For most of its history, the prime building block of Second Life was the prim. It wasn't particularly hard to figure out how to make one nor how to shape it and connect it to others to build an object. If you spent a few hours a day teasing prims, you'd probably at least learn to build a simple house in a week.
Of course, you needed to texture it, but that wasn't too hard, either. Select the surface, add the texture. There were numerous free textures covering basic surfaces; so again, you could in a week learn to build not only a house but make a brick house with asphalt roofing and wooden panel floors. It wouldn't be the prettiest house, perhaps, but if one kept at it, you could gradually get better and better.
If you needed a custom texture, you needed to import it. But this task was not that hard, either. It only cost L$10 (that's what? A few cents in RL money?) to import one picture, and most people have photoshop and everyone has MS Paint. The Lindens even offered templates so you could create clothing textures. It was never difficult and the most expensive part was the L$10 import fee.
Then along came sculpties and for the first time, it became harder to be a builder. You could still work with prims, but sculpties required being able to work in Maya or similar programs, programs less commonly seen to the average user. You needed these programs because the sculpty shape was read from an image, which has to be crafted just so to create the correct shape. And to color that image, you needed the same program to export the color layer. You had to create a unique texture for each unique sculpty.
And there you go. Suddenly, it became harder to enter the building market because you needed a sculpting program, and learn how to use that, and learn how to use SL's building tools on top of it all. And you came to need a minimum cash investment. Prims and prim textures are free, but even if you use free sculpting programs, the texture import fees would be at least L$20 (10 for the sculpty base and 10 for attending texture).
That's not to say a new builder can't get a foot in the door, but it's much harder. Sculpties are part of the standard now. People are prim aware, and a choice between a 1 prim sculpty staircase and your 10 prim one... they'll spring for the former. Plus, a sculpty will usually look more natural and less chunky than a similar prim object.
I haven't done research, but I wouldn't be surprised if we lost something in the leap to sculpties. You can't just 'leap in' anymore, amateur style, at least if you want a serious business. And I think people do want a serious business. They want others to look and praise their work.
And now, with mesh, I'm not sure what to think. It's still kinda sorta new, and I don't think it will have the same impact as sculpties, mostly because sculpties already broke the ground on shifting building from an inworld enterprise to an import one. That's a shift I'm not sure was good for the world. Especially when it's expected. You come in expecting to be able to build your world, and then are told you need Maya and all manner of other external programs... It discourages some. It also hobbles teaching. I can inspect a prim structure and point out how to fix it or make it better. With sculpties or mesh, I'd have to send them out and rework it.
And it's being used to divide the world as well, or so it seems. Only the new viewer can see mesh, so you're outta luck if you want to stay on the somewhat more stable old viewer. Heaven help you if your computer isn't too fast, either, because then sculpties (and I presume mesh as well) will turn up as odd spheres, which morph into these twisted piles of wire before finally settling down into the actual object. It's ugly.
I will not doubt that sculpties (and possibly mesh) have made our world a little more beautiful. But it sure is a shame the cost is to essentially outsource building tools offworld and beyond the reach of most of the grid.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Up By Your Bootstraps III
Ok, ok, this is THE final post on this subject for the next month. I promise.
It occurred to me that the failure of textures to load properly and thus fail to pass their instruction onto new residents can be easily rectified by making a simple hovertext nearby. I've noticed that I've seen that load even in laggy clubs, identifying the tip jar for the musician playing that night. It's not as if you need to show people what the arrow keys are, I think most people are familiar with their keyboard. You can simply say, "The arrow keys will move your avatar" and be done with it. Even the interface can be somewhat described. "Find a button in the lower left corner marked 'Destinations', which will blah blah blah."
And you can always have a quick message below it explaining that if they are patient, they can wait for the texture to load in order to see an actual screenshot.
And you know? Another thought occurs to me. If you have a few dedicated mentors on each Orientation Station, it will help in another way besides spitting out information: it will allow them to test out conversing with another person, getting to know etiquette, and so on. Talking to a scripted parrot is not the same as holding a chat with a veteran. From my experience, in an orientation setting, most people won't hold up the line like at an infohub because they're eager to get into the game. They'll exchange friend cards (another important skill glanced over in orientation, as there are unspoken handshake agreements in that as well), and move on.
