Open Forum: What Was *Your* First Hour In SL Like?

It's like a curse or a black hole, and it's where some 90 percent of new users go to die-- the poor "first hour experience" for new SL users remains the most vexing impediment to the world's growth, which has stalled in terms of active Residents for nearly a year.  Within sixty minutes of creating an avatar name and entering SL's Orientation Island, most people become too bored, frustrated, or confused to continue.  Improving that initial entry period is a stated top priority for the Linden's newly appointed CEO, Mark Kingdon, and even frustrated users have taken to proposing radical solutions.  Dusan Writer is offering a $3000 of his own money for someone, anyone, to help fix it; Grace McDunnough makes a compelling case that a staff of AI-driven bots should be created to help assist new users during orientation.

I wonder, however, if all this is looking at the problem backwards.  Forget figuring out why 90% of those who came, left.  Instead, isn't it more important to run a resilience study, and locate the commonalities between the 10% who stayed, and build on that?  So I put the question to readers: if you're an active Resident, what happened in your first hour in Second Life that kept you here?

Comments

[Takafumi Farina]

The Orientation Island is still too quirky for new users. The default avatars are also very ugly, allowing many new users to believe that all of Second Life looks ugly.

A new Orientation Island needs to be put in place that does not require a nagging HUD.

I know the Lindens are working on the new avatars, finally! Great news.

[Alicia Chenaux]

Well, I have to ask this - But where are the mentors? I thought their purpose was to hang out on the Orientation Islands to assist the new residents, or am I mistaken?

[Gahum Riptide]

I actually looked at and followed most of the tutorials, tinkered with the appearance controls, and learned how to do the basics of moving things, content creation, etc. After learning the basics, the impetus to explore is what kept me there. It was also the fact that unlike WoW (as far as I knew), I could wander around and look at things, or do something.

[Marianne McCann]

I logged in, wandered about, edited my appearance, met one of the few other McCann's I've ever seen in SL, went though most of the tutorials, and promptly walked headlong into a river. Thankfully it was near the end of that first hour that a friend of mine TPed me off of orientation island and *really* got me started!

[Heidi Ballinger]

I was lost.. (plus I lost my clothes, and panicked) haha – didn’t knew what to do.
And I had a very deep conversation with one of the Buddha/monkey robots.. I was asking “Are you talking to me?” He never answered me back… lol

I think the fascination came after the third time I logged in. I just needed to figure this new exciting World out. I was too curious just to leave.

[Rusalka Writer]

There is an obvious missing step to the SL sign-up process. Something between clicking on JOIN on the website and appearing on Orientation Island. Specifically, a page named WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN. SL is assuming far more knowledge going in than is the case. I'm talking simple:

1. You will be an avatar on Orientation Island.

2. Your appearance will be changeable, both on Orientation Island and in SL.

3. Orientation Island offers valuable information for new SL members.

4. Orientation Island is just one small part of SL. When you are done learning there, teleport into SL and enjoy!

Simple simple simple. I lasted in SL because I had researched SL and had a goal for my experience in-world. But I suspect that most people hear just a little about SL and sign up on a whim, with little or no prior knowledge. I think they're being spooked.

[Thoria]

I wandered about, played with the appearance sliders a bit, got some newbie clothes, and followed the first half dozen tutorials until I got bored with it. Then I found out how to fly, and how to TP, and made my first friends. That's when I started finding the really interesting stuff.

[Ann Otoole]

Interested in the SL UI development process? Sign up to the list: https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sl-ux

Hopefully the general interest will be to help things along with new ideas and professional discussion more than just lurkers and nay sayers.

[Chaddington Boomhauer]

It was confusing for days. One short NCI class and things started to make sense. There should be SL Mentors or LL people at O island and watching the help islands.

