There is more than nine millions registered users of second life but less than million and a half who logged-in in the last 60 days. We all know that the retention rate is somewhat low. Usually, that is considered as a consequence of steep learning curve and time needed to get a grip on the interface. Frankly, I don't believe in that. One, without previous gaming and virtual worlds experience, needs about an hour to get used to second life. That hour is covered by the thrill of discovering the new world. There is something else causing those numbers.

If you pay some attention on the people you meet on the grid, you might see that most of them really love second life. Translated to numbers, they spend a hell lot of time there. Myself guilty as charged. Yourself, too. If one live second life, one loves it. But, for this world to evolve, to become something like "the next web" (though it won't for the reasons I'll check some other time) it needs not only hard-core lovers but also regular part-time users. And Linden Lab knows that. Thus all the things they do to approach regular web user who will spend less than one hour per day in-world. Problem is, Linden Lab is, despite their efforts, missing those people. 

Let's see what happens after one regular user (the one that doesn't dream of getting plugged-in in the matrix simulator directly via spinal cortex or whatever), register and go its way through orientation and help islands. Let's suppose those steps went ok, that new resident has a minimum of intelligence to learn how to do basic things and to teleport to the mainland.

exit

And there e is, another noob on the mainland. Whatever we thought and say, noobs are noobs and this is a social game. It is hard to hide that you are a noob. It is written all over your skin. It blinks from your hair. It is much harder for a noob to be interesting, noticed and to get friends. They are all the same. It is somewhat hard to communicate with an avatar that looks the same as hundreds of other avatars we saw already. Not to mention that so many people avoid them because they look like griefers. Or like those that will ask you for sex before knowing your name. It is not a problem to make friends or whatever you want if you wear that photo-realistic skin worth thousand lindens and enough attachments to break the sim. Life can be nice and easy while your hair is flowing with the second life's wind. 

So, our noob needs money to get a new look. Where to get it? Camping? While we can say thousand words against camping, none of those things affects our noob. If our noob is regular "less than an hour a day" user, camping is not an option. In an hour of doing nothing one can get, let's say L$10-15. Hardly that you will invest your precious time that way. And hardly that you can buy anything for that money, especially if you don't know where to shop. And you don't in those days. 

Getting a job? Yeah, right. Which job you can get with noobish look and being younger than a week or two? That's right, no job. And no, you have no friends who will take care of your appearance or who will give you some money until you find a decent job.

The last option is buying lindens. That can work, and is the most effective way of getting into second life clean and quickly. You can make a fresh new decent look for about US$10. But, how many people will do that? That means that second life is not free to try anymore. You have to give some money for something you're not sure you want to use, something that you know nothing about and something you're going to use less than an hour a day. And yes, something that is laggy and crashes from time to time, especially because you are still unaware of Nicholaz' edition of the client.  

Very soon, the initial thrill will pass and our noob will loose the interest. E sees the interesting technology, but not much stuff to do with it. Mentors and passers-by will tell that one needs no money to explore and enjoy the world, but that is just partially true. That is true for those who are willing to play this game and/or to live this life full time. What about those that just want to socialize a bit and have a bit of fun? They go to MySpace or get a regular game. What about those that are thinking about using second life for their first life business? They, usually, go back to old, verified tools like instant messengers and power-point. All of them become just one more in the count of registered users. 

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