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Posted by Chris Tomlinson on 07/07/06 18:21
"jojo" <jojo.hafner@gmx.de> wrote in message
news:e8ltsu$j9s$1@registered.motzarella.org...
> I wish you had decided not to fill the niche... I think a virtual street
> just for going shopping is really the last thing we need. What do you
> think is the reason almost every shop which can deliver their goods to the
> customers has got his own online portal? Because people use it! So why do
> you think people need a virtual street to go shopping? They just have to
> google the name of the store they want to visit to buy everything they
> want - without any slide show or sound.
We appreciate your thoughts, but over 80% of a random selection of people
felt it was a good idea in our market research. We are not here to gather
more opinions at this late stage, and obviously will not drop the idea
because someone on an HTML group says they don't want to use it. It is not
aimed at your market group so this is fair enough.
To answer your question 'why', tell us how else you could 'walk along' 5th
Avenue New York, and pop into Tiffany's, if you live in London. In fact you
can literally put on your dressing gown and have breakfast, at Tiffany's.
We think this is pretty cool. Sorry you don't.
>> At least 50%.
>
> I personally do not believe this figure.
That is okay, other reports say 60% in the markets we are targetting ;)
>> Perhaps we could add aliens and laser fire to the streets ;)
>
> Yes, not a bad idea at all. And the aliens than can destroy the street and
> the customers have to stop them... sounds like a nice idea for a computer
> game! Perhaps you better invent games than virtual streets, I'm convinced
> that would draw more people's attention.
Thanks! :)
>> We researched Flash thoroughly, however sadly recreating Oxford Street in
>> photo-quality as you will see in our site over the next month would
>> simply be close to impossible, and incredibly painstaking using texture
>> bits. And that's just one street! We wish to add dozens.
>
> Sounds like: As far as we do not have much work everything will be fine.
In a way but you have misunderstood -- the more work there is to do per
street, the less streets there will be to explore. What about the comic
shop districts in Tokyo, what about Paris, or Rodιo Drive. The researched
way is the quickest and most realistic. All it relies on is increasingly
common broadband connections. We are not going to spoil it for those able
to get broadband by designing it for dial-up.
> I advise you to take a little more time to improve your site. Maybe, if
> you work hard on it, it will be fine before broadband spread that much.
Again, it's not even launched yet, just a beta, and we are here to do just
that! :-S
>> This was a decision made intentionally and knowingly, to preserve the
>> ease of building new streets using photo-realism instead of Flash
>> simulations.
>
> And why?
Because people who prefer real high streets, but miss out on the web deals,
showed a desire to have photo-realistic streets that looked and sounded
exactly like those they knew or could never visit in real life.
And it's not just a shopping site, so for virtual tours do you want to go to
a computer-game like 5th Avenue, or the real thing? The answer is pretty
obvious. Even if it takes 15 seconds to load, or longer on dial-up, it is
quicker than flying to NY.
> So why almost everybody here tries to stop you developing that kind of
> page if all people could not wait for it?
This group is the only negative feedback the idea gets, but we notice a lot
of people's ideas that are posted here get negative reactions. You tell me
why...
>> Sadly downloading it as a game would be much worse than the current 12
>> seconds it takes to load at the very slowest broadband speeds.
>
> As I said before: I've got DSL 2000 (so it's not the lowest speed), but
> the site still takes about have a minute up to a minute to load.
There must be something very wrong somewhere. We test on 2Mb connections
and it loads in 7 seconds with a clear cache. Several other computers also
all come in under 15 seconds. Our testers all load in around 10 seconds
even on 0.5Mb.
You say it takes up to a minute.
It is bizarre here how all our testers report good speeds and all our market
research showed 80% positive response, yet *just* at this newsgroup a few
people hate the idea, need an afternoon to learn how to use it, and can't
load it on 2Mb broadband in under a minute! That might give you some
psychology to answer your earlier question why everyone here is against it.
You tell me why..
> When I install a game that takes maybe 5 minutes (if it isn't to big which
> a street simulation certainly is not). And after installing I can use it
> as often as I want to.
The same applies to your web cache. Even when the cache is emptied of it,
you can still use it 25 times before it becomes slower than the 5 minute
game install. That's fine by most people.
> As I said before: the thing which takes the most time to load at my
> computer is the sound.
The sound is 100K. The street is 300-400K per slice. We'd appreciate any
technical feedback from you as to why your findings might be. Thanks.
> Of course you *can* do. all we are about to tell you is *please don't do*.
> (or at least not this way)
A bit late for that, and it's not what we're here asking so let's agree to
disagree.
> And if you scroll before the rest is loaded the browser crashes... Really
> nice!
You obviously have some problem understanding that the site is in beta, we
didn't ask for any testing, and we are here asking one question about JPG
loading. But hey, insult it anyway. Bizarre.
> And if someone does not want to buy anything in the first shop he has to
> wait. Nice, too!
Or she. (It's not the first shop then they wait, it's the first row of
shops that loads first.) How quickly do you run down the high street in
real life?
> Why don't you do it the way round: first it is off, and if someone really
> wants to have "street atmosphere" he can switch it on. I'm quite confident
> that this feature will remain almost unused than... Wtf wants to hear cars
> and all the noise? I think this is the last thing I anybody would miss in
> a street (OK, maybe the smell is last. Why don't you apply smell to your
> site?).
This is why it is on:
>> But market research and testing showed that the user is more likely to
>> stay and have their interest 'caught' if they 'arrive' at a full sensoral
>> version of a high street, with the senses they would normally experience,
>> namely the photo-realistic visuals, and the sound of being there. Silent
>> streets did not impact on them as greatly.
>
> Again: What would be the advantage of a virtual street to a "ordinary"
> online-portal?
As above - virtual tours and to attract the many people who hate shopping
sites but love high streets, or could never fly to other world famous ones.
>> We're sure you understand, although we are still toying with the idea of
>> starting with the sound off. It is a dilemma as we could lose visitors
>> either way.
>
> If you really get much visitors you can loose...
I'm sure you know what you meant to type. :P
Anyway, we can't chat all day as we have cities to build ;) Thanks for the
fun debate, let's agree to disagree as it has nothing to do with our
question above, which is already being answered by your colleageus in this
group, in a very positive helpful way.
--
Thanks,
Me
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