[Heidi Ballinger]

Chaddington, I think it has changed since we created our profiles.
Today you will almost always find mentors at OI and HI.
I'm a mentor myself, and now and then I travel back to OI to help new residents, and I always see other mentors there :-)

[x]

i signed up pre-orientation island (killer!) and was plopped into the hanja welcome area where i could get to know the basic of the basic. getting to ask questions, casually, to people with a mix of experience just hanging around proved a lot more helpful to me than struggling through a course i didn't even know i HAD TO TAKE 5 minutes ago.. surrounded by a bunch of other newly born avs who also have no idea how to do what i want to do, how to get where i want to go, etc.
i don't know about everyone else, but when i first started, HUDs were so foreign. what was that thing in the corner? how do i get it off? confusion is a bad idea when you are just beginning to learn. bots might come across as confusing also (but what do i know?!)..though i don't think they'd get as frustrated with the barrage of questions as some live mentors/helpers :)

i still commend the ivory tower's step-by-step 'notecards with visuals' setup, but once again, forced upon those who aren't interested might have the same effect as the ori. island we know today.
further knowledge (albeit basic) should be an option. maybe even as simple as a 'would you like to start a beginner's course?' at login.

yeah, there really is a lot to be learned, but it shouldn't all be shoved upon you at once. open human interaction will save the population!
...maybe :)

[FlipperPA Peregrine]

Let's skip my first hour (the laptop I had at the time in summer 2003 wouldn't cut it), and go to the first actual hour I made it in world. It was the old Orientation Island, pretty straight forward, and I was one of 11 new accounts on the day I joined. We got plenty of hand holding and individual attention at the old Ahern welcome area. I met Jeff and Michael Linden my first time logging in - and had no idea they were employees. Fun times! I can't help but thinking of simplifying the process again might be beneficial. Trying to get off the new O.I. is a nightmare! It is a worse trap than the old telehubs with malls surrounding them.

[Galena Qi]

I blew through Orientation Island in about 15 minutes. Not staying never crossed my mind - I had spent hours playing with the prototype virtual world at the Tech Museum in San Jose and knew as soon as I read about SL that I wanted to explore it. That said, SL absolutely needs on-line or on-site help for new users as well as a simpler beginner interface. Let the users activate more advanced menus on request when they are ready.

[Ann Otoole]

Why not have training areas set up with small parcels and a movie screen for a video tutorial?

One can set up a number of such kiosks in a concentrated area. Then you need them done in all the major languages.

This can be done. And it would not cost much. And would be effective.

And anyone can do this but LL should lead the way. Especially given Torely's expertise with making tutorials.

[Dusan Writer]

User retention is multi-faceted, we all agree on that. And I've been trying to blow up some sacred cows, one of them being that we need an orientation island in the first place. In my opinion, avatar creation should happen OFF grid, because the main thing is you don't want to LOOK like a newb when you land. Within the creation process, tutorials. Anyways, I'm repeating myself, I cover all this at the blog: http://dusanwriter.com/?p=508

I shared a similar experience to others here. I had no idea what I was signing up for - I had been looking for Spore and somehow SL showed up in Google. I spent time when I landed tweaking my appearance, then rushed through orientation, afraid someone would spot me as green and naive and try to spam me for money or whatever - it happens in other "MMOs" I figured so why not here? I learned quickly how to fly, walk, and drive (it was the last time I drove a vehicle and still have no idea why it's included in orientation) and then FINALLY understood that search meant PLACES, and got the heck out of there.

Like many others who stay, I lucked out because I actually landed somewhere with people. Who helped. And gave advice, including the best advice which was "you need new hair" and even loaned me the 10 cents or whatever it is to buy decent hair.

Which is another sacred cow, I guess - I love the idea of mentors, but I never met one. I met residents, and most residents I know will help out a newcomer without hesitation. So my theory is, kill orientation island (or make it VERY optional), put avatar creation outside the grid, and land them where there's PEOPLE - because we're all here to help, we all want people to stay, and most of all, we all want good hair.

