Category: Other Worlds

EVE Online garners widespread coverage with epic battle

Posted on by Inara Pey
The battle of B-R5RB, EVE Online
The battle of B-R5RB, EVE Online

The media is all a-quiver at the news about a titanic battle which has taken place entirely within the virtual, but which has an estimated real-world financial impact (so far) of around £181,000 ($300,000).

The battle has taken place in EVE Online, the massively multiplayer online game set in space and encompassing hundreds of star systems, peoples and alliances, with players taking-on a range of roles including mining, piracy, manufacturing, trading, exploration, and combat (both player versus environment and player versus player).

It is with the latter that EVE Online has hit the headlines, following an epic struggle between several thousand Eve Online players from around the world which has witnessed the destruction of 75 of the game’s Titans. Those familiar with Titans know they are the biggest spacecraft in the game, each ten kilometres (6.25 miles) or more in length. They take weeks to construct and can cost around an average of £2,400 ($4,000) a pop in real money, depending upon exchange rates between real-world currencies and ISKs, Eve Online’s internal currency. To give some idea of the scale of the conflict, the previous record for destroyed Titans was 12.

The battle rages
The battle rages

Conflicts are not new to EVE Online and its 10-year history. They can be of varying sizes and triggered by a range of events. This particular one has its roots in a series of skirmishes and exchanges between rival alliances stretching back to October 2013, and which have been dubbed Halloween War. Just last week it saw the RUS Alliance gain something of a bloody nose from opposing forces in a further confrontation between forces.

But on January 27th, 2014, when the Nulli Secunda Alliance forgot a payment on a strategic space station in the otherwise unassuming B-R5RB system, things escalated rapidly as opposing sides sought to gain control of the system. In all, four major alliances werre involved, pairing off against one another: the Nulli Secunda and Pandemic Legion on one side and the CFC and RUS on the other, with neither side willing to back down, committing more and more forces into the battle in the space of some 12 hours. In the end, the outcome was only decided as America awoke as dawn broke across the Atlantic, and the CFC was able to secure reinforcements from its American members.

According to EVE Online developer, CCP, the overall cost is still being counted, and is expected to rise much higher than $300,000 – not in terms of actual costs from the battle, but in terms of the overall investment players have made in the game and in building things like the ships. The battle was so massive that EVE’s servers struggled with the load – but while they “sweated”,  with a few tweaks to the system – they stood up.


A portion of the battle filmed by a neutral observer

This is an incredible advert for a massively multiplayer online game; a scenario wherein several thousand players from across the globe have been able to come together and join-in, in real-time, an event of enormous proportions.  As Harvey Crabsticks points out, you have to admire the dept of participation on the part of the players. It’s a remarkable feat – and by no means the first; just the biggest so far. One which has ignited (or possibly re-ignited?) media interest in a platform as old as Second Life.

Makes you wonder what it would take for the media to respond to SL in the same way…

Related Links

Cloud Party team joins Yahoo! Platform to close in February

Posted on by Inara Pey

logo-CP

Update: Botgirl Questi pointed me to this coverage of the Yahoo! buy-out of Cloud Party, which includes a statement from Yahoo! on the acquisition.

It’s been the darling for some, and has come a long way in a short period of time. However, it now appears is if things are to draw to a close at Cloud Party, as spotted by Phadrus on the SLU forums.

After a year which has seen some rapid development, particularly in the latter half of 2013, with features and options being added nigh-on weekly – such as Oculus Rift support, and e-mail updates hitting users’ in boxes as a matter of routine, the company has today announced a major change of direction via a new blog post from Cloud Party’s CEO, Sam Thompson.

The blog post reads in full:

We’re excited to announce that the time has come for the Cloud Party team to start our next adventure. We are joining Yahoo! The last two years have been an incredible experience for everyone here. We’ve been continually amazed by your creativity and the worlds you’ve built and shared with us.

Cloud Party will continue to run until February 21, 2014. We want to support our community during this transition. In the interest of preserving your extraordinary Cloud Party creations, we’ve added export tools and written this guide to help you export your content. If you have any questions, please contact us at support@cloudpartyinc.com.

We are privileged to have had so many wonderful users share ideas and creations. We are excited to bring our vision and experience to a team that is as passionate about games as we are. Thank you all for sharing in this journey with us, and we hope you stick around for what’s next!

