Wow, Hamlet may have started getting a watered-down batch -- it's summer, Mom Linden may be shorting the Kool-Aid powder and upping the ice. Or maybe he's gotten away from the Contact High. But he's had about three or four columns in a row highly critical of Linden propaganda -- at least some propaganda from some Lindens. The thought occurred to me that Hamlet may be readying himself to bail from the VW industry like Cory if it's starting to seem like a career-killer -- I mean, how many columns can you write, over and over, about girls in fairy wings designing fabulous dresses and geeks rezzing dazzling fractal art?
Hamlet actually says something very starkly that I've never heard anyone of us go so far as saying:
"The official, Linden-sponsored Orientation Island and first-hour experience as it exists is a detriment to retention, with no evidence that the tutorials are any particular help."
This, after an admittedly skewed sample of only 70 readers, who enabled him to make an interesting pie-chart, that claims only 17 percent followed the tutorials. I think in the population at large, it's much tinier, and only Hamlet readers are that nerdy -- and I think his mere 12 percent for "avatar customization" as their first hour activity chosen is probably too low by at least half or more as that's what I see pretty much EVERYBODY who isn't a bot doing in the infohub I work.
Well, I don't know if Hamlet is ready yet to square his magic circle and think some more about why the orientation island is the way it is -- it's all those people he loves to pieces and has feted and cossetted for years who made it so -- Tateru Nino, Torley Linden, Signpost Marvin, etc. Interesting how none of them are "on it" anymore. I really don't know which Linden really bears responsibility here, but whoever it is, it is a very, very, VERY stubborn, ideological and narrow-minded Linden who is only interested in making a machine manual for other geeks and making them play a MMORPG, not really in teaching the average non-geeky new person about SL.
I know that Blue Linden has tried to exercise some influence on this, but proof of his lack of power even though he claims to understand the issues is that it never changes, month after month, year after year. Nothing short of M Linden coming along and blowing it up and starting it over completely, on completely different principles, will do. I've already blogged a million times about what these principles have to be:
o flat land and low-size textures, few objects, and an emphasis on the absolute basics of flighing, moving, dressing, talking, search, inventory with easy to read boards, kiosks, and videos as well as notecards.
o no vehicles, no scripting or building or technical tutorials
o no resident shops, art, buildings, freebie clutter
o no sandboxes
o no game-like tutorials that make you go around steps, up and down mountains, practice skills to get somewhere, etc.
o billboards explaining the attractions of SL -- live music, clubs, shopping, beautiful builds, rentals. These should be advertising space that is rented for PG ads to the general public, in addition to having some rotated by Lindens for the basics
o a few demo/stations about the core fun and interesting things there are about SL: land, socializing, business, entertainment, science, education.
o exit to infohubs or welcome areas on a serial, not random base, with better explanations
What will it take?!
I remember a few weeks back it was speculated that the orientation experience was being designed to keep people OUT. At this I'm inclined to agree. When I joined it was very charming. After talking to the parrot and playing with the beach ball you simply teleported to the Welcome Area.
Now? from what I've seen it's, a haze of mysterious pictograms layered over deserted industrial urban areas. Pages and pages of text, vehicle tutorials (?) maps(?) and still theres no clear way of actually entering SL once lost on that complex. Hard to imagine how it got to be like this.
Posted by: Orange Montagne | 06/19/2008 at 11:15 PM