I'm afraid I've already been turned off by my Second Life experience. For some reason my computer (a fairly new iMac with the latest greatest OS on it) does not work and play well with Second LIfe.
Sounds like a technical support issue, right? I guess it is. But...
The bigger thing is that my motivation to play the game is flat. Instead of looking forward to going there, as I did when I first learned about Second Life, I now dread the thought. I'm sure I can probably go through the effort to troubleshoot the issue, or I could learn to live with the the difficulties of movement and staring at the 'beach ball' as my computer locks up for a while. But now it's not fun anymore. It's work.
I know what you're saying about now: "Wussbag!!!!!" Maybe I am one. But when designing games, you have to consider the wusses of the world. It takes a lot of motivation to overcome the hurdle of having things not work the way they're supposed to. Is the game valuable enough to the player to be willing to work first in order to play? Or are you designing for an audience that likes that kind of challenge? And does the game need to be bleeding edge, or will another, simpler design work?
So my experience with Second Life has made me think more of motivation than anything else. I don't know if I'll end up being able to use Second Life. I wish I could. It looks fun. But not THAT fun.
1 comment:
Maybe you are a wuss, maybe not. There are a number of us who have fun troubleshooting things (I'd go nuts in my present job if I didn't find it a bit fun). But you are correct in that there are a large number who would be turned off by the frustrations of the environment. Not just those who don't like the troubleshooting aspect. I was poking around in the game today at work and one of my co-workers wanted to know what it was, so I pointed him at the site. He is an avid gamer and insatiably curious about any game that is out there. His comments were akin to yours but directed at the slowness factor. He equated the environment to games he was playing in the early 90's. He felt that it was way too slow, even on the campus network. (He would have had a cow trying to use it over modem :O)
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