How to Improve Second Life New User Retention: Reader Recommendations

Whoever Linden Lab hires to fix its first-time user experience, they may want to take a look at what New World Notes readers recommend:

Optimize the first-time orientation for low-end computers. Ideally it should look halfway decent on even a PC/Mac laptop with no 3D card. More from Yves Firlan:

Update the default settings so any system they might have runs halfway stable with decent graphics after installing the viewer for the first time (like: did they ever change the default setting for bandwidth from 500 to 950/1000 which is one of the main reasons things rez frustratingly slow for Newbies?)

Immediately connect new users with affinity groups:

I don’t think there is a single new user experience in the history of Second Life’s carrier that prompts you to join groups you may be interested in. Such a no brainer for social. -- Adeon Writer

[I]t's astounding Linden Lab never figured that one out. To take it further, groups need to be improved. (Or maybe we need a feature separate from groups that can act more as a social hub, as current groups are tied to land ownership and other features that limit how many groups we can have, cause group chat issues, etc.) -- Penny

Yes, exactly. I'd go so far as to say new users should be able to choose groups on the webpage sign-up.

A couple more important recommendations:

Recommended laptop for SL/metaverse creation:

Update the default avatar:

Refusing to update the default body, instead pushing us to user-created mesh bodies, fractured the entire avatar creation aspect of SL. Now you need to choose a mesh body, which costs money, and to make an informed decision you need to understand the THREE different types of rigged mesh (rigged, fitted, and Bento), understand that clothing is made for specific bodies, and have a grasp of what kind of clothing support each body has. How is a newbie supposed to figure all that out on their own? - Penny

That's good advice but not sure how feasible it is, since so much of the SL economy depends on mesh bodies.

Speaking of which, here's a radical ideas --

Pay established SLers to onboard new users:

The way SL is designed it will never be easy to use, one can only make it easier for newcomers to stay by assigning them a Mentor who should get some type of remuneration from Linden Lab depending on how long they can make their Mentees stay and come back into SL. - Yves

Second Life's many complexities are so difficult to fix, it might make more sense to literally pay veteran Second Life users a "bounty" to onboard new users, spending the 3-5 hours necessary to get them over the first-time user experience barrier. 

I'm not sure how feasible this suggestion is either, but look at it this way:

If Linden Lab paid, say, $10 in Linden Dollars for each successfully onboarded, retained new user -- i.e. someone who logs into SL 3 months after creating their account -- it would cost the company $1 million to grow its user base an extra 100,000; to add 1 million new users, just $10 million. And maybe that would be the most cost-effective way to grow the user base? 

Image via: Watch: 18 Years Later, "Second Life Still Can't Communicate To New Players What They 'Do'"

Comments

[Penny]

I like the idea of giving people group options at sign-up. Maybe a part of the sign-up process could prompt the new resident to choose some interests, and based on those interests LL could offer some group suggestions.

LL should do a better job of representing the various communities through their starter avatars as well. Why are there no furry or anime starter avatars? Those are big communities in SL.

I don't think paying users to guide new residents through their first few months for $10 a head would work, but I do believe LL should be investing in the community. There should be incentive to creating content that draws people into Second Life.

Another problem has long been that many locations within SecondLife do not allow new accounts. This is due to how easy it is for troublemakers to create throw-away accounts they can use to shut down entire sims for hours, or even days if they time it right. Places that have experienced this usually require accounts to be as much as 30 days old otherwise they get ejected. This effectively solves the griefing problem but makes actual new users feel unwelcome.

Thankfully, it seems LL will finally be providing landowners the tools they need to de-fang the troublemakers while still allowing new users to visit. Basically by allowing landowners to set account age requirements for rezzing objects and running scripts. They haven't given a time frame for these features, but it's finally on their radar.

