AR drop the "Outpost" entry-level city

[Cale Vinson]

I've made no secret in the past of my enthusiasm for Blue Mars at the technical level, but I'd hate to ever become one of those "fan boi" types, who only ever talk about the good.

In that spirit, I note that AR have just annouced that the entry-level "Outpost" city (5 people max, $30 a month) is "nearly sold out":

http://www.bluemars.com/hosting/service.html

This doesn't affect me personally (I have an Outpost already, and pre-existing ones will be continued on), but I still think its disappointing nonetheless.

I *do* think its a valid argument that any virtual-world needs community to survive, and that, to some extent, its the big city-developers who provide the "infrastructure" on which such communities are built. But the thing I liked about the Outpost was that, at that price, enthusiastic hobbyists could wear the $30, and provide whatever sort of experience they wanted to, commercial imperatives be damned. The counter-argument is that you can just rent the land from a big-city developer, and for many people that will work. But if you wanted to provide, say, an air-race facility spanning a 2km x 2km area, the city-developer will have to charge a *lot* more than $30.

[Envoy Costagravas]

What disappoints me is that they are announcing that they are nearly "sold out" of something when they haven't even left beta yet. Why, one wonders, would they put a cap on something like that when they have touted their scalability? One assumes their resources can grow in such a way to continue to offer a variety of entry options.

I was hoping to wait for both new hardware (as they are beyond all my current machines) and the platform was more fully realized, but I guess there isn't much point.

[Cale Vinson]

I was hoping to wait for both new hardware (as they are beyond all my current machines) and the platform was more fully realized, but I guess there isn't much point.

I guess it comes down to what you want to do. I like the idea of very large areas for flight-sims, exploration, etc. But if you just want to rent some land as you and I currently do in SL-Caledon, it may not be so bad. SL Island and BM "Village" are comparable in terms of per-month cost and concurrent users, but the "Village" can be 1 x 1, 2 x 2, or even 4 x 4 km, so that's the equivalent of 16, 64, or 256 SL islands - that's a lot of "extra" land that the land-baron can pass on to his/her renters.

[jackalennui]

What disappoints me is that they are announcing that they are nearly "sold out" of something when they haven't even left beta yet. Why, one wonders, would they put a cap on something like that when they have touted their scalability? One assumes their resources can grow in such a way to continue to offer a variety of entry options.

Either they miscalculated badly, planned the Outpost as a loss leader and didn't expect such a popularity - or they are trying to get a more healthy mix of areas. A world full of empty outposts won't draw many users.