The New Twinity Welcome Area

Recently, Twinity just unveiled a revised version of the Welcome Area, the first thing that newbies see when they log into the game:

Halls introducing newbies to three types of activities in Twinity.



The larger main hall, this time with windows overlooking Miami.



The "Games" hall.

Aerial shot of main hall.

On some level, I think this is a nice upgrade on the previous Welcome Area. The windows overlooking Miami are really cool and makes Twinity seem very inviting. The larger space also makes the area less claustrophobic, leaving newbies some breathing room to orient themselves.

As much as I like these improvements, I'm not totally in love with the upgrade. I don't like the fact that certain things about Twinity have been de-emphasized. In the older welcome areas, you used to have community billboards announcing events and contests, as well as signs ecouraging users to teleport to the virtual cities. Now the emphasis seems to be on introducing players to minor activities. There's nothing inherently wrong with showing new players that you can have fun shopping and playing; it's the fact that so many other more important aspects of Twinity-- virtual tourism, hosting, content creation, broadcasting, and real estate-- are now missing.

I'm also not too keen on the moving boxes or the way the halls are set up. I think the twirling boxes don't really add anything, and that the decor in each of the three halls needs more life to them. Right now, not only do they look bland because of the beige walls, the objects and furniture are laid out too casually to make a good first impression on newbies, IMO.

So needless to say, my reactions are mixed on the new Welcome Area. Athough I think it's an improvement on what was there before in terms of appearance and space, I think that in some ways it's a step back from the previous versions. By de-emphasizing its most important activities, Twinity isn't telling new users what sets it apart from other virtual worlds, and it's not doing a good job of selling itself to the more serious-minded organization, business, or individual interested in becoming a commercial partner of Twinity or hoping to use it for more than just games and chatting. I hope that in a later upgrade-- if one is, in fact, planned-- Twinity takes this into consideration.

--Dee