Looks like we hit around 120 in the Gate and over 150 in the universe. That's a nice change of pace these days, huh? :P
Showing posts with label AWGate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AWGate. Show all posts
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Universe Spy during Community Photograph
AWPortal's Community Spy offers a very handy graph to show us the exact numbers during the Community Photograph yesterday. Check it out below:
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Activeworlds 16th Birthday - Community Photograph Part 4
Happy Saturday everyone! Activeworlds turns 16 on June 28, and we've opened up a week full of festivities with an annual event... the community photograph! Over 115 users were in AWGate Saturday for the photo. I was able to take a ton of screenshots before and after the arrival time, and I'm just gonna dump them all into a few posts. Each post will only contain 10 shots so the loading time for the page isn't miserable.
Photos within this post should have names removed. I also increased my total avatars visible, but some errors occurred on some where they wouldn't load. Click on each image to zoom-in to a wide format (1600 px) image.
Activeworlds 16 Birthday Photograph (Part 4)
Activeworlds 16th Birthday - Community Photograph Part 3
Happy Saturday everyone! Activeworlds turns 16 on June 28, and we've opened up a week full of festivities with an annual event... the community photograph! Over 115 users were in AWGate Saturday for the photo. I was able to take a ton of screenshots before and after the arrival time, and I'm just gonna dump them all into a few posts. Each post will only contain 10 shots so the loading time for the page isn't miserable.
Photos starting with this post should have names removed. I also increased my total avatars visible, but some errors occurred on some where they wouldn't load. Click on each image to zoom-in to a wide format (1600 px) image.
Activeworlds 16 Birthday Photograph (Part 3)
Activeworlds 16th Birthday - Community Photograph Part 2
Happy Saturday everyone! Activeworlds turns 16 on June 28, and we've opened up a week full of festivities with an annual event... the community photograph! Over 115 users were in AWGate Saturday for the photo. I was able to take a ton of screenshots before and after the arrival time, and I'm just gonna dump them all into a few posts. Each post will only contain 10 shots so the loading time for the page isn't miserable.
These photos were taken before the stated arrival time and before I disabled usernames. Some avatars may not have loaded in some photos because I had the settings reduced when I first arrived. Click on each image to zoom-in to a wide format (1600 px) image.
Activeworlds 16 Birthday Photograph (Part 2)
Activeworlds 16th Birthday - Community Photograph Part 1
Happy Saturday everyone! Activeworlds turns 16 on June 28, and we've opened up a week full of festivities with an annual event... the community photograph! Over 115 users were in AWGate Saturday for the photo. I was able to take a ton of screenshots before and after the arrival time, and I'm just gonna dump them all into a few posts. Each post will only contain 10 shots so the loading time for the page isn't miserable.
These photos were taken before the stated arrival time and before I disabled usernames. Some avatars may not have loaded in some photos because I had the settings reduced when I first arrived. Click on each image to zoom-in to a wide format (1600 px) image.
Activeworlds 16 Birthday Photograph (Part 1)
Friday, June 24, 2011
Activeworlds 16th Birthday Week Schedule
Hey everyone! Bach Zhaa has posted the schedule of events for AW's 16th birthday next week, and I'm reposting it here to help get the word out.
Happy Birthday to AW, and have a good week!
Note: If you're looking for events or looking to advertise your event, I recommend that you register with AWPortals, because you will have access to view and create events on the AWPortals Events Calendar and you will also receive a weekend newsletter.
Events for Activeworlds 16 Birthday
Events are listed by order of occurrence. VRT time is GMT (-2)
Please leave a comment if you know of events that have not been posted, and I will add them!
- Saturday, June 25, 2011
- Community Photograph
- AWGate World
- 6:00 p.m. VRT (Party Begins)
- Simply show up and follow the crowd to be part of the AW Community photograph!
