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What better way to end a long week than some ridiculously excessive outfits and freaky mystique?
Pics courtesy of the Lady Gaga inspired 3d cosplay contest on right now on our web online world.
ps - if you look carefully you might discover a guy in there! *snickers*
by Blacklady
by BriellaDream and Ladygagaluv
by Kabbalista
by Sweety
by Polofolo
by Kel
by Mr Gaga himself, Brad!
Have a great weekend everyone!
File this in the "no brainer" category, forums are hard work
Building up a new forum from zero, as we are doing with the boards that accompany our 3d world has, surprisingly enough been one of the more challenging aspects of community building.
Whilst some worlds de-emphasize forums, I've always thought they provide an important avenue for asynchronous interaction, and a sense of shared identity and history (maybe I'm just oldschool?).
Whilst you could make the argument that a forum should in theory just linearly grow as with the rest of the site, in practice that's not always the case. Despite having amassed 65,000 posts since alpha began, we still have a ways to go, if this were a book we'd be around chapter 2.
The goal for any forum of course is getting it to critical mass - where it become a rich, thriving and self perpetuating destination in its own right. Gaia Online shines as in that regard - it's buzzing with everything from creativity to random chatterboxing (4chan also has a lot going on, but let's not go into that here)
Our advisor Robin Harper (someone who knows plenty about community building) had warned us not to expect too much from the forum - "only a minority of active users are active in the forum".
She's right. What we've found up to now is the majority of the posting is being done by a small minority of users, those "super fans", including VIPs, mods & angels (our volunteer guides), and of course us in the admin team. This morning we Skyped with two of our U.S. volunteer interns ChanndieT and Leelu to see what we could do to accelerate the growth rate. Apart from just needing time, energy and TLC (as forums tend to need to get started), we did identify a few specific problems:
1/ Many active posters today are signified with a bolded, different color name, which has the effect of intimidating newcomers from getting involved (a lot of bold does overwhelm)
2/ Our forum style up to now has been sparse, and to be frank, boring graphically
3/ Using the stock standard PHPBB3 forum install (we've done custom integration with the rest of our site but most of the forum end is at default settings), and as such we haven't been exactly that user friendly
So, after that brainstorm we came up with some immediate things we just rolled out:
1/ Dropped the separate bolded colors for mods, angels etc and just made them all the same - but still keeping forum ranks in posts so people could know who to contact for help:
2/ We decided to come up with some graphical icons for our different forum sections. As we had no time or art resources available, we decided to just make do and grab matching profile pics from members and massage them into a nice format:
3/ We implemented the "quick reply" module, to let members reply instantly rather than needing to hit reply and loading another page.
So here's how the first section of our tweaked forum now looks:
Small but meaningful changes done today
Initial feedback seems to be good in the last few hours, but of course, the proof is in the pudding, and we'll be closely checking our new post and new poster count in the next few days... stay tuned for results :)
...and for all new forum admins out there battling like we are, keep pluggin away!
A big change for Frenzoo users logging in today to our online 3d world.
It's a shiny new start page which lets users:
- Jump straight into most popular activities via shortcuts (critical for newcomers)
- See all the latest community news and read the user-made magazine
- See the latest contests and winners
- Rate items
- See VIPs and non-VIPs who have just logged in
- View latest creations
- See new arrivals to the shop and popular items
We designed that looking at how newbies and olderbies were interacting with the site - newbies needed to be able to hop into the action - chatting, changing their avatar, shopping etc, whilst existing users also wanted to be able to easily see what was new and happening around the community.
Here's a screencap:
We'll see how the new page goes and continue to evolve it..
We have also have introduced today a new version of the main page, the one visitors (or users who haven't logged in) see:
Before it was a single frame image, now we've extended that out into a multi-frame slideshow that highlights the different elements of our world and has the graphics from our new 3d scenes:
- Meeting people and chatting
- Creating and building
- Shopping and styling
- Contest and community
Will be interesting to see the feedback on it over the weekend... speaking of which, enjoy yours!
