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| Hey, I don't recognize that world? |
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| That must have taken *ages* to align correctly... |
Here's hoping AW 5.3 will have some strong offerings. I don't know about you guys, but I look at my long past with AW and when I see all the content and effort I've put into a reputation, it's a bit disheartening. As I become a better programmer I imagine I'll have more open doors, but I do still enjoy building and the screencaps above are some of my first forays into building within Second Life. If you've ever used Google SketchUp, I find the building operations and manipulations to be very similar, with the exception that the surfaces and lines are replaced by primitive, solid objects. The building system there was very intuitive to me as I've used 3D modelers before, and I was building in under an hour.
If you've spent time here developing skills, I think you'll find that many of them can easily translate into projects beyond AW. Perhaps not the building interface itself, but certainly the design sense you pick up in a community like this, and the intuitive geometric relations that you can recognize while working with modular objects.
Anyway, that's it for now. I'm probably going to continue laying low, until AW 5.3 comes out. Later guys.
Ant, I do not care what anyone says. ADVERTISING is the key to business success followed by value and reputation. Of course, as soon as I say "buy advertising" someone will rush right in and say "but Tom said they tried to advertise and it didn't work". Well, if it didn't work then it wasn't done well. Try, try again. And expect to cut loose with some bucks to do it.
ReplyDeleteFor months on end nearly every web page I landed on there was an ad for a program called IMVU. Ring a bell? A *chat* program that touted mawkish, stupid looking but customisable avatars. Over 1 million users. And lets not overlook Second Life which no longer needs to advertise. No matter its shortcomings, it has a HUGE and devoted usership. ADVERTISE.
I've always felt AWI shot itself square in the foot by giving unlimited time to tourists. NO ONE DOES THIS. Tourists, people who actually garnered reputations as "valued" users because they stuck around so long, because chatting apparently sufficed for them, because they could go build in various worlds, some with full rights. AWI gave away the store when they could have given tourists full use of the program with a very generous time limitation of say 60 or 90 days. But hey, why pay up when there's really not all that much reason to pay at all?
When the only people willing to pay are the die hard builders and programmers?
I could go on forever. Much as I hate to say it, because everyone and his brother already has, if it were up to me I'd advertise, get the CHATTERS into the Gate. Pack 'em in with, yes, full build rights but a limited time before they'd either have to pay or leave. What would AWI have to lose in doing this?
Nothing.
Meanwhile, yes, certainly, they should be bringing the program itself up to snuff. Make it more intuitive, easier to use, actually offer help files with not only one or two difficult to understand examples but dozens. After all, AW does present a steep learning curve to many people. As well meaning as AWSchool, et al may be, many people prefer to figure things out on their own.
And I'll just shuttup now.
While I'm on a wee hours roll... Here are the keywords from www.activeworlds.com:
ReplyDelete"virtual worlds, virtual reality, virtual 3d avatar worlds, 3D worlds, avatars, chatroom, free chat, 3D graphics, teen chat"
Am I the only one who sees this is sparse and less than illustrative? Especially "teen chat". Is this the only audience for AW? If so then yeah, it's time for me to move on because I'm not a teenager. I'm an adult. I don't frequent chatrooms, I enjoy creative venues. 3D graphics? Wow, that sure spells it all out.
Whoever redesigned the AWI site, I have to wonder if they've even heard of SEO, search algorithms, rankings, keyword balance distribution.
I haven't looked to see if any of these so called keywords are reused in H1 headings.
I love AW but damn, it's not up to me or anyone who *pays* for it to show AWI the light. Especially since they've traditionally ignored it over and over. Too little too late? I dunno. Maybe AW, as it is with very few users, suits AWI just fine.
I just dunno.
(want me to stop clotting up your blog?)