- Forum Thread
- Facebook Event
- Teleport to AWGate
- Sunday, June 26, 2011
- PKToons Celebrates AW Birthday
- AWMix07 World
- Noon Sunday through Monday
- PKToons Events Announcement
- Teleport to AWMix07
- Tuesday, June 28, 2011
- Festival Under the Winter Stars
- Winter World
- Starting Midnight VRT
- "As in the past, We gather at the Picturesque Frozen Mountian Lake under the Aurora Lit Sky, for a Full Day & Night of Activities, Great Virlands RiChMeDiA Music & Endless Dancing."
- Forums Announcement Announcement here in the forums
- Teleport to Winter
- Wednesday, June 29, 2011
- Cypress Hollow Parade
- The Parade will be in AWTeen, in the city of Cypress Hollow
- Float Building Site: ^jump float building
Happy Birthday to AW, and have a good week!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
A Retrospective Look at the Public Building Worlds - Yellow (Part 1)
It recently came to my attention that many of the dozens of articles I submitted to AWNews still exist thanks to Gmail, and I've been thumbing through them because I'd like to find some of the good ones and repost them here. The first of these articles is a topical series -- A Retrospective Look at the Public Building Worlds -- where I visited and built in several of the big public building worlds towards the end of 2005.
To give this some context, my interest in writing this series was because every public building world except for Alphaworld and AWTeen had become derelict and neglected. Community interaction with AWI was practically non-existent (Flagg was still away during this period) and the biggest developments on the public building front were happening in AWTeen. AWTeen had been experiencing a cities boom, and I wanted to open the door to other worlds and see what sort of potential they had for builders.
I will post an article from the series each day in their entirety (including original images), with minor corrections for grammar. After the article I will write an addendum paragraph that compares the worlds then to the worlds now!
Today we will take a break from the series to post an e-mail sent to AWNews in January, 2006, in response to the ongoing series. A citizen by the name of Casay who had been a member of the Yellow community during its original heyday sent a very long e-mail in response to the series and asked us to share it. If you'll recall, the state of Yellow world was indeed very dire before Digigurl's efforts to restore it. The e-mail has been posted below in it's entirety, and really captures the disappointment of one of these community members who had seen a beloved location fade into obscurity.
As an aside, it should be noted that I personally don't necessarily agree with all of the views presented here. Some I agree vehemently with and others not so much, but in the interest of impartiality I won't elaborate on that. ;) What I do really respect from this is the insight into this past era in cyberspace (Casay describes a time in her message up to about late-2002) and as such display it here for viewing.
There's also a hidden anecdote concerning one of our esteemed readers here today! Try to find it ;)
(Note: this e-mail has been slightly edited from its original state, to correct spelling/grammar and change formatting to better suit the blog format. The content of the post has not been altered.)
January 10, 2006
Hello Hyper Anthony,
As one of the original people in AW, a member of that Yellowstone community, and a long term member it breaks my heart to see how the whole place has gone down hill. Yes, Yellowstone was a very close knit community as was even GZ in Alpha World. I had a pretty nice house in Yellowstone, Winter and a few other places. I can honestly say that PK's and GK's and the like was one of the main downfalls of AW along with charging a monthly fee for access to basic avatars and building. Two Avs? come on... Oh, the gate overall... well... is terrible and Alpha GZ should be the entrance to AW. You're not 'anywhere' at the gate and have to load another place... at Alpha GZ you're everywhere and can go for 'miles'.
I don't know how long you've been around in AW as I never met a "Hyper Anthony" that I remember, but 'in the day' there were thousands.. yes, thousands.... more people at any given time of day or night than there has been for years. I and several others tried to convince the 'new' owners that they need to get advertisement and let the worlds be free to use, have many avatars for users, allow them to build freely in the main worlds and such. A long time ago there was a Coca Cola billboard at Alpha GZ. How many people saw that? Thousands back then. Now with the advent of DVR's and such advertisers are stumbling over each other to get people to see their products since people like me just skip the commercials. The user base back then was mainly professional people, lawyers, doctors, students, a few just plain geeks and the like. I'm a chemist. Hmmmmmm.... wonder what kind of advertisers that demographic would bring???? Think about it.