It''s been a hectic week for our 3d startup - a gut wrenching roller coaster ride.
After many months hard work we finally did our big 3d scenes launch with lots to do - managing the tricky migration, cleaning up the post-launch bugs (not done yet!), acting on user reactions, jump starting creators and getting the word out to the blogger community for their reviews and feedback ...
The team pose for a snapshot with our strategic partners, Anshe Chung & Guntram Graef
So how did it go?
Good, bad and ugly - User feedback
We were nervous before the launch.
It was a big change, and we know change isn't always easy for people, especially when it concerns something many love already "as is" - the beta before (some classed it as more of an alpha) had 3d avatars but in a flat 2d backdrop.
One of the most popular scenes post launch
The morning after community reaction was overall positive, which let us breathe a little sigh of relief (at least at first):
Hannygirl: "this is the best thing that ever happened to frenzoo !! (in my opinion)"
Stylite: "this 3d scene is a good improvement. And to my surprise, it didn't eat up any more of my GPU power than I had expected before the 3d scenes aired...I think it's a success "
Being able to do more, have fun in interactive and more immersive environments seemed to strike a chord with the audience.
However whilst the overall feeling was positive, we got a lot of specific negative feedback about the avatars not looking as good which upset many of our most hardcore fans, in particular with the new lighting, texture and 3d camera angles:
AngelKiano: "I like the 3D scenes, but.. according to me... avatar's face looks strange..and the avatar's legs look so much shorter!!!
"
KowaiM: "The eyes seem strange in general. It looks how to say? Messy. ):0 Um, yea the nose looks weird too..."
There was one particularly distressing post from an active user nom nom nom =3 that brought it home:
"when you take pictures they don't look very good there's not as much light and they just look weird. i realized that i really really miss how it was before. i thought this would be awesomeness!!! x3 but i really do not like it so i'm gonna leave this site"
That woke us all up! So the first couple days after the launch we we dropped everything to concentrate on fine-tuning the camera, angle and lighting settings and get our avatars looking better again.
BEFORE: Camera set too high. Legs appear short. Lighting setting too dull.
AFTER: Camera adjusts to be more horizontal closer up, and lighting enhanced.
To our relief, people loved our fine-tuned avatar settings much better:
Lo_specchio: "Thank you very much for fixing the camera angle and changing it to horizontal and also for adding back the close zoom! I would be very glad if we could leave the camera angle that way"
Pikabo: "The angles are much, much better!! It helped a lot with the "big head, short leg" look!"
One other negative aspect was (and still is) the increased loading times to bring up the scenes and slow down and crashes as memory is used up. That part frustrated me a lot, and no doubt others as well. We're making some fundamental changes to how we handle chat and scenes in the coming weeks which will help, although I suspect it's going to be an ongoing effort to get stability and speed up. Did I mention I hate crashes?
We also noticed after launch people were confused how to edit their scenes - which was a worry as it was something unique and interesting in our new product.
Old way
1/ Left click the item (its hotspot)
2/ Move your mouse to where you want it to go
3/ Left click again to put down the item
So we made a little tweak that seemed to make all the difference, and we noticed more people getting into the home arrangement groove.
New way
1/ Left click and drag the item where you want it to go
2/ Release the left mouse button to put down the item
I_eat_cookies: "This is so much less complicated! Thanks a lot!"
Home arrangement in the new scenes.
So overall people are happy with the change, we are attracting more users and keeping them more interested - although still a long ways to go. The stats seem to reflect this - post launch we noticed a good pickup in chat traffic (Sunday was our biggest day ever) which implies people are enjoying the new interactive 3d scenes a lot more, and we've noticed revenue starting to pick up also.
