Scylla Rhiadra

And what do you think that SL "is"? If what you're suggesting is that LL hasn't really developed a marketing "message," then I think we'd all agree. But, given the enormous diversity of uses to which residents put the platform, articulating its identity in simple, easily-digestible sound byte is going to be challenging.

I've known some pretty obnoxious Premium members. I think the only answer is to restrict posting to Lindens and moles. It's the only way to be sure.

And it shows! And that's what makes it a great pic.

And herein lies your key assumption: that this is about attracting "gamers." By which I mean, not the swarms who play Candy Crush Saga, but rather those who are focused on FPS games. Gamers have been more or less ignoring SL since shortly after its inception. I don't think, to be honest, that that's going to change: SL is not well suited for the high-quality graphical standards of dedicated games or even MMOs, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because the content is all user generated. If SL is to sustain itself, yet alone grow, it needs to appeal to a far broader demographic than is represented by people who want to be able to blow things up. (Not, of course, that there's anything wrong with that. There are threads here I'd like to blow up . . .)

It will monetize your data far more effectively and lucratively than SL does. (If SL really does that at all.) And it will be much better at throwing product placements and ads for RL services and goods at you. Well over half (probably more like 3/4s) of the blog pieces and tweets I've come across about "the metaverse" in this current round of hype have been about . . . marketing opportunities. And really, that's what this is about for companies like Facebook.

Well, if you were trying to produce a clever and interesting mise en abyme, you've succeeded admirably! Yay you!

Um. Sure? None of these are things that are particularly important to me or any of the fairly extensive group of people I hang with, but I get that there are people who want collapsing houses and dismembered avatars . . . (?!?!?!?) It does seem to me that, if the point is to attract a really broad range of people, the basics, the things that impact everyone, are probably a higher priority?

I have a feeling that you're on European time, so this might not work . . . but The Mercury Room does wonderful vintage jazz on Sunday nights, starting around 7pm or 8pm SLT. Lovely people, LOTS of open chatter (mostly interesting and intelligent), no gesture spam, no begging for tips. Just really calm and relaxing and friendly, with great music and a 30s ambience. And @Solar Legion, anthropomorphic avatars are entirely welcome. (There are animated penguins skating around on the dance floor, as well a large stuffed moose and a bear. Oh, and Bernie Sanders.) Or, for more modern music in a variety of genres, try The Velvet. Again, lots of chatter, really friendly people, no begging for tips or gesture spam. They have stuff going on most late afternoons / evenings SL time.

Precisely what I was suggesting, but more succinctly stated. High quality starter avis are not going to discourage people from upgrading. Were that the case, no one would be dropping L$5000 for the newest mesh head or body: we'd all be contented with our old Catwa or Genus or whatever. LL needs to do more to make SL seem attractive from the first moments of the user experience. Good looking starter avis are only one piece of the puzzle, but they are a not unimportant one.

Not standards in that sense. I mean standardizing at the level of code -- things like UV mapping. We already have those kinds of standards in place: the system avi skeleton is one such, for instance. As for compliance, this is why they need to work with creators. And probably some degree of compliance could be enforced through code.

I think people have different levels of tolerance for rude or obnoxious behavior, and that we need to acknowledge that, for some, "shrugging it off" isn't going to work. That's not a "fault," it's a function of who that person is, how much they value community, their level of egotism, self-confidence, life experience, and so forth. Don't let people tell you that it's somehow your fault that you get upset about rudeness. It's not. I'm a pretty self-confident person, but a really rude person can ruin my day. And more to the point, so far as I'm concerned, rudeness just shows a lack of respect for other people. (Bearing in mind what others have said about other factors, such as cultural differences, social awkwardness, etc.). I'll see a person in front of me in the line at the corner store, for instance, treating the checkout person as though they were a vending machine, and, honestly, I want to kick them.

Wow. I had no idea this was a thing. I made my own simple "tools" for this a long time ago (coloured, semi-transparent and phantom prims), but this looks really great! Thanks for posting!

So that you can test guests before you allow them in the front door!

I've been using a Genus head since the first one was in Beta and, honestly, I still struggle with it. It's a great looking head: I'm really happy with how it looks (mostly), but the HUDs . . . OMG. I've been trying to help a friend who has started using one for the first time recently, and I'll give her some advice, and discover 10 minutes later that I'm wrong. But maybe that's just my own general level of incompetence? We'd love to see what you've done! You should post a pic of your new look here!

I'm not quite sure I've got the hang of this sort of thing . . . but it's fun to do, anyway.

Welcome to the forum, and to this thread! Nice looking avi! But what have you done to your jeans? 😉 Dangerous? Pffft. It looks good, dahling, which is the most important thing.

And what "types" are those, Belinda? Just out of curiosity?