As always, just a few thoughts for the Lindens to chew over.
It occurred to me that the failure of textures to load properly and thus fail to pass their instruction onto new residents can be easily rectified by making a simple hovertext nearby. I've noticed that I've seen that load even in laggy clubs, identifying the tip jar for the musician playing that night. It's not as if you need to show people what the arrow keys are, I think most people are familiar with their keyboard. You can simply say, "The arrow keys will move your avatar" and be done with it. Even the interface can be somewhat described. "Find a button in the lower left corner marked 'Destinations', which will blah blah blah."
And you can always have a quick message below it explaining that if they are patient, they can wait for the texture to load in order to see an actual screenshot.
And you know? Another thought occurs to me. If you have a few dedicated mentors on each Orientation Station, it will help in another way besides spitting out information: it will allow them to test out conversing with another person, getting to know etiquette, and so on. Talking to a scripted parrot is not the same as holding a chat with a veteran. From my experience, in an orientation setting, most people won't hold up the line like at an infohub because they're eager to get into the game. They'll exchange friend cards (another important skill glanced over in orientation, as there are unspoken handshake agreements in that as well), and move on.
As always, just a few thoughts for the Lindens to chew over.
Up By Your Bootstraps II
I was reading Prokofy the other day and he hit upon another good idea for encouraging retention: create a panel which displays the multitude of things to do in Second Life.
So, for instance, you'd have a panel showing War Sims for Call of Duty-esque games, and a panel to some social clubs if you're into making friends, and a panel to a sandbox and building lessons if you're into making objects and so on. When you click on the panel you want, it spits out a landmark to a location relevant to that interest.
It allows the new user to sort themselves quickly and direct them to where they would go anyway if they followed the current path. Currently, they would land in an infohub, ask where so-and-so is, and then get a landmark. This system would cut the middleman. If all I want to do is rent a house and play with some pets because a Real Life friend hooked me on Sion Chickens, then it's not really necessary to hit an infohub and have to shout over a dozen or so other people asking where I can buy pets.
And again, you can have a feedback system. Ask: Did you feel you were directed correctly? Did you get where you wanted to go? Then you can adjust the landmarks that are sent in each 'mode'. This sim is treating newbies like dirt? Remove them from the Help Station.
This isn't exactly rocket science.
So, for instance, you'd have a panel showing War Sims for Call of Duty-esque games, and a panel to some social clubs if you're into making friends, and a panel to a sandbox and building lessons if you're into making objects and so on. When you click on the panel you want, it spits out a landmark to a location relevant to that interest.
It allows the new user to sort themselves quickly and direct them to where they would go anyway if they followed the current path. Currently, they would land in an infohub, ask where so-and-so is, and then get a landmark. This system would cut the middleman. If all I want to do is rent a house and play with some pets because a Real Life friend hooked me on Sion Chickens, then it's not really necessary to hit an infohub and have to shout over a dozen or so other people asking where I can buy pets.
And again, you can have a feedback system. Ask: Did you feel you were directed correctly? Did you get where you wanted to go? Then you can adjust the landmarks that are sent in each 'mode'. This sim is treating newbies like dirt? Remove them from the Help Station.
This isn't exactly rocket science.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Bumper to Bumper
I was driving down the road when I collided head on with a giant Trojan horse powered by rockets. It thoughtfully said, "Sorry", pushed me out of the way, and jetted down the highway.
"Huh," I said, "That's strange. But Second Life is always strange. Mayhaps someone's vehicle went out of control."
Further down the road, I smashed into a wood burning locomotive. "Sorry!" It said as it shoved me aside.
"Well!" I exclaimed, "Certainly is busy tonight!"
Ten minutes later, I crashed into a Pod.
And then I hit a bus.
Seriously, what happened in the year I was gone? Did the vehicle factory become sentient and spit out a plague of riderless planes, trains, and automobiles? Every five to fifteen minutes I'm hitting these things, which then proceed to push me off the road. Luckily, I never crossed any bridges, but I can imagine these things pushing you off the side into the river below.
So, any reason for this?
"Huh," I said, "That's strange. But Second Life is always strange. Mayhaps someone's vehicle went out of control."
Further down the road, I smashed into a wood burning locomotive. "Sorry!" It said as it shoved me aside.
"Well!" I exclaimed, "Certainly is busy tonight!"
