This is very impressive. I watched this on my laptop and in the teleconferencing scene I was able to identify each of the speakers as easily as the test subject. Just think of the possibilities for virtual worlds or gaming. Most first-person shooter (FPS) gamers play with headphones because they need to know if someone is sneaking up on them from behind. There’s actually a whole range of surround-sound headphones aimed specifically at FPS gamers. This technology could revolutionise the entire industry.

With Jim Sink’s restructuring announcement that Blue Mars would wind down development for the PC platform and move to a mobile-based phone/tablet centic environment Avatar Reality have placed the final nail in the coffin of mass-community virtual worlds. So what went wrong?

With respect to Blue Mars, it appears that they were severely under-capitalised and forced to release way too early. While it generated enough buzz for them to garner a further $US4.2million in funding from venture capitalists it caused the relations with the virtual community to sour due to the lack of even the basic tools (avatar personalisation, personal messages, voice, etc) that are associated with a well-organised virtual world. Even developers were left to fend for themselves with poorly coded development tools and minimal or non-existent documentation. Some of these problems were eventually rectified but not quickly enough nor executed well enough to counter the initial impressions that Blue Mars was a beautiful but very incomplete virtual world platform.

Added to this was the high technical requirements needed to even utilise Blue Mars. Even my high-end gaming laptop struggled beyond the basic configuration. Eye candy is great but few want to be forced to upgrade their year old computers in order to use it.

Then there were the policy decisions that added to these already colossal barriers to wide acceptance. Anyone that wishes to develop a virtual world needs to acknowledge the fact that much of Second Life’s initial success can be attributed to their laissez fair approach to business and moral issues. As unpalatable as it is to admit without the red light districts of sex and gambling Second Life would never have approached the peaks it reached. Without these or a viable alternative any new platform is going to struggle. On top of this was the jaw-dropping decision to slug business with a 25% tax on all earnings. This on top of the monthly tier fees. How attractive a business proposition is a near empty world, filled with avatars with minimal money and high taxes to boot?

All of these were not insurmountable issues, however, had Blue Mars had a clearly defined purpose. But any purpose was blurred from the outset. Unfortunately, while Blue Mars seemed to have so much potential all it’s architecture did was to, as Honour MacMillan so succinctly, put it put wall between residents. Even the decision to move to mobile is poorly conceived and will most likely fail. The fact that they are targeting the iOS platforms and completely ignoring the others is indicative of the lack of forethought in past decisions. Hint: Android outsells iPhone 2 to 1.

So, why does Blue Mars’ demise signal the end of mass community virtual worlds? These monolithic environments cost a lot of money to develop and operate. While their communities generate some return the real money is in enterprise application. Unfortunately, as I keep saying, virtual worlds offer a solution to a problem that most enterprises don’t have. With Linden Lab’s problems and restructure, and now it’s only real remaining competitor looking down the barrel, attracting enterprise to these sort of platforms now appears extremely risky, if not foolhardly.

Ultimately we may see these sort of platforms replaced by Augmented Reality overlays mixing elements of reality with a virtual environment and allowing global avatar-based real time communications. However the infrastructure for that is probably 5-10 years away. Presuming Linden remains financially viable we’ll see Second Life and its community around for a while longer yet. Sadly, the same can not be said for Blue Mars.

Gartner recently advised that by 2013 seventy percent of businesses will have guidelines for their staff’s activities within virtual worlds. I’ve just completed a set of behaviour and dress guidelines for a company that has plans to work in Second Life. I’ve adapted them and thought I’d share:

Many of the guidelines that a company currently employs for social networking also apply in virtual worlds. If you need some help in establishing those then here are 40 examples that you can draw upon for inspiration. There are a few issues that are virtual world specific that require special attention, however.

Learn the tools

While any interface requires some time to learn, virtual worlds usually have a sharp learning curve. While it may be possible to wing it on Twitter or Facebook virtual worlds are a different kettle of fish and frankly, nothing says n00b like an avatar that can’t walk in a straight line or know how to sit or otherwise interact with the virtual world. It looks and is unprofessional. It is as harmful as blink tags or animated gifs on your company’s website.

So take the time to learn and experiment. Not just how to operate your avatar but also various social etiquettes involved. Virtual worlds tend to be social microcosms and failing to learn the particular niceties can affect how your company is perceived in-world.

