New Welcome Island For Starting Residents

 
For some newcomers to Second Life, their first steps will be at a new place inworld. There's a new entry place for those starting out: Welcome Island.

Hearing that new accounts were already entering Second Life through the new place, I created a new alt to take a look. The new sign-up process doesn't offer a choice of appearances. Every male logs in as the same brown-haired human with facial hair, jeans, an open shirt, and carrying a radio. Women were logging in wearing red dresses with white blouses and carrying pocketbooks. A "Welcome Island Guidebook" opened up, providing instructions on how to move around (on the Linden Viewer that new accounts are asked to use, one can walk about using the WASD keys).

There were a few areas to be used as one went through the Guidebook, for practicing sitting, introducing newcomers to the ability to change appearances with the various starter avatars (aside from a couple fierce-looking werewolves, the only alternatives to human were a few vampires and elven avatars), and getting attachments and wearing and detaching them. Overall, it looked like a park area, with plenty of greenery and plenty of places to sit, with some water.

Not everyone there is a newcomer. I was messaged by someone almost right away welcoming me and asking if I needed help. So it looks like volunteers are there at times to help out those who are new. I was also invited to a group, "The Newbie Mafia," then cautioned about accepting any more invites.

Near the end, the Guidebook brought up the Destinations Guide and the Events page, encouraging people to explore the wider virtual world, with a nod to the Guide's "Newcomer Friendly" section. It also invited people to check out blogs about Second Life. My new alt's first journey ended at New Citizens Incorporated, though someone could have easily checked out London City if they didn't mind the crowd there.

Not everyone appears on the New Welcome Island. I ended up creating two alts as the first I made appeared on the same Learning Island I did four years earlier. So the Lab hasn't replaced the previous newcomer places, at least not yet.

Comparing Welcome Island to the two-sim Learning and Social Islands, the new experience is faster and quicker. There's nothing on how to jump or fly, no introduction to building, no instructional videos, none of Social Island's games that made learning a little more entertaining. At least there wouldn't be if it wasn't for the helpers who were at Welcome Island. 

This new area seems more dependent on volunteers, and perhaps people at newcomer-friendly areas the new residents would see, to answer questions. But there's no comparison to Destination Island of 2012 that offered very little instructions and newcomers could very well end up in a place that threw them out for being too young, and the new resident experience introduced in 2013 that was apparently so bad the Lindens discarded it in a few months. The Learning and Social Islands came about in September 2013, and have been around for almost a decade with one change in 2017.

While Welcome Island is closed to all but brand new accounts and volunteers, there is a Welcome Back Island anyone can visit to check out what the place is like.

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

Source: Uccie Poultry

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Fantasy Faire Opens

And it's begun. The twenty-one sims of the Fantasy Faire are now open to the general public. Already some of the sims, such as Fairelands Junction where the main entrance is at (61/101/34), are a bit crowded. So expect some lag. You can find the SURLs to the other sims here (link).

Of the Fairelands Quest, the first part should be available in a few days, "Part 1 of the Quest opens Monday, 26 April and Part 2 starts Thursday, 29 April." 

For more information, check out the Fantasy Faire blog: https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/
  
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fairelands%20Junction/61/101/34  

Bixyl Shuftan
  

The Winter Swaginator Hunt, Gift Five Location

The Winter Swaginator Hunt by Linden Lab is almost over. Last Monday, the fifth and final gift in the gift grab was placed out on the Grid, the clue leading to the Zermatt sim. But of course the SURL provided didn't take you right next to the location. But the clue does tell you it's in the center of a frozen lake and involves a log cabin. And within sight of where you land is a frozen lake with a small island in the middle. And on that island is a cabin.

As it turns out, it's a copy of the cabin that's a gift for premium accounts.  You'll find it at Zermatt (148/145/83)

Around the cabin, you'll find copies of earlier weeks gifts. Pretty clever of the moles involved. And the package for this week's gift is on the rug.

The gift package contains a snowy bench, a chopping log, a snowy fence section with one post, a snowy fence section with two posts, a section of snowy path, and three snowy trees, one that's full of snow.

And so that's the last of the gifts from the Winter Swaginator Hunt. Hope you had fun tracking them down, and Merry Christmas.

Bixyl Shuftan

The Winter Swaginator Hunt: Clue to Gift Five

After five weeks, the Winter Swaginator Hunt is coming to a close. This week, the clue leads you to the sim where the gift is.

It begins with a Z and ends with a T, a cute little cabin and a wintery tree. Located at the center of a frozen lake, the prize can be yours if you find it to take! http://bit.ly/2QCTWkg

Clicking on the SURL takes you to the Zermatt sim. The first thing I saw was the scene above. So just where is the gift and what is it? Stay tuned for where and what it is.

Bixyl Shuftan

The Winter Swaginator Hunt, Gift Four Location

It's the final day to get gift four of the Winter Swaginator Hunt. The clue was a vague one, suggesting it was somewhere around the Winter Wonderland area accessible from Portal Park. Turns out that the gift was placed just outside Winter Wonderland's entrance, at Portal Park 1 (180,112,52).

Unpacking the gift, there are four items of furniture: a bed, a bedside table, a bedside table with books, and a table lamp.

Check the Linden Blog tomorrow for the fifth gift in the Winter Swaginator Hunt, and the last one for free players. Premium accounts get one more gift.

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Video: "Commentary on New Avi Experience Second Life"

(Click Here if the video fails to load)

From Skyspinner Soulstar, "I recently went through the process of making a new avatar in Second Life, and was deposited on "Learning Island" where I learned ... nothing. Until LL creates a rich and encouraging first experience, the rest of us can help out as we are able. Here is what happened ... "