Gigas Super Mall

Anyone have any comments about the Gigas Supermall?

WOW!

Truly a monument to excess if I've ever seen one, but WOW!

Yes, when it first came out, I lavished praise on it because it looks great. I rent there, but I do fuss about how it doesn't have in-game notification of expiration. You have to register on the website and then remember to read your e-mail. Seems crazy given all the scripting firepower those managers have -- they could script something that reminds you in the game, just like the other people's rentomatics.

I think GIGAS combines RL beauty with SL efficiency for the most part. The only thing is entry -- you kinda fly into the roof up from the telehub, stuff is rezzing, you don't know will you get in or rez yourself into a prim....and then you can't even find your own store.

So this is what I mean by them needing a directory to click on and get a vector.

I thought it looked pretty cool the first time I saw it so I rented a booth there but so far sales are middling to poor. Now having been back to it a few times I think it's hard to get into and even harder to get out of. Sorry to be negative 'cos it's a good build but for a mall it would be better off without a roof imho.

I agree about the roof. That was my first observation as well. I love the layout, but the roof needs to go!

Maybe the reason sales are poor is because they don't promote the place. At least not that I know of. I've been in the game for about 5 weeks now, and only stumbled onto the place by accident.

Who was the architect on that mall? I'd love to talk to them.

Nexus Nash and Adam Zaius built that mall, not sure which one of them does the actual building.

I agree, they should have way more holes in the roof and a clearer signing system.

Sales aren't as good as at other malls because they are not often on premises.

From my observations of malls, a major factor in their success is if both merchants and vendors see the landlord on the premises trying to help and trying to do events like Tringo or educational talks.

GIGAS has a lottery that attracts a lot of players and I think they do have an officer show up to do the drawing but other than that, I don't see them there. And it is physically hard to be in a mall all day when you have RL to attend to, and other chores in other areas, like these same people are also doing zoned residential communities.

The mall is Nexus's project, so I'll wait for him to personally respond, however, I can answer a few questions that have cropped up. Nexus is the architect; he usually does all the building for the Gigas group (infact usually is the central person for anything 'inworld').

We are just in the process of switching over an events manager (the last person we hired failed to do much, so we are hunting around for someone a little more dedicated to the job [Nexus is the person to speak with for any applications]), and I'll let nexus know that the 'roof must go' (or something to that effect).

-Adam

Adam and Nexus if you're rethinking your mall be really careful not to throw away the classy look it has right now. There are so many tacky malls with a big floor covering the lot, and the space divided into stalls or bays or boxes. My friends and I take pride in avoiding those places. I'm learning where all the good specialty stores are. These aren't malls, they're the stores owned by the creator or a group of creators.

I agree, Akane, that if the Gigas Mall goes through any structural changes, they should keep the basic look and feel it currently possesses. I found it easy enough to fly through a lot of the roof parts that were made phantom. It's such a realistic mall environment that I half expected to find an Orange Julius shop and roaming packs of sullen teenagers.

I stumbled on the Gigas Mall a few nights ago when I was out wandering around, and was so impressed that I grabbed a spot right then. I think it's got a lot of potential as a premier SL shopping area. Events would be good to spread word of mouth and draw foot traffic, I agree.

Thanks, also, Prokofy for the heads up about tenants needing to pay attention to emails about rental due times; I wasn't sure how that was handled.

I also really appreciate the style and architecture and the thought that went into the Gigas mall. But please... START PROMOTING THE THING! Who will know such a great mall exists if you don't advertise?