Managers: give your staff the training they need and time to master these new business tools. Encourage them to teach and to collaborate with others. Also provide them with the computing power they need. Don’t expect them to have to work from a 5yo laptop. It may be fine for their everyday work but if their avatars stagger rather than walk then they need a system upgrade.

Dress the part

Very few companies would endorse their reps attending a business meeting with a new client attired in a sloganed t-shirt and jeans. However I see this all the time in the virtual world. As I wrote last year first impressions matter. While that doesn’t mean you should only dress in a suit, it does mean that you should dress your avatar appropriately for the situation. When in doubt err on the side of caution.

Avoid Red Lights

Some virtual worlds like Second Life have red light districts – places of adult entertainment. Unless they have a work-related reason to be there employees should avoid adults-only locations. This goes doubly if they are attired in company logos or have a company cognomen.

Separate Identities

Ideally, employees should be encouraged to have separate work and play avatars. This minimises any issues with their out-of-work in-world play. It also separates their work and play in-world bank balances. Even then employees should act responsibly when using their alternative avatars.

Just as in the real world, when in the virtual world you represent the company. Feel free to engage, collaborate, share and learn in these new online environments, but do so responsibly.

Since the open beta period for Blue Mars began I’ve noticed that some Second Life content creators have been dismissing it out-of-hand. Mostly they claimed that the tools for creating content in Blue Mars were too hard to learn. Many also said that they were not interested in providing content for Blue Mars, and some even inferred that without them to provide the content Blue Mars would wither and die. As I stated in my earlier article, Blue Mars – Being Different, Blue Mars will ultimately be able to draw on a wealth of content, possibly more than Second Life currently does. So if I were generating real world income by providing content in Second Life I would seriously consider taking the time to evaluate Blue Mars as a prospective new market. It makes good business sense, and I can tell you that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands out there, who are eagerly waiting for you to let this opportunity pass you by.

Let me state up front that Blue Mars may fail. It’s an uncomfortable truth that all the developers may be wasting their time, that Blue Mars may never reach the critical mass necessary for it to generate a return. But then again, at the other extreme Blue Mars may be the Microsoft or Google of virtual worlds and just as Microsoft and Google have, Blue Mars may have such a strategic advantage that it sweeps all its competitors – including Second Life – into insignificance.

What should you be looking for?

It’s too early to tell whether Blue Mars will mature into a viable market. It’s too new. There’s still so much important work to be completed. However, there are some elements that may be appealing to an SL entrepreneur wishing to expand. I don’t have any insider information but I expect in an attempt to woo both developers and residents into this new environment land prices are going to be very competitive. Maybe only a fraction of what the equivalent would be in Second Life. This means lower startup costs.

Also, being an early adopter means that the lines of communication to the developers of Blue Mars are likely to be more open. At this stage the community is small and if you have an issue you are more likely to be heard and have that issue enacted upon. This is especially important with regard to governance issues.

What difficulties may you face?

If you’ve only ever used the Second Life tools to develop with then you’ll need to learn a set of new skills. However, much of what you have learnt will still be relevant, only the application and name may be different. You also have a choice of tools – from the free like Google’s Sketchup to the professionally priced Maya. Now is the time to learn how to use those tools – when most of your competitors are on an equally footing and everyone is learning the system. Your consumers are more likely to forgive your mistakes in such an environment. If you are already using these multi-industry standard tools then you may have existing content that you can import directly into Blue Mars. This will save you time and perhaps money. Your upstart time could be slashed.

Unlike Second Life, most development happens outworld. If you’re used to having a social aspect when building then you may miss this. However, it is possible to supplement this need by using social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook or IM. Developing offline does have a distinct advantage in that you can always back your work up.

Probably the biggest difficulty you will face is that Blue Mars is not Second Life. Your expectations about what is possible and how things should be done are going to be skewed in favour of how you do them in Second Life. The best remedy for this is to keep an open mind. Blue Mars is a rapidly evolving platform and you’ll see improvements over the course of time.

What can you bring to Blue Mars?

Your brand is the most obvious. If you have an established brand that is beloved in Second Life then you have an opportunity to bring it into Blue Mars and expand its influence. You’ll already have an advantage over new developers because you’ll have an existing client base: your fellow SLers.

