Rock

One of the Blue Mars City Developers, VSE, have announced on their website that they will NOT be charging any rent for their stores. Instead they will take a percentage of the sales (and if your 'great' idea ends up not generating any sales, you pay nothing!). So, if you are happy with parting with up to 50% of your sales, but in return have zero risk and zero upfront and ongoing costs, then this could be the City for you.

Full story here.

Of course, if you get very successful, you could always switch later to another City that has a fixed rent for their stores, if that works out better for you.

Blue Mars just keeps getting better, and better.

Rock

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Atashi Yue

Who do you contact? They didn't give a name nor an email address in that post.

BEARintheMorning

That's kind of a cool idea Rock. Like you said, if your products become really successful later you can always move.

Too bad I'm weeks (or months ) away from being able to contribute anything worthwhile.

My "products" rely on an existing vehicle industry. Once that starts to take off in Blue I'll have to get cracking.

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Lordfly Digeridoo

I don't see how this is a winning proposition. If 90% of the stores in there fail to make a profit (a very similar ratio to SL), VSE goes under, taking the entire city with it.

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Kyllie Wylie

Put up one crappy thing for sale and wham! free house! wooo!

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Jesse Barnett

For anyone to make money in Blue Mars, including VSE, the first things you need are growth and attracting content creators. This looks like one way to just kick start the process. And for all we know it might possibly even be subsidized by Blue Mars?

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Lordfly Digeridoo

Meh. The bar to making creation fun is still too high. Having so subsidize or give away huge amounts of virtual real estate does not bode well.

Cincia Singh

What good are shops without customers? Are content creators going to sell their products to each other? Blue Mars needs to become FAR more user friendly, FAR more customizable, and FAR more of a functioning social platform before shops have a ghost of a chance IMHO. While I understand and appreciate the idea of encouraging content creation for profit, until avatar modification can be done inworld by the average user to at least give them a sense of self and uniqueness the retail business model can't get off the ground, again IMHO.

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Rock

VSE have corporate customers. This is what Richard Childers said in my interview with him:

I don't think they are in much danger of going under

Rock

Beebo Brink

But none of these corporate clients, which may well support the platform, are providing customers who would support shop-level content creator/merchants. The chicken-egg dilemma that I see in Blue Mars is that the platform is developer friendly, but not resident friendly (yet). And until there is a perception among content creators that they will have a viable customer base in Blue Mars, it's more difficult to work up enthusiasm for learning a whole new host of tools and procedures.

In its current state, Blue Mars isn't very appealing to the segment of users who are avatar-centric. The exposure of early beta and its very crude avatars, despite the slick promise of the the visual effects, has me in a "wait-and-see" mode.

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Vialli Rossini

THIS kinda raises interesting questions for potential content creators for Blue Mars.

Corporations to Have Content Monopoly

(just hope I am not duplicate posting for a SECOND time today!!)

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Argent Stonecutter

OK, if I use VSE's store, and then VSE quits BM, what happens to the content I've sold through VSE that my customers own?

For that matter, what happens if I quit BM? Does the stuff I created stay in people's inventories and builds?

Rock

Don't know for sure, but I would imagine that in either case it would remain in the purchaser's inventory, as that travels with you no matter which City you visit. I will ask at the next Q&A.

What sort of merchandise are you thinking of selling?

Rock

Argent Stonecutter

If I were to make something in BM it would be similar to what I make in SL, mostly scripted gadgets.

Rock

That piece is a load of tosh. There was nothing that either Glenn or Tiffany said that warranted that outrageous headline.

I am creating content, and I am a City developer, and I am not a corporation (large or small), and neither are the dozens of others like me in the Blue Mars forums.

I will be renting out Blocks in my City. A City owner sets the theme for the City, terraforms it, then parcels it into Blocks. That is his job done, unless he wants to be involved further down the chain (as I do). A Block is equivalent in size to a SL region, and I will rent them at a fraction of the cost of a SL region. Block 'owners' can then develop their Block with their own Editor, and rent out stores and residencies. Store renters will have their own Editor, for uploading content into their stores.

Rock

CoyoteMomiji

I don't have even a "wait and see" attitude about BM (how aptly initialed).

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Slick closed until further notice.

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Gigs

I kept telling you guys, but you wouldn't listen to me.

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Rock

Lots of the city developers and content creators in Blue Mars are currently looking to hook up with skilled scripters to get their vehicles moving, their elevators running, their doors opening, their Huds working, etc etc.

Blue Mars uses Lua, or C++, and even has a non-scripting/programming system called Flowgraph which I am finding very easy to use.

You might want to start playing with the Sandbox 2 (which is almost identical to the Blue Mars City Editor) and start converting some of your best scripts. The flight feather for one. I am sure there will be a big market for good scripts in Blue Mars.

Rock

Argent Stonecutter

If I make a script that does something useful in BM:

* Will I be able to distribute it to the general public... not just as part of a city development.
* Will it continue working if the user leaves the city and visits a different city.
* Will it continue working if the city developer closes down his city.
* Will it continue working if *I* leave BM.

Beebo Brink

This is one issue of BM's user interface that confuses me. My impression is that each City can be different enough that a scripted object that works in one City can be blocked in another if the physics/game rules are changed. I'm also getting the impression that this could even apply to wardrobe?

So let's say I buy an urban apocalypse grunge outfit in one City, along with a super-duper weapon, and I then go visit Rock's Arabian themed City. What's to stop me walking around the streets looking like Mad Maxx? Even if the gun doesn't work to allow me to kill pedestrians, I'm going to look out of place carrying it. Does this now become an enforcement issue of ARing someone who doesn't play by the rules and then bouncing them out of the City?

What if I want to create my own wardrobe, but I have no interest in actually selling those clothes and fashion items. Can I upload them to my Inventory directly? Or do I have to find an area in a City that allows downloads in order to use them? Does my avatar account recognize "my" content creations or is the developer path separate, meaning I have to sell myself my own creations?

Vialli Rossini

Ok so obviously no discussion with you.
For me, I would be interested to find out about the entry costs for City Devs? Within the bounds of the "person on the street"? Bearing in mind $1000 usd for an SL sim is considered out of reach to most SL users.
And the 25% cut for Blue Mars oh and the 25% cut or more for the owner of a city for anyone wishing to sell virtual goods. The ongoing cost of the City, Block Shop.
Then there is the cost of the tools, and yes, i understand that free software is available, BUT the most supported route is via commercial software, which is NOT cheap.
I totally disagree that Avatar Reality are in anyway trying to cosy up with corporations for control of content BUT the article STILL kinda raises interesting questions for potential content creators for Blue Mars.

Beebo Brink

I'm trying to figure out how your description fits with this quote from the article:
It would appear that only registered, approved content creators have the ability to provide content, period. There is no scope for creating personal content without jumping through hoops and renting a store?

If this is true, that would kill my interest in Blue Mars right there.

Camille Serpentine

Sounds like they are trying to have a completely planned city and residents.
More zoned than anything in SL?

Maybe the creators were put off by SL's tendency towards chaos?

Atashi Yue

I believe we've touched on this before. Avatar Reality isn't the one making those decisions, the individual city owners are. If they want to have an open sandbox city, that's entirely up to them.

Beebo Brink

This does deepen my impression of Blue Mars being a series of gated communities. Which is fine. I can see that such a concept would have appeal for many people; I'm just not one of those people.