We policed ourselves by using peer pressure and such. It worked and it worked very well. We did a 'door' check in Yellow. Someone was always watching to see if someone new entered and we'd stop our adult conversation if was the case to check out the new comer and change our conversation as needed. We usually told jokes but were always aware of children being around. It's just how it was.... not enforced, not made to be that way..... just the basic rules of cyberspace at the time. Peer pressure..... that was the key. People didn't swear.... it wasn't socially acceptable..... unless part of a joke or something but then still rare. A lot of flirting though...... and the adult stuff that did go on was well hidden. I wasn't even aware of it for a long time as I never 'participated' in it. Then there was Gor.............. sigh......and PK's and GK's and...... then ....what you have now. :-(
The presence of the PK's and GK's seem to get people to try to push their and everyone else's buttons, esp. young kids. The mute was powerful in the day as there was no 'boot'. Usually when someone would come into AW and be a jerk, we would ignore them, tell them we were muting them and 99% of the time they would apologize, change their behavior and then have fun because they wanted to be accepted and a part of the group. If they didn't, we'd ignore them and eventually they would go away....... sometimes come back..... and usually then change their behavior. That all stopped once there were GK's and PK's..... and so did the fun.
At any given time there were many people at GZ Alpha World so that when someone new came in, the people there just helped them, welcomed them and almost always there was someone anxious to show them their build! There were always people almost begging someone, anyone, to come see what they'd built! New people were always exciting and having other users help as opposed to GK's was much better as the honesty and excitement was contagious. This real community has been lost. My first time in Alpha, I met a young man by the name of ByteMe that was very excited that I, a new person, was there. He then showed me his build and introduced me to a guy named Grover. ;-) I also met Wascally Wabbit, Lucretia, HenrikG and many many other people and Guilds. Yes, this was a real community of friends, learning, showing off our abilities and such. What brought us all back? We believed in its potential and future. How many years ago was that? To just sit back and see it all ruined? To watch is disinterested into a bunch of Gorian worlds?? sigh..... even ol' Eep was right at times although he had no social ability to properly state it.
Just think, a huge company like Adobe actually paid to keep their stupid Atmosphere going for awhile. Why? Not because it was good technology, but because the overall idea was there, the potential was seen. That was even after the developer of VRML had hoped and stated it should die out. Atmosphere at its best was only as good as the origional AW and still not that good. AW could and should be one of the largest communities on the Internet. It was at one time and so far ahead of it's time......... it still could be if only the owners would truelly open up their eyes to the long term and run it like it should be. Oh, they sooooo missed the best business opportunity when going to 3.0. They needed to NOT make it backwards compatible and go forward. We begged them to just go forward. Keep the old as was and let the new go on and scream from the highest mountain this is Renderware 3, the same as the 'new' Sony play station...... how many people would have came? How many awesome worlds would have been built???? How many game programmers would have developed for AW just to have a chance to show their stuff???? How could have Rick and JP ignore this possibility??? How could they not have listened?????? Not have really seen it?? Now with the advent of broadband and faster processing I can only imagine what I could do there now when I could do a lot with 64 verts and notepad! ....remembering the day 256 verts were allowed...... wow! The AW Mall..... good idea done very wrong.
Yes, the communities are gone and never will they come back if AW keeps running the way it is. I still believe in the potential of AW to be one of the most successful browsers around. It needs real, long term vision and not quick bucks off of the users, but money from advertisement and such. One example: Years ago I mentioned to Rick and JP about a 'newer' place called Pogo.com becoming very popular for the games. Bingo in AW eventually came about and for what it was at the time was pretty darn popular. There was no reason that a part of AW couldn't have been a Pogo.com with many game worlds. Look at Pogo.com now (over a quarter million users + at most anytime, advertisers, prizes given by large companies.... yes, paid access to 'better' games.... but free for most) and maybe they can think that some of us knew what we were talking about back then and still do. I can think of many many other ways for AW to make money hand-over-fist but the first step HAS to be that it's free to enter and build in the main worlds. It will never, ever, ever work any other way.
