Life In Blue Mars

Hey everyone! It's your friendly neighborhood blogger Zetsumei! Today was the big Meet and Greet in Caledonia! For those of you who have either been living under a rock or are brand new to Blue Mars, Caledonia is one of two new cities owned by Desmond Shang, the same person who owns Caledon in SL. A little while back I had interviewed Desmond about Caledonia (Link: http://lifeinbluemars.blogspot.com/2009/12/interview-with-desmond-shang-of.html ) and today we all got to get together in Caledonia and have a great time too!

There was a huge turnout! Atleast 20-30 people showed up! Of the ARI staff unfortunately Glenn was not able to make this Meet and Greet due to some network troubles but Tiffany, Mark, and Masa were able to make it. As you can tell from the screenshots ive posted below in my usual jam-packed flickr slideshow, there was alot of chatting, alot of people making friends and getting to know each other, and a hugfest started by myself =P You'll see a few people getting huggled tightly in those pics hehe. Caledonia was running as smoothly as ever with this many people in it, and all was well. Desmond arrived just intime, and kindly answered whatever questions people had about Caledonia.

Well thats about all for now guys! Enjoy the thick slideshow ive psoted with a whopping 15 photo's of the meet and greet!

Hey everyone, just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas! Hope your day goes extremely well!

Some things to expect in the future from me are more entries into the Creator Showcase series with interviews from many other city devs, articles about Pavonis, Caledonia, new events coming in Gridrock City and more!

Hello there everyone! Its your friendly neighborhood blogger extraodinaire~ Zetsumei Ieyashi. Today to begin my Creator Showcase series, I've got an interview with Desmond Shang of Caledon in SL and Caledonia in Blue Mars!

From Life In Blue Mars

Hello there Desmond, thank you for letting me interview you today, I've got a few questions I'd love for us to go over.

Zetsu: What first attracted you to Blue Mars?

Desmond: A couple things. First, the Cryengine and its incredible capabilities, and second, I think the economic model is going to be the 'engine' that creates great content, supports small businesses and sustains a generally well~rounded and healthy community.

Zetsu: How long has Caledonia been in production?

Desmond: Since April 2009. Yes, I kept it quiet for about eight months, as did a good number of freelance designers giving me a hand with it. Amazing it stayed quiet! But it did!

Zetsu: Do you have any plans for the future of Caledonia?

Desmond: YES!!! It's going to be mainly a cooperative plan, though, as the Caledonia community is going to build out their vision, I just unleash it ~ but I've got a few surprises planned in there also :) Caledonia will be anything but static!

Zetsu: What are your going rates at the moment for blocks/shops/apartments?

Desmond: Right now, a starter deal of 20 USD/month of BLU, for a city parcel. I've got a fair number of takers already, it's going nicely!

Zetsu: Is it / do you think it will be difficult managing both your Second Life continent and now your Blue Mars continent?

Desmond: Nah. Anyone could do this, really! Work is easy, if you love doing it! Sure I get busy, but I'd rather be busy at something I like, than calmly doing something I hated... I hope that makes sense?

Zetsu: Is Caledonia connected to your Second Life Continent in any manner?

Desmond: Quite so ~ Caledonia is a colony in the New World, socially and historically connected to Caledon. Think of it as a ridiculously rich and storied backstory! That said, Blue Martians won't be beholden to Victoria City, and we'll no doubt build a complex, rich but slightly different society on Blue Mars.

Zetsu: What is your dream vision of Caledonia becoming for users in Blue Mars? Lets say a projection into the future a year from now.

Desmond: Oh, a year from now we'll still be in the early days! By that time I expect to see major group projects nearing completion, not just shops and houses... the technology base maturing, and uniquely native traditions arising. And expect surprises! As can be observed from our launch, sometimes major things spring up when least expected. More fun that way! Count on me being "up to something" always... grin


That's all for today's issue of Life In Blue Mars! In the coming days expect articles on both Pavnois and Caledonia, including many pictures as i know you all like!

Hey everyone! Its your friendly neighborhood blogger extraordinaire~ Zetsumei!

HUGE UPDATE TODAY!

-Biggest one ever released!-

This blog post is going to be massive and is only the first of several as I will be dedicating new blog posts to some of the new content as time goes on!

First of all, THE NEW BLUE MARS WEBPAGE IS AMAZING!!

I dont even know where to start there is so much to say! So heres a few screenshots, as we all know pictures say more than words do.

From Life In Blue Mars

From Life In Blue Mars

www.bluemars.com - New domain name for the website

www.bluemarsonline.com - The old domain name still works too though

The new Blue Mars website is absolutely amazing and such an improvement from the beta website only hours ago! Kudos out to the whole team at Avatar Reality for their amazing work!

User Interface Updates -

Wow! The new updates for the user interface absolutely awesome! Very sleek, modern and suiting for Blue Mars' style, below are some photos of the changes ^__^

From Life In Blue Mars

From Life In Blue Mars

From Life In Blue Mars

From Life In Blue Mars

City Updates -

With this update comes two brand new cities and an update from Gridrock City (full update details on GRC are detailed later in this article)

From Life In Blue Mars

- Caledonia!
With this release comes an amazing development from the people who bring you Caledon, a victorian steam punk continent in second life! Desmond Shang, the owner (of whom I will be interviewing at a later date, so expect that post!) has explained on his website ( http://sites.google.com/site/caledoniamars/home ) as well as on the Blue Mars Dev Forums, that he has actually been working on developing Caledonia quietly behind the scenes since April of this year. This would explain how he can basically come out of the blue with an amazing city just waiting to be enjoyed by all!