[kenz]

First user experience
is it possible to set bootcamp for new users
1. sponsored by vendor
2. helped by senior users, most of them may boring here over year but still hanging in sl
3. add daily task like most mmo with reward certain token for exchange some powerful stats Gear (kidding) or sponsor’s special gif

Mesh body
1. promote a standard, and give endorsement of those compile (it should be a long run program). the purpose of it is for unifying mesh clothes.
2. permanently obsolete classic avatar and make a official mesh body with this promoting standard
3. this standard please including head
4. separate the body and face shape configuration. this improve the face making up industry

Viewer UI
1. make viewer has edit mode and user mode. let our mouse can do normal stuff as in most mmo

[highlyadjective resident]

Basically, these ideas are, make SL much easier to use - which also means, take off the immigration restrictions in place, and let in lots of casual gamers who are going to have a much different attitude about SL then the current user base.

[Luther Weymann]

Since 2008 I've made it a point to frequently look at Nearby and find 1st-day avatars and IM them asking to help. So far, I'd guess it's over several hundred I've tried to help. Here are some of the most common responses.

1. They don't know what to do or where to go. I always give them a landmark to Muddy's Music Café and instructions on how to click the colored dance balls near the ceiling.
2. No idea how to rez a prim.
3. Do not know about the SL Marketplace and how to filter search results for free clothes and bodies. This is overwhelmingly a positive thing for females. Then after a while, they text me with free stuff and don't know what to do.
4. They don't know what a sandbox is, how to rez their free stuff from the SL Marketplace, or how to Add or Wear new clothes.
5. SL does not deliver a HUD they are wearing by default, allowing them to visit important places in SL and understand what is here. I give them my collection of 250 landmarks.
6. Often times they delay answering IM because they don't know if they can answer or text.
7. I have found the most important thing is that they need to immediately get to a place they can be with other avatars around them, with music playing from a DJ, click the dance ball and start dancing and just stand there adjusting to SL and looking around. Over and over, I have received many IMs days after meeting them, telling me that getting them to Muddy's, dancing, and looking around was vital to them adjusting to SL. It is a stop and be calm, look around; you don't have to do anything way to adapt and to feel like you're with people and can observe SL social skills. They report to me that just standing there dancing, looking at the new viewer interface, hearing the music and feeling like they are part of something with the other club dancers got them to slow down and evaluate what is going on.

This has been my experience with Day One avatars.

[Nadeja]

Encouraging socialization immediately is a good point.
Second Life loses newcomers at every step.

1. Some people quit in the very first minutes, turned off by the graphic of whatever. Or because they have a look and don't see the what's the point of SL.

2. Who remains, if they explore a little more, often complains that there is nobody or just bots anywhere they go. The most common question asked on Reddit and elsewhere from newcomers is where they can find people and socialize.

3. Those who still stay may eventually manage to find a popular place - or someone gives them a few LMs - only to be ejected shortly after, as Penny said too in better details.

4. If they didn't quit for good at that point and eventually found an active place that doesn't eject them, part of them may easily crash amid the unoptimized crowd. Or their "viewer" hangs every few teleports - imagine the user experience of a web browser that freezes every few web pages - or their inventory doesn't fully loads, they stay clouds... and a load of other bugs and issues that oldbies are used to, but that aren't in fact normal and okay.

5. Those who didn't yet erase SL out of desperation, then would compare their new avatar with the sophisticated ones they meet. If they don't know about the freebies, they may find it pretty expensive and then complex. Moreover the clothing and accessories have no preview, even the old Roblox has them; in SL, if you are lucky, you have a picture inside your folder that looks like a file explorer (awesome for geeks and power users, less for newcomers).

So there is a series of obstacles, each of them stopping some of the new users, until only few remain.

[Nadeja]

An idea would be an introductory mini-game, instead of a boring tutorial.

The game would address the points above, by
- giving the new users a goal and motivation to continue;
- showing what you can do in SL and what SL is really capable of (other than just parking your avatar AFK in a music club), all this while having fun;
- meeting other newcomers and helpers in a newcomers-friendly space;
- getting some nice extra starting item, to have an avatar that's good enough, then building further user loyalty with rewards if the user continues;

The game can be anything and it can be more than one.
There could be even an experience driven one for who isn't so much into playing, but would love a boat or a balloon ride in beautiful settings or a simulated trip to Mars.
A game could also be a sort of amusement park.
Another game could be something creative to show that SL is a creative platform and you have to build something; although "prims" are outdated now, an educational game (e.g. assembling molecules) may still be fun.
It could show that you can simulate anything from a train ride - and that unlike most other virtual world, SL isn't just isolated rooms - to a pirate mini-game with galleons, trading, and experience keys.
SL could also simulate and ecosystem like in Svarga: imagine an educational game based on that, but with the last SL updates.
A game could also be set in the reconstruction of an historical place, showing both roleplaying and educational capabilities.
Recycling and improving the old pet-capturing game may work for showing the newcomers some of the best places around SL.