Ten minutes later, I crashed into a Pod.
And then I hit a bus.
Seriously, what happened in the year I was gone? Did the vehicle factory become sentient and spit out a plague of riderless planes, trains, and automobiles? Every five to fifteen minutes I'm hitting these things, which then proceed to push me off the road. Luckily, I never crossed any bridges, but I can imagine these things pushing you off the side into the river below.
So, any reason for this?
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Up By Your Bootstraps
How is it possible that Linden Lab, through three changes in leadership and countless hirings and firings of employers, have still not managed to create a good orientation program?
I've been observing this for some time, and it is shocking that the orientation process has seemingly became worse than when I took my first steps five years ago. It was thought that by allowing residents to create their own orientation stations the process would improve but if anything I believe it destroyed it. Too many half ass it, or create infohubs which fail to provide information people want to know, or omit things they believe others just know. Often, their islands and stations aren't even staffed. It's a crapshoot: if you're lucky, you get shuffled to an OI who cares and commits the time necessary to bring day old residents up to speed. If you're unlucky (and more than likely you will), you'll find yourself stranded, isolated save for your fellow newbies, feeling around an otherwise deserted island, wondering what the deal is with all the gray squares and squashed objects.
If it seems I'm being unduly harsh on the Orientation islands, it's because the in-grid infohubs are complete garbage. Today, I sat in on Bear Infohub. For about an hour, a group of midbies (from around 07-08) dominated the infohub, lamenting that hardly anyone was talking on Voice and who was AFK and so on. The newbies were completely ignored save when they greeted everyone. When that group left, the entire batch of newbies were left to their own devices. There were no mentors to answer any questions. There was a billboard in a corner which linked to Torley's tutorial videos, some of which are outdated and often discuss topics that newbies don't care about. They don't care about sculpties or script efficiency. They want to know where to go to buy things, to meet people, and how to fucking move.
Read that last sentence again. It is true. I was asked how to move about by at least five different newbies. That is a damning indictment of the Linden's failure to bring people into Second Life. How can they enjoy the platform and its community when they can't figure out how to get their avatar to go where they want it?
Here is a list of the questions asked:
The question is, what can be done?
First, get either Lindens or Residents or both to patrol these places and be on hand to answer any and all questions. There should be at least two at each location around the clock. These people, by the way, should be screened and it should be made sure they aren't arrogant shits who'll sneer if someone asks how to fly or attach hair. There should be no worry that the person in this role isn't very software inclined, because it's rare that a newbie asks a question which would baffle the average SL resident. It doesn't take an engineer to tell someone that to attach something, you go into inventory, right click, and select 'wear'. It doesn't take a programmer to tell someone how to search for a night club.
Second, they need to hold a meeting and standardize the newbie experience. Here's a suggestion: after about a month, send a notecard to the newbies and ask them their thoughts on how well the OI prepared them for SL. Don't give any multiple choice bullshit, just ask: "What are your thoughts on orientation? Did we neglect any information? etc etc etc" Multiple choice tends to not tell you anything. 7 out of 10? Why? And these should be collected, and read at the end of the month, and OI should be adjusted accordingly. Don't hand me bullshit that it would take too long. I've worked projects where I've been evaluated by at least 90 or so people, and I was able to handle it and get everything together in about a day. I'm sure a company can do better.
Third, make notecards containing information easily accessible in the infohubs. Isabell and I think Ross do an ok job at that, but most of the others are dismal. It turns the infohubs into glorified town squares where people congregate and chat. There is nothing wrong with that, but the primary purpose of the infohub is to inform. Information should be distributed if asked. And I'd do it in notecards, and not in links to outside websites. Tell people how to do it NOW, not later on someone's website.
Fourth, please police the infohubs a little. Clean up the loiterers. Infohubs, as I said above, have become similar to town squares, where people mill about and chat. Again, nothing wrong with that, but emphasis should be placed on informing new residents of what's what. When you have a newbie asking how to fly, and the crowd is mocking them, you need to call in the police and break it up.
Please, Linden Lab. Fix this shit. You have no idea how many people come into Second Life and abandon it after two or three days because they get no help and have no idea what to do. You cannot tell me you enjoy losing potential paying customers. Why do you let this continue? And the same is said to third party OI. Clean it up, please.