Why did people come back to AW in the day? Because they learned to build something and then had something 'tangible' to come back to. Oh, and it was FREE to do that. Those people were the community. They loved showing off what they'd built or done. Others, like myself invested in our own worlds as we wanted to do more. Would I have ever bought a world if I entered the place now? Probably not, and I'm certain I wouldn't have stayed like I did. Look at SimCity! Oh..... AW was the original SimCity...... another
opportunity missed........
I'll get off my rant but it truly does break my heart to see it all so ruined. I haven't been a member for a few years now and my last membership was payed by another person in AW as they didn't want me to leave. That person was Daphne, God rest her soul..... That last year I was hardly there anyway. I still pop in now and then as I have friends there still that let me use a spare account if I want. It has changed too much, the fun is gone even though I am able to make objects, avatars, textures and even custom seqs. The community is gone.........the gate is terrible.. Alpha GZ is empty.
So, places like Yellowstone will never be again. Pretty sad isn't it? The communities and friendships, the builds, the builders..... all gone. Rick and JP..... please take a hard look in the mirror and see that you don't have the users that were there before you took over and ask yourselves why????????????? You needed us and our ideas. It's to bad so many great ideas were ignored as your company would be totally different today. I personally like you both, that has nothing to do with it. I just honestly think you really don't understand how it should and could work. You have to make it free to use..... give people avatars, places to build and it will succeed. You will then have the tens of thousands of users at any time of day or night that you need to attract advertisement and so much much more............. jeese...... it was an International community to boot! How
many years ago was it we built IHI???? Now talk about ahead of its time.........
I know I speak for many many talented, origional community builders, users and developers of AW. Why do you think we're no longer there? I know what would work. It's to bad it's not seen. Yes, Rick and JP, AW can make TONS of money.... if only you'd see.......... Why do you think so many of us invested our own time and money into it? We believed..... then it died...... If you want it to work.... I know how and so do many others. Just do it!!!
They will come...............
I'd be happy if this email was passed around there........
Casay
To give this some context, my interest in writing this series was because every public building world except for Alphaworld and AWTeen had become derelict and neglected. Community interaction with AWI was practically non-existent (Flagg was still away during this period) and the biggest developments on the public building front were happening in AWTeen. AWTeen had been experiencing a cities boom, and I wanted to open the door to other worlds and see what sort of potential they had for builders.
I will post an article from the series each day in their entirety (including original images), with minor corrections for grammar. After the article I will write an addendum paragraph that compares the worlds then to the worlds now!
Today we will take a break from the series to post an e-mail sent to AWNews in January, 2006, in response to the ongoing series. A citizen by the name of Casay who had been a member of the Yellow community during its original heyday sent a very long e-mail in response to the series and asked us to share it. If you'll recall, the state of Yellow world was indeed very dire before Digigurl's efforts to restore it. The e-mail has been posted below in it's entirety, and really captures the disappointment of one of these community members who had seen a beloved location fade into obscurity.
As an aside, it should be noted that I personally don't necessarily agree with all of the views presented here. Some I agree vehemently with and others not so much, but in the interest of impartiality I won't elaborate on that. ;) What I do really respect from this is the insight into this past era in cyberspace (Casay describes a time in her message up to about late-2002) and as such display it here for viewing.
There's also a hidden anecdote concerning one of our esteemed readers here today! Try to find it ;)
---------------
(Note: this e-mail has been slightly edited from its original state, to correct spelling/grammar and change formatting to better suit the blog format. The content of the post has not been altered.)