The other thing you can bring to Blue Mars is your knowledge about how to run a successful small business. Running a small business is hard. It doesn’t matter whether that business is in the real world or the virtual world. Workflow, marketing, customer service. Those hard-learnt lessons are just as applicable in Blue Mars as they are in Second Life.

You may believe that you can ignore Blue Mars until it evolves into an economically viable platform. This wait-and-see approach is giving a free-kick to your competitors. They’ll be able to learn the system, guide the development and develop a reputation that will make it harder to compete with when you do finally decide to make the transition. Now is the time for evaluation and even if you choose not to make the leap immediately it is important that you learn the skills that will help you compete in this new environment should you eventually utilise it.

Blue Mars is an exciting opportunity, but every business is different. Whether it is the right thing for your business will depend upon you and your desires. It is vitally important that you spend enough time to carefully evaluate it. Blue Mars will not be a viable option for every SL entrepreneur, but you should make that decision for yourself based on a solid analysis. Otherwise you may discover that not only have you missed a valuable opportunity but that your competitor has snapped it up.

As some of you may know I’ve been spending a great deal of time in Blue Mars. I’ve been mainly providing video tutorials but I’ve also been keeping a close eye on forums and blogs that reference the new virtual world by Avatar Reality. One thing that keeps cropping up is the idea that Blue Mars will fail – or at least struggle – because it doesn’t cater to the Second Life demographic. This is a short-sighted view and fails to take into consideration what attracts people to virtual worlds. In fact, the way in which Blue Mars differentiates itself from Second Life may have a greater bearing on its success than any similarities.

From the figures released by Linden Lab, Second Life retains about 10% of the people that sign up. That’s a 90 day figure. What that means essentially is that of the people that sign-up for Second Life about 10% are still logging in 90 days later. Ten percent is not actually a bad figure as long as the numbers that are attracted and sign up remain high. However that still means that Second Life fails to meet the needs of nine people in every ten that sign up. That’s a sizable chunk. Those sorts of numbers are more than big enough to sustain an alternate virtual world if that world can offer something that Second Life doesn’t. There are lots of ways they can do that.

Many of the Second Lifers that complain about Blue Mars deride the lack of freely available content creation. Firstly, anyone can sign up to be a content developer. It’s simple and fully automated. I had my access and links to the SDK download within seconds. Having to sign up to develop also alieviates some of the security issues that Second Life faces with intellectual property theft. Secondly, content creation in Second Life is a kludge. You must be inworld to create many of the items which means that if you crash you can loose that content easily. The tools are also non-standard and difficult to master. Importing content from other applications is also difficult to impossible. I’ve seen some amazing work in Second Life and I’ve worked with and befriended many great artisans, but the Second Life content creation scheme is a major barrier to entry. Everything must be created from scratch specifically for Second Life. Blue Mars, and I must say as do several other 3d immersive virtual environments, offers a way to import your existing 3ds Max, Maya, Blender, etc content. That’s another sizable demographic that Second Life doesn’t cater to.

There are also other demographics that Second Life fails to provide for: anyone wishing to run a virtual event that caters to more than 100 avatars (Second Life’s upper limit) in a region/sim. People that are deterred by the red-light district reputation. Businesses that are put-off by the lack of security or by the uncertainty resulting from Linden Lab’s governance. There are lots of niches that a new or existing virtual world can tap into without being forced to attract users from Second Life.

That’s not to say that Blue Mars will cater to all or even any of these demographics. As I keep saying, it’s very early days. There’s a whole lot of potential there but there’s also an awful amount of work yet to be done. But by daring to be different Blue Mars can attract users without having to mirror Second Life.

This is a test we did in Blue Mars. It takes the form of a mock film trailer. Blue Mars offers sublime graphics and New Venice, the region where we filmed most of the trailer, looks amazing. If the developers of Blue Mars can implement some decent machinima tools then it has a wonderful potential for making dramatic machimima, which is something Second Life never really achieved to its full potential.

A quick look at the new 3d immersive virtual world Blue Mars.

Despite recent speculation about Avatar-Reality‘s fate, it seems that the creators of the virtual world known as Blue Mars are still alive and kicking. Although their latest news release dates from August 2008, they’re expected to be attending Engage! Expo in New York and GDC in San Francisco both in March.

Fonterra have announced that they have received the National Training and Simulation Association’s Modeling and Simulation Cross-Function award. The award recognizes the significant achievements in modeling and simulation innovation by commercial companies.