Survey Results: Nearly Half Experience Motion Sickness Visiting Second Life's New Homepage

Here's the results of my survey last week, asking if you experienced any motion sickness when visiting SecondLife.com's new-ish homepage. I posted that question after receiving some reports of people having that sensation, so was curious how widespread that reaction is. 

Turns out, a fair amount: 

Reaction was nearly evenly split, with 46% saying they felt motion sickness "a little" or "a lot" when visiting the Second Life homepage. (I'm personally in the "little" category.) If you haven't visited the homepage lately, you can check your own reaction by using a browser that doesn't have your credentials pre-cookied (as that might take you right to your account dashboard) and go here. 

The new homepage is a cool montage of fun, fullscreen video with quite a lot of panning and zooming:

If I had to guess, motion sickness sensations are most likely triggered by the tracking shot of a rollercoaster diving into a funhouse tunnel, and what looks like a dolly zoom shot of three SLers entering Murdoch's Slaughterhouse. (Above.) A dolly-zoom shot was famously first used by Alfred Hitchcock for Vertigo to convey, well, vertigo. (Explainer video below.)

Not everyone seems to be getting the full animated homepage. "I just see the usual static SL homepage," reader Jonathan P. reports. "What are we supposed to see?" And also, a majority of people who took the survey report feeling no motion sickness.

Overall I understand what Linden Lab is going for with this new homepage, quickly conveying a wide variety of virtual experiences and avatars in a high energy montage. The SL homepage gets nearly 7 million monthly visits. But if one million of these visits are from potential new users, and nearly half feel a bit woozy just looking at the website, how likely do you think they are to create an account?

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Comments

[sirhc desantis]

I think it is fun. Crude, effective, something we could and can do in world. Remember fun?

[Mondy Bristol]

Nearly half of 73 responses out of the entire Second Life user base is pretty meaningless.

Come on, seriously?

[Wagner James Au]

You're never going to believe how many respondents are considered meaningful in US presidential election surveys!

[Zaficilent Megalomanius]

Like most things regarding LL, they just get their intern or some random sap to make media for them, and regardless of its quality release it because they're cheap and lazy.
Though it doesn't cause me personal motion sickness, I do recognize that the dolly and zoom effects are overdone, especially when it is in succession with different clips, and does make the experience a bit uneasy.
Will they fix it? No.
Instead the regulars of SL will respond in their cult-like manner and defend even the front page, with no consideration that it could be improved to reflect SL's current goals and market audience, as well as review any effects that could make potential visitor's nauseus.