Being a new player in Second Life sometimes royally sucks. I mean besides the learning curve like a sheer wall for the UI, the vast beautifully designed but chillingly empty spaces, the inability to really connect with people standing around random places conversing in their own IM clouds or in their own cliquish role play, the lack of anything but the most rudimentary tutorials, the lack of general information and support from anyone but the most kind and generous souls (Dolls, have mentioned I love you today?), or being saddled with UIs that don’t work fully (I still cannot figure out of how to get full mouse-look functionality using RLV2.x, and it seems like no one else knows as well) or are ugly and clunky to use (don’t care how much everyone gushes over Phoenix, I don’t like it).
No, the suckiness I am complaining right now is... if you are new, you can’t get a job.
Face it, you need Linden in second life. I do not have the skills nor the patience to learn Second Life’s item creation process. I only just finally got around to experimenting with creating a tattoo (which amazingly enough lead me to understand how the hell one does the basic designs for clothing in general). It was time consuming. And while I felt a little sense of accomplishment over my completed project, I still prefer social interaction over photoshop interaction. And part of the work I did was very personal, not something I would want to sell. Even if I knew how to in the first place.
No, there just not a lot of work for avatars under 60 days old. And absolutely nothing for those under 30 days. And when it comes to immersive role play environments that I personally would be into, they just about all want an avatar to be at least 60 days old.
Look, I can understand that for most cases. First time players have a lot to get used to. This particularly true if they have not had a lot of experience with chat based, fluid role play. Some of us get it, and other than the challenges of learning to apply our skills in a new interface – something that would actually be helped by having people interested in actually being involved with new players – we do have the ability to hit the ground running at a faster pace than we might otherwise be given credit for.
I don’t know how many times I have gotten comments about having been very busy in my first couple of weeks. Or how many time I have been asked if my avatar was actually an alt. Heck, within a few days of playing SL, I had notecards with my role play information and my limits ready to hand out. I had two alternate viewers installed. I had started setting myself up with restrained functionality items and was experimenting with how those all work and that was mostly self-taught. And even though I sighed up as a house slave which supposedly promised training, I still ended up having to teach myself how to access my collar, check and adjust settings and the like. Mostly out of desperation to stave off the boredom of being a slave being left to her own devices.
I mean, what else am I supposed to do this point? Shop for stuff I can't afford? Wander around aimlessly either forcing my way into conversations or hoping someone will engage me? Pester people to please, please, please dom me or sex me or give me free stuff? Grief?
Sadly the anti-noob attitude leaves this experienced role player feeling cold, empty, bored and ignored. I feel like a Bane wandering the sets of Second Life waiting to serve out my time so I can join the rest of society. Except the only crime I guilty of is my avatar being too young.Yeah, I am already familiar with your Eudeamon mythology.
It is a no wonder I hear about people just sort of dropping out and only intermittently returning. By the time you can actually do anything, you’re already burned out from a mix of boredom and loneliness. At least in WoW, Eve or any other MMORPG, I don't have to put up with extremes of lag, I am given a sens of some things to do from the start and I start building up income and rewards right away.
Yeah well as a viewer 2 user, and don't like phoenix (try imprudence) you're going to be stuck in the life of confusion. Might as well quit.
ReplyDeleteMost people don't like games like WoW since you're given a goal at the start. Life isn't like thatm people like to create thier own goals, not be told what to do. And world like SL seem to fit that bill.
but when all you can do is sex, dance party and shop there's not much else you can do in a so-called open world.
Part 1 of 2
ReplyDeleteActually, I disagree with the sentiment that life does not have built in goals. Offline life does have a lot of goals inherent in it. We are not dumbed into this world without anything to strive for. It is just that they change, evolve and grow over time. We can pursue them or not as our desires or wiring or conditioning – depending which personality model or models you subscribe to.
And our goals are shaped and modified by the complexity of our experiences and understandings of the world.
When we first come into this world, our goals are, for the most part, to eat, to sleep, to poop and to cry – not always necessarily in that order. As we get older, our goals are generally dictated to us by our parents and then society at large. Factors such as how we are raised, physical or developmental issues, or other life events and development go into the structure by which we view the expected goals placed upon us. Are we inspired to be “good kids” and work to get good grades? Do we rebel and choose to strike our own course of action? Do we run into difficulties and setbacks which leave us disenchanted and apathetic?
From there, those experiences go on to shape our more “adult” oriented goals – procuring food, shelter, sex, security, family, self-esteem, creativity and so forth. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is pretty much the accepted heuristic model for how we, as human beings, priorities our activities, and essentially our goals.
So, where does that leave us in terms of Second Live?
Well, other than sex, most of the Physiological Needs are taken care of. And even then, the sex that occurs in Second Life is more of the Love and Belonging type sex rather than the physiological type. Safety is not really an issue, except the financial – thus my own struggle and stress with wanting to find Second Life employment. I don’t want free stuff. I don’t want handouts. I want to earn my stuff.
Part 2 of 2
ReplyDeleteSo, in Second Life, that leaves Love and Belonging, Esteem and Self-Actualization. Most people in this world have an offline life dominated by pursuit of the first three needs – Physiological, Safety, and Love and Belonging. If they have not had the time or opportunity to develop the skills needed to develop the higher to, what is going to happen when we drop them in a world where the base two no longer matter? They are going to focus on the one they know how to do. Thus, the dancing, the shopping and the sex. All of that is middle tier stuff.
Even the most die-hard Humanist or Existentialist psychologist will agree that our early life experiences matter. They do shape how we will go on to interact with life and the world. As well as how we will define and pursue our goals. In Second Life, our first days, our first couple of weeks, our first month or two is our developmental, early life experience. How we are taught to behave then will continue to play out over and over in the course of our future interactions on Second Life. If the “powers that be” or the “parental units” or the “social dictates” or the whatever the heck there is out there do not provide any sort of structure, the vast majority of people either run amok or stick with the contained, safe boxes they are used to in the offline world.
And let us talk about that running amok for a moment.
Griefers. I had an interesting conversation with someone about them. My take on Griefers is that, for the most part, they are people who are otherwise bored and have not found ways to otherwise get attention or interaction. Ignore a child, or even an adult, long enough and they will act up. Particularly if it is an area with little to no structure. If they then act up and get attention, even “negative attention,” will encourage them to engage in that behavior again. Getting someone to complain or be upset about inappropriate behavior is at least more entertaining than starting around watching a bunch of silent mannequins who are off in their own special, private worlds.
Anyway, thank you again. Good comment.