Retention and the Learning Curve

Two recurring problems that Linden Labs faces with users of Second Life are retention and the learning curve. And, of course, these two problems are not unrelated.

I don't have up to the minute figures handy, but the last time I did the analysis, the percentage of accounts that logged in during the last 30 days was in the single digits. This is not good news for Second Life. It means, on the face of it, that of the millions of people who have tried it, only a few hundred thousand have found it worth while to continue on a regular basis.

There are some mitigating factors to consider, although they don't mitigate much. First, a lot of people create an account just so they can say that they checked out Second Life even though they may have had no intention of staying. Second, most die hard Second Life residents have multiple accounts, called alts. Some will create an alt, use it for a while, and then create a new one to have a fresh start. So, the number of accounts does not reflect the number of real and active users.

The number batted around for Second Life accounts which is in the 15 million range is not a hard number for active users. If I had to guess, (and this is only a guess), I would put the number of warm bodies at the keyboard closer to 3 million with only a few hundred thousand warm bodies logging in on a regular basis. At some point I will analyze the numbers again and try to provide some better data. However, I don't think these guesses are too far off.

Why is this amazing technology so under utilized? And why is the retention rate so poor? Well, there are a number of answers to those question but the one I started this post with is the learning curve. Others include the lack of structure and the failure of most people to realize the potential of this technology. But, I can only take on a piece of this at a time.

Linden Labs has tried several attempts to address the learning curve problem by developing multiple varieties of Orientation Island. However, these efforts are all misguided. It is like saying "People don't seem to like my mulligan stew. So, I tried mulligan stew with oregano. Then I tried mulligan stew with cumin. Then I tried mulligan stew with curry. Nothing seems to work." Maybe the problem is that you don't know how to make mulligan stew.

As I have said before, I think Linden Labs should take a page from the playbook of video game designers and develop quests. I think quest based learning is one possible solution to both the learning curve and retention problems. I am beginning to develop some learning quests at Cosmos Academy and I will explain it further in the next post.

What Do You Do in Second Life?

There are a number of reasons why retention in Second Life is a problem. The learning curve is too steep. There are griefers. There is lag. There are crashes. Inventory gets lost. Many of the people you encounter would make your skin crawl if you met them in real life. Yes, all of these are problems. But they are not the major problem. The major problem is that there is no structure. You show up in this fascinating but overwhelming world with a desire to come to grips with it all and you are left to your own resources to figure out how to entertain your self. If you ask somebody "What should I do here?", they will answer with the questions "What do you want to do?"

Imagine a country where the Division of Tourism does not produce any information about tourist attractions in the country. Imagine further that a brave visitor shows up anyway. They go directly to the Welcome Center and ask "What can I do in your country?" The receptionist in the Welcome Center answers with the question "What do you want to do?" How well do you think the tourism industry would do in this country?

To Linden Lab's credit, they do make an attempt at some tourist materials. There are note cards on Help Island that give you links to new places. However, people do not come to Second Life as tourists. The come to learn or to socialize. Treating them like tourists makes them tourists. The look around for a few weeks and then go on to something else.

The solution to this problem is simple and I am astonished that Linden Labs has not figured it out. They should take a look at video games. When you show up in World of Warcraft, for example, you show up in front of a quest giver. The quest giver gives you an assignment and as you pursue that assignment, you learn things that you need to know in order to function in the game. This technique structures your time and give you goals. The structured time makes learning more interesting and the goals make learning more satisfying.

The Orientation Islands are a weak attempt at quests. But they only cover the very basics of how to get around and communicate. After that you are on your own. They keep redoing the Orientation Islands as though that is where the problem is. It is not. This is like inviting friends over for dinner and only serving them soup. When they stop coming you think it is your soup and put your energy into making better soup. Maybe the soup is OK and you need to work on a second course. Maybe the Orientation Islands are OK and LL needs to work on a second course. Yes, a Second Course for Second Life. It has a nice ring to it.