[Dusan Writer]

Oh...and you promoted me before Hamlet but please indulge my non-commercial spam? Because the client is also part of retention...you wouldn't need to take Torley tutorials in your first hour if you could figure out the interface. Thus the 800,000L I'm throwing into the pot to generate some ideas.

http://dusanwriter.com/?p=557

[Ann Otoole]

Starting around Wednesday new avatars will have the option of landing with a decent haircut/wig. And the other new avis are in the library. So the very first video tutorial should center on how to change avatars, clothes, skins, shapes, gender, and prim attachments. Followed by how to size prim attachments. Followed by an acronym lesson with how to create/use landmarks, teleporting, notecards, etc. And then have advanced topics on scripted items and huds.

[Vidal Tripsa]

It's a little tricky to remember with all that much clarity, but I did go through orientation and most of the steps Linden Lab wanted me to, up until the 'talk' island. Trying to get their chatbots to work was an exercise in extreme patience, so I moved along via the shiny sign to get off hand-holding land. Orientation island itself? I left very quickly. It was a pretty plain-looking place, nobody spoke to me, and despite talk of mentors I saw nobody who could lead me around, and doubt I would have wanted that anyway.

I finally came to be at a telehub, exploring some very basic but nonetheless impressive-at-the-time streets on foot, again not talking to anyone. Eventually I think it took a few sessions later, with me rezzing at the telehub by default and perching myself on a wall, for someone o talk to me and I got chatty with a Mr. Black Sands.

On the whole, not much of a legacy, however one thing lasted - I still have the same body I'd made in the 'appearance' castle during orientation. I wonder what that says about me, having had such an isolated first few hours.

[dandellion Kimban]

I went through my first hours in Second Life again... much like what most of us experienced. I guess it's personal. We all have some amount of interest and curiosity about what we just entered into. That curiosity defines the time that we have to get hooked. And we'll get hooked not because of the UI (though UI that gets in the way can reduce the available time) but because of finding what we, consciously or not, are looking for. For some, it's possibility to be creative, for some it is interaction, for some it is interesting content. But, I feel, that most of us really stays if they find friends, or better, other people with who we can share the experience. After all, if it's not for the people, we can build in blender or maya, or play some nice 3D game.

[Erbo Evans]

Since I already knew what Second Life was before I got in, I had some idea of what things would look like. This was a little over 2 years ago, so I landed on the "old" Orientation Island and carefully went through the tutorials (stopping at one point to reshape my appearance and outfit...I adjusted it until the face looked as much like me as I could get it, and the body was me without a few extra pounds; I still use that shape today, with only a few minor differences). At the end of Orientation Island, I bypassed the Help Island link and teleported straight to Waterhead. From there, I walked around a little bit, looking at some of the surrounding area, and then left by the road and just walked down it, gawking at the sights. There were other people around, but I only talked to one guy, a fellow in a pimp outfit that introduced himself by flying in front of me and standing in my path. He turned out to be a decent guy though.

The following night, I repeated my journey, taking pictures to document the experience for Electric Minds. At a certain point along the road, I passed the Isabel Infohub, which of course led me to The Shelter...and that's where I really got started.

[Gahum Riptide]

I wish I could remember exactly what I looked like but one of the first things I did was look for a new skin. I already knew that there were good skins out there (having seen some of the promotional images). I also went to look for a parcel and that was at the time when you could still get a starter 512 square meter plot without paying for it (other than adding land use fees).

A friend of mine keeps trying Second Life, but everytime he tries editing his avatar to look like he does (one of the only ones I've met to say that he wants his avatar to look like himself), he accidentally logs out or forgets to save and ends up getting frustrated. So, he's never made it off of Orientation Island.

Personally, I'd also like to see avatar creation done offline. Especially since I remember getting bumped, stood upon, and jostled when editing my appearance. I have to say though that the new basic avatars are a good choice. Noobs won't look so roughshod like they do now.