Mixed blogger reactions
I spent a few days before launch trying to come up with our release messaging for the experienced virtual world bloggers. It wasn't easy! In the end I decided on a headline that would emphasize us being the first real browser offering in the UGC 3d world space. I did a lot of research to find any other web based virtual worlds with full 3d creation, and could find none except for arguably Metaplace, but that did not have the ability to zoom or change angles and in my mind wasn't a true 3d environment and was more akin to 2.5D world like Habbo (I got one respected blogger questioning that, and understand his different take).
Once the launch was sent out to everyone I was relieved and appreciative it was covered in several virtual world sites:
"Frenzoo Launches 3D Online World With UGC" - Worlds In Motion
"Virtual Beach Resort - 3D scenes launch" - Virtual Style Divas
"Frenzoo Update: New Currency, Language, Dev Support" - Virtual World News
"Having fun on 3D scenes" - Monoartiztics Blog
"Frenzoo Launches Web's First 3D Online World with UGC" - PRLog
"Frenzoo included on ArianeB's virtual world list" - ArianeB list
"World of 3D chat and creation in your browser" - Hiperia3D
"3DアバターのFrenzoo、空間編集機能を実装" - SecondTimes.net
"Frenzoo | La red social 3D más Fashion" - Seetio
Coverage from SecondTimes.net (Frenzoo has many languages including Japanese)
Much was straight reporting, some good comments from bloggers and tweets:
"... you can also create your own content in Frenzoo and sell it through their shop. It looks promising!" -Gwyneth Llewelyn
However there was also skeptical or negative reaction from some bloggers including Dusan Writer, an experienced hand in the virtual world space:
"Frenzoo Launches Web's First 3D Online World with UGC. 3D Chat with Style. http://ow.ly/V4Eq - um, FIRST?? Ah, Web-based they mean still."
Key point being not making it as clear enough the release was that it was "web" based, and making it too boastful. Reflecting a few days later, even though we're naturally proud of being the first to be able to make complicated 3D UGC vw work in the browser, Dusans view is understandable. It's not easy to work out what message would generate interest and impact to get coverage in the right spirit. It's something to learn from and put together better for next time.
I also started an interesting thread on a very popular Second Life forum, SLUniverse. Frankly, the feedback from this audience was mixed and on balance, harsh, viewing the product as a juvenile world with little depth. Compared to Second Life itself, that is accurate and very much "by design" - our audience tends to be younger and less hardcore technical than Second Life users, and we want to emphasize accessibility and entertainment in 3d over complex control and power ("creative fun without frustration")- something I believe strongly in for virtual worlds to gain more mass adoption beyond early adopters - I'm always reminded of YoVille for a great example of this.
There was confusion and questioning our lack of free walking and open movement, instead going with a simpler avatar spots system (which I think is better suited for our target):
There were also comments about being similar to SimsIMVU which I think misses the different direction we've taken with easy and online UGC creation tools - but it brings home the point we need to emphasize and highlight our own path better. Especially for new users - so this was helpful.
The thread also was useful to bring out some areas to improve around registration process, tweaking the profiles to appear less "young" and "girly" to be acceptable to more ages and genders, and improving the starting scenes - things we're confronting in coming days and weeks.
Chicken and Egg - creator content
Ah the classic problem of creator based sites... the notorious killer of UGC startups:
You need users to get creators interested, and you need creator content to get users interested. Repeat.
Not much fun if we launch this great tech and 3d marketplace if it's empty for users!
Thankfully we had and have a few factors on our side to make this fight easier for us:
1/ Supporting fairly comprehensive 3d importing from the get go - Max, Collada for Blender, Maya, Sketchup etc. Animations, pose points, interactive objects, scenes, trigger words, we started with a fairly complete set (albeit without much documentation or tutorials), which helps eliminate the most obvious initial barrier.
2/ Anshe Chung and her crew of ninja modelers would jump in from day 1 and produce lots of quality products to get things started in the shop, so users had something to get started with.
My avatar relaxing in a comfortable luxury townhouse, made by Anshe.
