Second Life: The first hour and beyond
by Tateru Nino 
Aug 31st 2009 at 5:00PM
Filed under: Business models, Culture, Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds
Second Life has a certain notoriety for the first six-to-ten hours of the user-experience being an uphill battle. We wonder, in fact, if virtual environments like Second Life can even make do with a conventional tutorial at all. In an MMOG, at least, all you have to do is teach the user how to play the game.
Second Life, on the other hand, is more like being dropped off in a remote, busy community. You're not trying to level up – there's no experience-points and no levels; no game-trappings at all. You're trying to meet compatible people, go shopping, explore, see the sights, make money, start up a business, find educational opportunities, or learn the language.
Trying to cram that into a tutorial is like trying to produce a short accessible tutorial for Osaka, or Budapest.
And that's really the problem here. You can polish up the first hour, on basic movement, communication and mechanics until it gleams with a lustrous sheen, at which point your users are still strangers in a strange land, and run smack up against the harsh realities of the second hour. Then the third.
It's trendy to talk about the grammar of user-interaction in terms of verbs and nouns. That works for Web-sites and for most MMOGs, but we're way beyond that here. New users dealing in sentences. It's not just "shop", "explore", "play", "work", "learn" – those verbs don't work once you get past the Web-site.
As soon as users finish dealing with the very basics (and often before they have), they have far more complex interests than that. How does the economy work? How does land work? How do I make money? How do I get a job? Where do people like to hang out? What does [company] do in Second Life? How do I start my own business? What's the difference between buying and renting? Why is my system performance poor? What sorts of things can I make? What sort of government does Second Life have?
And the complexity goes up from there. Those are fairly typical first and second hour questions. If you're a Second Life user, you've come across far more complex and involved questions than these from new users, many of the answers to which engender many, many more questions.
The odds of the average new user getting the answers to these questions is fairly low, largely hinging on how likely they are to bump into the right person at the right time. How the heck do you, as a virtual environment operator, even begin to address this in any kind of hands-off or automated way? We don't really think you can.
That's not to say that the problem is insoluble. The Web flopped in the mainstream for years for similar reasons (some say it's still a mainstream flop). The Web took a long time just getting to the verb-and-noun stages of user-interaction. Second Life is streets beyond that, and to crack this nut is going to require that rarest of business commodities: genuine innovation.
 |
Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop. |
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
cb said on 5:49PM 8-31-2009
You could try writing help files. (Srsly we had these issues in MOOs et al years ago. People wrote help files. People helped newbies.)
Reply
Miro Collas said on 7:16PM 8-31-2009
I don't see the issue. There are tends of thousands of people using SL every day. They all somehow managed to learn - to varying degrees.
Or is this a case of catering to the lowest common denominator - the same thinking that led us to having instructions on boxes of toothpicks? If people are spoon fed they have no incentive to learn.
Reply
Tateru Nino said on 12:00AM 9-01-2009
Yes, there *are* tens of thousands of folks successfully using SL every day of the week. We call them 'uncommon'. And it isn't about the lowest-common-denominator either. The Lab says 90-99% of folks don't make it through those first 6-10 hours. If you're technically adept, you're less likely to be one of the folks that make it -- why that should be is a matter that's still open to debate. Almost every survivor says that they already knew someone or met someone who helped get them through this period.
In this case, how you'd use a box of toothpicks in SL varies from creator-to-creator, so instructions *would* be necessary. One of the things that takes the longest for people to grasp is that everything is third-party and the operation or use of third-party items varies independently of appearance or type. A vehicle might be sat on -- or it may need to be worn like an accessory (or both). It may use pop-up dialogs, or require a separately attachable HUD. It might need to be clicked on by the owner first, or it might not.
After you've been in SL for a while, you acquire the necessary grammars of interaction that you are rarely phased by this sort of thing. You can look at something and figure out fairly quickly what the most likely methods of operation are.
MeowCat said on 9:52PM 8-31-2009
As you say, "You're not trying to level up – there's no experience-points and no levels; no game-trappings at all." So should there be a tutorial about nothing at all? How to talk and shop? Everyone gets that. Maybe a tutorial about the interface? Blek. I keep thinking of Seinfeld...the show about nothing. Entertaining and obviously successful but once you watch for a while you get the language, pace of the thing, and humor. Maybe the 6-10 hours of "struggle" is just necessary? If it is a true social network people will show them around, which I assume they do.
If I am going to deal with a learning curve I want to...learn something. Let me fry an orc or crash a ship!
Reply
Miro Collas said on 12:11AM 9-01-2009
Quote: "If you're technically adept, you're less likely to be one of the folks that make it -- why that should be is a matter that's still open to debate."
Really? I would have expected the exact opposite, frankly.
Reply
Tateru Nino said on 12:25AM 9-01-2009
Indeed, it seems counter-intuitive. Here's a story about one such user by way of illustration: http://www.massively.com/2008/04/21/peering-inside-disorienting-experiences/
Miro Collas said on 12:29AM 9-01-2009
Heh - yes, that sounds familiar. Yet, meaning no offense, your friend's reactions to it all sound more typical of a person who needs hand-holding than of the average geek. Yes the HUDs are outdated, and don't work most of the time - so the geek gets rid of them and leaves. At least, that was my approach. Oh, and I had no guidance whatsoever.
