Telehub image by Ciaran Laval
How do you make Second Life feel more like a serendipitous social space? Expanding off some good points raised by EmptyEyes, I suggested this:
Add a small L$ charge to teleporting, and bring back free-to-use telehubs that are available across the mainland, and an option for sim owners. That would subtly encourage players to walk/fly/ride in vehicles and socialize more.
Lots of interesting reader comments (and guffaws) around my idea, especially this from Sue R.:
If Linden Lab had created towns, each with a community center or square, instead of an amorphous, giant expanse of Linden houses… maybe. Telehubs were an interesting compromise, but they had their cons too.
Charging for teleports isn't entirely absurd, there are MMORPGs that do something like that. In Ragnarok Online you had (still have?) to spend a gem to open a warp portal.
However:
– SL was still very social after teleports were introduced. [In the mid 2000s – WJA]. So I don't think teleport affected socialization so much.
– Other virtual words, like VRChat and Roblox, are basically a portal to different words/experiences/rooms and are more social than SL.
– Since the SL viewer mimics a web browser, teleporting is like changing web page. Can you imagine paying to change/open a webpage?
– If traveling around is so important, then I'd rather improve and encourage that and vehicle driving/piloting, which is rather poor in SL – and despite that, the Drivers of SL [group] is fun, isn't it? Imagine if SL worked better and there were better travel games/experiences – instead of discouraging and nerfing a very common, well-established and useful functionality.
– Without teleport, I doubt people would go to a nearby community anyway: most people don't wander, barely look around without any incentive to do so.
All very valid points! To discus them one by one:
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Wagner James Au / New World Notes 