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| Game creator Loki Eliot on his sim "Escapades" (photo taken from his SL feed) |
In a comment to my postSecond Life game creator Loki Eliot pointed out:
I have found that quite often the image i submit is not the one Linden Labs editors use. For example for my first game "the hidden secret base' i submitted a picture of my avatar walking down the dark corridor. I thought this was a good tease at what users would find inside and conjured questions of what is down that cave, whats secrets would i find?
But Linden Labs editors decided to use a pic they took of someone sat by a camp fire that was not at all related to the underground base. I complained and they soon replaced it with the one i submitted. A month or so later LL changed the image again to one the one it has currently. While this shows exactly what you will see when you arrive at the start, it does not grab your attention or imagination. http://tinyurl.com/cn9h77c . So while its good to consider your snapshot promotional image, your ultimately at the mercy of the Lindens Editor with whether it gets used or not.
Thanks Loki for pointing sharing your experience with us. While I still believe that it is worth investing thought and resources in creating a good picture, you should be aware that Linden Lab editors might have a totally different idea and publish something else. This can be particularly frustrating as Linden Lab hasn't shown great talent in making evident the beautiful side of Second Life - or as Penny Patton puts it in one of her marvelous posts: Linden Lab's Second Life is ugly. So you shouldn't invest your money for having a professional creating a great picture. A destination guide editor might have completely different ideas what the best image should be and your money would be lost for nothing.
I fear as much as the guide has been touted in previous years, there seem to be much less interest by LL to keep it relevant. The categories have remained stagnant (I mean really why does Duran Duran deserve its own category). I used to love looking at all the new additions when they came out on Sundays but there seems to be less places that I as a Child Avatar would be willing to go to. It also takes them ages to remove places that have closed or the events that have finished. The Botanical Butterfly Hunt was still on the guide 4 to 5 months after it finished. Now the last thing that peeves me about it is they have integrated facebook comments. Why not show some loyalty to your own product and integrate them with SL's Feed?
ReplyDeleteHi Christian, it is really surprising that a high profitable company like LL isn't able to promote their product in the best way. The destination guide is like the SL profile feed one of the few intersections between the in-world SL experience and the web. The web is the place were everyone (and I mean especially non-sl-players) get their information these days. So if LL wants to attract new players, they need to make the "in-world to web" nodes appealing. They could do a much better job...
ReplyDeleteI remember the time before they even had SLURLs. Sometimes they didn't work with TPVS too and you and to put in the address into the map manually!
ReplyDeleteThe feed has made sharing places I go and things I do to my SL friends so much easier, it's crazy it's not integrated into to the guide or even marketplace.