Flying blind and click to find… (o.o)

I like to keep up with the new user experience and have ran this experiment a few times.  So, today, now that I finally got my computer back after a week of downtime to get a shiny new RL floor… I made me a new alt. =^-^=

Yes, one more Immy alt. (=_=)

Anyway, Registering a new account remains easier than easy.  Give’em a name, birthdate, password, and secret question and WHAM, you’re in SL! (^_^)

… And WHAM, it is… (._.)

Remember Help Island?  Remember Orientation Island?  Remember Discovery Island?

Well, now we have Destination Island!  Frigg’n ya….. Hang on. Let’s take a look at this joint… (=_=)

For one, each DI sim is buried in a terrain megaprim, so they’re little more than green squares on the map.  What a newb sees there is this:

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Not too much to see here.  It’s nearly all mesh, so I can assume that day-1 newbies will have to be in clients which can see the stuff.  Any attempt to explore the sim by flying out will get you insta-teleported back to the center.  But, it’s what I don’t see that bothers me. (>_<)

THERE IS NO FRIGG’N TUTORIAL!!!!! DX

There is nothing to tell people about walking, talking, what page-up does, or what have you.  If anyone has been wondering why newbies have been starting in SL so gravely ill-informed… Well, this is why. (._.)

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All you get are exits.  I right clicked each one and found the regular gambit of landmarks in each.  Most roughly applying to the theme of the graphic on display.  RP places like CoLA, NCI found in the Social exit, and even an Adult door.  Now, with all these landmarks, one would expect an inventory offer once clicked? (^_^)

Well… No.  Upon left click WHAM!!! Teleported to one of the contained locations.  I don’t know how random it is, if it’s random at all, or they have some other fancy algorithm at work, but I found myself suddenly swooshed to the Blarney Stone sim. (O.o)

Mind you, that could have been an accidental click.  Or someone thinking “ooh, social, people there!” *click*.  Whatever it is, if you’re an arrival point, expect people to not know a bloody thing upon arrival. (=_=)

One thing I did not do is age verify or put any payment on file.  So, as a final test, I wondered how access was managed.  I did a quick drop of the map to my adult club in Jonesford Heights and ~FOOM~ I teleported right in. (o.o)

So, that’s the scenario now.  No tutorial, click to pseudorandomly teleport, full ratings access (hopefully based on an honesty birthday entry), and mesh.  Is there talk about bringing back Mentors? (._.)

 

About Imnotgoing Sideways

I'm a Second Life avatar with my own cookie jar! (^_^)y
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9 Responses to Flying blind and click to find… (o.o)

  1. Dale Innis says:

    Wow, that’s astounding! How can they STILL be putting no thought or organization into the First Hour thing? Thanks for the update, bizarre as it is…

  2. I think they just want to get them inside quick. Going anywhere, may be better than being stuck in a training mode, where 90+% just decide its no fun and quit. Peopke ant to do something and figure it out as they go along. So a simple viewer UI helps there.

    Seriously doubt the SL Mentors will ever be be back. Too few of us went to the Help Islands, which is what Blue told me the Lindens wanted. Less than 2% of the people in SL ever met one, according to the database I made with Lum Pfohls ‘flying prim’ data. When mentors were there, they would be on just one or two of the 30+ Help Islands. And that was with over 1,000 mentors. I guess they saw no value in us spreading out to the Hanjas, OIs and NCI’s of the world.

  3. Pingback: Tutorials Are Only Annoying the Second Time « Ridge Wardark Has A Blog

  4. I found this somehow. Let me just say that people tend to complain about tutorials only if they’re already familiar with things. Some people might just want to jump in, but not everyone can learn everything as they go along. There are going to be questions at some point, and you should probably cover the basics at the start.

    • Imnotgoing Sideways says:

      That’s fair. Though, I did like the Discovery Island tutorial with the one gripe that it could be skipped if someone hit the Linden Realms gateway at the start. What’s there now is ways to leave with nothing and nobody to guide the way. My complaint at the moment isn’t about any tutorial. More, the lack of. It just ain’t there. (._.)

  5. Adromaw says:

    Well damn.

    I wonder if they’ve at least pondered a fade in and fade out on completed action tutorial yet (future thing).

  6. sandra says:

    OK, so people, specially LL, do not have a clue how to explain things these days. But SL is a special case. It is like arriving in a strange city. You just have to find your own way. You have to find somewhere to go and something to do. Just like RL. That is the whole point of SL. So maybe this is what needs to be explained: just a notice saying: “SL is not a game. There is no goal. You have to find somewhere to go and something to do. You can buy whatever you want, be anyone you want, talk to who you want, build whatever you want. Your world. Your imagination. Your Second Life. Go!”

  7. Ferd Frederix says:

    New users do get a tutorial on screen. You used an “already setup” viewer. Next time, uninstall it totally and reinstall the viewer so you get the tuts.

    • Imnotgoing Sideways says:

      Ah, hadn’t considered that. (o.o)

      I’ll take a peek next time I get the chance and shuffle together another cool name. =^-^=

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