The Alphaville Herald

Flying Elbows in the Avatar Scrum

by Pixeleen Mistral on 22/10/06 at 11:10 pm

Help Island – You can’t enter this region because the server is full

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Lavant Taggart is hot to help newbies

Second Life resident and Mentor Mikel Maitland dryly observed thursday, “The flood gates are opening” as we IMed each other while standing at the edge of a brutal avatar scrum in the Dore welcome area. Floating avatar name tags nearly covered the screen above the crowd and walls of text chat intermittently washed over the screen. Massive spews of chat text were punctuated by strange silences in one of the worst examples of chat lag I have ever experienced. With chat overloaded, IM was the only way to converse. I asked Mikel if SL could handle the flood and he said, “Nope. I can tell you that. There’s 10 new HI’s…I think 10. At least 8 anyway. No way to cover it”.

Too many residents want to visit Help island – which is full

While the Lindens experience the thrill of hitting the big 1 mill, the infrastructure – at least for helping noobie citizens – is seriously lacking. I was pondering the impact this will have on the public perception of SL when another IM started — the Herald offices had news that there is now a public Orientation and Help island. Previously the Orientation island was a place that you could never return to unless you cleared the cookies in your web browser and created another free alt account. It seems the Linden’s had improvised a response to the shouts “I WANT TO GO BACK TO HELP ISLAND” intermittently issuing from the avatar scrum – but was trouble waiting?

A steady stream of clueless noobies can attract an unsavory crowd, so I prepared for the worst and teleported to Orientation Island – where my fears were confirmed – I ran into Hamlet Au from the New World Notes. Hamlet and I spoke in reverent terms about the prospects of a story and Urizenus Sklar’s return to the active Herald staff as I eyed some confused noobies cowering in the bushes.

Hamlet Au: Hey Pix!
Hamlet Au: What did you do to curse Uri back on us again?!
Pixeleen Mistral: I begged him
Pixeleen Mistral: I really did, too
Pixeleen Mistral: Hamlet, how long till the W-Hat’s come here?
Pixeleen Mistral: this is like perfect for them
Pixeleen Mistral: how will they resist? lol
Pixeleen Mistral: sorry, gallows humor…
Hamlet Au: I thought the W-Hats were already here!
Hamlet Au: heh
Pixeleen Mistral: I mean right here and on help island, griefing the noobs…
Hamlet Au: I’m kidding, it’s nice to see Uri back in SL. Sort of like jock itch.
Hamlet Au: KIDDING!
Hamlet Au: Heh, I think most of them got pwned.
Pixeleen Mistral: this is like a party that is too too crowded
Pixeleen Mistral: its all elbows

Hamlet must have agreed about the crowd – he disappeared and I took a closer look at the scene – which retained the same flavor over repeat visits to the public Orientation and Help Islands. In the clearing stood a large group of mostly older residents intent on steering noobies toward their businesses – or perhaps playing other sorts of games. The braver noobies asked questions, but most of those with the tell-tale standard issue avatar outfits tended to lurk in the bushes – and who could really blame them? Everything rezed very slowly and gun toting para-noobies – all of three days old – were arming any interested citizens while confused new residents asked if they could be killed here. This was truely a fine introduction to the delights of Second Life. As I revisited the Help and Orientation islands over the weekend this sort of scene was duplicated, and I was left wondering if perhaps a slightly slower growth rate and a better user experience might result in more repeat business – or is Second Life meant to simulate a one-time push-gun disabled drive by shooting scene?

On a visit to Help Island – which is nearly always too full to enter – friendly para-noobies decided that I needed protecting and invited me inside the house they had rezed and gave me at least half a dozen weapons. I was touched by this gesture of kindness as I enjoyed the gunfire sound effects. Still, conflicts between the gun club and the social set are inevitable even with no-push set in the sim. Why don’t the Linden’s put a check box in the new account setup so the Guns ‘n Roses crowd can be deposited directly in the combat sims?

Looking back on my visits to Help and Orientation Islands the two memories that stick with me are the can’t teleport because the region is full messages when trying to visit Help Island and a chance encounter with Robo Phillip – a resident I instantly felt I already knew from somewhere. Robo Phillip is rocking an edgy cyborg metaverse CEO look, and is working on taking avatar puppeteering to a new level.

Does Robo remind you of someone?

After the obligatory discussion of the Herald’s editorial stance on W-Hat, I asked Robo if he could take time out from helping noobies to make a Philip Linden hand puppet for me – the Plastic Duck model being rather passe. Robo was a man of his word and delivered a talking King Philip hand puppet to my inventory the next day. I’m still waiting for a promised Torley Linden puppet, but when it arrives – Punch and Judy, look out! I’m nearly ready for the Herald 3 year anniversary party.