Claudia222 Jewell is one of a number of well-known virtual world artists who has been involved with Cloud Party
Claudia222 Jewell is one of a number of well-known virtual world artists who has been involved with Cloud Party

While “closing” isn’t specifically mentioned in the post, an end-date for the service is clearly given – February 21st. This tends to indicate that this is more than a matter of Cloud Party simply transitioning to a new owner following acquisition, and that the platform is indeed going away. This begs the question as to what Sam and his team will be doing at Yahoo!, and will the experiences they’ve gained through running Cloud Party be part of whatever plans their new employers have?

Given that this is Yahoo!, who haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory with either the acquisition of Flickr or the overhaul of their own Yahoo! Groups, will anyone from the “old” Cloud Party be sufficiently motivated to sign-up to whatever does follow?

While it perhaps never attracted the volume of users it might, Cloud Party offered some intriguing concepts, many of which did attract a fair few content creators from the likes of Second Life, particularly given the ease with which mesh creations could be designed and imported into the platform.

So far, there has been no visible response to the announcement on the Cloud Party forums, although the word is spreading.

High Fidelity put out call for alpha testers

Posted on by Inara Pey

HF-logoI’ve been keeping a sort-of eye on news concerning Philip Rosedale’s High Fidelity from something of a distance, occasionally checking the website and seeing what is going on. However, as a lot of it goes somewhat over my head, I tend not to report on it, preferring to wait as see to what actually starts to emerge in the future.

Nevertheless, Ciaran Laval poked me earlier in the moth that some interesting news might be coming out of the company, and so I’ve been watching various feeds to see what does. As a result, I caught Hamlet Au bringing the news, courtesy of “Epona666”, that High Fidelity have put out a call for alpha testers.

High fidelity: seeking alpha testers
High fidelity: seeking alpha testers – click to follow

Hamlet refers to the company as looking for “creative builders” for the Alpha testing. However, the sign-up form is scant on specifics, and leans more towards the hardware and operating systems applicants have at their disposal, rather than on specific skill sets of any description. There also doesn’t appear to be ant blog post associated with the announcement, so it is a little hard to discover further information relating to the call.

The application form: hardware and OS-focused
The application form: hardware and OS-focused

This request is somewhat easier than the company’s last, as reported by Ciaran Laval at the time. In December, the company invited those wishing to work for / with them on code aspects of the platform to build the High Fidelity user interface from source code and then log-in to the system to get the company’s attention, and then attempt to tackle one of the current tasks the company has listed on Worklist.

The company's last call for assistance took the form of a challenge to those interested
The company’s last call for assistance took the form of a challenge to those interested

For those interested in signing-up for this alpha testing can do so by following the link from the High Fidelity home page, or by following this link (or click the banner ad towards the top of this article) to the application form itself.

Hamlet also points to a new subReddit where High Fidelity can be discussed by those interested in the project.

Related Links

Kitely pricing restructuring now complete

Posted on by Inara Pey

Kitely-logoOn December 15th 2013, Kitely announced the first phase of a major overhaul of their pricing structures. That announcement covered the introduction of their new account types (Regular and Premium) and their Metered world options which have replaced their “time-based” system of payment options.

I covered that announcement in some depth at the time, noting that there would be further clarification to come from Kitely on elements of the new Regular account, as well as information on the new Fixed-price options. On January 1st 2014, Kitely followed-through on their promise of providing this additional information when they issued a further pricing update.

More on Account Types

As I reported in December alongside of Kitely’s initial blog post on this subject, the company  has introduced two account types, Regular and Premium. The salient points to note on these are that:

  • The Regular account is free of charge and includes a single Metered region and a one-off  6-hour trial period which can be used in developing their Metered region(s)
  • The Premium account costs $19.95 a month, and includes up to five Metered regions with the ability to visit any metered region on Kitely (their own or anyone else’s) for free
  • Either type of account can be used when joining Kitely
  • Either type of account can be used when purchasing Fixed-price world options (of which more late in this article)
  • Either type of account can add further Metered regions at the rate of 10 KC per day per Metered region (+ access costs for Regular accounts, where applicable).

Metered Regions and  Regular Account Visitors

The key point to grasp here is that the time anyone with a Regular account spends visiting any Metered region (including their own) must be paid for by the region holder. This means that someone with a Metered region will be charged at the rate of 1 Kitely Credit (KC) for each minute a Regular account holder spends visiting that region.