3/ We already had a group of talented fashion creators on the site who love designing and bringing out new items (our clothing shop has 1000s of great creations now). It has been something fun and challenging to make the jump into 3d, furniture and scenes. These guys have really gone in head first, learning Blender and having a lot of fun putting up their items. It's inspiring to see how fast they are learning and starting to make items
Talented fashion designer Vera takes the jump into 3d creation - leopard skin TV anyone?
Even with these 3 factors, I know its going to be a hard slog over coming weeks and months to get to critical mass. It isn't easy to bring on board new creators to a platform they may not have heard of before, and it takes time and effort to build functionality and trust, which is what we have to do. Responding quickly to creator inquiries and helping them step by step is going to be important.
We're also putting together tutorials, special programs and other initiatives to try and accelerate the process, and I'm confident things will start to pick up steam..we're off to a solid start.
Where to from here?
Now the cat is out of the hat, what next? Rather than deciding that ourselves we put the simple question to our user base:
"What 3d feature would you like us to add next?"
The results were conclusive, the most important feature is to get multi-avatar scenes, and then allow creation of furniture and scene items in our online tool (right now we only support native 3d uploading for scenes and scene items).
This type of feedback helps incredibly for planning, there is nothing like a reality check from real users to remind you of what's important.
So, there is how our launch went, warts and all.
It's refreshing to kick off the new year with our new beta. Its shaping up as an exciting ride to build it out and navigate the inevitable twists and turns as it grows.
ps - I know this was a long post, if you read this far, thanks!
Unlike existing virtual worlds, the new destination does not require a large download or separate program to use.
"You can escape to Frenzoo to meet people and be creative, no matter what country you're from" said Simon Newstead,
CEO & Co-Founder of Frenzoo. "Whether designing stunning outfits
for a fashion show, hosting a intergalactic danceparty or speed-dating in a
tropical island hideout, we envision Frenzoo as the website to live
your virtual dreams. What's different is accessibility
- we want to bring all the fun of 3D without the frustration"
Unique 3d fashion design tool
The site features the first 3d fashion design tool on the web. The
tool lets you make clothes, hair, skin, items and
animations easily, without needing design skills or external software. Frenzoo also
supports mod sims and native import from 3D Max as well as Blender,
Maya, Google Sketchup, Poser, Milkshape and others via Collada API.
Strategic partnership with Anshe Chung
Frenzoo has partnered with leading virtual content producer
Anshe Chung Studios, who provide input in product design. They are also one of several content creators who have
products for sale on the marketplace. According to Ailin Graef (Anshe
Chung), "Frenzoo has great potential as an accessible 3d world on
the web, something missing up to now. For those making their first
jump into 3d avatar chat , Frenzoo is an ideal destination. We are
working closely with the team to realize this vision"
Availability
The Frenzoo beta is now live at www.frenzoo.com and is
available for anyone aged 13 and up to use. Frenzoo runs on both Mac
and PC platforms, with support for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome,
Safari and other browsers.
____
About Frenzoo
In development since 2008, Frenzoo Ltd. (www.frenzoo.com),
is the first 3d online world
with user generated content on the web. The destination allows users
to create
their avatar, meet people & 3d chat in animated virtual scenes,
express
their style and create fashion & content, all within their Internet
browser. Mod sims and 3d asset import from packages such as 3D Max and
Blender are also supported. The Frenzoo team is based in Hong Kong,
and has been developed with seed investment from Ambient Sound
Investments, established in 2003
as an equal partnership by four founding engineers at Skype
Technologies. Frenzoo has a partnership with leading virtual content
producer Anshe Chung Studios (ACS). Frenzoo leverages the power of the
Unity
3d engine, used by leading entertainment
companies such as Electronic Arts and Cartoon Networks. The
lightweight plugin installs in seconds without any
reload of the browser, and enables Frenzoo to deliver rich 3D content
rendered in hardware, enabling high quality graphics, avatars and
animations.
