Guess who is now CFO of Blue Mars?

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/12/zee-linden-at-blue-mars.html

Rock

The timing makes sense, since the Blue Mars economy is due to start very shortly.

No anti-compete clause in his contract. He might bring some things to the table at Blue Mars that will actually make it a contender in VR.

They hired the open space flip flop guy? Gods help them!

If they hired him, then I don't think there's any competition...

You didn't like 50PercentHike Linden?

eh?

Never actually met him.. or Zee Linden, his evil twin, either.

Edit: Though come to think of it, he's the one that started the whole "add fees/raise rates to increase worth," philosophy, isn't he?

Yep. My first WTH? moment with LL was Zee raising private island tier from US$195 to US$295.

I think that was a WTH moment for a lot of people.. seemed kinda like he was saying, "We're adding value to this product by insuring that no one can afford it!"

I'd say BM is doomed now.

For those who don't care to follow a link: "John Zdanowski, Linden Lab's former CFO, is now consulting as a CFO for Avatar Reality, Inc., the Honolulu-based company developing Blue Mars, an upcoming 3D world with a user-created content aspect -- i.e., fairly direct competition with Second Life. Formerly known among the SL community by his Second Life avatar name, Zee Linden, where he earned begrudging respect for dealing with vehement Resident anger over various policy/pricing changes with patience, honesty, and humor, Zdanowski left the Lindens last March. Blue Mars has been in development for a couple years (I first wrote about it back in early 200, and in closed beta since this year. With Zdanowski's management background, it will be interesting to see what other Blue Mars developments are also in store."

That quote is incorrect, Blue Mars has been in open "beta" since September (based on state of the software, though, it should be called "tech demo/alpha".

The *other* big news today is that Desmond Shang & co from Caledon are opening a colony on Mars:

http://sites.google.com/site/caledoniamars/

My only experience personally with Zee was come across him underwater in Linden Village, where I went up and said "hi." He responded "How did you find me here?!?" If anything, that told me he did not much know the world. An okay lookin' avvie, though.



So he's with Blue Mars. Good for him. But I dunno if it'll be good or bad for Blue Mars.

Besides, I'll never be on that system (no Mac support).

the original article isn't correct, to begin with:

Blue Mars does not allow "user created content" to the extend that SL does, and therefor is not, and will never be, a direct competition with SL.

Now that might finally be a good place to go there. If Des can figure out how to let people DO something there instead of just admiring the pretty.

So far in this thread:

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/12/zee-linden-at-blue-mars.html
IT'S DOOOOOOOOOOMED !!!


http://sites.google.com/site/caledoniamars/
IT'S NOT DOOOOOOOOOOMED !!!



People who have problems getting to grips with the fact that BM and SL are two very different beasts should look at not just the images, but some of the hints in Des' site.


>>>
Early Adopter Caledonia City Parcel Special!*

* 20 USD / month in $ BLU, 20Mb data cap and no up front fees.

* Includes 20 shelves for item sales for merchants.

* Shop sizes downtown are roughly 10 x 20 meters, plus some space out front.
<<<

Note the gorgeous images stretching off to the horizon.
Note the charge by data volume - and these are stated as early adopter merchant prices - and capacities.
Note the "20 shelves". As I've experienced it, BM doesn't permit random placement of objects. There are objects that can be places on floors, on walls, etc.

This one - particularly the lasat bit - will give people pause - or even WTFs:
"For those unfamiliar with Blue Mars data sizes, a picket fence might be 100k of data, whereas a very ornate house might be 2 or 3Mb. Residential interior furnishings (instanced in your private interior space) do not count against your limit; stuff out on the porch or in the yard would."

There is also a non-Caledon themed area.
He's gone to the dark side!!!!



Here's a rumour that I've just initiated:

While BM navigation remains cone-clicking and dinging, Caledon's version will have people clicking a steampunk orb that makes a steam whistle sound.

Zee wasnt to bad of a guy... you could really rip his head off at times and wouldnt ban ya lol

And he had some brains unlike the zombies at the lab now.

If phillip shows up there i'm switchin!

I don't know what anyone else thinks about the Lindens involved in the Openspace fiasco, but "respect" and "honesty" are not the first words that leap into my mind.

I am not surprised about The Guvnah checking out Blue Mars...the Steamlander forums has had a Blue Mars status indicator below the Second Life status indicator for some time now.

Once there is decent avatar customization and if they fix the movement, I will give it another go now that there will be a decent steampunk environment. I am anxious to see what some of the Caledon merchants can do with Blue Mars.

LOL

At least he didn't ask, "How did you know my name?"

YAAAAAAAAAAY! i can't hardly wait to go see! Des is da bomb. it's gonna rock!

edit - .oO(3rd party quote removed per Des' request)

That's my primary reason (as a Caledon Resident) for not going over to Caledonia. It looks REALLY pretty, but static... I build things on SL. On BM, I flat out cannot compete with a handful of Caledon residents that are part of the project and 3D artists in RL who have top of the line tools for creation.

No way a novice trying to learn Sketchup can compete with EXPERIENCED users of PROFESSIONAL 3D programs....so the building and shopkeeper market there is pretty much already in the hands of between 6 and 12 folks on the original development project. Some of which, from reading posts on the project list have very anti-competative ideas to limit it to people of their skill level supposedly to insure 'quality'. A fan of elitism I am not, so I am no longer on the project list.

Yes, SL graphically sucks compared to BM...but at least here we can build freely and sell what we make. In BM, we will have a cabal of artiste' selling us what they think we want with a bar set high to prevent competition. I may visit Caledonia, but I won't be living there, as I see no signs of a living area, like SL.

Just noticed all this...

I don't want to discuss my projects outside of Second Life here due to the 'appropriateness' factor, and I'd gently request that stuff I post elsewhere not be copied here.

On third party forums I would be happy to discuss any topic, positive or negative.

For the record, for those asking, I am still *very* much a die~hard Second Life fanboy, nothing has changed that, and I expect to be here for years to come.

~ Des out of thread.