As previously posted, CSI NY has a lot to offer as a way of orienting people to Second Life. It has flaws as well, including in the new viewer, namely:
- The search function in the new viewer brings you to the “ALL” tab, the other tabs (places, classifieds) are hidden two levels down. For a newbie, this will mean a struggle to find what they’re looking for.
- The shop button simply launches a browser to the onRez site within the viewer – not sure why we need a browser WITHIN the viewer unless newbies don’t know how to alt-tab either, but then they’ve been sitting on their couches so long watching CSI Miami reruns ya gotta make it easy. (It does cause lag and memory leak however)..
- The viewer leaks memory on Macs
- It is difficult to remove the CSI HUD
- There is no clear way “off” the CSI sims – they don’t give a nice handy guide to newbies on some of the sites in SL.
OK, so I come to SL, attracted through the TV show to the idea of discos, sex, crazy furrys and other antics. I arrive and find – hmm, I find Disneyland. Even the “crime scenes” have huge posters and labels “THIS IS A CRIME SCENE!” as if the police tape and dead body wasn’t enough. Ah well, these are newbies.
But please, for the love of god, if you’re new and reading this, don’t despair. Let’s have a look at what people do with their OWN imaginations (oh, P.S. the build buttons are hidden as well, the buttons that are the WHOLE POINT of Second Life).
Maybe I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Exhibit A: Signage
In CSI NY signage is clear and user friendly. This is part of the Welcome area, for example, generously supported buy Cisco.
This, by comparison, is the welcome centre in Toxian City (oh and I even forced sun to noon just so you could make out some detail, usually it’s grimy and night):
Exhibit B: Crime Scene
Again, notice the clear signage. Oh! And look! The crime lab is right across the street from the scene of the murder! I guess everyone was out watching the World Series when the murder happened right next door to a brutal slaying. However, for intelligent forensic investigators, clear instructions on what to do, with a handy link to an external Web site (aided and abetted by more advertising).
Compare to the “crime scene” at Missing Mile:
Exhibit C: The Mean Streets of New York
Ah yeah…the grafiti scarred streets of the city. Um…well, I found one tag anyways.
Compared to the gritty streets of Midian City:
Exhibit D: Fun and Games
Oh, look! Big signs on the ground telling you to have fun and games!
Or, you can hang around Toxian City and, um, that’s some kind of, um, rack there in the foreground. Is that FUN? 
Or, maybe just hang around Midian – oh, look, people, playing roles, being social, not playing some kind of weird card shuffle game, and actually interacting with each other in a highly detailed, gritty, urban sim!
And finally, and perhaps most of attractive of all, an SL resident at home – coffee steaming on the table, feet up, feeling contemplative about the true art to be found in Second Life – the stuff made by the users, not the Disney version of what people think users might actually enjoy.
Wow, amazingly vivid argument — a picture does always save 1,000 words.
I was so glad you “got it” about the problem with the SEARCH and having to drill down. I don’t know why it should be so hard to persuade people.
The clues and crime scenes look as if they were made for 9-year-olds. They are terribly dumbed down, and contrast with the very breathless action-packed machinima that makes it look less lame.
I think the people who make TV perceive their viewers as stupid. And…that’s why they’ve lost them and their advertising eyeballs. And…that’s why you’ve gained them at your superb build in SL.
The question is what an old lumbering media dinosaur like CBS should do. Well, a different model might be to fund obtrusively sites like yours, and work an ad into the scenery itself, possible.
I’m actually shocked — so the place was created for 9-year-olds and I still didn’t get it? Only one hour after looking at the nice ‘clues’ on the ground I was told by someone that I need a HUD to play (but I couldn’t find it). Then I had some (apparently incorrect) information that the HUD would come automatically by the OnRez Viewer or that you needed the OnRez Viewer to play the game or, well, that you needed to join through the site, or…
In fact, allegedly, none of these are true, you can use the regular viewer, but… you have to start with a HUD!
Wow, 9-year-olds are getting pretty clever these days, and my age is showing… I thought I could help these people out somehow (and spent a few hours on their orientation areas), but… I have no clue what they’re supposed to be doing, and the layout of the OnRez viewer is sufficiently different to be able to give them some tips on the interface when they’re stuck! Also, never having seen the HUD, I can’t also explain to anyone how to use it. This was rather frustrating to me, so I simply hang around with friends and had some nice chats on completely CSI-unrelated buildings. Mind you, the overall buildings are *very* nice, even if they are of the “clean” variety…
The Heads up display is called a “Toolbar” It is clearly marked on both of the Orientation island signs when you first start, but if you are having problems Gwen I will of course give you (and anyone else) a copy. Just please do not pay someone for them, as the user’s progress does not transfer with the device.
Wonderful comments and thank you Economic for the offers of assistance. I must say, I did like the way that the HUD combined audio and text (and video? I can’t remember now to be honest). Hadn’t seen a multimedia use of a HUD before it was refreshing.
And thank you Prokovy. If I could take an ounce of credit for superb builds it wouldn’t be for the ones of which I took photos. And while we’re on the subject of 9-year olds, with them wandering around virtual Barbie worlds, and Club Penguin (4,000,000+ kiddies) I’d be very careful about any disparaging remarks about the intelligence of 9 year olds when it comes to virtual worlds.
Having said that, I am indebted for your comments and your own observations. Your concentric circles commentary really speaks to the beautiful thing about virtual worlds – the flow of content up and down, ‘old users’ sharing their content with new ones so that new mash-ups and concepts are freshly created.
I have been away from SL for a couple of weeks due to being on holiday in RL and have been following the whole CSI thing through blogs such as this one. My home in SL is in Toxia and I really appreciated the positive comments about Toxian City.
From my extensive wanderings in SL I have drawn the conclusion that over 90% of companies setting up a presence in SL don’t get it. All the best sims I have visited are small organically grown places started off by amateurs. Every time I have been to a big hyped “event” in SL its been a disappointment. Most companies treat SL residents as mindless drone consumers happy just to window shop and chat to one another about the wonderful products they are purchasing.
Sims such as Toxia which create a atmosphere and let the people in the sim actively join in with creating new parts of the architecture, role plays etc are some of the most highly visited non-sexual parts of the grid. Don’t forget Toxia has its shops too (admittedly for weapons and the like) and it relies on these shops for paying for its tier etc.
Of course a violent, dark sim peopled by cyborgs, vampires, demons and the like (on a good day) is not for everyone. People get shot in Toxia a lot, people are not nice to other people. That is what makes it _interesting_. The person who can create this sort of interactive community outside of places like Toxia or sex places will be the person who really cracks creating a commercial presence and community in SL that everyone wants to participate in rather that creating a virtual storefront with nothing behind it.
It will take a huge amount of effort to achieve. Ask Miss Wright or any of the other creators of Toxia but the rewards will be immense.
[...] happens when we try to port our old ideas and paradigms into the new space. Last time I checked, CSI New York was relegated to a few lonely and disheartened looking [...]