Life In Blue Mars

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- )

Hey everyone! Its your friendly neighborhood blogger and resident uber forum poster / volunteer Zetsu! Today there was a great turnout at the meet and greet! Had some devs stop by, some staff from Avatar Reality stop by, and a good amount of people! Alot of questions were answered in todays Meet and Greet, and I had the opportunity to snap many pictures! Just check out the slide show below with a whopping 17 photos.

Progress Report:

Volunteer Shirts: I had a chance to speak with Tiffany Nahinu (Summer Studio, AKA Tnahinu on the forums) about the volunteer shirts that are being developed at the moment, and she told me that they are coming along great and that next week she will be exporting them from 3DSMax. No date on just when we will actually get the shirts, but it is good to know that progress is being made.

Member MyPage: I had a chance to ask about the Member Mypage, and although progress may seem to be going slow to us on the outside, testing and feature implimentation is going on behind closed doors for this feature. No release date as of yet, but we can be sure that it is being actively worked on.

Editors: I had the chance to speak with Soeda, one of the engineers working on the editors for the Devs and they are currently working on the Animation editor, which is coming along well, and a few people had asked about the vehicle editor but there wasnt much detail given on that subject, just that it is complicated. I dont know if we will be getting it or not although at previous times I was told that there may be support for it in the future.

Instant Messaging: I had the chance to ask about Instant Messaging, and Tiffany mentioned it would either be coming in the next update or early next year. December or January she was able to project for me.

Developer Newsletter!: To all those who are signed up as developers, Glenn is working on a newsletter to be sent out next month especially for us! Hopefully this will be a regular thing, so that we can keep tabs on whats going on.

Well thats all for this update! Look forward to future updates including the Beach City video, the big post about what people are asking for in blue mars, and updates about coming patches etc!

Enjoy the slideshow! :D

Hi there everyone! I'm going to be working on a new blog post soon but in order to complete it I have written up a short survey I would like anyone who is interested to fill out and PM back to me(Zetsumeii on the beta forums or metthias- in skype). The information provided to me will be used together as a whole to help produce the article, and anonymity will be assured as I do not intend on directly quoting anyone, or mentioning anyone's name directly unless they wish it to be or insist on it. If interested, I can include a list of the people who have helped with the post through answering the survey questions, if you are interested in being on this list please say so in the message.

Feel free to answer as many or as little of these questions as you like, and be as detailed or as simple as you wish. Any information at all is appreciated. ^__^

Player Questions:

What are some features you wish to see implemented into or changed in Blue Mars?

How would you rate the current experience provided in Blue Mars(while still considering that Blue Mars is in beta status)?

What are your thoughts on the current features available in Blue Mars?

When the economy is up and running, what do you think is a good ratio of BLU to USD or your currency of choice?

What products will you be most interested in upon the opening of the economy and the uploading of products by developers?

Developer Questions:

As a Developer what are your opinions of the currently available SDK?

What are some features / additions you would like to see implemented into the SDK?

As a developer what products are you interested in creating?

What you consider a good BLU price be for your items? (This question can accompany the BLU question in the player category)

Hello there everyone, as this is a very important topic to myself as well as many others I am going to try and spread this idea of mine, and I hope to get feedback from all who read it. A response from AR would be great as well. Not much to say here in this update, besides go check the thread out over @ http://www.bluemarsonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=525

Content creation within Blue Mars seems to be a very hot topic right now, what with one of my previous posts showing that it is being grossly misrepresented in other blogging venue's as well. However, as a fellow BM member said to me on a thread, "Don't Feed The Troll." and I have to agree. I got my word out on their first article i was shown, and everyone else seems to have taken care of the second one (which is just as bad). The issue that seems to be on a few minds is the fact that creation is entirely out of game. Ive met some SL creators that rue this idea so much they feel it is necessary for them to forget they ever heard about Blue Mars in the first place. That extent of disapproval for the system seems to be wholly unnecessary. What is one thing people have been bothering LL about for since the beginning of SL? A backup of your own personal assets. People have done just about anything (some even illegally) to get their own objects out of world which has lead to both a set of good tools like Second Inventory and the other spectrum with software like CryoLife, CopyBot and a number of other things that threaten product safety, although provide a means of exporting objects if you only take advantage of it legally. What so many creators should be GLAD about when talking about BM's creation system is that all of your own content is stored on YOUR own hard drive, and not shoddy LL's unstable network. This means no more loss of content, as well as already having the original on your PC, backups are unnecessary unless you wish to copy your 3DS files or your Maya files and so on and so forth. Another issue that many people seem to be latching onto is pricing for the modeling programs available. Now some people would make you believe (PixPol) that since 3DS and Maya and other rather expensive programs are supported by BM that they are the only programs supported by BM. And this is wholly and categorically untrue. Blender, which some would argue is just as powerful as 3DS or Maya, and even in some cases possibly more powerful. Blender is free, highly documented, and anyone with the time and dedication can pick up this amazingly flexible platform and create amazing content. Google Sketchup, another free option has an amazing user interface, some very interesting tool sets and ontop of that has many good tutorials, access to the google warehouse (thousands of objects) and is equally supported by BM for creation. Ive personally used Google Sketchup (as well as 3Ds Max) and i can ensure you that they are indeed supported. So where as some people may be worried that Blue Mars is headed down a corporate restricted path, all I would ask of those people is to take the time to thoroughly research Blue Mars' wiki, Blue Mars' Forums (beta and dev.) and even further more go in world and TALK to the many INDIVIDUAL creators that are so excited to get to work.

Until next time, love you guys.

-Zetsumei Ieyashi