Reply
orinoco.beresford said on 7:58AM 9-01-2009
I think the problem is in the name second "life"... everyone knows life begins at 40... maybe it takes a minimum of 40 hours to become at least basically acquainted with the way the viewer works, how to interact etc.
Someone pops on to see what it's like... but they don't see anything. They can't make an opinion without devoting a huge amount of time to really find out. By that time the decision is made for them and they love it. Or the decision was made much earlier and they become impatient , give up, run out of their fixed amount of leisure time and leave.
Time is definitely the factor here. There is no demo version, you can't get an overview as there is so much to do or see... yet visibly so very little.
I explored for days, talking, trying, discovering, exploring... I was lucky, I had the time to do so. All user are experiences are different. There is no catch all and there can therefore be no linear route to your Second Life. Determination, Fascination, Exploration, Intimidation, Derision... all words to describe a person's motivation for either staying or leaving... but only if they have the time.
Reply
QueenKellee said on 1:37PM 9-02-2009
I don't think there is any way getting around the personal "mentor" sort of experience. There's 100001 potential questions a newb might ask and no way to guess which one this particular newb wants answered.
I've always thought of the college orientation experience/tour guide approach as one that might benefit SL. It's not automated nor really scalable, but I don't think anything can replace having someone to answer questions. Gather a group of newly rezzed newbs and 1 group leader/mentor and as a group let them ask questions, take them around to see some sights, grab some freebs to customize their av, let them bond together and have a person to which to turn for questions and help. When orientation is "done" give them a pack of landmarks, some notecards with info and how to find more info (highlighting blogs, wiki, etc) and an open invite to IM the mentor with questions later.
It could even get specialized that people coming in with similar goals/backgrounds could get lumped together (social, wants to build, RP'ers/MMORG players, wants to shop) to specialize these tour groups of sorts to more finely tune the approach taken.
Reply
Nadine Neddings said on 10:30AM 9-05-2009
You are absolutely right, QueenKellee. I agree!
When I signed onto SL, I didn't know anybody, but had the good fortune of bumping into a helpful resident who gave me a bunch of LMs and L$500 with which to buy new hair and an outfit (along with a lot of freebies).
New signups to SL are often routed to a welcome center which includes a handful of freebies to get them started--and this is great, definitely an improvement over how things were done two years ago. However, nothing can possibly replace the benefit of human interaction that a mentor can bring to the table.
How to translate this into something practical, I'm not entirely sure. Maybe hold regular classes with small groups (a dozen or fewer) and one or two very patient teachers? This would be labor intensive, but if the turnover rate is in fact 90-99%, we as residents and business owners are missing out on SL reaching that tipping point of going mainstream. Small adjustments like proactive mentoring could really go a long way in increasing the stickiness for users.
Jos Ling said on 2:42PM 9-02-2009
My experience helping newbies on the Help Islands (the Orientation Islands haven't been used for a long time) is that age is one of the main factors governing whether someone has the patience (attention span?) to stick with SL long enough to enjoy it. I don't normally ask the RL age of a newb but it is often provided even when unsolicited. The people who claim to be 18 to 20 simply can't stand in one place for more than a few seconds (my guess is that a significant fraction of those should be in the Teen Grid). Those over 30 are much more likely to actually listen to an answer to their question. If it is fair to say that younger people are, in general, more technically adept, then this age/attention span effect may explain the statistic Tateru mentioned.
By the way, if anyone wants to see a well done self-guided orientation, check out Virtual Abilities. Its the best I've seen.
Reply
danielravennest said on 9:03AM 9-05-2009
One problem I've been trying to fix is the total lack of a User's Manual. There should be one available in the Help menu a click away, on the website, and delivered with the registration email or software download. Instead of a coherent manual, we have the disorganized mess of a knowledge base, forums, and now SL answers. The info exists, but trying to find anything is a challenge.
My try at helping with this is at https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User%27s_Manual
When thats in good enough shape, the next step is making it easier to find than in the wiki. Wiki is good, but its not easily found from the SL website.
Reply
Saxon said on 11:43AM 9-05-2009
To me, there are two big challenges a new resident faces on Help Island. The first hurdle is language. While there has been some movement to give non-English speakers a fighting chance more proactive measures would help. The deluge of, say, Portuguese speakers arriving would benefit greatly from going directly to a Community Gateway rather than wrestling with HI. Thank goodness for the translator writers and the Mentor Linguists.
The second hurdle is context. One of the things which the Orientation Island provided was some sense of "what to do next." A little guidance up-front goes a long way for many. Nadine is right in that we lose many simply because there is not quite enough on HI to fire the imagination of new people and give them a gentle shove to go explore the world. Jos is also correct in that there is a division between those with an "explorer" mentality and those with an expectation of spoon-feedling.
Community Gateways hold promise to mitigate the language barrier as well as to offer some an affinity group to connect with upon arrival, as QueenKellee suggests. Even these have some risk, as they are often unmanned and as such, subject to unscrupulous residents lying in wait to exploit the new arrivals.
To be sure, it is a difficult problem requiring resources, creativity and will to solve. It is however, a problem worth solving.
My $L0.02
Reply
Tateru Nino said on 12:05PM 9-05-2009
Indeed, there are hundreds of possible things a new user might learn, and nothing to tell them why they might want to learn any particular one of those things, or how that knowledge might further whatever goal they have.