January 10, 2006
Hello Hyper Anthony,
As one of the original people in AW, a member of that Yellowstone community, and a long term member it breaks my heart to see how the whole place has gone down hill. Yes, Yellowstone was a very close knit community as was even GZ in Alpha World. I had a pretty nice house in Yellowstone, Winter and a few other places. I can honestly say that PK's and GK's and the like was one of the main downfalls of AW along with charging a monthly fee for access to basic avatars and building. Two Avs? come on... Oh, the gate overall... well... is terrible and Alpha GZ should be the entrance to AW. You're not 'anywhere' at the gate and have to load another place... at Alpha GZ you're everywhere and can go for 'miles'.
I don't know how long you've been around in AW as I never met a "Hyper Anthony" that I remember, but 'in the day' there were thousands.. yes, thousands.... more people at any given time of day or night than there has been for years. I and several others tried to convince the 'new' owners that they need to get advertisement and let the worlds be free to use, have many avatars for users, allow them to build freely in the main worlds and such. A long time ago there was a Coca Cola billboard at Alpha GZ. How many people saw that? Thousands back then. Now with the advent of DVR's and such advertisers are stumbling over each other to get people to see their products since people like me just skip the commercials. The user base back then was mainly professional people, lawyers, doctors, students, a few just plain geeks and the like. I'm a chemist. Hmmmmmm.... wonder what kind of advertisers that demographic would bring???? Think about it.
We policed ourselves by using peer pressure and such. It worked and it worked very well. We did a 'door' check in Yellow. Someone was always watching to see if someone new entered and we'd stop our adult conversation if was the case to check out the new comer and change our conversation as needed. We usually told jokes but were always aware of children being around. It's just how it was.... not enforced, not made to be that way..... just the basic rules of cyberspace at the time. Peer pressure..... that was the key. People didn't swear.... it wasn't socially acceptable..... unless part of a joke or something but then still rare. A lot of flirting though...... and the adult stuff that did go on was well hidden. I wasn't even aware of it for a long time as I never 'participated' in it. Then there was Gor.............. sigh......and PK's and GK's and...... then ....what you have now. :-(
The presence of the PK's and GK's seem to get people to try to push their and everyone else's buttons, esp. young kids. The mute was powerful in the day as there was no 'boot'. Usually when someone would come into AW and be a jerk, we would ignore them, tell them we were muting them and 99% of the time they would apologize, change their behavior and then have fun because they wanted to be accepted and a part of the group. If they didn't, we'd ignore them and eventually they would go away....... sometimes come back..... and usually then change their behavior. That all stopped once there were GK's and PK's..... and so did the fun.
 |
| Alphaworld GZ as it appears at 0n 0e. |
At any given time there were many people at GZ Alpha World so that when someone new came in, the people there just helped them, welcomed them and almost always there was someone anxious to show them their build! There were always people almost begging someone, anyone, to come see what they'd built! New people were always exciting and having other users help as opposed to GK's was much better as the honesty and excitement was contagious. This real community has been lost. My first time in Alpha, I met a young man by the name of ByteMe that was very excited that I, a new person, was there. He then showed me his build and introduced me to a guy named Grover. ;-) I also met Wascally Wabbit, Lucretia, HenrikG and many many other people and Guilds. Yes, this was a real community of friends, learning, showing off our abilities and such. What brought us all back? We believed in its potential and future. How many years ago was that? To just sit back and see it all ruined? To watch is disinterested into a bunch of Gorian worlds?? sigh..... even ol' Eep was right at times although he had no social ability to properly state it.
Just think, a huge company like Adobe actually paid to keep their stupid Atmosphere going for awhile. Why? Not because it was good technology, but because the overall idea was there, the potential was seen. That was even after the developer of VRML had hoped and stated it should die out. Atmosphere at its best was only as good as the origional AW and still not that good. AW could and should be one of the largest communities on the Internet. It was at one time and so far ahead of it's time......... it still could be if only the owners would truelly open up their eyes to the long term and run it like it should be. Oh, they sooooo missed the best business opportunity when going to 3.0. They needed to NOT make it backwards compatible and go forward. We begged them to just go forward. Keep the old as was and let the new go on and scream from the highest mountain this is Renderware 3, the same as the 'new' Sony play station...... how many people would have came? How many awesome worlds would have been built???? How many game programmers would have developed for AW just to have a chance to show their stuff???? How could have Rick and JP ignore this possibility??? How could they not have listened?????? Not have really seen it?? Now with the advent of broadband and faster processing I can only imagine what I could do there now when I could do a lot with 64 verts and notepad! ....remembering the day 256 verts were allowed...... wow! The AW Mall..... good idea done very wrong.
