Can SL survive this?

Yeah I thought this exact thing when they threw out the line "visionay entrepreneurs "

The price to "advertise" with Blue Mars will probably burns a nice hole in your pocket as well. Atleast they`ll probably get good customer service


Yes exactly, I think that is why many SLers have disgust about the RL corps coming into SL. Blue Mars seems like exactly that... a complete mimic of RL...like NYC, with the huge cities and advertisements everywhere you look. It kinda reminded me of that playstation Home thing actually.

I believe it would be a nice place to visit and have a few chats with some people, not having to worry about taking care of a business like i do in SL. But I would not be able to see myself becoming a permanent resident there..too much like RL. The only reason I spend so much time in SL is the ability to create. Even though LL continues to screw us over, we really do have a lot of freedom here and the ability to expand this place as we see fit, doesn`t seem it will be the same in Blue Mars. Just a repetitive video game.

Yeah I thought this exact thing when they threw out the line "visionay entrepreneurs "

The price to "advertise" with Blue Mars will probably burns a nice hole in your pocket as well. Atleast they`ll probably get good customer service

I googled "Blue Mars" found a site called Avatar Reality, Inc
if its the official site about the project it does seem like its designed
by Professionals and there isn't going to be any user customization
like here but the shops are pretty cool looking being all 3d
which is something average store owner isn't able to do here
http://www.avatar-reality.com/gallery03/
I think it just another game that gets the users to spend money
like most things, it all about buying next game or game peice.

Those clothing stands are really nice renders.

http://www.avatar-reality.com/gallery03/image/eFrontier01.jpg

Some things just are not impressive, like this build:

http://www.avatar-reality.com/gallery03/image/eFrontier03.jpg

(Esp the way they did the shadowing up top from the roof)

The texture of that wall isn't right, either. It looks like a texture slapped on without even being scaled to fit. A lot of the walls are beige. Very blah corporate-land-y.

A lot of it looks worse than SL, which isn't to say SL looks bad - just that this one doesn't improve on much of what I've so far seen already. The parts that do look better than most live games, seem animated.

The mannequins are nice, but the flatness of the room cancels it out for me.

I see pretty bad building and textures, even from myself in SL.
I didn't see the flaws I guess there but I definitely see it more often
in my own work.
But I do see what you mean about whole lot of beige or solid colors.
Those sites or 3d worlds tend to do it to keep work load at minimum
I think.
I think the designers might be one of Chinese virtual/ game design
sweat shops that are producing tons of stuff on massive scale and
do little things to take short cuts no time for elabrate wall scale texturing
projects in other words but I am not sure.

Did you guys see the mountain/waterfall photos? those were amazing.

It seems their scenery is quite impressive. the homes I saw were not up to par.

Jesseaitui - no, where are those pix?



Couldn't? Or wouldn't have the time or freedom to be allowed to?



Assuming those hired were hired for their awesome vision as opposed to a level of skill with a computer program, and ability/willingness to conform to a corporate vision. In other words, they will be told what to do, and what they do will serve the best interest of the corporate entity. Is there a lot of aesthetic appeal in a golden arch?



We don't have a way to know if any of that would be the case - no more so than with SL. It is 'possible' any time a corporation is willing to dip into profit a bit to allow it to be so, but since when did corporations have an interest in dipping into profits?

To me it's also against their interest (because it is not in the player's interest, and they in the end, are who will increase revenue - businesses won't pay, if no one shows up to see it) to have a McD's sign front and center, but they do. I don't want to beat that into the ground, but it's just an example. Bottom line though, no one can say for a fact there will be less lag. More graphics seem to indicate increased lag, and a lot of us would have to set graphics lower anyway to offset that. I do that even in SL, and I have a fairly new machine. (With decent specs)



Not everyone wants to create - some, many, are more than happy to enjoy what others create, just as in RL. And that's kind of my hesitation about this Blue Mars ad - I would not enjoy the place I now imagine it will be. As Brenda said, I can see corporate fug in real life. I can play a computer game with great graphics and limited interactivity/modability already, too. I quit playing TSO when it went public, because of that same issue - no real modability. And even as a player/consumer, nothing much to see.

I'm only going by the ad. Maybe it misrepresents a virtual nirvana, but I'm skeptical.

No, but at least they still have some freedom of creativity. The RL Corporates will be so worried about their image, and their stockholders, and not appearing edgy or offensive that anything they put out would be the same bland, boring, cookie cutter grabage they innundate is with already. People are starting to bemoan a dearth of originality in SL content, it would be 10 times worse in a place like that.