- Pavonis!
(Not much on this one yet, but from Glenn's News post)A lush tropical island archipelago where you can create and share your dreams. Pavonis is also created by the people who have brought you Caledonia

(Expect many pictures of these cities soon! I will be dedicating a blog post to each new city, as well as the interview with Desmond Shang)


Gridrock City Update -

From Life In Blue Mars

For starters, Gridrock City's upates in this new release ARE AMAZING! Let me spell that out for you A-MA-ZING. Aside from my joining the team and leading up these Author's Guild, all of the additions to city itself are absolutely beautiful. As I'm sure you will be able to tell form the snapshots I have provided below in my usual jam packed flickr slideshow!

Here is a list of just a few things that have been added to the city:

- A comprehensive set of teleporting orbs that whisk you away to a number of amazing destinations such as.
- Amazingly architectured caves.
- A beautifully rendered harbour with an irresistable vacation feel to it.
- Club Nebula West and a nice cafe area by the water(Author's Guild territory! Theres an easter egg here too, wonder who can find it?)
- An amazing biodome type area full of beautiful foliage such as trees, bushes and the dome itself which was rendered amazingly in the CryEngine.
- A big 'top of the mountain' view over the entirety of Gridrock City. (This one is especially amazing, be sure to enable the High graphics setting here if your computer can handle it)
- And some others you'll just have to find yourself!

Alot of improvements were added to the apartment areas as more have been added and they have been made to look absolutely amazing! I'm only scratching the surface here of all of the amazing things that have been added to the city. Another of the amazing updates is the beautiful architecture that has been added to the general entrance area, with the huge grid-arch towering over one of the nearby platforms.

I hope you all enjoy the city and know that the team has worked very hard to bring it to life for everyone!

Heres the update GRC slideshow!



Other City Updates:

-Beach City now has a new Golf Area

-Beach City now has a new Bowling Area


Real Estate -

According to a news post by Glenn, developers will soon be able to use a real estate page to find and rent blocks in Blue Mars with BLU$



Developer Tools / Developer MyPage Updates -

The Developer Tools are now all available for download through the Developer mypage! (Including the city editor!)

Big functionality addition to Blue Mars!

Flash 10 functionality within world!

- ARFlashEntity, a new entity that allows one to place Flash easily win world

A how to for this function is at the wiki: http://www.bluemarsdev.com/wiki/index.php/BlueMars_City_Developer_AR_Tools

Several updates have been made to the developer mypage!

City Developers now have the ability to :

Upload a City PAK file to the Avatar Reality servers through FTP.

Set their prices for block sale.

And

Upload block PAK files from Block Developers


Block Developers now have the ability to:

Upload their PAK files to their City Developer


Item Developers now have the ability to:

Upload their items and set their prices. (Items uploaded go through QA at AR only to make sure they function properly, AR does not judge content quality)



Member Mypage Update -

From Life In Blue Mars

Absolutely great news! The Member Mypage that the community has been hearing about for so long is finally released! The features that the Mypage has are as follows:

The ability to edit your name! (Finally!) I know alot of us will be happy to finally get this all straightened out since tehy switched to Usernames for the nametags.

Account Options: The ability to now change your password as well as your email address assigned to your account!

Create your personal Blue Mars Profile!: Martian's now have the ability to fill out their profile! And according to news from Glenn, in an upcoming MyPage update you'll also be able to upload a picture for your avatar!

User Inventory!: Through this you will have a list of everything you have purchased with Blue Mars!

Blue Mars Friends List: You will now have a list of your friends on this site, and according to news from Glenn you will be able to instant message from here in the future!

BLU$ Purchases: According to Glenn, this system is not done yet but once everything is straightened out you will be able to purchase BLU$ from here!.

This is all absolutely wonderful news!


Phew! What a big update! I believe thats all for tonight my fellow readers and followers, but expect more posts to come as more information is released as well as when i get the time to take a sufficient amount of photos for the new cities!

Hello there everyone!

Today I am announcing the beginning of my Creator Showcase series of interviews.

Over the next several months I will be interviewing several city developers and showcasing a new city developer perhaps every week or so (or just about whenever I have the chance to interview someone, this will also be affected by the overall number of city devs available at the moment, so as of now there may not be too many at first, but I assure you that this series will be going on straight through public release and forwards.)

In these interviews I will be asking questions such as,

"What inspired you to start working with Blue Mars?"

"What is the theme of your city, and tell me a little about the storyline?"

"What are plans you have for your city?"

and questions similar to those. I hope to over time build a comprehensive list of city developers and a good several articles of interviews.

Here is a sneak preview of city developers I hope to interview as time goes on:

Desmond Shang of Caledonia

Corey Evans of Grid Rock City

Gus of WildWestGames

Rock Vacirca of Valles Marineris and Arabian Nights

Takuan Daikon

and many more as time goes on.

I am hoping to showcase atleast one of these developers before the week's end so keep checking back for more news!

(PS: If you are interested in being showcased please message me on the beta forums, the dev forums, or leave a comment here. If you are a content developer, but not a city developer, dont feel left out! I will happily interview you as well. I am also contactable by skype, my SN there is metthias- )

Just wanted to say thank you to my followers, and all of my readers! I wouldn't and couldn't do this without you guys, and just wanted to show my respect!

Expect some big blog posts coming soon, the word around is that theres some big updates on the way!

Hihi everyone! I'm pleased to announce that I have recently taken the spot as the Author's Guild leader in Gridrock City! Yaaaay!

Recently I have joined the Gridrock City team and I will be playing a large part in helping out with it's storyline as well as quests, events etc. I also have put together a first draft of what the Author's Guild will be offering as services to those who come to Gridrock City and just in general. I will be posting the thread below, and it can also be discussed on the original thread at the GRC forum: http://grcguilds.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?forumId=6&comments_parentId=7

[-As posted on the GRC forum-]