Life In Blue Mars

(Crossposted from the Koinup Blog!, for all my followers here as well, I have recently been given an opportunity to blog for Blue Mars on Koinup as well)


Hi there everyone! My name is Zetsumei Ieyashi, and I'm a new blogger around here. I'm going to be providing a lot of awesome articles about Blue Mars while I'm here and I hope you all enjoy what I have to give!


Just so you guys can get to know me a little better, I'm coming from my own personal blog

(http://lifeinbluemars.blogspot.com) (As a homage to my original blog I have named my column here after it ) that I started several months ago for Blue Mars after I fell in love with what it had to offer and the potential of where it is headed, I will also be crossposting all of my blog posts here, over there(If you like my style, Don't hesitate to follow me over there as well, I will be blogging there still as well on some more localized topics not deemed to be blogged about here) . My hobbies these days are exploring Blue Mars, finding the best places to go and taking a lot of pictures while I'm at it! If you guys are interested in some photography of mine from Blue Mars you should check out my Koinup works (http://www.koinup.com/ZetsumeiIeyashi/works/), I've got over 100 photos there that I've taken!


Besides my introduction, I figured for my first post I would do a simple guide to the current cities that are available in Blue Mars, my future posts will provide in depth reviews, many pictures and tips and tricks on how to get the most out of Blue Mars!.

The Welcome Area: The welcome area used to be the place where everyone logged into when they first signed on, and from there you were able to access all of the currently available cities. A few months back(around December or so) with one of the bigger updates to Blue Mars, we got the Places Browser, which is the screen you now see when you sign in. The Welcome Area still exists, and has been expanded to a larger area with some nice tables, chairs and a terminal that allows you to edit your avatars shape/face and features. The Welcome Area is currently being developed behind the scenes into a better detailed area and a more welcoming environment. Progress of the new welcome area can be seen in this thread at the Blue Mars forums (http://www.bluemars.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=754&start=0)

Beach City: An Avatar Reality owned and created city to demonstrate how nice cities can look when work is put into them. Beach City is also home to the bowling alley minigame and the golfing minigame. Both of which can be accessed by a map that teleports you to the various different areas of the city at a bus stop you'll see when you log into Beach City.

New Venice: New Venice, a city owned and created by VSE, one of the companies interested in Blue Mars and a close partner to Avatar Reality is a futuristic city that also demonstrates the very high quality possibilities that Blue Mars presents it's developers. A beautiful sight to all who visit there, New Venice is one of the best cities currently available that demonstrates the power behind the CryEngine.

Shade City: Shade City is a simple, but nice area that has an interesting outdoor structure, very modern that adds to an overall futuristic feel of the city. Although calling it a city might be an understatement, as the nice structure is all that is there, but nonetheless it is a very nice place to checkout. It has two levels, one with a lot of chairs and tables and a nice monument at the center of the building, and then a walk way you can reach by a ramp.

Waterfall: This area was made for a minigame, that involves you piloting a cool mini spacecrusier through rings all over the level. The area is a very lush level, one like you might find in a tropical environment.

Digital DNA: Digital DNA is one of the newest additions to Blue Mars, Digital DNA currently provides a very nice atmosphere and some cool areas to traverse through the pathways that are in place right now (and if you explore a bit you'll find some really nice beaches and a cool cave.) Currently a work in progress, we can expect to see some great things coming out of this city.

Dragon City: Dragon City is another one of the newest additions to Blue Mars, and currently offers a very nice modern/futuristic welcoming area with some high quality models. Dragon City is also a work in progress but like Digital DNA we can expect some great things to come out of this city.

Gridrock City: Gridrock City is a scifi/futuristic city that was introduced October as the first user created city. Although currently still in development, Gridrock City offers a lot of places and areas for the users to check out already through their unique teleporting system, a Nikola Tesla inspired sphere that emits electricity when you click it and transports you to one of many different areas in the city depending on which one you click in the central hub (which is accessed by clicking the first sphere at the entrance to the city. Their website can be found at (http://grcguilds.com/)

Caledonia: Caledonia is the extension of the popular and well known Caledon estate of sims in Second Life, owned by Desmond Shang. As the Caledon in SL is, Caledonia is themed in a Victorian/Steampunk style and will be offering rentals and shops in the future. Their website can be found at (http://sites.google.com/site/caledoniamars/)

Pavonis: Pavonis is a rental city that is also owned by Desmond Shang that is currently in the theme of a tropical area.

Soeswaewon Garden: The name for this one is pretty much self explanatory, Soswaewon is a garden area with a few interesting structures and a unique environment.

Well that's all for my first post here on the Koinup Blog and I would like to thank you all for reading, and hope to bring you many more articles in the future!