I joined 3rd Rock Grid a few years ago, but I donāt think I ever actually logged in until this year. 3rd Rock Grid is one of the oldest OpenSim grids, right up there with OSGrid and I believe Franco Grid. 3rd Rock just celebrated their 11th Birthday this August! My friend Han Held told me they had some land there and I was interested in checking it out. Logging in brought me to the Welcome Region which looked quite different from the region I had visited before as a hypergrid traveller.
Since I had never logged in before I was a red cloud ā and so headed down the path toward the Welcome building. I was really impressed ā sharing pictures today as I forgot to take them a few months ago when I first logged in ā everything I needed to de-noob was in one place.
This is SO important. Whether a person is from SL , or never been to a virtual world before ā figuring out how to create an avatar in opensim can be a real pain ā many of the avatars horribly outdated (looking at you Kitely š ) , or nowhere to be found, or no instructions as to how to actually wear the items.
3rd Rock Grid starts you off with a little path ā go to the left to immediately chose an avatar to wear ā along with instructions a to HOW, or go to the right to learn how to walk, sit, open inventory etc. If you choose the Right path, it will take you through the tutorial and then back to the avatar area.
Impressed VERY to see this copyright statement !
Some really great avatars to choose from. Even male avatars ! And those are always hard to get a decent start with.
The avatar selection is great. There are the standard avatars as shown above and then a bit further down are a few different types and the Ruth available as well.
I was at a Kitely community meeting this weekend and most of the conversation was about some new projects being worked on not really related to opensim, and I made a comment about how the avatars are very outdated. This isnt a huge deal perhaps for Kitely since they focus on organizations and groups ā and for those the people log in to be part of that specific group or whatnot and it doesnt matter much what they look like. But for people coming from a gaming environment or SL ā not being able to look half way decent really is a downfall. And then even worse is that there are far too many sketchy grids and regions in opensim that offer all sorts of stolen content. Many new residents dont realize that the āwow that sure looks like a Catwa headā head , and the āoooh its just like Freyaā body are in fact copybotted versions of just that.
3rd Rock Grid takes this seriously by offering some great options right off the bat for newcomers so that they donāt need to find themselves in those questionable grids rummaging through distributed stolen content. And not only are there great starter avatars complete with outfits but come round the corner and you will find AOās (animation overriders) , eyes, skins and a great assortment of clothing for both women AND men. There are also accessories, hair etc.
I think itās fair to say that the retainment of a new user is heavily dependent on how quickly they can become immersed in their environment and enjoy it. If a new user can log in and quickly figure out how to look half decent ā it adds to the fun.
If you are wanting to host a Role Play community, or a club or anything else where people feel inclined to customize their avatar then having a good assortment of starter avatars along with an āall in oneā first stop show is important.
After the initial dress up is over, then it becomes important to find places to visit. Now sadly a few places that I know exist in 3rd Rock Grid didnāt show up in the Classifieds (some favourite shops of mine) so if you are a merchant thereĀ be SURE to post classifieds. Purple Owl Designs has some amazing medieval clothing, and I have the landmark from a Welcome Folder I received ā but for existing residents, or those who may have misplaced their starter folder classifieds are important.
BUT ā that being said, there ARE many places that show up on search, but also a vast array of really amazing community run regions. I absolutely love it when a grid has places that are always up and maintained for the exploring pleasure of residents and guests alike. I found this board at the Navigation hub:
And along with those spots there are super fun places like the Bachman Zoo & Aquarium, the Lazy River Amusement Park,
Egyptian region, a walk about and more. There are also some fantastic user regions like New England Estates by Martin Bacardi ā I still have a littleĀ rental there, it was my first home in 3rd Rock Grid.
There are regular events, and it is open to the Hypergrid so you can travel about, invite friends over,Ā and order items from Kitely Market if you canāt find what you need from the Geode (3rd Rock Grid currency) Mall or the Gloebit Mall. Of course, being open to the hypergrid youāre free to shop at any of the awesome Gloebit enabled regions/grids in opensim.
I would definitely suggest 3rd Rock Grid as a fantastic hypergrid home for anyone. There are a great number of fun regions to visit, the prices are good, the community is friendly, the goal is āfocusingĀ on education, culture, arts, entertainment and charityā as stated on their web page. Although stolen content can be found anywhere, the grid does make it know that they respect the rights of content creators.
This is where I decided to keep Ravens Reef. It feels like a good fit.
There are community meetings in 3rd Rock Grid every other Saturday, so come on by and visit š
Ā Ā 3rd Rock Grid ā A good new userĀ experience I joined 3rd Rock Grid a few years ago, but I don't think I ever actually logged in until this year.
