Second (Life) Impressions
So, as promised, I gave Second Life another shot yesterday. I figured that if I just got out of Noobieland, I’d be able to find some cool stuff to do. I started to fly around, not really knowing what to do or where to go. I tried to ignore my first instinct to look for people with exclamation marks above their heads. I flew, and flew and saw a bunch of empty houses and buildings. There wasn’t a soul anywhere.
Finally, I decided to click on the button that said “find” and asked for the most popular places. It told me there was free money at so and so. I tried teleporting there but it told me the space was full so I couldn’t. I figured if it was that full it must be a really happenin’ spot.
So I flew there. Over. Five. Thousand. Meters. It. Took. For. Ever.
During my overly long flight there, I saw absolutely nothing of interest except a bunch of billboards and more buildings. Seriously, there wasn’t a soul in sight. This game is popular, right?
Finally, I got to my destination, which happened to be a very small building. Inside, I found about 20 people. Most of them were dancing on neon-colored pods on the floor, and others were sitting. I soon realized that they got $4 (in game money) per 10 minutes they spent dancing/sitting.
How…fun.
So I stood around. No one was speaking. I’m not really sure anyone was at their computers. Then I noticed one of the pods was free, so I walked to it in my robotic/non-fluid sort of way, and stood on it. I started dancing. About 2 seconds later, the automated thingie told me that that pod had exceeded its payout amount and had to be reset.
So I stopped dancing.
I stood there, bored out of my skull, and decided to leave.
Outside, I started walking, only to have absolutely nowhere to go.
That’s when I gave up.
I seriously don’t get it. What are you supposed to do? Where are you supposed to go? I thought this game was going to be lively and full of people and full of interesting things to check out. But there’s just a bunch of empty buildings for lease.
So if any Second Lifers want to give me some tips, I’d appreciate them. I’m sure I’m missing something, I just don’t know what it is.
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POSTED IN: Musings, Second Life
4 opinions for Second (Life) Impressions
Shockwave Plasma
Mar 31, 2006 at 5:55 am
I know what you mean, that it looks empty all the time, and thats how I found (still fiind) it as well.
You can usually find someone to talk to at ” The Shelter ” as its a place for new people to go and get a few ideas.
If you look at James Au blog on the SL site, he has what’s happening.
Clickable Culture
Apr 18, 2006 at 11:46 am
'Second Life' Inhospitable For Some…
While the virtual world of Second Life has grown rapidly since 2005, the number of residents logged in at any given time hovers around 6,000, about 30% of the total number of accounts created, and is usually scattered across Second Life's massive …
Prokofy Neva
Apr 18, 2006 at 12:28 pm
“Most Popular Places” are…popular with 40 avatars or more on a server so they can’t fit any more. So ditch them and type in search words that interest you like “photography” or “architecture” or “1960s fashion” or whatever. “Live Music” is a good one on events.
Like First Life, it’s very hard to make Second Life meaningful until you make a friend. There doesn’t seem to be a way to make a friend without going to events, hangouts, places and click around and talk.
I think it’s worth going for the premium, even for a month, paying the $9.95, getting the free 512 m2 of land, and building a little newb house and garden and meeting the others doing the same thing. Sometimes that leads to finding like-minded people to do a project or event or neighbourhood with.
Patch Lamington
Apr 21, 2006 at 5:09 am
SL can be pretty harsh for beginners - no matter how many other MMO’s you play. Yes, a lot of it is empty - thats simply because most of the space belongs to individual players who like having their own bit of virtual world - and when they arent there, the homes will be empty.
Having read your first post tho, Im not sure SL is for you - there is no level 2 for you to reach, let alone level 60. Lots of SL players deny that it is even a ‘game’. You came looking for something totally different to what SL is.
You also deliberately skipped out of Help Island - which I wouldnt recommend doing.
First rule of SL: Go to Help Island and take the time to ask questions and chat about what is involved in the ‘game’.
Once in SL good places to begin are The Shelter
and New Citizens Plaza. Use the Find menu :-)
Once you are in SL what you do is entirely up to you - yes for a lot of people SL is nothing more than a fancy 3D chatroom. For others its about creating fun stuff.
And ditto Shockwave’s comment: take some time to read over http://nwn.blogs.com/ to see just some of the wacky stuff that goes on there.
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