceilings higher then 4 meter. A hotel room in our cheap hotel barely fits a bed and a small table and chair. My avatar has beem RL scale as soon as I figured out the scale of the prims I was building with. And also because I wanted my avatar to be as much like RL me as possible. Anyway, as all of the apartments in Berlin are pretty much rented all of the time, I can't really invite you in to go have a walk around them, we did have an Open Door day recently where people opened their houses to visitors but it will be a while before we have another one. This is my room, not small, but still a lot smaller then many others. And here is another room, I made it for a public display at the SL's birthday exhibit, so the ceiling is a little higher to allow people in. But scale wise, it is smaller then my livingroom in RL.