I've been observing this for some time, and it is shocking that the orientation process has seemingly became worse than when I took my first steps five years ago. It was thought that by allowing residents to create their own orientation stations the process would improve but if anything I believe it destroyed it. Too many half ass it, or create infohubs which fail to provide information people want to know, or omit things they believe others just know. Often, their islands and stations aren't even staffed. It's a crapshoot: if you're lucky, you get shuffled to an OI who cares and commits the time necessary to bring day old residents up to speed. If you're unlucky (and more than likely you will), you'll find yourself stranded, isolated save for your fellow newbies, feeling around an otherwise deserted island, wondering what the deal is with all the gray squares and squashed objects.
If it seems I'm being unduly harsh on the Orientation islands, it's because the in-grid infohubs are complete garbage. Today, I sat in on Bear Infohub. For about an hour, a group of midbies (from around 07-08) dominated the infohub, lamenting that hardly anyone was talking on Voice and who was AFK and so on. The newbies were completely ignored save when they greeted everyone. When that group left, the entire batch of newbies were left to their own devices. There were no mentors to answer any questions. There was a billboard in a corner which linked to Torley's tutorial videos, some of which are outdated and often discuss topics that newbies don't care about. They don't care about sculpties or script efficiency. They want to know where to go to buy things, to meet people, and how to fucking move.
Read that last sentence again. It is true. I was asked how to move about by at least five different newbies. That is a damning indictment of the Linden's failure to bring people into Second Life. How can they enjoy the platform and its community when they can't figure out how to get their avatar to go where they want it?
Here is a list of the questions asked:
- "Why do I look like a ghost?"
- "I can't get Edit Appearance to work right"
- "I'm not sure how to use Second Life?"
- "How do move about?"
- "You can fly? How can you fly?"
- "Do you have to pay for different clothes?"
- "Where do I go for new clothes/vehicles/housing?"
The question is, what can be done?
First, get either Lindens or Residents or both to patrol these places and be on hand to answer any and all questions. There should be at least two at each location around the clock. These people, by the way, should be screened and it should be made sure they aren't arrogant shits who'll sneer if someone asks how to fly or attach hair. There should be no worry that the person in this role isn't very software inclined, because it's rare that a newbie asks a question which would baffle the average SL resident. It doesn't take an engineer to tell someone that to attach something, you go into inventory, right click, and select 'wear'. It doesn't take a programmer to tell someone how to search for a night club.
Second, they need to hold a meeting and standardize the newbie experience. Here's a suggestion: after about a month, send a notecard to the newbies and ask them their thoughts on how well the OI prepared them for SL. Don't give any multiple choice bullshit, just ask: "What are your thoughts on orientation? Did we neglect any information? etc etc etc" Multiple choice tends to not tell you anything. 7 out of 10? Why? And these should be collected, and read at the end of the month, and OI should be adjusted accordingly. Don't hand me bullshit that it would take too long. I've worked projects where I've been evaluated by at least 90 or so people, and I was able to handle it and get everything together in about a day. I'm sure a company can do better.
Third, make notecards containing information easily accessible in the infohubs. Isabell and I think Ross do an ok job at that, but most of the others are dismal. It turns the infohubs into glorified town squares where people congregate and chat. There is nothing wrong with that, but the primary purpose of the infohub is to inform. Information should be distributed if asked. And I'd do it in notecards, and not in links to outside websites. Tell people how to do it NOW, not later on someone's website.
Fourth, please police the infohubs a little. Clean up the loiterers. Infohubs, as I said above, have become similar to town squares, where people mill about and chat. Again, nothing wrong with that, but emphasis should be placed on informing new residents of what's what. When you have a newbie asking how to fly, and the crowd is mocking them, you need to call in the police and break it up.
Please, Linden Lab. Fix this shit. You have no idea how many people come into Second Life and abandon it after two or three days because they get no help and have no idea what to do. You cannot tell me you enjoy losing potential paying customers. Why do you let this continue? And the same is said to third party OI. Clean it up, please.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Happy Endings
I find it funny that most movies end with everyone pairing up like the nuclear apocalypse has rained down upon us and they need to repopulate the planet.
It may seem strange and bizarre, but two people can work together and not hook up. It happens quite often. Half of my class of sixty or seventy people are single, after being in the same classes for the past five years. And most of the rest are with people they happened across one day.