Yes, the communities are gone and never will they come back if AW keeps running the way it is. I still believe in the potential of AW to be one of the most successful browsers around. It needs real, long term vision and not quick bucks off of the users, but money from advertisement and such. One example: Years ago I mentioned to Rick and JP about a 'newer' place called Pogo.com becoming very popular for the games. Bingo in AW eventually came about and for what it was at the time was pretty darn popular. There was no reason that a part of AW couldn't have been a Pogo.com with many game worlds. Look at Pogo.com now (over a quarter million users + at most anytime, advertisers, prizes given by large companies.... yes, paid access to 'better' games.... but free for most) and maybe they can think that some of us knew what we were talking about back then and still do. I can think of many many other ways for AW to make money hand-over-fist but the first step HAS to be that it's free to enter and build in the main worlds. It will never, ever, ever work any other way.
Why did people come back to AW in the day? Because they learned to build something and then had something 'tangible' to come back to. Oh, and it was FREE to do that. Those people were the community. They loved showing off what they'd built or done. Others, like myself invested in our own worlds as we wanted to do more. Would I have ever bought a world if I entered the place now? Probably not, and I'm certain I wouldn't have stayed like I did. Look at SimCity! Oh..... AW was the original SimCity...... another
opportunity missed........
I'll get off my rant but it truly does break my heart to see it all so ruined. I haven't been a member for a few years now and my last membership was payed by another person in AW as they didn't want me to leave. That person was Daphne, God rest her soul..... That last year I was hardly there anyway. I still pop in now and then as I have friends there still that let me use a spare account if I want. It has changed too much, the fun is gone even though I am able to make objects, avatars, textures and even custom seqs. The community is gone.........the gate is terrible.. Alpha GZ is empty.
So, places like Yellowstone will never be again. Pretty sad isn't it? The communities and friendships, the builds, the builders..... all gone. Rick and JP..... please take a hard look in the mirror and see that you don't have the users that were there before you took over and ask yourselves why????????????? You needed us and our ideas. It's to bad so many great ideas were ignored as your company would be totally different today. I personally like you both, that has nothing to do with it. I just honestly think you really don't understand how it should and could work. You have to make it free to use..... give people avatars, places to build and it will succeed. You will then have the tens of thousands of users at any time of day or night that you need to attract advertisement and so much much more............. jeese...... it was an International community to boot! How
many years ago was it we built IHI???? Now talk about ahead of its time.........
I know I speak for many many talented, origional community builders, users and developers of AW. Why do you think we're no longer there? I know what would work. It's to bad it's not seen. Yes, Rick and JP, AW can make TONS of money.... if only you'd see.......... Why do you think so many of us invested our own time and money into it? We believed..... then it died...... If you want it to work.... I know how and so do many others. Just do it!!!
They will come...............
I'd be happy if this email was passed around there........
Casay
Monday, March 14, 2011
A Scene from AWGate...
 |
| This is what I like to see!!! |
Nice, guys. Keep it up! :P
(Also, I'll be posting some more ideas tonight about AWGate after a productive conversation last night at the AW Town Hall Meeting.)
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The forums beat me to the punch!
Before I had even finished my blog post for yesterday, some activity about AWGate stirred on the forums and eventually moved to a full-blown discussion. I tend to go where the action is, so I opted to post my thoughts there yesterday instead of here. I'll repost them below and then post an addendum based on the current poll results.
