Avie Poll: What does SL need to keep residents engaged? Reporting: Katrina Karsin

Second Life was first released on June 23rd, 2003. Exploring this virtual world can easily be compared to other online worlds as you can role play, meet new people form friendships, and relationships.  Some even make close friends outside of SL while others find their soul mate and may even get married.  It is hard to say what percentage of people prefer to keep real life and SL life separate.  While others consider it an extension of themselves and treat people, they meet the way they want to be treated.  That said Linden Lab is insistent that Second Life is not a game at all, as the creators did not design SL to have an end objective or to manufacture conflict.  Instead of LL it is a journey to explore your own capabilities to the utmost while meeting other like-minded people.

The majority of individuals engage with friends they have made by having a common ground like music, building, and scripting.  Others like to take pictures and blog various creations.  Most have found a way to learn more about SL by exploring a variety of venues.  So with that in mind, what does SL need to keep residents engaged?

What does SL need to keep residents engaged?

Morrigan: Of course, the answer is going to be subjective.  I think a way of meeting people is easy.  Having a way of finding community and building upon that.  For those who are loners, I would think of a better way to find out what SL offers.  There is building, scripting, role play, riding vehicles etc.  Also, it's not really mentioned when you make your first avatar that to do anything really fun or to look good, it can cost RL money

Arpeggio: Probably better marketing to have a greater variety of people here.  I would market to the creative types and a broader range of people.

Bray: It depends on the person; some people only want nudity and virtual pornography.  Others need an active art or music life, most want vocal chat.  SL  needs variety .... so that everyone finds what they want.

Rei Schnyder:  I don’t know, what keeps me here is music and friends

LeaFeel: I see the music work in SL is very good, but as you know there is a variety of interests like gaming and sex are highly rated too.  I think creators are making amazing work too and this will surely get interested and I continue explore.

Jon: Don’t know that it needs anything.... if people can't find things to engage in, with what’s already on SL they must be hard to please.  Been here a loooong time...  habit maybe lol.  l like you am into music.... SL is a good place to listen to the various genres there are. 

Kyla: More new activities. everything is kind of getting old. There isn't enough new people or new activities. And more linden interaction. I was told there used to be mentors, who could be asked anything that worked with linden labs. We need that... but mostly we need new blood, new ideas, new things to do or be able to do. Without being as limited. More diversity in the sims would be cool, I see a lot of kids in the kid community, so I feel they need to be supported more too. And there should be something done about the economy in sl. I mean, right now it's based on what money people can bring into SL, those are the ones that make the money and become rich, well what about those who aren't rich or aren't able to bring money in? Or those who have to use SL to survive and pay their bills? Something should be done about that.

Jo: I don't think they can do much more than they are now.  They provide the tools and the residents build the things that keep others engaged.  I enjoy my friends ultimately and I also like scripting and building and the active BDSM community.

Zeipher: Additional privacy features like being able to turn off visibility of parcels around you, to avoid full bright neighbor nightmares. More social events, more hunts, more competitions. Many improvements to the "life comforts" like upgrading the base avatar to something more in line with current GPU capabilities.  I think that there's nothing worse than spending 100's of hours creating forests and marinas and beautiful scenery. Adjusting your eep settings to give off just the right atmosphere of "dusk" only to have a new neighbour move in and build full bright white skyscrapers out of prims as far as the eye can see. I recently abandoned a full quarter region of the beautiful seaside mainland for that reason.. It still hurts.

What it may come down to is the level of exploring SL, and each person’s interest and comfort level to explore in Second Life. Some people enjoy reading and will go to SL Community page Second Life - Second Life Community.  Others need to be shown with pictures or by talking to other avatars in groups within SL.  There are people and places willing to help anyone out, although most help based groups in SL only want to help new people out and become suspicious when they look at a profile and see the age of the avatar but do not realize that avatar is logging in for the first time in a while and needs help understanding the changes with avatars and navigating SL to find some free or inexpensive Bento heads, shapes, skin, etc.  Others find themselves being booted out of groups for speaking English too well and typing too fast!  Some try Flickr, Facebook groups, and Discord to search and connect with others.  It may just come down to how each person thinks and processes what they are learning, and we all know that we learn at different speeds.  In my humble opinion, I think Second Life is created to help us explore our own minds, to possibly push ourselves to learn something new and grow using Second Life as a tool. So sit back, relax and explore!