I can't speak to the organizational / systemic problems you mention; you have much better insight into those than I do, so I'll take your word for it. But yes. AND STANDARDIZATION. For god's sake, get mesh body and head creators together, and establish some frickin' standards! The fact that I can't buy makeup without having to first decide if I need Catwa, Genus, LeLutka, EvoX, or system avi versions is just unbelievably stupid and wasteful.

Indeed -- thanks for remembering to note the need for a place to edit the outfit. Also, I loved your idea of a HUD included in the starter avatar, just as a means of teaching noobs how to use these. One specifically designed for that purpose (little arrow with text points at button: "Click here to change hair colour" or "Click here to remove belt"). I really think that providing a starter avi that is sufficiently good looking that you aren't going to feel self-conscious at a club or chat place is the way to go. Add a few simple customization features that would both serve as tutorials on how to use things like HUDs, and differentiate you sufficiently from other noobs that, again, you don't feel embarrassed if another Disco Guy also shows up at the club you're at. Give them, for instance, 4 or 5 hair colour choices, or 4 or 5 colours for their shirt. If it's true that the complexities and cost of avatar customization are one of the main problems with retention -- and I think it's a factor, certainly -- then address that by giving those who aren't primarily interested in customization something to use that will serve them well for at least their first few weeks -- or months. Again, those who want to customize will do so anyway. And those who don't care will at least not feel that they are sticking out like a sore thumb.

As much to the point, noobs don't know where to find this kind of guidance, and even if they do, it's a LOT of work. The new user experience should direct noobs to blogs like Skell's and Vanity's . . . but this doesn't address that crucial first few hours when a new resident is deciding whether the platform is worth the expenditure of effort.

Which, unfortunately, will mean that there is going to be very little content available for it, at the start at least. And because the vast majority of us are using commercial mesh bodies and heads, there will not be a great deal of incentive for skin and makeup creators to upgrade. I like the idea of LL leading the way on new and improved standards, but they have to be standards, adopted across the entire market, or they will fail.

Yes, this exactly I think. Skell has a superb post on his blog about making a stylish male avatar for almost free, but it's dependent to some degree upon having a mesh body and head. His (understandable) answer is to use a freebie which, like most freebie heads and bodies, is actually pretty complicated to learn how to use (you have to go into edit mode and change texture settings), is glitchy as hell, and also doesn't look great (although better than a system avi). I'm going to resist noting (again) that SL's free-wheeling "Let-Individual-Creators-Do-All-the-Innovation" economic model, which works against standardization across different products, has also made the "new resident experience" that much more complicated and, in practice, much more expensive. (Oh wait. No I'm not.)

And my logic applies to this as well. An improved system avatar isn't going to stop people from customizing, if that is their thing anyway AND . . . (I'm thinking like a good capitalist here) . . . a really comprehensive update to the system avi, with new bones, better options for rigging, etc., will likely compel both creators and their customers to want to take advantage, and spend more on new stuff, in the same way that Bento, while it didn't "break" old content, sure made some of it look inadequate. It seems to me that, if they are going to focus on this reactive expressions thing -- using web cams to make our avis reflect our facial expressions -- they are going to need to seriously upgrade the rigging and bones for the face, or everyone is going to end up looking like they're constipated or in pain all the time.

I was actually sort of thinking something along these lines myself. The starter avis are not absolutely awful, but they aren't great either. Any of us, I suspect, could produce better just using freebies. Is the thinking -- let's not make it too nice, because we want to encourage people to spend money on customization? It seems to me that, in most games, your starter avi is usually pretty good. It might not have all the great bells and whistles, and you often get to add things as you play (that really cool suit of armour, a new hairstyle, whatever) as you progress -- but you don't look so "meh" that you feel out of place relative to the quality of everyone else's looks at the beginning. Whereas in SL, you do look pretty awful compared to everyone else around you. It seems to me that those who are likely to be the sort to want to buy new clothes, hair, body and head, etc., will do so anyway, because "playing dolls" is part of the appeal. My avi has looked reasonably "good" -- i.e., not "out of place" -- for years, but it doesn't stop me from buying new stuff for it on a weekly basis. Whereas those who don't care about looking meh are not going to care much, and not going to spend lots of money on customization, anyway. So why not give people a really good avatar from the outset. It's not going to suppress sales much, and it means that new residents will feel better about the platform, simply because they look better, and more in tune with their surroundings and others, from the start.

Redoing the system avi in any kind of comprehensive and meaningful way would, I'd think, be a pretty major job. How long did it take them to produce Bento? And I think we'd have heard rumblings about it from within the development teams? It's certainly not something they'd likely be doing solely with moles. My guess is that this is, as you say, "new dress up options." The only thing here that might suggest otherwise, just possibly, is the reference to "rigging"? In any case, some improvement would be welcomed, even if that is all they undertake.