That made Second Life look like Mario Brothers

Yumi, you have to get out of your head the idea that those of us who choose no to be creators do so because we are intimidated to try, or are feeling left out or deprived in some way. Or that we need to sell things to pay tier It simply isn't true. At least in my case. I sat down and learned how to use the building tools available in world, made a couple of small things and am simply just npt interested in it. It's tedious and boring for me. But if I evere were to take it up, the fact that I wasn't as good as someone else would not be an issue. When I owned land, I paid my tier by buying my Lindens.

I guess I'm in the social player category, although I don't socialize that much, but a world made up of carbon copy, sanitized corporate content is the last place I'd want to hang out, again, because we already have that in RL. I like SL because I can go from a swanky club like Frank's, to a futuristic space station, to a dark BDSM Castle on a moments notice.

You have your own view as to what SL is, and that's fine, we all do. But you consistently seem to want to project that view as universal. It isn't.

Even if I couldn't cash out Lindens, I would still prefer Second Life to a prettier developer-content only place. To me, Second Life is about being about to envision things, then make them and share with your friends. I've wandered entire islands and thought to myself "everything I see here, I know who made it". And some of that is beautiful indeed.

I admit it--when I saw the sharks in the video, I winced as I thought about how limited SL prim animation is. But in Blue Mars, I could only look at the sharks. I wouldn't be able to say "I'd like to see a seahorse", and make that happen.

For all the problems with SL, it remains unique in allowing its customers to create their OWN worlds, not just be spectators in someone else's fantasy.

First 3 pics in gallery 1

http://www.avatar-reality.com/gallery01/

Thanks for that.

I see a lot of photoskinning on their environments/objects. The waterfalls do look like a photo, but also there is a weird 'bendy' aspect in the center of each one, vertically. Sort of a warping.

The shoes and handbags look like photos also - but hard to tell if they would seem 3d or flat like photos in the game. And, the products themselves are a bit dull.

The golfer and golf course remind me of a PS2 golf game I've got. Not terribly impressive and that seems like what we'd mostly be seeing. Pretty backgrounds would not be the end-all for me, and again these backgrounds have a sort of warped tension in the middle. JMO. (You know when Photoshop photos are stretched to fit?)

I went, I saw.... I thought "Meh".

Eye Candy is one thing. Substance is another.

Does each little area have a sort of wraparound background, as in a video game? That's kind of what it looks like, other than some places in the ad but again those might be computer animations...If I were an investor I'd (first) want lots of specs, which I'd ask a skilled expert to look at, and I'd want to play whatever version of the game was available currently.

The shoes and bags are definitely 3d, they are just photosourced.

I see what you`re saying about the mountains. I think something similar could actually be done in SL with the right texturing, patience, and water particles... Oh, and sculpted rocks

no user develed content, only 3rd party developers? might siphon off the camping crowd from SL... but those who build and those who like the variability of the exploring experience in SL aren't going to be as pleased in the long run.

Yep, the Dollhouse Effect---once you buy all the stuff and set it up, you're bored out of your skull.

(Not true of everyone, of course. But true of so many that I question the viability of ANY virtual world that has neither content creation nor gaming competition. The presence of one or the other seems to be pretty darned important.)

Hmm perfect Utopia where no harm can come to your avatar, how dull, like watching a big fishtank, pretty for 5 minutes or so..................

As nowhere on the website, or in the video, does it say that there will be NO content creation by residents, why do some people in this thread assume that this will be the case?

I will wait for the beta program to come out at the end of this year (if they stay on target, and we all know how hard that is), and hopefully sign up and then judge for myself.

If Blue Mars, with its stunning graphics, does offer resident content creation, and an economy, similar to SL, then SL will look quite amateurish compared to it.

I for one will be watching this one closely.

Front

If they went to the effort to create a promotional video and left out the selling point that users can create their own content then they are idiots. I would wager they would have mentioned it if it was possible.

yea.....thats what makes Second Life ten times better than that game in my book. From the Videos i viewed...it was alll consumerism....all contrived..no automony that pertains to the players creation process.

Sorry but to me the magic of SL IS that it's player created. Unless they're offering that LL has nothing to worry about .

-Lana

I went to the site they seem promoting their own content providers
so it is easy to assume they don't want users to create their own content.
Perhaps it would be great for those who just want to golf, shop and socialize but
for anyone want to do their own thing who knows they haven't announced anything
about that.