Do we have an "SL-Killer"?

On the other hand, yes, this really seems rather strange.

But in SL, if I leave tomorrow, the sims full of buildings that I created for my clients and the virtual closets full of clothes that my fashion customers bought from me over the past three years won't suddenly cease to exist.

As far as I can tell, if a content provider in BM ceases paying their Content Provider dues, all their creations, in ANY city on the grid, cease to exist in everyone's inventories. Not just the City they happened to be paying for (personally owned sim), but anywhere on the grid that their content was allowed to be exported to. And as far as I can tell, there's precious few ways to sell anything there without buying a while City and setting up your stores there.

There may be some ways to create content for BM on the cheap, especially if you're willing to stoop to stolen high-end software. But most of what they state is needed for a content developer's software toolkit starts at well over one thousand dollars per seat, with a Workstation class Windows Vista computer to run it on.

I don't see Blue Mars as competition for Second Life in any way. I think it will attract a totally different kind of user. It appears to be much closer to an MMORPG than to a virtual world. Also, it's Windows-only, which excludes a large portion of SL's audience, right off the bat.

That said, I do think it has potential. I've registered with them as a developer. Unfortunately, though, their website seems to be a bit broken at the moment, so I've been unable to download their SDK. Hopefully that's just a glitch, and not indicative of the quality of the BM system. Time will tell.

One thing that does bug me is that they won't release any pricing information until you've signed an NDA with them. Something definitely doesn't smell right with that.

Well I consider myself to be quite successful in SL. I haven't spent 1 dime of 'real money' in SL over 2 years now. Even when I was first a fledgling business, it didn't cost me any 'real money' to get up and running. All my working capital came from in game income, dancing mostly.

Before the downturn of the economy I was pulling in around 40,000-50,000 lindens a month. That's dropped precipitously, but I still have a nice nest egg that will cover my play for a while.

I don't really see a negative about no being "heard over the noise". Shopping is one of the main attractions in SL. Whether I'm at the top of a search or down 'in the noise' people eventually find my store. I think it's a plus that there are a number of people doing the content I'm doing, if I was the only person in SL doing fetish animations, then there would probably be quite a few less people who are into fetish animations in SL. A broad marketplace encourages consumers.

A 'high barrier' for buy in ensures only people with substantial amount of liquid income will be looking to partake. I think that misses the mark of who is content creating in virtual worlds. It's not game developers who have a few spare time and the desire to create better stuff... I think the largest mass of content creators, are, or started out as, hobbiest who found an outlet for their tinkering. I know that's what I am. If it wasn't for SL and their basically no cost buy in for content creators, I would have kept my little animations simple running people and silly dance routines that would never have seen the light of day. Instead, here I am, flooding the internets with pr0n.

I agree with the idea that what eventually kills SL will be LL, not something from the outside. When/if SL dies other platforms will probably see a short term jump in their users from the influx of people who need a fix. But the death of SL will most likely hobble the entire segment, with the thought "damn, if the #1 game went belly up, what chance to we have" creating a chilling effect on future investment.

Patasha

Um.

If I wanted that kind of experience I'd buy a Zune.

I haven't spent much time learning about Blue Mars, so my words may have no value, but to me it feels much closer to Entropia than Second Life. Entropia has never been competition for SL, as far as I've seen, but Blue Mars may well be a kind of competition for Entropia - or at least appeal to roughly the same sorts of people.

Blue Mars is going to be sweet.

Totally different experience than SL.

I have access to the world and am doing some development using the SDK.

Blue Mars has a crazy amount of potential. Just look at the Crysis Engine and then truly your imagination can come to life and create some really wild things there with the A.I., real physics, etc...like any real MMORPG game. But that is just one aspect. There is the entire "Virtual Living" aspect that is going to be a serious boom. And life will be pretty much similar to SL. And somethings are still undecided (like sex), so that will also be a big determining factor.

I do not not foresee the "tools" required to develop being an issue or obstacle to entrance for content creating. A lot of people in SL use Maya and 3DS Max and we know they did not buy it and so far it is the same way for Blue Mars - i don't think *everyone* i am involved with in this pre-beta has actually purchased 3DS Max or Maya. Also, you can develop for BM using Google SketchUp, which is free, and there are some really nice SketchUp items made.

I'm in on the ground floor and will see where it takes me...So far, I am liking it lots.

Thanks for the info, Brianna. How were you able to get in? I just spoke with a colleague who had the exact same problem I did when trying to get to the SDK. And so far, the BM business department has been unresponsive to my E-mail. Any suggestions?

I hear they're having a few issues with bugs in the SDK and so they're trying to sort it out before sending out more copies.

So the honest folks will stay here in SL, rather than pony up the cash to be competitive in BM.

Heh.

IBM
UBM
We all BM
for IBM
-- H.A.R.L.I.E.