LL could improve their LL portal park and turning it in an actual starting center with LL staff and volunteers, etc. i. e. not yet another infohub with trolls or a portal left to its own devices, but an alive town square where people socialize, exchange info, see the game leaderboars, SL photography awards, SL destinations and editor picks, oldbies/helpers give advice, etc.

Really, there are countless possibilities to make the first time user experience amusing, rewarding and socially enjoyable and starting your second life with a good idea of what SL is; instead of a bare tutorial path, a starting region left to its own devices... and only years later your users find out that in SL you can also do this and that.
Firestorm tried something, but introductory games showing the various sides and capabilities of SL may be more effective in new user retention and information.

[Eleri Ethaniel]

The discussion that ensued at our house, is how difficult SL has made it to engage in and be a *part of* the world. Want a good avvie? Spend money. Want a place to build? Spend money. Want a place of your own? Spend hundreds of dollars a month. The advent of mesh meant that the entry point to participation got even harder- now to be able to built cool things, you had to have separate software and actual modeling skills.

The thing that stands out about other sandbox games is that throwing up a server of your own and having a place to hang out and customize is both easy, and inexpensive. LL nickel and dimes you for *every little thing*. We're in the process of abandoning our land and dropping our premium service, because it's not worth it anymore. The barriers to being creative and social in SL are just too high.

The saddest thing is, LL just doesn't seem to *care*. When Meta happened, SL had a golden opportunity to PR how much better their service was, how they've had a lush, visually appealing virtual world for *decades*... and there were crickets.

[Iggy 1.0]

I stick around in SL to Roleplay in some of the historical sailing sims. So I can only talk about that part of the world these days.

Mostly I see the same folks again and again. I like it that most of them are not gamer kids and can type in decent English, whatever their native language. I get to practice my Spanish with some of them, too.

As an old-time user, I'm still unsure how to get folks to stay long enough to try the service. I tend to run into a couple of "types" I meet who probably would turn off new users who want a gaming experience with user-generated content: the sex-all-the-time RPers and the combat monsters who cannot lose a fight without whining to the admins about cheating.

I'm a mediocre sailor and gunner, but I did find a group that organizes sailing-ship fights and that welcomes noobs, giving them tips on how to sail better. But just TRY finding that your first few days in world. I had to work for it, and I've been around what? 15 years.

You don't even need a great avatar; in fact, the lower ARC, the better for sailing. Dress up nicely when the fight ends and RP starts at the tavern. Ships cost anywhere from $1000L and up, though we had sailors do well with freebie ships approved for our battles.

Linden Lab just does not know how to push these sorts of experiences out to potential users. Partly it's info-smog: how DO you get someone's attention who's bombarded with lots of ads for games already? Maybe by linking it to media properties, but that costs a lost of $$ the Lindens never wanted to spend, even in 2008.

[Luther Weymann]

All first-time free members should get a permanent 512 property from the abandoned zillions of land, which is automatically set as their Home upon the first rez. If they don’t login every 60 days they lose the land. They should be wearing a HUD with Home on it, a link that opens their inventory with really good clothing, furniture, landscape stuff, and a small 512 home with instructions on how to rez. The HUD should have links to important places to visit, some being sponsored links, a dance animation or two, and a link that opens up other links for How To. There should be L$1000 Series 2 Lindens which is a Linden half the value of regular Lindens already in their account and links to the SL Market, sponsored links to women’s and men’s clothing stores, a link of "friends" that have offered to mentor if you want mentoring. If there are 20-30 thousand or 200,000 to 300,000 new signups a month and SL wants growth and retention, then I suggest they load up on the growth experience, give these people a real starting place. In other words, give them a home in SL, make them feel at home, and that credit card on account or Premium can come later.

[Fred B]

10 Linden dollars times 100,000 new users is only $4000 in real money. Get real.