As far as the poll goes; I'm more partial to the options that are rooted in reality. :P I voted for the alternative to AWGate that seems the most readily available -- moving the entry point to AWSchool. I'm actually partial to either the AWSchool or AWNewbie option, but AWSchool has a much larger active staff these days and if the desire was there, the staff of AWSchool could take on AWNewbie in a new effort for the new users. I'm glad to see both of the 'tutorial-themed' options doing so well in the polls. :)
Of the alternatives discussed, I'm also very fond of JonBee's suggestion for a quest-based tutorial experience. This wasn't a poll option, but it essentially offers a stand-alone tutorial to new users before letting them loose in our world. This idea has been around for a while, and I think its really great because it gets your feet wet a bit before jumping in. No more getting frustrated and quitting because you don't know how to walk!
My rant from yesterday really only addressed AWGate, but since then the issue seems to have grown to a larger question: Is AWGate enough, and if it isn't, where else could we move new users to? Reading through my discussion from yesterday, I think you would be able to infer that I have no problems with the built environment of AWGate. I actually have nothing but praise for it; it was very well laid out, and there are some features that are incomplete but on-the-whole it does a very good job of being a gate; it gets people in and through the door. My biggest complaint is, in fact, that we aren't using it right... but that's not any fault of the design. :)
Anyway I'll be following this discussion thread and may offer up some more insight later on. I'd like to wrap my head around all of the opinions before I continue commentary. Very good discussions going on right now, feel free to join in!
In the meantime, I'm going to be posting up some older material and parsing through some things I'd like to host on here as I continue getting ready to develop this into a resource blog. I'll probably not promote these posts, and may even bury them as pages -- just want them around. Doing a bit of housekeeping.
Later!
Yesterday's Rant: Linked here
...I'm also of the persuasion that the GKs aren't an effective organization, but that doesn't mean that I have to join the organization and effect change from the inside to justify my opinion. The way new users are exposed to the technology needs to be radically examined, and I think that includes the dissolution of the gatekeepers -- or at least restructuring the constituent members into a more effective team. For example, a lot of people complain about the current gate world and it's gotten a really bad rap that I think is entirely undeserved. It's more difficult to navigate; its color scheme is bland; don't like the theme. From a design standpoint, the circular plaza with informative kiosks flanking the entry point is probably the most economic placing of information you'll get in a 3D environment. The outdoor themed gate is easier to navigate, certainly, but all of the information and teleports were scattered all over the place; which is bad for new users.
The reason I bring up this design is because I don't think that the institution that is suppose to be our face to new users has really *gotten* the point of the new design, hasn't cared to *get* the point of the new design, and has ultimately made it harder for new users to know what to do because of it. There are a number of inconsistencies between what the form of the current gate intends to do, and what the stubborn people at the gate do in practice.
The easiest example to illustrate: The current gate has two 'help desk' areas that are readily visible and accessible for new users. We're in a 3D environment, and ideally a new user should be picking up on visual cues sooner than cues that they would see in chat. Now when I'm in the gate, it's pretty hit or miss if there's anyone actually at these desks. At the very least, if there is a gatekeeper on duty (even if this is not a written rule) it would be in the best interest of new users for them to be at least standing around the desk that is out in the plaza, that is labeled for the gatekeeper. Why is that? Because if I go to AWGate, don't know anything about Gatekeepers, AND I see an empty help desk where somebody should be standing... my logical assumption is that nobody is around to help. Also, if I am a new user... I don't know the significance of bold text. I could probably infer it, but what if the GK is off getting a drink or something and there hasn't been any bold text since I arrived in the world? An idle avatar at the help desk at least implies that there is suppose to be someone around to help me, and I could perhaps wait a moment instead of getting frustrated and X'ing out of the program.
This is an example of a small, nuanced change in the Gate world since it's last design, but for an organization that makes it's home in that world I think they should have adapted to the very helpful visual cue being provided to new users. If they don't, it is a very hurtful visual cue to that new user's experience, because it portrays the image that nobody is available to help them.