I imagine the actual product search in a 3D amazon.com of the future will still be in 2D. It'll only be the viewing of the product that'll be 3D.

and shouldn't take much for SLX merchants to have a demo product that we'll be able to view inworld after clicking on it via the inworld web browser.

Bingo! - 3D shopping!

I don't think any new virtual world will compete directly with SL for SL users. That wouldn't be a good idea for them. What they will do is to squeeze SL into a narrower and narrower niche, but that could be a good thing, as it will focus LL on providing the unique SL experience.

Blue Mars might compete for corporates who want a VW to show off at the shareholders meeting. Metaplace might compete for house players and those who want to script complex games. FreeRealms might compete for those who want the feeling of "being" a role. But none will compete with SL for the people who enjoy SL.

I think several here miss the point about BlueMars. The majority of SL users don't create and sell products in SL....never have done and never will. Indeed i know several that haven't ever created a prim-lol. Don't assume everyone wants to create content in a 3D enviroment, The majority of the people in SL that rent or lease land are not content providers....they play happy couples or happy families or whatever...the consumer class of SL

There might be a barrier if you're a wannnabe creator trying to get into BlueMars in terms of proggies required....but if you want to set up home with a partner or friend and just go shopping, dancing, try out a few animations, RP, find some like minded people etc etc Blue Mars could well be a better alternative.
If pixel sex is allowed in BlueMars it might appeal to end users especially if it has better graphics, better stability and possibly better customer service.

I recieve my BlueMars developer's license a couple months back......but if i don't find my niche or don't have the necessary skills or don't have the desire to create content or find it too expensive to create & sell content....i could well join BlueMars as a end user consumer.

My SL partner & myself rarely have time for ourselves in SL, we're often bombarded by business related IM's. BlueMars could be a great alternative for quality time alone. Purchasing/renting a piece of land, setting up home could be a viable option for our escapism.

Rene, I agree with your point on content creation. But, I think Blue Mars will have problems with the house player market because of the high system requirements of the CryEngine and the fact that, if I understand correctly, you can only rent/buy a home there if someone starts a city which allows you to - which it may not be viable for them to do.

I got in on a private project.

I am sure they have a flood of people applying and they are a small little group of people so i would expect they are severely back logged.

The problem at the moment is the entry level....you need Vista. Also it does not cater for Mac or Linux users for the time being...I'm pretty sure it will do eventually.
In a couple years time most people will be running Vista at a minumun anyway, probably alot will be on Windows 7 by then.
I forsee no issues regarding the leasing or renting of land at all. You just pick your City

I don't. It's not that everyone wants to create, it's that everyone wants to create or wants the result of that creativity. It's like the difference between Disneyland and Greenwich Village.

Yeah- but you're just 1 single person.....you don't know what the masses want. I'm guessing most would use it for the social interaction, have no interest in creating or selling and not too fussy about the landscape of the enviroment. Prior to it being released, we can't know what the landscape will look like.

You assume Disneyland......you might end up being surprised.

I think more and more people are just wanting the "Virtual Life" - be it SL or BM, the only thing that will matter to these people is how real their life can be.

I think it is kinda cool to be able to create outside of BM. You can sit in the BM World and have your 3DS, Zbrush, SketchUp, whatever going while you chat in the world and model your stuff.

Most of the time when i build in SL i am alone to avoid chatter which slows me down. So building in 3DS for me is not much different - except i don't have a cool environment to immerse myself in for my "workshop" like you can in SL.

People who LIKE to create will come to BM if they can create there because they will see it is as another vector into the cash vein.

I agree, it's a shame BM isn't structured a little more freely to build and sell.

I took to building because it is so relaxing and a kind of mental quietness... It's nice to find a learning curve and pig out on it. If I get good enough I will go to selling and I'll love it.

I know people in world who have no interest in any building etc, but they do, almost naturally with out thinking, engage in money making of some sort.

It's the incentive, even small time, that brings out the effort to make the club nicer, the product work better, bother to chase something up for someone...

The masses want Disneyland, and they're in IMVU and Habbo Hotel, not Second Life.

There are masses of masses, there will always be a profitable demand for the masses of minority too.

SL is fine except the scripting language is very weak. I'm a programmer and would love to make all sorts of Mods and objects in game. But the scripting language doesn't allow us to do very much. There has been artistic innovation in SL(like sculpties), but no technical improvement and that's why SL has become so stale.

Just to follow up, I received a reply E-mail from the Blue Mars business dept a little while ago, two replies actually. The first was to thank me for letting them know about the website problem, and to offer me a direct link to the SDK download. The second was to acknowledge that I had been accepted into the closed beta. I'm downloading the SDK now.

Can't wait to play with this.

That's the problem with SL though - the incentives to build are all over the place. Largely they are either social (which means that it's random based on who you happen to bump into), or money based (which means that there's no incentive at the low levels - you have to be fairly high quality to be bought).