Pixels and Policy

Eulb Deco Slams Blue Mars Content Creation Restrictions in New Machinima

Avatar Performance Artist Eulb Deco - also known as Jeremy Owen Turner of Vancouver - recently published an interesting machinima to celebrate his release from Blue Mars's non-disclosure agreement.

The machinima takes aim at one of the topics Pixels and Policy has investigated in the past: Whether Blue Mars is unfairly restricting content creation among small developers in favor of more profitable corporate deals.

Pixels and Policy is proud to host Deco's machinima. Below the fold you'll find one of the first pieces of Blue Mars performance art, and Deco's description of his work.

Blue Mars Brings Business-Friendly Adobe Flash Capability In-World

Another day, another step forward for Pixels and Policy's most controversial acquaintance, Blue Mars.

This time, though, Blue Mars takes a development step even we can't quarrel with - fully integrated Adobe Flash for interactive in-world 'net browsing.

Pixels and Policy takes a look at what this means for Blue Mars and its competitors.

Blue Mars Developer Partners with the Smithsonian Institution

Pixels and Policy took its knocks a few months ago for reporting on the content creation and ownership system of the new virtual world Blue Mars, but now it's Second Life against the ropes.

As a recent Business Journal article points out, Blue Mars is making some big partnerships in an all-out bid to displace Second Life as the virtual world of choice for individuals and business clients alike.

Take a look below the fold for more on the story.

Should Second Life Reduce Land Fees to Encourage Growth?

If recent information surrounding the land leasing rates of Blue Mars is accurate, Second Life may have a real competition on its hands.

That's because the Blue Mars land leasing system is rumored to be not only simpler to use, but cheaper than the Second Life tier system.

Starved for competition for so long, Second Life might not be able to compete with an upstart new virtual world unless it re-evaluates its business model and gets back into fighting shape.

A Closer Look at Blue Mars and Corporate Content

Monday's article outlining how Blue Mars appears to be setting up a content creation system tailored toward established businesses stirred up some strong reactions in our e-mail inbox.

Virtual entrepreneurs raised on Second Life's individual development environment protested Avatar Reality's "brazen sop" to large companies, as one commenter posted.

Blue Mars had its defenders, exemplified by commenter Rock Vacirca, who gave us a tongue lashing for ignoring the intricacies of Blue Mars's 'terraforming' system. Vacirca argued that the registration process discourages the intellectual property theft currently rocking Second Life.

At the prompting of readers both for and against the article, we explored further into Blue Mars's content creation plans. What we found further confirms our worries.