Are we building for nobody?

[Freda Frostbite]

I think we also need to have more than just worlds to explore. There is plenty of that to be done elsewhere. We need to have ways to really engage people when they get here. The way I am best at doing that is through events. I will be hosting events on Poesy and possibly on Freda's Retreat. My partner may be having events on Dinkins' Bay. I imagine our friend, Bel Zuta, will have events on Spirit Paths. I know there is a forum page for event listings but one has to go to the forums to find it. I think there needs to be an events link from http://www.kitely.com, on the same page where you can link to the Kitely Market and to the lists of Public Worlds. I also think it would be good to have an inworld event board posted at the welcome center. I would be willing to maintain such an inworld board, if one does not already exist, so that it would not add to anyone else's work load. I think expecting people to find events buried in the forum pages is unrealistic.

FTR, I DO explore other people's land. I am slowly making my way around the worlds. But my first priority in Kitely is Poesy. I have a specific mission in my work there and I am focused on setting that up at the moment. Sow hat time I can spend each day on virtual world activities is mostly spent on building. Also, I am far more likely to visit worlds when I know there are events happening there than other times.

That's my ten cents.

Freda/Steph

[Ozwell Wayfarer]

I think we also need to have more than just worlds to explore. There is plenty of that to be done elsewhere. We need to have ways to really engage people when they get here.

The April hunt has certainly led to an upsurge of visitors to my region, which relates directly to the points I am about to make.

Frida just hit the nail bang on the head. What compels people to stay in an SL region? Ask around and the overriding answer will be “other people”. One of the biggest problems in SL is creating a compelling single player experience. The weak scripting language is mostly to blame. The social scene massages this somewhat in SL, but OS based grids don't have the social players to hide behind.

Until we have better tools for creating more compelling experiences for individuals I don't see that the situation will improve much. When building is the only compelling experience you can offer, all you’re going to attract is people who want to build…..who are not the same folks who like to explore and socialize. It also makes it very hard to market to non-users or people not familiar already with the format.

“Hey, come to our amazing virtual world……and stand around for a bit……you might find a scripted chair if you’re lucky”.

NPCs place us at an advantage compared to SL in this regard, but there is still a long way to go, and sadly there are no easy answers.

[Dot Matrix]

I also think it would be good to have an inworld event board posted at the welcome center.

There's an events board in KWC Stage 1.3 currently under development, you'll be pleased to learn -- in fact, two events boards!

One is based on the Google calendar set up by Selby and Handy, to which people can add events. That is in the revamped info area, and uses media on a prim to work.

The other is a more visual affair and is in the coffee area. Dundridge is working on this system.

[Freda Frostbite]

I am laughing hard now at Ozwell's comment about the scripted chair. Soooooooo true. I spent like an hour yesterday putting poseballs in chairs in the atrium and coffee shop on Poesy because none of them are actually scripted! No worries though, my people are not too good for pose balls.

And yay for the new events boards! That is good news, Dot.

[Ozwell Wayfarer]

I dont want people to think I am beating OS/SL down too hard here Just being realistic.

People moan here and there about how slow progress has been but I think we are really starting to get somewhere now. There are places to visit and some nice scripted items are starting to pop up on the marketplace. But still the biggest question region owners who want visitors and residents should be asking themselves now is "how do I make compelling experiences". Pretty regions are all well and good, but not enough in and of themselves.

As I am building a roleplay sim, I would eventually like to introduce as many single player elements as I can to the world. I would like NPCs who can give quests. Enemy NPCs who can be slain and drop things, and a game coin system, so people can go questing, get some coins and go buy things, even rent a house maybe. You could even bring back some form of Camping with a game coin system. Go chop some firewood for 1 hour, earn 30 gold coins.

Sadly (from the little I know) the native scripting language makes accomplishing this a very difficult task.

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

Building for nobody, hmm.... maybe !

..Working hard on making things more for everyone, just not enough hours in the day, and I actually have to leave the house occasionally now..

I've got a lot of things I want to make for Kitely, scripting is easy, just time consuming As to the NPCs... quests are already available on my NPCs (the hunt Goddess is just one part of a larger system, some of you might have seen SOME of what it can do on the murder mystery), slayable NPCs are on my todo list (and mobs are already on Kayakers world)... game coin and stuff.. easy enough... on the todo list..

..If I can get a couple of guaranteed people on board (you know who you are - err, maybe, umm, do you ?) I'll finish putting together a full system..
..of course, a few donations would be nice ? I'm time restricted at the moment.

[Kayaker Magic]

One of the biggest problems in SL is creating a compelling single player experience. The weak scripting language is mostly to blame. ...
“Hey, come to our amazing virtual world……and stand around for a bit……you might find a scripted chair if you’re lucky”.

I think you are dead wrong there, there are lots of things to dislike about the scripting language but I would not call it weak, and I find it possible to make compelling single player experiences. Come by my world Panthalassa and try white water kayaking, or surfing, or sailing, or windsurfing and then tell me the only interesting scripts here are chairs. Of course, getting the sailboat to tack up-wind or the windsurfer to jump off a wave takes some practice... IM me to arrange a time for lessons in-world.

Are vehicles the way to attract people to a virtual world? They think so at InWorldz where they spent programmer-years developing their own physics engine that can run SL vehicle scripts. We'll see how that works out for them. I never liked the vehicle physics much and have found ways to move vehicles and critters without physics, a way that work well in Open Simulator. There is a sample script here http://www.kitely.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1155 showing the latest server-friendly way to do this. I have a build-your-own boat script on my short list of things to bring to Kitely in my spare time. Chairs? I don't have time to make chairs!

[Dot Matrix]

Don't forget your archery system, Kayaker -- that is great fun, and you can compete against friends in trying to hit the target.

[Ozwell Wayfarer]

Sorry if you take umbrage Kayaker ^^ it wasn't my intention. I admit in the same comments that my scripting knowledge is very limited, and I have been amazed by some of the work Dundridge has done. I have heard lots of good things about your work too.

Still, most regions lack things to make people hang around longer than 5 minutes unless there are other people around. This is true in SL as well as OS. But I am certainly glad there are people like you and Dundridge out there changing that.

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

People don't realise how powerful it CAN be...
It just takes effort to make things cool,
...and takes effort to find that out