Randall Ahren

Yes, it's the person that recommended reviving the mentor program.

Yes, but the mentor program has returned. So while SL may remain expensive, it will no longer be stagnant due to all the new residents joining.

Have the forums changed? Yes, people are meaner. Edit: Well, maybe not meaner, but definitely angrier.

It's not all dudes. Further, the discussion isn't all about the game and covers other subjects. it's chatting and it tends to drift.

In Fortnite, there's chat in voice between squad members. When it comes to chatting, Fortnite is much more social than SL.

After 16 years, LL should have fixed the problem.

I love cliches, especially the ones that are not true. Boredom is a fundamental human emotion also found in animals and it exists because it provides an evolutionary advantage. Getting back to SL, why are residents leaving faster than new residents join? What do you identify as the root cause and possible solution to the declining demographic of SL? Edit: Expanded on Reply.

Funny, but it misses the problem. The problem is more people leave than stay. The root cause is boredom. London City has the best setup to alleviate the boredom of the first login for new residents. The Firestorm welcome area is the second best setup. There is still a problem with boredom among experienced residents. Most experienced residents expect to be bored. So many alleviate their boredom by parking their avatar AFK while they do something else. That frustrates other residents who find locations filled with bots and AFK avatars. So they quit logging in. Animats proposed detecting AFK avatars and getting them out of the way. It would probably help. AFK avatars are not as much as a problem in a mmorpg because they tend to get killed and removed from the game. However, it is a problem for teams to have a member AFK, so there is an abuse reporting system for non-participating/AFK team members.

You're talking about the customers. If the game doesn't at least meet the expectations of the customers, they won't return.

The mentor program is certainly unique. However, it was tried before and found not to work. What's different about this iteration that will make it successful?

New residents, because it's not in other games, and they're going to think it's weird. And it is weird. This is the time of AI and automation. People expect online learning with automated systems and video tutorials, not labor-intensive, human mentors hovering over their shoulders.

You should know that LL won't provide the information. When population trends became unfavorable, LL stopped providing that kind of data. It made their business look bad. So I have to ask another resident or rely upon my own observations. Based on my personal observations, the welcome hubs are dreadfully boring, both for the new residents and the mentors. Review the original post by animats that started this long thread about the new welcome hub: "This place is boring. Somehow, the first ten minutes in Second Life need to be made fun. Somehow." There is a lot of standing and staring at the welcome hubs and it's creepy. LL could make the welcome hubs less creepy by providing good quality AOs for the new residents to make them seem more natural and reducing the size of their hands (their hands look like baseball mitts). Given the boredom and creepiness, I really don't expect a high return rate for new residents, maybe 10% Edit: It's also creepy having mentors watching you and making suggestions. What other game has mentors?

What's your estimate of the percentage of residents that return after their first login?

Yes, there is a fee for changing your name. See this link: As you can see, the fee varies with membership level.

There is a busking area in London City and if you can sing, you can pick up a few L$. As far as the system avatar, there are free mesh ones.

Having to spend money on a game you're not sure you like, is a deterrent. To earn L$, noobs can DJ, host, sing, or offer personal services.

you'll find that one of the most common responses is "You don't really need much money in SL." We typically reassure people that there is a lot of good, free stuff in SL and that you can get along quite nicely without needing to spend money. The other common answer is that it's not worth the time and effort to make money in SL and the noobs should just use real dollars to buy Linden dollars.

No, it's because you had too much of your politics in your profile. I could see that would likely lead to trouble, so I didn't reply.

The number one activity is parking an avatar at a club, either dancing or sitting on a stool, and then going AFK while doing some other activity, watching Net Flix, shopping at the Market Place, arranging photos on Flickr, etc. Another popular activity is congregating at Infohubs and harassing noobs.

London City is a good example of how a Welcome Hub should be setup. There are several single player games there, poker, a pizza game (you can win L$2), shops, an area for busking, and generally a small circle of people staring at each other, with two or three people in the group conversing in voice.

There was what appeared to be a couple there. They were entertaining themselves by riding a motorcycle. They were probably conversing with one another in IM. Lindal Kidd was also there. Maybe she knows what was going on.

I don't usually login, only if I want to check on something. If only more people enjoyed being alone in SL, this place would have far brighter prospects. As it is though, most come to socialize and leave disappointed.

Boredom is a problem with all of SL, not just at Welcome Hubs. Current residents are leaving faster than new ones can be found to replace them. What is entertaining about SL? Why should anyone bother logging in?

I recently visited a welcome hub. There were several zero day avatars and some older ones. I presume the older ones were mentors. Everyone was just standing around staring and there was no conversation in local chat. It was really, super boring. Probably, none of those zero day avatars bothered to login again.

I like to go in-world and stand around AFK while I surf the forum.