The only exception to this is the initial 6-hour trial period Regular account holders are given in order to start developing their own Metered region. Once this trial period has been used, a Regular account holder can either continue to pay for their time on their own region(s) at the rate of 1KC per minute, or opt to pay for one of the Fixed-price world options (there is no charge for anyone visiting Fixed-price regions) or opt to upgrade to Premium (both of these latter options are open to Regular account holders at any time).

Because there is a cost involved in having Regular account holders visit a Metered region, Kitely has included an option for region holders to block Regular accounts from accessing their Metered regions if they so wish, thus preventing the build-up of unwanted costs in respect of such visits. The Kitely blog post elaborates in detail on how this access restriction can be set.

Fixed-price World Options

As of January 1st, 2014, the company has discontinued its original $40.00, $60.00, $80.00 and $100.00 fixed-prix options – although users already paying for these options can continue to do so if they wish. Three new Fixed-price options have been introduced in their place, referred to as the Starter World, Standard World and Advanced World options, as defined below.

Kitely's new fixed-price options, available to both Regular and Premium account holders (image via Kitely)
Kitely’s new fixed-price options, available to both Regular and Premium account holders (image via Kitely)

Both the Starter and the Standard World options come with slightly reduced resources, as indicated, while the Standard and Advanced World options include the ability to combine the regions included in those worlds into a single Advanced Megaregion. As with the old Fixed-price options, no-one is charged for the time anyone spends on a Fixed-price region.

Whether or not users on one of the discontinued Fixed-price options will want to change to one of the new options will depend upon on a number of things, such as the complexity of their build(s), and their typical numbers of daily users or their requirements for avatar-intensive events. However, the ability to swap is there for them to use, if they so wish.

General Feedback

It will be interesting to see broader reaction to the idea of Metered region holders having to pay for any visits made to their regions by Regular account holders – and how many Metered regions are closed to Regular account holders as a result (I have already closed my own Kitely region to Regular account access, for example). However, the initial reaction to these changes has been favourable, even allowing for the confusion which occurred when the initial part of the restructuring was announced in December 2013.

As it is, the new Metered and Fixed-price payment options continue Kitely’s tradition of offering competitive and flexible payment options, and may well serve to attract new users into giving the platform a try.

Celebrating the metaverse: AvaCon greet 2014 with a new website and more

Posted on by Inara Pey

Acon-logoAvaCon, former organisers of the now defunct Second Life Community Convention, and co-organisers of the OpenSimulator Community Conference, have launched their completely revamped website ahead of what looks like being a very busy year for the team.

The new website is a crisp, clean, easy-to-navigate blog-style environment (the engine driving the site is WordPress.org with a professional theme courtesy of Kriesi Art). This is perhaps a long-overdue overhaul to AvaCon’s web presence, and it certainly gives a whole new look and feel – and vibrancy – to the site.

Part of the revamped AvaCon website
Part of the revamped AvaCon website

OSCC

In 2013, AvaCon co-organised and hosted the first Annual OpenSimulator Community Conference, (OSCC) which I previewed in these pages (and was booked-in to attend before RL got in the way). The event itself was a great success for both AvaCon and the Overte Foundation, and they’re now planning the 2014 event.

Those wishing to help with the 2014 conference are invited to e-mail AvaCon to volunteer their services. In the meantime, videos from the 2013 conference are available on YouTube for those wishing to catch-up on events, and AvaCon have provided a link to a fascinating visualisation video by Nebadon25 showing the OpenSimulator code commits by core developers, charting the growth of the project.

Metaverse Cultural Series

In 2013, AvaCon also launched the Metaverse Cultural Series, a set of events which featured performances and lectures highlighting unique aspects of metaverse culture, and which took place in multiple virtual world spaces. The inaugural series showcased innovative artists, thinkers, performers, and academics whose work is on the forefront of exploring what it means to work, play, and live in the emerging metaverse.

In 2014, AvaCon plan to expand the series, and will be issuing a call-for-proposals in January, 2014. Successful presenters and venue hosts will receive a $50 USD honorarium for accepted presentations, and I’ll be endeavouring to bring news on things once the call goes out publicly.