[Bone]

I just want to thank the Electric Sheep Company for making the CSI: NY experience. I first tried SL back when accounts still cost a 10 buck one time fee and absolutely hated it. It was confusing and ugly. I tried for hours and the best looking avatar a managed to come up with was a orange floating baby... And I was shooting for a rough and tumble albino.

I decided to give it a second serious look when CSI came out. The OnRez viewer + streamlined orientation area + decent looking avatars made me want to stick around a little longer.

I had been following SL even though I wasn't playing, so I was a little more aware of what to expect. But still, had CSI not been a stepping stone, I doubt I would be in world (and enjoying the experience) today.

[Amara Parmelee]

My first hour was confusing. I landed when Orientation Island was still just a mountain. I was very curious as I was very new to the whole virtual game thing overall. I didn't want to mess up. I ended up at Hyles, got bored, and started flying. Somewhere along there,I walked down Linden built roads and took rides on the subway. The majority of my hour was walking. I didn't realize I could do what I wanted. I went to clubs, malls, and Popular places( before camping ruined that)

As for mentors, I personally didn't see any on my initial start. When i went to the public Orientation and Help island, they were so many, I got nervous they'd laugh at me for asking dumb questions. I always tried to do things on my own, researching on the knowledge base, getting annoyed, and starting projects over again. it was a long learning curve.

I later joined a free lance club and trained to be a dancer. It was something different, something I'd never do in RL, but in SL, I could. That's what hooked me. I could literally write my own adventure here, which was not something I believed other "games" allowed users to do. I continue to write my SL story everyday. I'm not a dancer anymore though. I am a mentor :)

Most people don't realize the Mentor program is a volunteer thing. We choose on our own time which Help Island or Orientation island to work on, and for how long we will stay there. Not all new Residents stay around for the extra help, and not all Mentors are skilled in the same fields. it's an interesting duty nonetheless, and I've made some wonderful new friends out of it.

[T_S_Kimball]

I think the most important thing to me was that I was primarily alone on OI. It gave me a chance to 'work out the kinks' on how to navigate etc on my own terms, without having others around.

I generated an alt a couple years ago (when I was still playing with libsl) and was shocked how many people were running through the place. It was a madhouse, but endured it anyway; I eventually dropped the alt and can't even remember his name (the experience was too annoying for some reason). Can't imagine what the current OI is looking like these days.

I agree with Dusan 100% that the avatar creation process should exist 'outside' the grid. It's not that hard to implement now - just create a small local sim and place the avatar in that, then save the resulting 'files' to the inventory.

As for better learning through the help of others, I think that's paramount today in order to overcome the current OI experience. I've had the opportunity to discuss this with the current group of entrants from MOUL, and most of them who had a 'good' experience were whisked out of OI immediately and hand-held through the basics of OI instead, in a more 'fun' environment (I have doubts about that last bit - its a club - but I have to admit that its doing just as well, if not better, than Telador did for the initial groups).

There was discussion as early as 2005 about having alternate start points out of OI besides the old Telehubs like Ahern, and for awhile places like Abbots were in fact available as 'home' points for the starting avatar. It would probably be a good idea to try that again.

--TSK

[ArianeB]

I was just posting on my own blog about my first experiences. November 2003, 7 day trial offer, orientation was very limited, graphics card hated SL.

I came from There, where default avatars were pretty and moved naturally from the start. SL in comparison sucked! It got better in time, but it took me two years before I finally felt comfortable enough to sign up as a premium member.

Since we are suggesting changes to get more people to stay, the default walking and running animations still look like crap 5 years later.

Besides fixing initial avatars and orientation experiences, maybe finishing off the tutorial with a collection of really great scenery landmarks (i.e. Svarga, Apollo, Straylight, etc.) to give new players a taste of what SL is really all about. Then also some newbie friendly places like sandboxes, Yadni's Junkyard, Library of Primitives, etc.

Once new members realize whats possible, and know where they can find the resources to do what they want, its easier to keep them.