I don't know the internal workings of the gatekeepers so I don't know if there is any sort of policy concerning specifically how to interact beyond the chat box, but I've been lurking in the gate quite a bit lately for a video project and my observations are concerning. Most of the time, the people there just aren't engaging the world. I mean really, what's the point if you aren't engaging the world!? What the heck are you doing??? Can we have an option to close out the 3D window? That should be an option, because some people are only looking at chat!!!
This is something that can easily be taught and corrected, but a there are a lot of ideas floating around now for what could be done for AWGate and I think the gate concept and the new users that are trying to get into AW deserve a better collaborative effort that joins the designed effort of the build world with the social effort of community volunteers. The world's got *great* visual hints right now, and I think our creative community could expand on them and really see something good through if we would stop relying on old institutions to do it for us.
I think it's time we give something else a try.
As far as the poll goes; I'm more partial to the options that are rooted in reality. :P I voted for the alternative to AWGate that seems the most readily available -- moving the entry point to AWSchool. I'm actually partial to either the AWSchool or AWNewbie option, but AWSchool has a much larger active staff these days and if the desire was there, the staff of AWSchool could take on AWNewbie in a new effort for the new users. I'm glad to see both of the 'tutorial-themed' options doing so well in the polls. :)
Of the alternatives discussed, I'm also very fond of JonBee's suggestion for a quest-based tutorial experience. This wasn't a poll option, but it essentially offers a stand-alone tutorial to new users before letting them loose in our world. This idea has been around for a while, and I think its really great because it gets your feet wet a bit before jumping in. No more getting frustrated and quitting because you don't know how to walk!
My rant from yesterday really only addressed AWGate, but since then the issue seems to have grown to a larger question: Is AWGate enough, and if it isn't, where else could we move new users to? Reading through my discussion from yesterday, I think you would be able to infer that I have no problems with the built environment of AWGate. I actually have nothing but praise for it; it was very well laid out, and there are some features that are incomplete but on-the-whole it does a very good job of being a gate; it gets people in and through the door. My biggest complaint is, in fact, that we aren't using it right... but that's not any fault of the design. :)
Anyway I'll be following this discussion thread and may offer up some more insight later on. I'd like to wrap my head around all of the opinions before I continue commentary. Very good discussions going on right now, feel free to join in!
In the meantime, I'm going to be posting up some older material and parsing through some things I'd like to host on here as I continue getting ready to develop this into a resource blog. I'll probably not promote these posts, and may even bury them as pages -- just want them around. Doing a bit of housekeeping.
Later!
Monday, February 21, 2011
What is your opinion of AWGate?
I won't be doing a long post tonight, but I just wanted to stop in and get some opinions on AWGate for my next one. :)
This is prompted by a pretty good discussion we had Sunday at the Town Hall Meeting; I'm not sure that a consensus was reached as far as the opinion, but a lot of suggestions were offered as to what could be done to improve it, including things that we do and don't have the authority to do. The discussion touched on pretty much everything you could expect, from the built form of the world to how people actually interact with one another.
I'd like to further explore the built environment and the interpersonal interaction, as I feel those are two pretty big factors in the success or failure of the Gate. How about you guys?
What do you think is important?
Let me know. You can do so here, or by visiting the forum blogs page and keeping up with us there. Whichever medium is more comfortable for you.
Later!
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| Overview of AWGate as it exists today; a central hub in a futuristic city |
This is prompted by a pretty good discussion we had Sunday at the Town Hall Meeting; I'm not sure that a consensus was reached as far as the opinion, but a lot of suggestions were offered as to what could be done to improve it, including things that we do and don't have the authority to do. The discussion touched on pretty much everything you could expect, from the built form of the world to how people actually interact with one another.
I'd like to further explore the built environment and the interpersonal interaction, as I feel those are two pretty big factors in the success or failure of the Gate. How about you guys?
What do you think is important?
Let me know. You can do so here, or by visiting the forum blogs page and keeping up with us there. Whichever medium is more comfortable for you.
Later!
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