All-in-all, 2014 looks to be an exciting year for AvaCon, and I’d like to extend my congratulations to the team on their successes in 2013 and my best wishes for 2014.

Related Links

Kitely announces pricing changes

Posted on by Inara Pey

Kitely-logoKitely, the on-demand virtual world platform, is revising its pricing structure.

The changes, which come into effect from January 1st, will see both the Metered (also referred to as “Time-based”) payment options and the Fixed-price payment options revised with the aim of presenting a more streamlined set of options which more closely suit the needs of Kitely users.

Changes to Metered (time-based) Payment Options

The first part of these changes, as announced in a blog post and an e-mail sent to users, will see the Metered payment options substantially revised. Currently, these payment options comprise four plans:

  • Free: 1 full Metered Region plus 2 hours in-world time a month
  • Bronze plan: $5.00 a month, 2 full Metered Regions and 30 hours in-world time a month
  • Silver plan: $20.00 a month, 10 full Metered Regions and 120 hours in-world a month
  • Gold plan: $35.00 a month, 20 full Metered Regions and unlimited time in-world.

The monthly in-world time offered under the Free, Bronze and Silver plans can be used as time spent by the user on their own Metered Region(s), and/or as time they spend visiting other Metered Regions. Additional time for these plans, if needed during a month, can be paid for at the rate of 1 Kitely Credit (KC) per minute. Under all of the plans, additional Metered Regions in excess of the stated allowance can be obtained at a rate of 10 KCs per day per Metered Region.

As of January 1st, 2014, these plans will be replaced by two new account types:

  • A Regular account, which will include 1 free Metered Region, with additional options still to be announced by Kitely
  • A Premium account, which will cost $19.95 a month, include up to 5 free Metered Regions and the ability to visit any Metered Regions (your own or anyone else’s) for free (neither you nor the region’s manager pay for your visit).

For anyone who is either on, or who signs-up to, the Silver or Gold time-based plans before the end of the year (whether they are an existing user or new to Kitely), there is good news: their plan will be grandfathered-in under the Premium account, with additional benefits. This means that:

  • Those with the Silver plan will continue to pay $20.00 a month and will gain unlimited access to any Metered Regions as well as retaining their allowance of up to 10 Metered Regions (so they will pay $0.05 more a month than those signing-up for Premium accounts after January 1st, 2014, but have up to twice the number of Metered Regions)
  • Those with the Gold plan will continue to pay $35 a month and will retain their unlimited access to any Metered Regions, and the total number of Metered Regions they can have at no additional charge will be increased from 20 to 30.

This incentive is being provided to encourage people who are considering Kitely as a future option to make the move now and take advantage of this limited-time offer before it expires.

Those on the Bronze plan (which has been discontinued as an option with immediate effect) who do not upgrade to either a Silver or Gold plan before January 1st 2014, will be automatically downgraded to the new Regular account. Any second Metered Region they have developed under their Bronze plan will then be charged for at the standard rate of 10 KCs a day (the equivalent to paying as little as $1.00 a month for it, if buying KCs in bulk).

Those opting to stay with the Regular account after January 1st 2014 (whether they were on the Free or Bronze plan) will still be able to purchase additional Metered Regions at the rate of 10 KCs a day. They will also be able to upgrade to a Premium account if they wish, but they will not enjoy any of the grandfathered benefits on offer until the end of December 2013.

There is one other change with the new Metered payment options, and that is in relation to OAR (OpenSim Archive) file operations. OAR allows users to back-up their regions to their hard drive for use elsewhere, while fully respecting the permissions system (thus preventing users from exporting objects when they don’t have the required permissions as set by the objects’ creators). Currently, each OAR operation cost 10 KCs for Metered Regions. From January 1st 2014, this will be increasing to 150 KCs per operation for Metered Regions.

Kitely CEO Ilan Tochner (via Google+)
Kitely CEO Ilan Tochner (via Google+)

Even without the grandfathering of existing Silver and Gold account plan holders, the new Premium account still offers significant value for money, as Ilan Tochner, Kitely’s CEO and co-founder, pointed-out as we discussed the changes.

“This means that a group of builders, each on a Premium account, can get a LOT of land in Metered Regions and not have to think about time while visiting those regions,” he said, “and they can have all their Premium account friends with them in-world for as long as they want without thinking about time even though they are using Metered Regions.”

Continue reading “Kitely announces pricing changes” →