I came to this revelation while watching 'Toy Story 2' on Disney the other day. Woody the cowboy had Bo Peep. And suddenly, Buzz had the Jessie the cowgirl, and Mr. Potato Head got the Miss Potato Head. Looking at the third in the series, we get the irritating pairing of a Barbie doll (a character which had little if any exposure in the previous movies outside of cameos) and Ken. I say irritating because almost all commercials focus on this, as if 'love at first sight' is completely new to writing.
It would be refreshing to see one movie where the leading actor and actress do not fall in love. Doubly so for movies where the two only just meet for a few days and share maybe three pages worth of dialogue.
It may seem strange and bizarre, but two people can work together and not hook up. It happens quite often. Half of my class of sixty or seventy people are single, after being in the same classes for the past five years. And most of the rest are with people they happened across one day.
I came to this revelation while watching 'Toy Story 2' on Disney the other day. Woody the cowboy had Bo Peep. And suddenly, Buzz had the Jessie the cowgirl, and Mr. Potato Head got the Miss Potato Head. Looking at the third in the series, we get the irritating pairing of a Barbie doll (a character which had little if any exposure in the previous movies outside of cameos) and Ken. I say irritating because almost all commercials focus on this, as if 'love at first sight' is completely new to writing.
It would be refreshing to see one movie where the leading actor and actress do not fall in love. Doubly so for movies where the two only just meet for a few days and share maybe three pages worth of dialogue.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Men in Skirts
Some newspaper recently decided that the best way to lampoon the Philadelphia Flyers (who are off at the moment chasing the hockey championship) was to [poorly] photoshop one of the players in a skirt. With the caption, "Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane."
The initial reaction will probably be, "oh, but who cares about that ol' rag?" Well, that 'rag' just happens to be the Chicago Tribune, which just so happens to be eighth largest newspaper circulation in the United States. And this article managed to slip between the collective cracks of quite a few editors. The writers, the editors, and god knows who others looked at this article, and gave it the seal of approval.
Are we really in an age where it's still considered an insult and a slur to call someone a woman? The worst way that this paper could think of to debase the man's athletic ability is that... he plays like a woman? Oooo, scary. 'Plays like Jane' ignores the fact that women do play hockey, and with a good amount of skill.
Their apology reeks of the tired 'it was just a joke, loosen up!' excuse. It's so damn easy to sit from your position of privilege, where your gender, race, and sexuality isn't used as a general epithet for weakness or deviance or what have you, and say unto others that it's just a joke. You don't have to live with it and deal with it every day of your life.
I could go on and on, but I won't. I know most of my readers are not low watt bulbs, no, you guys are like those fancy new ones which are 50% brighter while using 30% less power. But that here, 2010, the staff of a large newspaper saw no inherent problem with using sex as a means to insult someone, and then apologised half-assed, shocks me.
Almost as bad as the completely stupid coverage of what Elena Kagan was wearing and whether she crossed her legs or not.
The initial reaction will probably be, "oh, but who cares about that ol' rag?" Well, that 'rag' just happens to be the Chicago Tribune, which just so happens to be eighth largest newspaper circulation in the United States. And this article managed to slip between the collective cracks of quite a few editors. The writers, the editors, and god knows who others looked at this article, and gave it the seal of approval.
Are we really in an age where it's still considered an insult and a slur to call someone a woman? The worst way that this paper could think of to debase the man's athletic ability is that... he plays like a woman? Oooo, scary. 'Plays like Jane' ignores the fact that women do play hockey, and with a good amount of skill.
Their apology reeks of the tired 'it was just a joke, loosen up!' excuse. It's so damn easy to sit from your position of privilege, where your gender, race, and sexuality isn't used as a general epithet for weakness or deviance or what have you, and say unto others that it's just a joke. You don't have to live with it and deal with it every day of your life.
I could go on and on, but I won't. I know most of my readers are not low watt bulbs, no, you guys are like those fancy new ones which are 50% brighter while using 30% less power. But that here, 2010, the staff of a large newspaper saw no inherent problem with using sex as a means to insult someone, and then apologised half-assed, shocks me.
Almost as bad as the completely stupid coverage of what Elena Kagan was wearing and whether she crossed her legs or not.
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